1970 Duster AlterKtion, 4 Link, LS/T56/Turbo and Minitub
So the nightmare saga continues.... I should name this build "The Curse of the Blue Pearl" lol
I got the new headgaskets in the mail 2 weeks ago and finally had some time that weekend to put the motor back together. I started with the driverside because that side is the hardest with the alternator bracket and the brake booster etc in the way. Got the head on and was torquing the head studs down to the 90ft/lbs that the instructions I looked up told me to do. Following the pattern and incremental increase in torque I was on the 3rd to last stud at the last torque requirement and SNAP O.o O.O O_O I thought to myself "please just have slipped off the nut" but sure enough I grab ahold of the head stud and it just spins.......
And the nut wasnt bottomed out on the threads causing it to overtighten in the bottom of the block.
So now I'm like "son of a *****" because the bolt was broken like 4" down in the block and crooked. So I went inside for the night to gather my thoughts and strategize. A) I pull the motor and throw my 6.0 I have in there but thats way more down time because the 6.0 still needs the machine shop work and is in Vermont. B) I pull the motor and take it to a machine shop to get it out. C) I find a way to get it out myself because thats what we do here and we think we are all that is man lmao. So C it is haha.
So the next day I found that an M12 bolt fits into the hole tight before the threads engage. I tried to drill a hole in a 4x4 and then thread the bolt into the 4x4 which I clamped to my drill press... butttt that didnt work. The drill kept walking, even starting with a small pilot hole.
SO my cousins grandfather had given us this OLD OLD smaller lathe YEARS ago. I've had it in the corner of my garage since I've moved down here as its pretty small and I havent needed to turn anything this small .... YET. I pulled all the stuff I've stacked over it, found the box of collets and lubed up the guideways with some ATF. This things OLD haha the drive belt is of the leather flavor with staples lol. But I plugged it in and it fired up!! So I got the bolts into the collet and made a perfect bushing for my left handed drill.
Once that was completed I started drilling..... after a few hours of drill, checking, lubing and letting the drill cool down I had made pretty good progress into the head stud and it was drilling perfectly straight. But like all good things that must come to an end SNAP O.o "please dont be the bit" and this time I was lucky!!! The drill had caught the edge of what I was drilling and broke about 3/8 of the head stud that wasnt in threads yet. However this means I'm back to only like 1/8 of material I've drilled into. Not enough for an easy out and I've only got about 3/8 of drill left before I bottom the drill chuck on the block. All the while a friend of mine took an easy out and welded it to extension so it would reach into the hole. After a bit more drilling we tapped the easy out down into the hole and give it a try. But it just spun after a moment of grip. More drilling (only about 1/8 of drill left). Tap the easy out back in and it felt good this time. I could tell Charlie was pulling pretty good on the ratchet so I was like "alright its gonna come out!" SNAP O_O NOOOOO.
We pull the ratchet up and luckily the extension had just broken off the easy out. BUT it was 1.5" down into the block. Mind racing I took another one of the bushings bolt blanks I had and fired up the lathe to make another bushing. I pushed this bushing all the way down against the easy out, hooked up 3 car batteries in series and shoved a welding rod down into the bushing welding it to the easy out. With some vice grips we got the easy out back out..... FEW.
After welding the easy out back onto the extension we tapped it back into the stud and THIS time it started to spin but with force so it wasn't just stripping. YAHTZEE!
So all the while I had messaged a couple friends about this and I had called ARP to explain the situation. I told them I broke a stud, one of the other studs felt a little funky and I had pulled a third already so I dont know which was the funky stud. Surprisingly they sent me 3 new studs without a fuss! The guy I was talking to also said that it may have snapped if I didnt have the washers completely cleaned because the torque spec is a dry torque vs a wet torque.... I was like hmmm maybe..... but THEN the guy who I had got my base tunes from asked what I torqued them to. I told him the instructions said 90ft/lbs. He said that seems a bit high..... Come to find out the instructions I found are ARPs Super Saiyan chrome plated head studs... and my peasant head studs should have been torqued to 70ft/lbs. Good to know! Since I couldnt find my instructions that came with them the first time around.
So this time around everything went back together at 70ft/lbs and I have the new Trail Blazer SS intake on as well. Talk about a TIGHT FIT. The fuel pressure regulator barely clears the intake now lol but I dont have to move it. And I realized that the new Holley fuel rails that work with the TBSS intake were an 8an and I need 6an. So I stopped there and ordered parts.
