Hey all,
I've been away for a while if you hadn't noticed. lol Anyways, I'm gonna be getting back into the Pinto thing since I got my Omni GLH-T on the road. Did the whole Carlisle Chrysler Nationals with it & had fun, but I want to get back into the Pinto. She hasn't seen the road for almost a year & I want to start the tranny replacement on it, as well as the 8" rear end installation. I last drove it to a couple local car shows last fall then parked it with a failing tranny & junk in the gas tank & it still sits in storage. I could go out to it & start it right up after spraying some ether in the carb so it's still good. I might go ahead & pull the head & change the valve seals since it smoked a bit at startup, but that head is awfully heavy so I dunno.
Gonna be getting some replacement partssoon, so the car will be all good. Gonna rebleed the brakes, change the oil & get it registered to drive again.
Glad to see you gettin back into it Matt! I still miss your mean green machine.
Steve
yeah, me too. I was bored & read the posts I had on it. That thing was a piece. rust everywhere, blown engine, missing sunroof glass... POS.. It lives on through the 77 sedan though. The green Pinto front brakes are on the 77. It's been a year & I still have to fix the missing brake anti rattle spring.
It's not even registered right now since it's sat for so long. Gotta get that taken care of. It's been sitting on asphalt so it's got no more rust on it though. Funny thing though, I bought the green 78 in Alliance and this month I got a Shelby Dodge Auto Club Buckeye Chapter meeting in Alliance. Be even wierder if it were on the same street as where I bought the green 78.
Well, this time I'm getting back into my car for real. The turbocharger on my 85 Omni GLH Turbo went out & I don't feel like tearing into it right now, so I'm gonna work on getting the Pinto mobile again. Last night I got some gas for it & went to park the GLH. Got in the Pinto after putting the gas in it & it barely cranked. The battery was dead & I had no jumper cables!! I drove the GLH home, smoking all the way & got the cables out of my Corolla. Got the Pinto jumpstarted only for it to keep dying. I thought the carb was plugged up with rust again. After spraying ether in the carb repeatedly for 15 minutes the car finally started & stayed running. I drove it home, barely making it with the badly slipping tranny. This weekend I'm gonna clean out the car & wash it up a bit. The tranny swap will begin shortly after. I'm thinking while I have the car on jackstands I might go ahead & install the 8" rear end I got off ebay a while back. Dunno yet. might, might not. I also have decided to put power steering on the car. The thing was a pain in the butt to steer so it's gotta get power steering.
I'll keep posted on what goes on guys.
I know you checked it, but I will ask anyway: how is the fluid level and filter in the "bad" tranny?
If you plan to swap the rear, you SHOULD get a driveshaft from a 4spd car with a 6.75" rear, or one from a C3 and an 8" rear. The 8" rear will push the yoke further into your tranny; might never be an issue, but....
Also, if you are going to power steering, you will need the lower half of the "rag joint" assembly, they are different.
If you are pulling the engine/tranny out as one, remove the driveshaft yoke and zip-tie it into the tranny, or get another to do the same; can get messy. Plug the speedo-cable hole too.
I reccamend doing one swap at a time. Get the bugs worked out, then do the next.
Bill
The fluid level is perfect & the filter has only about 1500 miles on it. Last year when going to Carlisle it started to slip when I was at a toll booth & it's just shot. I bought the car with no fluid in the tranny, filled it up & drove it but the damage apparently was already done before I bought it. Thanks for the tip on the driveshaft. I'll hold off on the rear end for a while so I can get a driveshaft.
Thanks for the info regarding the rag joint for the power steering. I would have never thought of that. That's later on down the road, but is something I will do before taking the car on any long drives.
