E361T Progress - NEW PROJECT!

[Screamin DD]

Comin along good, Tom. Can't wait to see her in August. It's great to see a masterpiece being re-created!

[huskidrive 359]

Well put Kyle, I've learned some new tricks from Tom's instructional pictures. Great job!

[Huskiedrive361]

Thought I'd refresh this to keep it current. Anything new to post Tom? Stan

[Emery Johnston]

Thank God Stan is "pushy" so the rest of us don't have to be!!
Emery

[oldspwr]

Sorry for the delay in posting an update, but the last two weeks have been busy. I spent last week in Tug Hill snowmobiling and the week before getting everything ready to go snowmobiling!

I have a small side project I have to work on in the new few weeks but have to wait until I can dig my box trailer out. So hopefully this week I can finish taking the Neway apart. I really need to get the swing arms off so I can measure the length of the bushings. They used two different bushings, and one is 5 1/2" long and the other is 5 3/4" long. It's almost impossible to measure unless I can get it apart.

[paulgcgpr]

Tom,

I usually to get all lathered up when I see the post heading E361T Progress - NEW PROJECT with your screen name on it come to the top of the board. I figure there some more of those great progress shots. Keep up the great work, it's fantastic to see all that goes into the finished product.

paul

[oldspwr]

Well after what seemed like an eternity we were finally able to get re-started on the 361 last weekend! We definitely had a great summer and wound up putting about 1000 miles on the 155W. I did get a lot of questions over the summer asking about progress on the truck so it’s really great to be working on it again.

When we last left off, the frame was just about ready to get painted. All we have left to do is torque the bolts and finish the 5th wheel mount.
If you remember, my buddy Mike painted the 155W and has been recruited to help on this project also. We were talking about spraying the frame when he had a minor catastrophic accident on his basement stairs and busted his knee. Since I figured he wouldn’t be able to spray too well hopping along on a crutch, I decided to start working on the motor instead.

When we bought the truck the engine wouldn’t turn over with the battery since the solenoid was stuck. So we pushed it with a fork lift and with just a little effort the truck started. Even with sitting for some time, the truck started on all 6 cylinders and had good oil pressure. From various stories we heard about the truck, we assumed the motor was fresh but the truck was taken out of service due to a bad frame (rusted & cracked…)

So here is what we started with this past Saturday…



The first thing we did was removed the inspection covers and everything looked pretty good…



After that we removed the valve cover and everything looked good...



At one time someone must have replaced the original stamped steel cover with this cast aluminum cover...



Based on how clean the engine was and a few conversations with Stephen L., we decided not to rebuild the engine, just clean it and reseal it as necessary. So one part at a time we start removing things from the engine. One of the first things we found was a busted thermostat... What temperature should we be running in this truck? 180 deg?



We needed some help with the engine so we brought my daughter Madeline out to the garage. She was too busy eating a cookie to help us though...



So after an hour or so worth of work we were down to this...



By the of the day we wound up with a work bench fully of parts...



We did find one interesting thing on this engine while working on it. I noticed there was numbers written in white crayon on the top of the bellhousing. I remembered Stan showing me numbers on the back of a Cat motor he had that matched the serial number of the truck.



It’s hard to tell from the pic, but the numbers are 77012. This doesn’t match our trucks serial number, but I remembered that Sears Oil had purchased three separate groups of 361’s, one group in ’70, one group in ’71 and one group in ‘72. So I checked my list, and sure enough 77012 was in the 3rd group of 361’s they bought in 1972.

Last but not least I wanted to removed the crank pulley. I was able to pick up a digital copy of the 671 Detroit manual on eBay for $10, so we started thumbing through the pages to determine how the pulley came off. The manual said to use a 2 jaw puller, but there was no good spot to grab the cast pulley without damaging it. So I wound up fabricating a tool using some ‘parts on hand’...



But after bolting the puller on and applying some pressure, I realized the puller was starting to bend...



Just to make sure I was on the right path trying to remove pulley, I talked to Stephen who confirmed that the pulleys are typically stubborn. So I let the puller sit on the crank for a few days and each night I would give it a squirt of PB Blaster. Then last night I gave the forcer screw a ½ turn and pop... it started to come off... After the pulley came off the damper also came off with just a little effort...



So that’s it for now... More to follow...

[anthony masone sr]

Hey Tom!! thanks for the update. I am over in Cape Coral picking up hopefully the last load going over to the new house. The move was big and setting up the shop and buying some tools off of Craig's list. I will probably start working on the 358 in about two weeks. That picture of the power steering box that you took at Richie shop is now sitting in my shop ready to go into 358 that will be the first thing that I will be starting with along with removing the front fenders grilles shell and radiator. Now that the weather is cooling down it makes life a lot easier. That is for me at least.
1,000 miles on the 155W that was pretty good.
What did you think of the Edelbrock fuel injection, that is one sweet running 55?