Stay tuned to find out what happens next time on Dragon Ball Plymouth Duster.
So the nightmare saga continues.... I should name this build "The Curse of the Blue Pearl" lol
I got the new headgaskets in the mail 2 weeks ago and finally had some time that weekend to put the motor back together. I started with the driverside because that side is the hardest with the alternator bracket and the brake booster etc in the way. Got the head on and was torquing the head studs down to the 90ft/lbs that the instructions I looked up told me to do. Following the pattern and incremental increase in torque I was on the 3rd to last stud at the last torque requirement and SNAP O.o O.O O_O I thought to myself "please just have slipped off the nut" but sure enough I grab ahold of the head stud and it just spins.......
And the nut wasnt bottomed out on the threads causing it to overtighten in the bottom of the block.
So now I'm like "son of a *****" because the bolt was broken like 4" down in the block and crooked. So I went inside for the night to gather my thoughts and strategize. A) I pull the motor and throw my 6.0 I have in there but thats way more down time because the 6.0 still needs the machine shop work and is in Vermont. B) I pull the motor and take it to a machine shop to get it out. C) I find a way to get it out myself because thats what we do here and we think we are all that is man lmao. So C it is haha.
So the next day I found that an M12 bolt fits into the hole tight before the threads engage. I tried to drill a hole in a 4x4 and then thread the bolt into the 4x4 which I clamped to my drill press... butttt that didnt work. The drill kept walking, even starting with a small pilot hole.
SO my cousins grandfather had given us this OLD OLD smaller lathe YEARS ago. I've had it in the corner of my garage since I've moved down here as its pretty small and I havent needed to turn anything this small .... YET. I pulled all the stuff I've stacked over it, found the box of collets and lubed up the guideways with some ATF. This things OLD haha the drive belt is of the leather flavor with staples lol. But I plugged it in and it fired up!! So I got the bolts into the collet and made a perfect bushing for my left handed drill.
Once that was completed I started drilling..... after a few hours of drill, checking, lubing and letting the drill cool down I had made pretty good progress into the head stud and it was drilling perfectly straight. But like all good things that must come to an end SNAP O.o "please dont be the bit" and this time I was lucky!!! The drill had caught the edge of what I was drilling and broke about 3/8 of the head stud that wasnt in threads yet. However this means I'm back to only like 1/8 of material I've drilled into. Not enough for an easy out and I've only got about 3/8 of drill left before I bottom the drill chuck on the block. All the while a friend of mine took an easy out and welded it to extension so it would reach into the hole. After a bit more drilling we tapped the easy out down into the hole and give it a try. But it just spun after a moment of grip. More drilling (only about 1/8 of drill left). Tap the easy out back in and it felt good this time. I could tell Charlie was pulling pretty good on the ratchet so I was like "alright its gonna come out!" SNAP O_O NOOOOO.
We pull the ratchet up and luckily the extension had just broken off the easy out. BUT it was 1.5" down into the block. Mind racing I took another one of the bushings bolt blanks I had and fired up the lathe to make another bushing. I pushed this bushing all the way down against the easy out, hooked up 3 car batteries in series and shoved a welding rod down into the bushing welding it to the easy out. With some vice grips we got the easy out back out..... FEW.
After welding the easy out back onto the extension we tapped it back into the stud and THIS time it started to spin but with force so it wasn't just stripping. YAHTZEE!
So all the while I had messaged a couple friends about this and I had called ARP to explain the situation. I told them I broke a stud, one of the other studs felt a little funky and I had pulled a third already so I dont know which was the funky stud. Surprisingly they sent me 3 new studs without a fuss! The guy I was talking to also said that it may have snapped if I didnt have the washers completely cleaned because the torque spec is a dry torque vs a wet torque.... I was like hmmm maybe..... but THEN the guy who I had got my base tunes from asked what I torqued them to. I told him the instructions said 90ft/lbs. He said that seems a bit high..... Come to find out the instructions I found are ARPs Super Saiyan chrome plated head studs... and my peasant head studs should have been torqued to 70ft/lbs. Good to know! Since I couldnt find my instructions that came with them the first time around.
So this time around everything went back together at 70ft/lbs and I have the new Trail Blazer SS intake on as well. Talk about a TIGHT FIT. The fuel pressure regulator barely clears the intake now lol but I dont have to move it. And I realized that the new Holley fuel rails that work with the TBSS intake were an 8an and I need 6an. So I stopped there and ordered parts.
Stay tuned to find out what happens next time on Dragon Ball Plymouth Duster.
