Radiator repair and engine cleaning

AA Ford Discussion Group relating to the repair and restoration of your AA Ford.
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rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

This morning my father came over and we were able to get the radiator off to have taken in to be repaired. There was a minimum of 3 leaks coming from the radiator. There is also a crack in the block that I need to clean and assess to see if I can jb weld it.

The radiator removal was pretty straight forward. Never taken it off before and it ended up being around an hour and a half total. That included getting the hood to a good resting place and having to cut one of the radiator support bolts to get the shell off.

My father's friend owns a radiator shop and he took it there this afternoon. The major concern is a leak on the bottom of the tank. He is unsure if it is repairable but will try and solder it. The other leaks didn't appear bad. I don't have the funds to get a new radiator this year and am hoping it can be fixed enough to limp it along until I can get one in a year or two. The AA isn't driven everyday so a small leak won't bother me much.

The crack in the block already has some jb weld in it as well from a prior fix (unsure when that was). I am also hoping to get it plugged enough to get a full rebuild or replacement block in a few years as well.

I have already purchased new hoses and connectors but will need to get a new radiator spring as one was broke and a bolt for the shell to radiator bracket.

To clean the engine I bought a cement mixing pan and hope to get the block cleaned as best as I can as I would like to paint it. If I can't get it painted it won't be the end of the world but would still like it cleaned. I do plan to take off the manifold and put it in evaporust and clean off the rust.

Hoping to have everything back together by the end of March. Three kids and working midnights makes things take longer. ImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

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rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

I got word that the radiator was repaired and is currently drying from being painted. I had to order a few parts today from Bert's for the reinstall. Will at least start on degreasing the engine today before the kids get home from school. Image

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KimVanOrder
Posts: 753
Joined: August 11th, 2013, 4:25 pm
Body Type: 82-A Platform
Model Year: 1928
Location: Hamilton, Mich.

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by KimVanOrder »

Fantastic!!! Take your time, as when it is done, well, it is done... :D
Or not. They are never DONE.
KVO
Dec. '28 AA
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1crosscut
Posts: 877
Joined: December 25th, 2010, 7:22 pm
Body Type: 82-A
Model Year: 1929
Location: Lincoln, NE

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by 1crosscut »

For cleaning your engine try using Meguires Purple Power cleaner followed by straight Simple Green. It has been a good combination for me. Just be sure to use disposable nitrile gloves with the Purple Power. It is quite hard on skin.

You should be able to clean up the crack and J.B. weld it. The key is to get all the old stuff off and clean it up super well. Use Acetone for the final clean up prior to applying the J.B. weld. No need to put a big thick layer like is on it now. If you hook up a vacuum to the water outlet and plug the inlet you will create a vacuum inside the block and it will help pull the J.B. weld into the crack. Just before the J.B. weld sets hard take some 80 ish grit sand paper and lay it over the epoxy and pat it about to help put a bit of texture to it. Done right with a bit of creativity the repair should be hard to see.
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Dave
David R.
Posts: 260
Joined: August 17th, 2019, 1:52 pm
Body Type: Chassis
Model Year: 1930
Location: WV

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by David R. »

Must be pretty common. My block is cracked same place.
User avatar
rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

Crosscut. I have simple green and a few other degreasers that I'll be using. Started to clean the front of the engine and already looks a lot better. I'll use a couple of different Dremel bits on the jb weld to get as much off as I can. Ill have to give the vacuum trick a try. Thanks!

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Chris Haynes
Posts: 2203
Joined: September 7th, 2003, 5:18 pm
Body Type: 82A
Model Year: 1930
Location: Camarillo, CA

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by Chris Haynes »

After the leaks are fixed and things are clean fill your cooling system with RUST 911. It will remove all the rust from your block and head. You can drive the vehicle with the RUST 911 in it. After two days I drained mine. The water had turned black with the dissolved rust in it. I flushed and refilled with RUST 911 again. Two more days and when drained the water was light grey. Flush and refill. When I drained it this time the water was clear and the block, Head, and Radiator were all spotlessly clean with not a spot of rust in sight. Make sure you add a good rust inhibitor to your coolant.
One bottle of Rust 911 concentrate makes 16 gallons of product. I keep a container with it on my bench to de-rust loose parts before painting them.
https://www.amazon.com/Rust911-16-gallo ... 209&sr=8-4
KimVanOrder
Posts: 753
Joined: August 11th, 2013, 4:25 pm
Body Type: 82-A Platform
Model Year: 1928
Location: Hamilton, Mich.

