This was family vacation week, so there was a limit to how much work I could get done on the car. After last weekend, though, I didn't much feel like working on it anyway. Monday morning before we left town I came back out to the shop to check and see if the Loctite sealer had skinned over. It showed absolutely no sign of drying. Wondering if it would ever set up, the family and I got in the RV and took off.
All week long I was wondering about the sealer. We got back home Saturday night around 11:00 PM. First thing I did was head out to the shop to check the sealer; I really did NOT want to R&R the oil pan again. Lucky for me, sometime during the week the sealer decided to set up. Amazing
Last time I'm using that stuff...
This morning I got out to the shop by 9:00 and got ready to run the engine and check for leaks. I was still pretty convinced that the leak was coming from somewhere up behind the transmission, but after the last seal and oil pan gasket job I had to check. After filling the dry sump with oil I ran the test, and sure enough, the oil leak was still there.
At this point all I could do was pull the transmission, so after the engine cooled down I got to work on that. It is a tight squeeze up under that car for the Powerglide, and the headers kind of hook around the bellhousing on the bottom, so getting the transmission out is no small job. I ended up being able to get it out just by removing the right side collector, and jockeying the transmission towards the passenger side as I dropped it. Took me until 2:00 to get the transmission on the ground, then I used the impact to pull the flywheel bolts and take off the flywheel and the backing plate. I got up under the car to look with a certain amount of trepidation; I did not want to see everything looking good under there, that was for sure. Fortunately, the problem was obvious almost immediately:
You will notice that there are two small allen head bolts with washers on them, that function to hold the rear cam plug in place. Unfortunately, there are supposed to be THREE small allen head bolts with washers, not just two. One of the allen head bolts was gone. I reached a small pick up to the hole and poked it through, and sure enough it went right into the crankcase. Oil splash must have been coming straight out of that hole.
Now, I'm the one that drilled and tapped those holes for the allen head bolts, because I've had problems in the past on the dyno with aluminum block engines where the cam plug comes out. So I always use some kind of a retainer mechanism on the cam plug, to keep it in place. Looks like in this case, though, that little "safety feature" cost me.
Just to double check this, I used the ultraviolet light to try to see some traces of oil in this area. It had been four hours since the engine had run, but I thought I might still see something with the light. Boy did I ever:
There was lots of oil coming down across that cam plug, that's for sure. Next I took out the other two allen head bolts; these are 8-32 bolts, 1/4" long, with fairly large diameter washers to retain the cam plug. Both of the bolts that were still in there showed evidence of blue Loctite on the threads. Either I forgot to put the Loctite on the threads of the top bolt, or it just didn't hold for some reason.
Well, at least now I know what the problem was. But with the trans out of the car there is no way I'll be able to get it back together and to the track next weekend. One major reason I wanted to make it to the track was to see how the converter behaved, so in lieu of a track day I decided to pull the converter off the transmission in preparation for shipment to the converter place I use. If you give them engine and vehicle data, they are usually pretty good about getting the converter set up where you want it right out of the box. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow morning and ask if, with the dyno data I have and the vehicle specs, if the converter I've got will work OK or whether it needs to be modified. If it needs to be modified I'm going to ship it to them overnight, and hopefully get it back next weekend, so that I can FINALLY get the car all the way together. All the wiring is done except for some basic cleanup, so once I get the transmission reinstalled and the front suspension back in, I can actually drive the car, which I must say I'm looking forward to.
On another front Steve has been working on the hood scoop, and has the hood pretty much all ready for paint; here's a picture of it sitting on a stand in my paint booth:
Steve plans to get the hood painted sometime this week. In the meantime, the rest of the car is all apart:
I've got some little things to work on during the week this week, which should finish up the remaining details on the car. Should be another thrash next weekend, but maybe, maybe, I can get it done. I'll post another update next Sunday.