I have never been one to belive the claims of some products as being "a rebuild in a bottle," or the like, however:
I had gotten an 80 Chevy P-U 4X4 with a bad engine (for free) and I wanted to use it for a 'yard truck' at my place. I had the snow plow for a while before I got the truck. Anyway, I found a running engine (for free, my favorite...) and dropped it in. The truck would BARLY move, and the tranny made a hideous whine when in gear. I was not looking forward to swapping the tranny in it at all, not to mention trying to find one at a 'good' price, but I did need the truck. A good friend, and auto service shop owner told me to try Lucas Tranny Treatment; I put in a bottle. Then, every day for a few days I would drive the truck a little, and it got better fairly quickly. It has been about 5 years and the truck drives fine, and makes almost no tranny noise. Keep in mind that it never leaves my yard, I just use it to haul wood and snowplow, but it will pull out a tree stump now. A couple of years ago I bought an 89 S-10 Blazer 4X4 that had a tranny that was slipping a little. I put a bottle in that and it stopped the slip. That truck is at another friends place in NH and it will go up any hill or over any rock if the tires have traction.
I don't know if it would help your tranny, but for under 10 bucks.....
Bill
Hey R4,
I thought I brought an c3 transmission to your house last year???
From Pintony
There's actually a bottle of Lucas in there right now. I was still working at Advance Auto at the time & everyone including the customers told me to try it. I did, no use. It didn't help. Yeah, you're right. It was worth a try so I did. Woulda saved me from having to pull the tranny. Oh well $hit happens.
Oh well, sorry.
BTW: I put half a bottle in Connie's car (C3) just in case. You might want to put some in the new tranny, might help it last longer.
Bill
Quote from: Pintony on November 10, 2007, 09:18:29 AM
Hey R4,
I thought I brought an c3 transmission to your house last year???
From Pintony
lol, you sure did & I never put it in. I got so involved with the GLH that I ignored the Pinto needing the tranny installed. Gonna be installing it within the next week or so with the help of my dad. Then I just need to bleed the brakes, change the oil, check the fluids, & it'll be ready to drive, after I drop the gas tank & get that boiled & sealed... not to mention rebuilding the carb. I know there has got to be some rust in there that gave me some starting problems.
Quote from: r4pinto on November 10, 2007, 09:30:30 AM
lol, you sure did & I never put it in. I got so involved with the GLH that I ignored the Pinto needing the tranny installed. Gonna be installing it within the next week or so with the help of my dad. Then I just need to bleed the brakes, change the oil, check the fluids, & it'll be ready to drive, after I drop the gas tank & get that boiled & sealed... not to mention rebuilding the carb. I know there has got to be some rust in there that gave me some starting problems.
Good idea bill, I'll do that. Prolly will make it shift better anyways.
Well, I got in the car today to work on installing a wiper delay I found on a Ford truck in the junkyard & went ahead & started it so I wouldn't drain the battery. Started it up & it was running very rough. It smoothed out a little bit but was chugging really bad, & putting bad at the exhaust. Decided to pull the valve cover to see what I'd find. Just as I suspected, the cam lobes are shot. Each & every one is scratched to hell & most are worn down to where I can feel a nice grove where it rides the rocker arm. There were no cams at Pick N Pull, actually no 2.3's come to think of it. so I posted on here for a cam. Hopefully I can get this thing running better so I can get it driving again. I'm jsut glad I found this before I changed the oil. No harm in removing the valve cover gasket since it was leaking anyways. The previous owner replaced it, but overtightened it & spit the gasket so now it leaked everywhere.
Matt,
Look around and see if you can find a roller cam AND followers from an early DIS engine. Time to time you can find full sets on ebay from $50. to $150., but most sell in the $80. range. They are NOT a performance upgrade, but you will never have to worry about it again.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ranger-XR4Ti-SVO-Turbo-Coupe-2-3-Roller-Camshaft-Kit_W0QQitemZ280172615990QQihZ018QQcategoryZ33614QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ranger-2-3-Mustang-turbo-coupe-Ford-2-3L-roller-cam_W0QQitemZ280172245508QQihZ018QQcategoryZ33614QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-3-FORD-MUSTANG-T-BIRD-RANGER-ROLLER-CAM-ROCKERS_W0QQitemZ230191207793QQihZ013QQcategoryZ33614QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Bill
Thanks Bill, I'll keep that in mind. What year ranger used that? A ford Ranger was the only thing I didn't look for when at the junkyard today & I gotta go back tomorrow.
