No wonder I'm behind schedule!

[bevans6]

I had about 6 things on the list for this morning but the oil cooler took 4 hours so only two got done...

I took 4 hours working straight through to clean, get the rest of the old gaskets off, detail, paint and install the oil cooler.  I expected it to take half that.  You have to get the gaskets off, taking great care not to let any fall inside the cooler itself, you have to wire-brush all the cast iron bits after you take them through the parts washer, you have to dry them and spray them with paint prep, then you have to paint them and let that dry (only takes 10 minutes) while you take all the fasteners through the parts washer and the wire brush, then you have to find all you gaskets (the two gaskets that seal the oil cooler plate to the block openings aren't in the bag with the oil cooler gaskets and it takes you 15 minutes to figure that out and find them in the other big gasket box), then, since you took it  apart 8 months ago and this is the very first time you've ever assembled one you have to figure out how it goes together, which bolts go where and what gets done up before you put the steel plate on, you have to dress all your gaskets, find the shims, and finally start bolting it on.  You have to then stop and take the old new style water-neck adaptor off the block, clean off the gasket face, find your old style water neck plate and the fat O-ring that you put in safe place that you forget where it is, put that over the water neck on the oil cooler, and now bolt it on.  Finally done.  I also painted and did the final install of my intake on top of the blower.  All morning (I can only work on it in the mornings) and only two things done!  No wonder I am three months behind schedule!

I forgot, I also installed the new starter motor cable, but that only took 20 minutes to fish through the engine cradle.  Last night after work I installed the starter motor.  All I really have left is to finish plumbing the oil lines to the alternator and turbo, and check my rack adjustments one more time (basically I will run the rack from scratch, but since I did it twice already I expect that I will just be fine tuning or verifying the adjustments).  Then finalize the wiring on the engine, including replacing that silly terminal strip on the engine cradle and wiring the jake solenoids.

With tremendous luck I will roll it out of the garage tomorrow and "offer it up to the bus" as the Brits would say...     But realistically that will be next weekend. 

Brian

Brian

[Oonrahnjay]

I had about 6 things on the list for this morning but the oil cooler took 4 hours so only two got done... (snip) 

You are *SO* much better organized than I am!   )

[luvrbus]

Oil coolers are fun huh Brian try the double cooler with the hidden bolt lol it is all day job to change one of those
I told a friend about the shims and how important they were I told him 3 time he installed the double cooler without the shims and came looking for another cooler he broke his in 1/2
I really thought he learned from not installing the shims under his 8v92 heads he broke one of the heads    

good luck

[bevans6]

I guess it made the machining easier, the shims compensate for the gasket thickness between the block and the oil cooler plate.  Funny, they sure are thin little things but I guess they make a difference.

Do you ever prime the oil pump by pouring oil down the supply side before you bolt on the oil filter housing?  I was thinking that if I did that the oil pump would prime better.  I am going to drill and tap a 1/8th pipe hole into the oil filter housing to read pressure after the filter.  I do that on a couple of race engines, should be a good place to read pressure from.  Should read real high if nothing else!

Brian

[ArtGill]

You so easily say you installed a starter after work.  I struggled with mine all afternoon and I'm not sure my shoulders will ever be the same.  You must have a transmission jack or something.   See my thread.

Art

[bevans6]

My engine is out of the bus and on a stand!    I put the starter on a jack, pumped it up, pushed it into place and bolted it up.  The hardest part was getting the jack over, it's a big bloody jack!  I highly recommend taking the engine out of the bus to install a starter motor...    

Not really, but you know...If you have an advantage, make the most of it!   

Brian