68 C50 Looongbed pickup build

[rkn463]

Moving along with the tear down (actually it was probably about now that I mounted the brake cylinder).

I finished stripping everything off the top of the motor: carb, EGR, hoses, etc.. Then I stripped the accessories off the front of the motor (after taking a reference photo).

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Then off with the intake, I was really pleased with how clean the motor is inside. The truck had belonged to a family business and they obviously took great care of it! Once the intake was off I put paper towels in the lifter gallery and stuffed some down the intake ports and went to scraping. Once the gasket surfaces were clean I wiped them down with brake cleaner, sucked the paper towels out of the heads with the shop vac and vacuumed out all of the intake ports. After that I taped over the ports to keep them clean then I tapped out all of the intake bolt holes, some of the bolts came out hard and were rusty, others just plain grungy.

Next I pulled the valve covers, once again, SUPER clean in there! A bit more cleaning around the head to cover mating surface. Finally I carefully removed the paper towels from the lifter gallery and vacuumed out the minor amount of crap that had made it into the gallery.

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Finally it was time to reassemble, valve covers back on, dropped the intake on with some help; that thing is heavy! I cleaned a crap load of bolts, and put it all back together. I don't agree with the torque sequence but it was in the FSM so I followed it, we'll see if I end up with problems. Finally several coats of paint over the newly cleaned bolts and hold downs and then stabbed the distributor back in. Check out the before and after

Pictures:

[rkn463]

Next weekend I hope to get the front of the motor cleaned up and painted. Following that I can reinstall the P/S pump, alternator, belts, etc.. I still have to find something to plug the holes in the exhaust manifolds where I removed the AIR system. Then I need to cut down the reinforcing plates and reinstall them on the frame.

I'm getting pretty close to being ready to swap the 68 body on, however I have a dilemma. I already got a replacement hydroboost unit because it was leaking fluid so bad. The steering box is leaking like crazy around the input shaft and the p/s pump is leaking too. Basically the whole hydraulic system has leaks which seems a bit odd. I don't recall exactly what the PO said but I had feared that he had either added power steering fluid to the master cylinder or brake fluid to the power steering system. I know the fluids are incompatible and would cause leaks and having everything on the entire hydraulic system leaking worries me. On top of that the old hydroboost is leaking past the seals just laying on the floor! One last thing that worries me is that for a while the hydroboost unit was laying on a rubber mat and what leaked on to that caused the mat to swell up, does anyone know if that is normal for power steering fluid (ATF actually) to do that to rubber? Seems like that is why you aren't supposed to use fuel line for p/s cooler line. If I need to swap on a rebuilt power steering box I will be out several hundred more dollars. Need some serious advice here folks! Here is a shot of the hydroboost leaking on the floor. The ports are pointed up!