Also, for what you pay for a good used cam and followers you are much better off spending just a little more on the roller. Keep in mind that if the person that removed it did not keep the followers in order (they will TELL you they did reguardless), it can eat the cam VERY FAST.
Bill
94 and older I believe.
Bill
I gotcha. Thanks for the info again Bill. This'll be another time you've helped me big time.
Matt,
Glad to help.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-3-FORD-MUSTANG-T-BIRD-RANGER-ROLLER-CAM-ROCKERS_W0QQitemZ230191207793QQihZ013QQcategoryZ33614QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
BTW: The roller cams don't need the followers to be kept in order.
BTW2: Let Matt bid on this one.
Bill
not a problem on that one. Gotta take backa bad switch to pick N pull tomorrow so I'm gonna look for any of the years ranger you mentioned. might get lucky & get the parts cheap. lol
Thanks again Bill. Found a roller cam & followers in a 93 Ranger & the cost for all that was around $30 out the door. Good thing I got there today since it was the only post 86 ranger in the yard that had a 2.3 in it.The rest were the 3.0 Vulcan v6
Well, I have decided to go a little further in the engine. Instead of just jacking up the engine& removing the cam with the engine in the car I'm going to remove the head & change out the head gasket. I already have most the gaskets & want to change the valve seals while I have the cam out of the head so I figure whay the hey.
Anyways, I soaked the exhaust manifild bolts over night since they were badly rusted & got them out today to find no manifold gasket. I proceded to pull the distributor so I can get to the bottom intake bolts, when I found some problems with the distributor. I have a piece missing out of my distributor cap, something was sitting in the distributor cap (a long piece of hard plastic), the distributor electrical connector was broken & the wires to the distributor were actually melted. Also the drive gear is worn. I'm gonna see if I can check out the auxillary shaft without pulling it to make sure the gear on it isn't badly worn. If need be I'll pull the shaft. The PCV is clogged big time which has me concerned since I replaced it when I got the car & have only logged about 3000 miles on it since.
I have most the parts I need except for the carb mounting gasket & will get new manifold hardware since the old bolts are just about gone. I have a distributor I previously rebuilt for an engine I've been rebuilding over the years so I'll just use that.
That's all for now, more to come later.
Just came inside from removing the intake manifold & it was filthy. Covered in all the oil from the leaking valve cover. Anyways, Found a few more issues. The intake gasket was original & looked like it was starting to go in a few places. I noticed a small hose that goes from the intake to the metal line for coolant that is getting replaced since it's the original hose. It has Ford stamped right on it! That'll be getting replaced before I put the manifold back on. Everything is covered in oil & grease so I'll be cleaning off all the parts, as well as the block before I bolt it all back together.
That's all for now, pics to come tomorrow.
Well, I got the head off the engine & found out the head gasket was starting to go. 30 years with lack of maintenence & old age was catching up to it. The followers also showed quite a bit of wear, so it was definitely time for some repairs. The engine is probably due for a rebuild since there is no crosshatch pattern, but I'm not going to rebuild this engine. I have an engine in the garage I'm in the process of rebuilding so I should be fine until then. I'm just gonna make sure the engine is all clean before I put the head back on the engine.
Well, I got the valve springs removed & found out the valve stems were gone. They wouldn't even hold the valve in place to remove the keepers. They were cracking as I removed them from the head. As for the valves there were actually a few that were stuck when I was removing the valve springs. I'm soaking the springs overnight to get them clean of any crud that is on them. Got them in butter bowels separated by cylinder so they go back where they came from.
