Mechanical Triumph

[SgtM]

So.. it's been about a year now. My 1995 Chevy S10 blew a head and gasket. No big deal right? Get a new head and gasket and change it out. Well, I did a bad thing. I didn't mark which bolts went where, and after changing the head and gasket, the head bolts failed on me. Well, after that I got fed up, and just didn't have the motivation to work on it. Fast forward to Wednesday and yesterday. I didn't have to work, and finally got it in me that I was going to get this thing back on the road. It left the garage yesterday for the first time in a year under it's own power.

To say that I'm happy about that would be an understatement. I work 50 miles from home, so I'm going to drive it around town before trying to drive it here. Now I just have to get it cleaned up.

[calumc]

Nice one! i know how frustrating things like that can be

[GT40_GearHead]

how did the head bolts fail ?

from what you are saying you are lucky the coolant didn't get in one of the cylinders and hydro lock the piston braking a rod !

[SgtM]

how did the head bolts fail ?

from what you are saying you are lucky the coolant didn't get in one of the cylinders and hydro lock the piston braking a rod !

Well, they are torqued down at the factory. Because of this, each bolt is stretched (albeit meer thousandths of an inch) somewhat, and if they're not put back in the same position, there's a possibility that they can fail.

[GT40_GearHead]

the people over in the Corvette forum, say they use new bolts after every tare down

congrats on a job well done ! :D

[AJ@PR]

Yeah!!
w00t w00t to you man!
Congrats... I can imagine that heading down the road now, she even runs better now! :D

:pics: haAHAHa

[GT40_GearHead]

how the hell did i forgot that ?! .... :pics:

[SgtM]

Damn.. I should have took some work in progress pics.. I'll get a couple shots of everything back in place, you can easily pick out the new head. And I'll see about getting a few action shots too.

[AJ@PR]

Damn.. I should have took some work in progress pics.. I'll get a couple shots of everything back in place, you can easily pick out the new head. And I'll see about getting a few action shots too.

Yay!
It's Ok for the non-action shots.
Almost always that I'm going to do stuff in my cars, I have the intentions of a picture album of the work... then, I remember the camera when I'm 86% done! :think:
LoL

PeacE SgtM!

[GT40_GearHead]

tell me about it...

i remembered the camera only the third day after surgery :(((

if i would have only knew that I will be needing surgery when i left for the hospital, i would have taken it with and ask the doc to take some pics :D

[Aero]

awesome man. That rocks. My friend and I are currently working on getting his Honda Accord road worthy again. Its a 1990 Accord 4 cylinder with a manual trans. This thing had 235000 miles on the original clutch that still works. Last year the timing belt went out and we thought the cylinder heads were cracked. Just last week we finally put a new timing chain on to see if it could work and it fired up beautifully. Hopefully we will have it on the road soon.

[GT40_GearHead]

nice !

but it would still be a good idea to remove the cylinder head and check the valves are not hit by the pistons, or something like that

it would be a shame to go on a ride only to drop a valve and kill the engine

[AJ@PR]

SgtM, sorry for hi-jacking your thread... but I thought best to post this picture here instead of starting up a new thread.
Hope you don't mind! :)

I was cleaning up some things, and I stumbled across various pictures of when I worked on the Volvo...
Here's one I scanned just now...
You can see the engine compartment already painted with primer (high temp, black), and I'm starting to apply the 1st coat of red paint.

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o196/45NN2121/Volvoworks01.jpg

Wow... long time ago... I had long hair then.


Here's some more::

We painted the underside with undercoating stuff (that black rubbery stuff is amazing!)
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o196/45NN2121/Volvoworks02.jpg

Here it has the primer applied, and the door/window/etc frames had already been painted with 2-3 coats of the red paint.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o196/45NN2121/Volvoworks03.jpg

Installed the doors... ready to paint! :D
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o196/45NN2121/Volvoworks04.jpg

finally...
This is with the 1st coat of clear coat applied... no wet-sanding... not buffin'.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o196/45NN2121/Volvoworks06.jpg

[AJ@PR]

Hey! Bad ASS! I still haven't seen the infamous volvo!!

Oh yeah,

Morning Meng! :D
GUAT?!

Good Sunday morning to you too meng!!!! :D :D

[SgtM]

SgtM, sorry for hi-jacking your thread... but I thought best to post this picture here instead of starting up a new thread.
Hope you don't mind! :)



.. I don't worry about stupid stuff like that. I'm diggin the paint job. Wish I had a booth so I could paint my truck. Have a +rep on me.

[Bucko]

Do you have any pics of the completed ovlov?

[AJ@PR]

.. I don't worry about stupid stuff like that. I'm diggin the paint job. Wish I had a booth so I could paint my truck. Have a +rep on me.
Thanks! :)

The paint booth, I was very fortunate.
A good friend/client of my uncle has a big body shop... and when I started the project, my uncle talked with him... and... he gave me, check this:::
The keys to the entire building!
I would go there on Saturdays and Sundays and work on the car.
A full-fledged body shop at my disposal.
In payback, I would help them with computer/technical woes, and generally try not to mess up too much stuff.
(( course... this one time, I flooded their office... accidentally... =\ ))


Do you have any pics of the completed ovlov?
Not at the moment.
I'm sure I have pics somewhere, but they're not digital... plain old film.

I finished the Volvo after the pics above, but then, the true modder within' me couldn't sleep at night. So I bought a '96 Chevy (actually, from a Firebird) 350 LT1 engine. Got the Electromotive TEC3 computer.. a Tremec T56 tranny... etc etc.

But THAT conversion isn't running yet... so the car isn't running as of now. :(

Man, Bucko, I'm eager to get a road trip on that car again like you did with your Hillman. That is one nice car to drive... even with the crappy 98-hp original 4-banger.

w00t w00t! :)