Re: Beautiful day here today!! My 70 Hornet project

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

A good day here too!

Got the @#$%!! engine and trans in the project Hornet today!  Some
of a beach!

Got my hotrodded 904 Torqueflight back from Westminster
Transmissions Friday.

I spent a few hours Saturday making a transmission jack adapter
for my little floor jack. Worked out quite nice. A simple piece of
3/4" plywood, with four uprights made from 1" square steel with
threaded rod to mate to the four cast ears on the 904.  A shallow
"V" shape clamp mounted the contraption to the jack. It jacked
right up to the motor, and had just enough slop to let me tilt to
the right angle. No sweating, swearing, or lifting on my chest :-)

For the first time ever, I did all the right things in the right
order. With a good trans jack, I was able to install the torque
converter -- all three nice clunks -- and not have it fall off.
Though I found I was missing both dowels (block to bell) I was
able to make perfect substitutes in a few minutes. I pre-fit the
converter and paint-marked for alignment, and rotated it so it
would be close after mating engine to trans. I ran a tap through
the tapped bosses so the four bolts would go in by and, and
lightly oiled the bolts. The trans just jacked into place, lined
right up, the nose fit into the crank with only a push from one
hand. The two big bolts went in with my fingers. (The three along
the top of the bellhousing took all my 3/8" extentions, a swivel
and only a moderate amount of swearing.)



I had a big hassle with the cast aluminum valve cover for the 1983
258. It fits the engine just fine, but it's too tall, and clunks
into the overlap seam in the Hornet firewall. There is NO WAY to
fit a 1980's inline sixes into the 1970 chassis as-is with this
valve cover. There's also no way at all to get at the rear screw,
tough enough on a pre-1972 factory six installation.

The solution was simple, if extreme-sounding: I took a 3/4" wide,
1/2" high chunk out of the back of the valve cover! I cut a notch
in the back to clear the chassis -- valve covers are $100,
immaculate rust-free 1970 Hornets irreplacable.

I cut and filed a 3/16" slice of aluminum sheet to block out the
cut, mounted with 8-32's, filled with PC-7 epoxy. It even looks
OK. Plenty of clearance inside and out.

I will update my website photos eventually.

I don't know why the valve cover is so tall. It's about 1" over
the top of the rockers. It's needless.

With this mod, the valve cover fits fine and clears the firewall
under all conditions, verified by removing the rear crossmember
and jacking and lowering the rear of the trans. The bellhousing
hits the chassis before the head hits the firewall.

But, umm, there's no way to get at the bolt at the back of the
valve cover -- even with a socket head bolt and a ball-end allen
wrench. I finally worked a solution: removing the wiper motor and
drilling a 3/8" hole in the floor of the cowl area for the allen
wrench.

Now to get the valve cover on or off, all I have to do is:

* unbolt the rear trans mount
* jack the trans tail until it hits the chassis
* remove the wiper motor
* insert allen wrench into hole

Umm, yeah, with all that a 1983 258 "just drops in" to the 1970
Hornet.  Well it's in, at least, solidly and cleanly, soon on the
road!