dirt and goo and grime and what-not

Definitely my least favorite part of restoration, engine assembly, etc. is the preparation of parts; i.e. disassembly, seperation, removal, degreasing, scraping, cleaning, scrubbing, blasting,  prepping, metal-etching, priming, painting...well, you get the point? Just give me a nice clean part and let me install it! That is why I love having the tin blasted and powdercoated all in one! Unfortunately, with the below stack of parts, this is not possible- too much subjectivity involved, as you will see. There is some asbestos, there are different colors, rust, POR-15 paint, yada yada...

Pile o' engine parts I'm currently working on, minus the shroud:

The original asbestos-containing sleeves between the heat control boxes and flex tubes. As you know, asbestos has to be dealt with very carefully. These will be replaced by silicone type flexible sleeves.

Wow, the original asbestos-containing exhaust gaskets! These were between the heat exchangers and the elbows. This means that they were (likely) never seperated.  It's a good indicator of a relatively low mileage part. And, these flanges are very nice and thick and solid. Me likey! But me no likey trying to scrape this asbestos off before they are blasted. You can NOT blast these with any of this white stuff left! Pretty much guaranteed asbestosis, mesothelioma, or whatever.  Even just doing this freaks my wife out, because asbestos DOES get airborn when messed with.

Here are the newer (non original) metal gaskets. These were between the exhaust manifolds and elbows, an indicator that they have been changed- likely with the new engine. Again, very good and thick flanges on the manifolds. All of the exhaust parts are in great shape!

Here's the California cat. converter exhaust, in case anyone in the future ever wants/needs to reinstall it...

Now some fun...here are the intake manifold sections after media (glass) blasting. These will now be self-etching primered and painted; the plenum semi-gloss black and the runners/manifolds gray. Pretty cool to see them naked. If you zoom in, you can see the copper brazings in some areas. Very well made parts.

Fan shroud was seperated, cleaned, lightly wire-wheeled, lightly blasted, and the interior sprayed with clear-coat/lacquer to assure smooth air flow and easier cleaning.

Shroud reassembled and having one coat of metallic silver.  Since then it has gotten an additional coat of hammerite silver, looks very nice. That picture on the next blog.

These are the things that a regular "mechanic" shop will not do when installing an engine. It simply takes too long for them to make any money at it. Many restoration shops won't even go this far. But, you can be assured that every screw will get attention with this engine assembly. After completion, it will power the bus AND heat pizza, right on top.