Well, I do have an actual guage, the catch to that is *get ready for this* it's still sitting in the "to do" drawer at my house. I've been dealing with my friends 85 Ramcharger and him with no money makes for LONG work days cleaning things and making sure everything is perfect. I was going to install it this last weekend but they had a 50% off sale at the salvage yard and the lincoln town car seats look nice in my wifes crown vic (and they're cumfy too!). I've also noticed that I'm leaking oil around my pan gasket (I think I'm done with anything cork unless it's at the top of a bottle). It actually chilled out for the weekend though, sitting closer to the center of "normal" on my *cough stock guage cough* but it's again sitting right on the high side of the normal line. It doesn't seem to run any different other than my gaskets going. I'll be pulling off my intake to clean it (it got dirty during the rebuild and I needed the Bronco to do some stuff and move and went back on dirty). While that's off I'll be pulling my valve covers and putting in the rubber gaskets and since I'll have the clearance i'll pull my motor mounts and lift the engine enough to change the oil pan gasket to a one piece and check everything on the south side too. Heck, since I'll be that deep I may just replace the oil pump again too. If I do that will I need to prime it again? (Please so I don't, I hate pulling the dizzy) ****, since I'm in it I can throw in the wet guage for the oil PSI and a block water temp guage. Oh, you seem like a fella that can weld so I have a question for you, will a little gasless 100 amp welder do fine welding exhaust? I have a leak (2 and a 1/4 to 2 and a 1/2) don't mix well so I figured a little welding will fix that. I just havent done that since high school but it seems better to re-learn on something no one else sees rather than welding on my door or something! Thanks man!
Well, ok. Here's the deal. Contrary to what you may have been told, keeping the oil gauge in it's original unopened packaging *does not* do anything to increase it's value. Maybe if it were an original GI Joe with the Kung-Fu grip you'd have something but when it comes to your oil gauge, no, not really. Take the freaking thing out of the box and plumb it in for goodness sake. Yes, yes, yes, I understand (3 kids worth of understanding) that the wife's butt is an important thing to all of us, but really, find the time.
As far as the oil pump goes, yeah, you're kinda stuck with priming it. Or at least that's what *I'd* recommend, but hey you seem to LIKE changing engines so who am I to say ? You could always pack it with some light grease, fill the top with oil, work quickly & hope for the best (really, I've seen this done and he had pressure within probably 40 seconds or so). But on the other hand if you don't disturb anything the Diz should drop right back in, especially if you use a sharpie marker to mark the body & rotor locations (since the rotor turns when you extract it I like to mark where it *starts* and where it *finishes* as I SLOWLY pull it & when I reinstall I use the finish location as my start and...**** you know what I mean). Also, after building (and burning) a few engines I got into the habit of dissecting old Dizzy's for the shaft and tossed them into my box to use as priming tools in the future (just a piece of mindless trivia)
Welding ? I've had my fill of it. I have a several hundred hours of it but you've gotta understand that 90% of my welding exp was underwater on structural steel. I had a reputation as a gorilla welder, I just laid down big ole' gorilla welds on everything. Tack weld, what's a tack weld ? Guys *hated* taking apart anything I'd tacked together. That buzzbox of yours has it's uses and can certainly be handy building a truck but thinwall exhaust isn't going to be it's strong point. For something like that I'd prefer a TIG or atthe *very* least a MIG. What you have is essentially a wire-feed stick welder and chances are you'll cut more tubing with it then you'll weld. Having said that, you work with the tools you have. I'd grab myself a couple feet of exhaust tubing & a sawzall and start practicing. Spend some time playing with your settings and seeing what works. Shouldn't take you more than a spool or two
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[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Really though, it should maybe take you an afternoon to figure out your settings & speed. when you feel like you've gotten everyting right take a shot at it, don't go to sleep & try in the morning <grin> do it while you've still got the feel of it.