[Huskiedrive361]

Tom - your choice of temperature for your thermostat will be determined by whether you plan to use the original equipment shutters or not. I have a 175 degree in mine and no shutters (locked open). If you use a shutter stat, the radiator opens first at about 165 degrees with the thermostat and the shutters open around 180 degrees on the shutter stat. This warms all the water in the radiator, then opens the shutters to cool as needed. Truck looks good. Glad you started working on it again. Stan

[oldspwr]

Thanks for everyones comments!

Tony - Edelbrock does make a nice fuel injection setup. Future plans call for the dual carb Ellis manifold with (2) Holley 1920's.

Stan - Since the truck won't be used in cold weather, we decided not to use the shutters. I checked with Napa and they has 160, 170 and 180 degree thermostats, so I went with the 180.

Glen - I didn't get into the clutch yet so I not sure about the flywheel. If you could make copies of the jake information on the 671 I would really appreciate it... And yes, you are right, Madeline's birthday was on 9/26!

Late last week we spent some time working on the exhaust manifold...



2 out of the 4 bolts broke off of the 90" piece so we carefully spent some time 'sawing' the old gasket out. The 90 was frozen right to the manifold and we didn't want to take a chance and break it...



After some time we were finally able to split the two pieces...



Since I needed to drill out all 4 bolts, I decided to use the mill. It took some time to get it angled right but when all was said and done it was worth it. We did struggle with some of the larger bits. For whatever reason the small bits (1/4") cut through with no problems at all but when we got up to 27/64" it just wouldn't cut.



After the holes were drilled we re-chased them with the 1/2" tap...



We finished the last two holes and put the manifold to the side for the time being.

That's it for now, more to follow!

[oldspwr]

I knew the weather was going to be nice this past weekend so we decided to pull the motor outside to start cleaning it...



I started cleaning it with a cup wire brush and realized the serial number was actually 77013, not 77012. I'm pretty sure that 77013 is for S34, which is the truck that Ted and his Dad recently bought. If I remember this correctly, before S34 was put into service, they removed the 671 and installed an L10 Cummins. So maybe our motor wasn't rebuilt, just new???



While I was working on the motor, my Dad started washing all the parts down...



After and hour or so of wire brushing with a 'knot' cup brush, I really didn't make a whole lot of progress. The primer is a yellow color (similar to Cat yellow actually!) with the green on top of that, and it is like iron! Even paint remover didn't want to touch it.... So by the end of the day this is how far I got... Hopefully I can get it back out side next weekend.



My Dad's piled all the parts back on the bench and we packed it in for the night...



Remember this car??? After about a year of body work it is finally painted... I need to look at a few things so it's back in the garage for a few days...



That's it for now!

[Huskiedrive361]

Tom - noticed your water pump in the "cleaned parts pile" Do your self a favor and replace it now. It's a real pain to change it in chassis, and requires a special wrench to do it! Be aware of which way the outlet horn points if you order one, as on the left rotation engine it points the other way. I've seen that primer paint go thru a hot caustic soda bath in a spray tank and still be stuck to the block. Don't know what Detroit used but it sure sticks to cast iron! Stan

[oldspwr]

Here is a quick update on our progress...

The weekend before last we finished up some odds and ends on the Batmobile so we didn't get to spend a lot of time on the Brockway. My Dad did wash all the hardware for the Detroit and started wiring brushing a good part of it. Some of it will be replaced but most of it will be reused...



After my Dad was done and sorted everything out, Madeline was 'eying' it up looking to make quick mess of it!



So yesterday we wound up taking the motor back outside to remove more of the paint. Actually we made some pretty decent progress by the end of the day...



While I was wire brushing the block, I had my Dad start chasing all the threaded holes...



In the meantime we were also sandblasting all of the smaller parts. The larger stuff is going to the guys we use just to save some time...



So by the end of the day we brought the block back in the garage. About 80% of the block is done and a with a few more hours worth of work, it should be ready to go...



So now I need to order a new water pump and a few other misc pieces. Hopefully in two weeks well be able to paint it!

That's it for now!

[STRETCH]

Tom,
Fantastic job! Since I don't get alot of time to read through all the posts,I caught only bits and pieces of your updates. Today was the day..I went through the whole thing.
I also have a 361, and looking through your photo updates will give me great reference tools as I go. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SHARE!!
Right now the 152wd is priority , the 361 still runs and drives and is doing some work on the farm.
Great job again!

Stretch

[oldspwr]

Glen, Stretch... thanks for the replies... I'm glad everyone is enjoying the posts...

We'll it's Thanksgiving Eve and I finally have a few minutes to post some progress pics... We have been very busy the last few weeks and have made a lot of progress. When we last left off we were still trying to remove the paint from the engine block. I was working on the block outside on weekends and during the week after work we were working on the components...

