Re: [AMC-list] all's quiet on the western front

[Wrambler <wrambler242@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, since you have LONG term use in mind, I would
A. Have the deck blocked, or viceversa :)
B. Have the deck headed, "          "  :)
C. Investigate studs and or modern sealants to use on what gasket is available.

Will a OHV head come off the studs in an early American?
I'm thinking the combo of studs and really well done Hgasket should reduce the hgasket issue to nill.
I can't help but think those ancient bolts were barely adequate 40+ years ago and they just aren't up to the task anymore.

Now, some guys will argue there is no real problem with 196 Headgaskets, true I ain't run one in many a year,but if anyone seems to try real hard to keep them alive it is Tom (and Dave), seems like there are some sealing issues going on!

Mark Price
Morgantown, WV 26508
1969 AMC Rambler, 4.0L, EFI, T-5
2004 Grand Cherokee Laredo, 4.7L, Quadratrac II
"I realize that death is inevitable.
I just don't want to be around when it happens!"

----- "tom jennings" <tomj@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: "tom jennings" <tomj@xxxxxxx>
> To: "Rambler AMC, Nash, Jeep and family" <amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:37:39 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [AMC-list] all's quiet on the western front
>
> And elsewhere it seems. Between holidays, out of town visitors, and a
> multi-week cold I didn't get crap done on anything except my website,
> until
> today.
> 
> Preparing to pluck the motor from my American, I had to clean up the
> yard,
> the concrete pad where I'll do the plucking, and clear off the
> outside
> workbench where filthy things are done in the dark, like disassembling
> old
> motors.
> 
> And I've had one on the stand for... most of a year?! (I'd got a 195.6
> ohv
> that from someone's storage unit for free "runs good", I wanted it for
> a
> core). There was grey goo in the crankcase (hmm...), and it had a lot
> of
> miles but nothing done blowed up. I got that one totally down to
> inventoried
> pieces. (Bearings were dark grey, all the crank journals were shiny
> but
> "scratchy" under a fingernail, cam lobes pitted at the crown, scuffed
> piston
> skirts, etc) all point to fair-to-poor maintenance over the life of
> the
> motor. No broken rings or severe abuse indicators (still dirty
> though).
> Mains were marked .010 under, I forgot to mic the bores, oh well, I'm
> hoping
> it's a 0 under block... the head has already been boiled and
> magnafluxed
> (it's good).
> 
> ANYWAYS now the place is ready for me to yank the 195.6 ohv from the
> American. For a few minutes I toyed with the idea of a "new"
> driveline, once
> again, but once again, again, I came to my senses, don't want to spoil
> a
> Twin-Stick hardtop! And I like this foolish motor... but FYI I think
> a
> superb candidate for a driveline swap for this car is a Nissan 240Z
> motor
> and trans. TheKA24E  motor is 300+ lbs less than the 195.6 and has 140
> -
> 150hp, stock. The trans is a 5-speed, aluminum, all synchromesh,
> physically
> small, and I bet it saves another 50 lbs. You can get carb versions of
> the
> motor if you want. In circumstances like this car, I'm totally "over"
> the
> foreign-make under the hood issue. It ain't the normal, boring case
> of
> 'stuff a 350 innit'.
> 
> I still have Joe Smith's '61 American, the guy who wanted it seems to
> have
> faded away, so it seems I remain it's owner. If it's here in the
> spring I'll
> have to seriously prep it for storage. Maybe I'll do a super
> lightening job,
> stuff in a 240Z driveline, leave the interior clean but utterly bare
> and
> make a sports car out of it. It could be done without mangling the
> chassis
> at all (nod to you purists :-)
> 
> If it EVER STOPS !@!#$!@!! RAINING I will pull accessories and the
> head next
> weekend and see what's in there. Maybe I'll get the axle and trans
> pulled
> too.
> 
> 
> It's clear to me that these motors have a head sealing problem, I'm
> assuming
> that the water in the crankcase came from the head until I know
> otherwise.
> This means that except for the one with the hole in the block (!)
> every
> single one of these motors that I have personally seen deceased (4?
> 5?) ALL
> had head sealing issues (and the holed-block had a head crank
> repaired!).
> Clearly this is a design issue/tendency, not simply bad maintenance.
> But the
> two I've checked myself, the head and deck surfaces were not very
> good, and
> one of these was a REBUILT NEVER RUN short block. Looks like 'slap it
> together' work. I will ensure that a very fine finish is done to my
> new
> motor, and do some research on modern sealants for the head.
> 
> There's a lot of new sealant tech out there, but almost all
> specifically
> state NOT FOR CYLINDER HEADS. I think the new felpro-blue type gaskets
> work
> really well, but those are not available for this motor.
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