More to come later
Got the head cleaned up a bit today. I used a brass wheel & cleaned off the exhaust & intake gaskets surfaces so it'll be ready for paint tomorrow. I also took a wire brush to the combustion chamber & removed all the grime. After letting the valves soak for about a day or so I also cleaned the valves with a wire wheel to get rid of the deposits. Two of the valves were badly carboned up so I'm letting them soak over night to get all the carbon & sludge off. The valve seals were so worn out the engine was burning quite a bit of oil at startup. Tomorrow I'm gonna get the engine degreased, and also mask off the inside of the head so I can paint it back to the original Ford Blue. I was just gonna clean up the head, slap in the new cam & reinstall everything, but I figure since it's off I might as well make it all look nicer. Pics to come soon.
As promised, here are some pics of the progress of the head work.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0037.jpg)
The head after cleanup & roller cam installed
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0041.jpg)
Cylinder head painted
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0040.jpg)
Intake manifold, No that isn't black paint, but lots of grease
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0044.jpg)
Distributor hold down, intake end piece, and engine bracket
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0042.jpg)
Timing cover
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0043.jpg)
Intake mainfold soaking in cleaner
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0048.jpg)
Thermostat Housing & bolts repainted
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0047.jpg)
Intake manifold drying after cleaning. The blue paint is what's left of the original paint.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0046.jpg)
Dipstick tube repainted
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0045.jpg)
Dipstick handle repainted.
That's all for now, more to come as I get the work done.
Cookin on your Pinto.. YEA...
Thanks, I sure am. Getting everything nice & shiney. I'm gonna degrease the bottom end tomorrow& paint the block. Once I do tht I'm gonna start reassembling it.
Well, I ended up having to get a new valve cover for the car since the old one was bent beyond repair. The gasket surface was all bumped up & also bent too much. Got some pics of the replacement cover after I degreased it & then painted it.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0052.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0051.jpg)
Before
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0055.jpg)
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0054.jpg)
After
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0053.jpg)
One more of my intake manifold painted up
Also, I have been wanting to install a coolant recovery tank on my car, & while I was at a Ford Ranger found one that will work almost perfect & look original. It's a combo washer bottle/ coolant bottle & seems to be able to fit right in there after I move down the voltage regulator about an inch. Pic is of the bottle
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/mmanter/850A0050.jpg)
Matt,
Is there a part # on that?
Bill
There is a number on the decal. I think it's the number for the bottle. E2PJ-6B315-CA
I pulled the water pump off the engine so I could paint it since it's all nasty, & found out it was starting to show its age. I had another one bolted to the engine I'm building for the car so I went ahead & unbolted it, & painted it up. I was gonna leave it cast iron colored when I got it about 2 years ago, but decided to paint it to match the block. I started soaking the block yesturday & hope to be able to degrease the block tomorrow after work, as well as get it ready for paint. Once I get all the paintwork done I plan on starting reassembly. More pics to come soon.
Well, today I unbolted to intermediate sprocket & the crank pulley & found the intermediate shaft seal is also leaking. While I have both pulleys off I'm gonna go ahead & replace the seals. At this point the only seals & gaskets that haven't been pulled off the engine are the crank & intermediate shaft seals & the seal holder mounting gaskets. All that will be left in the engine are the bearings & rings, and I've checked them. All are well with that.
It's been a while since I updated the progress on the car. I got the seals changed & just about have the engine back together. I think I need to seat the dipstick tube a little more, and have to do a little touching up on the water pump. It is really looking great. I plan on getting the Timing belt on the car, reinstall the old exhaust manifold so I can start the car and see how it runs. Then I will finish installation of the required parts.
Pics to come soon.
Well, today I fired up the engine for the first time in about a month. I noticed it was spewing oil out the side of the engine so I looked for a leak. I found out I forgot to replace the oil switch that broke as I was pulling off the head. After I get some more parts I need for her I'll be getting more work done to her. At this point it's ready for an oil change, fresh coolant, check the timing & finally replace the bad tranny. I'll get some shots of the engine all painted up, looking shiney.