I started by stripping the oil cooler down...



I also started cleaning the oil filter housing (that also attaches to the oil cooler...)



While I was working on those parts I even let my Dad run the sandblaster for a while!!!



Fortunately for us Sears must have replaced the canister style fuel filters with spin on filters....



In this pic you can see that the bracket was tweaked... probably from changing the filters. I know I struggled removing the old ones...



So I wound up putting the mounting bracket in the press and straightening it out...



I also decided to remove the clutch...



It's a dual disc clutch and it looks like everything is in good shape. We put it off to the side and will clean it up and take a better look at it in the near future...



I also noticed that one of the bolts in the bellhousing was broken off. It looks like someone started drilling it out but gave up...



So I welded a 3/8" nut to it with the mig and it came right out...



I would like to post more right now but Madeline is super fussy.... so that 's it for now... More to follow!

[dbaldwinjr]

I finally took the time to read through this post. WoW what a thorough job you guys do. The Bat mobile is sweet. We gotta get that and the general lee together sometime! Glen your right, my daughter Leah's birthday was 10/29. I know what Tom means when he says Madeline was being fussy! Dave and I researched the plasma cutter options out there and went with a Hypertherm unit. It costs a bit more, but we have had great performance and reliability with it. We've had it for 2 yrs. and don't know how we did without it. Keep up the good work....Dane

[oldspwr]

Dane... thanks for the comment!

I decided to gather up all the larger parts for the motor to have my Dad run over to the sandblaster. While rooting around the garage trying to find everything, I found a set of radiator tanks that we bought from Ray Hildreth several years ago.



Since it's dark by the time I get home from work, we were working on the block during the weekends. Like I mentioned before, I am pretty sure they paint the space shuttle with the same primer used on these Detroit blocks. It was a real challenge to remove all of it. I was worried the self etching primer would react with it, so that's why I spent so much time trying to remove it. Here are a few more pics of the block...





While waiting for the larger parts to get blasted, I finished up the smaller parts in the booth...



And then finally the larger parts were done...



So after we got the larger parts back, the first thing we did was paint the exhaust manifold and elbow... This time we used a satin black from Eastwood. I'm pretty sure it's made by Bill Hirsh and we'll see how it holds up...





Now that all the parts were sand blasted, I emptied the 'Black Beauty' out of the blast cabinet and replaced it with glass beads. I wanted to bead black some aluminum parts and the glass beads usually provide a better finish. So I started with the cast aluminum valve cover...



And you can see that it came out pretty good...



So then I moved on to the fuel filter mounts. I like the 'shot' look but I thought the parts would look better if I wire brushed them after they were blasted. So I wound up doing the valve cover and then the fuel filter mounts. Here is a comparison pic...



Now that those parts were done we started hanging all the parts up and then tapping the motor up...





That's it for now... More to follow!

[Green Giant2]

hey tom, thats a nice lookin project, i hope i dont blow your computer up with all the pics i just sent you.
gg2

[oldspwr]

Some of the parts 'flashed' with rust while they were hanging up so I wound up going over and handful of them before we started priming. It seems the cast parts flash the fastest, such as the motor mounts, etc. So we spent a full Saturday getting everything ready and then started painting on Sunday.

For these parts we decided to use a self etching primer, followed by a white sealer, followed by base coat and then clear coat. Instead of using Dupont products we are using PPG products. The line of PPG we are using is called Omni II but they recently changed it to Shop Line.

Here is the first coat of self etching primer...





Then we moved onto the sealer...



And finally the alpine green... I had a hard time finding the correct paint code for Detroit Diesel Green. I found Dupont 94296 online, but when it was mixed up it was way too light, almost like a early 60's sea foam green. So I took one of the inspection covers down to the paint store and they were able to tint the color to an exact match.

So here is a pic after shooting the green...



And then we shot a handful of parts black...



And then finally the clear. I took us about 6 hours to shoot everything, from start to finish. My buddy Mike did come over for a while, but he is still recovering from the surgery on his knee. He wanted us to use his Accuspray paing gun, and it really laid the paint down nice...

And finally here are some of the 'finished product' pics...









That's it for now! More to follow...

[oldspwr]

So this past weekend we were finally able to start putting some things back together... finally!!!

So the first thing we did was remove the tape from the block and put the valve cover on...



Then we laid out all the painted parts to see what we were going to work on first...





I wound up removing the bearings from the upper pulley and they were in good shape, so I repacked them with synthetic grease and installed a new seal...



The we moved on to installed the fuel filter mounts and air compressor...



So then I had my Dad install the water manifold...



And then we installed the water neck and thermostat...



We finished up with that this past Sunday afternoon and then started getting everything ready in the garage for winter. So that's it for now!