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by KimVanOrder »

I used the 911 rust remover also. It is very impressive how well it works. When it removes the rust, it will remove all the rust!! My radiator started leaking again. A bottle of stop leak fixed that.. good luck...
KVO
Dec. '28 AA
User avatar
rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

Prior to removing the radiator I flushed it with thermocure rust remover by evaporust. Worked well. I flushed it prior to removal so that it would clean out the radiator of any possible blockages that could have been missed when being fixed.

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rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

I got an hour or so tonight to work on the engine. I got the intake and exhaust manifolds off and soaking in evaporust. I didn't have a longer thinner container so I will need to flip the manifold every so often. Not a big deal but will take longer. My exhaust connector was essentially shot but I have a new one plus more hardware on the way from Bert's. Next I plan to take off the oil pipe and oil filler tube and get ready for painting. After that I will start to work on the crack repair.ImageImageImage

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rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

made some good progress tonight. 

I took the manifolds out of the evaporust, rinsed them, and then used a wire wheel on my die grinder to clean them up some more. I then painted the exhaust manifold with Seymour cast blast. I didn't realize that in the instructions it says to fully cure to bake it at a minimum of 400 degrees. Doesn't say for how long. If I don't bake it will it just not set or will running the engine and getting it hot be good enough to get it to cure? I really like the color of the paint. 

I then painted the intake manifold with the antique Ford paint from Bert's. I am really happy with the color of the paint. I have seen some where its a real hunter green. This seems to be a little grayish? I was at my model a club today and there were some recently painted pieces that were done with the spray can and I like this better. The pic doesn't really show the true color. 

I took off the water pump and found out one of the corners is broken off. I didn't have any leaks and plan to reuse this one for now. At some point I'd like to rebuild it with a leak less kit but I don't have time for that. Three of my four studs came out with the double nut removal method. The last one is being stubborn and I've got it soaking in on blaster. Hopefully it will come off easily tomorrow. 

I removed the water inlet and have it soaking in degreaser at the moment. The oil return pipe was removed and cleaned. It is waiting for new paint. 

I cleaned the lower coolant pipe but found a small hole right at the rib of one end. I bought a kit from Mike's affordable a that came with a new pipe so I will just use that one. 

I'd like to reuse my original (I believe) petcock. It is incredibly stiff to turn. I have to use pliers to turn it. I have had it soak in simple green for a day and now in evapo rustm it looks clean but I obviously can see inside. 

My goals for tomorrow:

1. to get the oil fil pipe off and get both of those pieces painter. 
2. Take off water outlet, clean it, and then paint both inlet and outlet. 
3. Continue cleaning block. 

Now for my questions:
How do you remove the oil filler tube? Does it twist off? ***Nm...Snyder's says it presses in***

Also can I remove some bolts one by one like for example the timing cover when I paint it to keep from painting them or should I leave them alone? I did buy new timing cover gaskets but I think I have to lift the engine if I do? 

​​​​​​​Lastly I bought new welting for the hood. Is there a beat way to replace them?  Thanks. 
ImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage

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David R.
Posts: 260
Joined: August 17th, 2019, 1:52 pm
Body Type: Chassis
Model Year: 1930
Location: WV

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by David R. »

Oil filler pipe is a press in fit. Here is how I removed mine. I made an impact puller from old pipe fittings. Not my idea, someone either here or at Ford Barn shared it. A short pipe nipple big enough to fit around tube is sawn in half lengthwise. A cap with a hole drilled and tapped in the end is screwed onto the split pipe nipple after you put the halves around the tube behind the flange. A weight of some kind goes on the rod to make a slide hammer and it will pop right out.
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User avatar
1crosscut
Posts: 877
Joined: December 25th, 2010, 7:22 pm
Body Type: 82-A
Model Year: 1929
Location: Lincoln, NE

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by 1crosscut »

Looking good!

I agree with you that the paint from Bert's is good stuff. I like the color too. With their spray paint I put a very light first coat just to get a bit of tack to the surface. You almost can not see the color its so thin. Second coat is pretty much the same. The third and final coat I put on pretty heavy being careful not to cause runs. The paint flows out really nice and dries super fast between coats.

I use the cast blast too. Give your gas grill a good pre-cleaning and adjust it to get the temperature set to about 425 then bake it for a half hour or so.
Do not do this in your home oven. Will stink the house up and the missus will not be happy with you.

I would avoid taking the water outlet pipe off unless you are planning on pulling the head too. The bolts holding it on also hold the head in place. Loosening them might cause the seal to be lost on the head gasket.

You can remove the bolts from the timing covers one at a time for painting. Most of the bolts holes are open (go into the engine and are not closed off) and will allow oil to escape past the bolts unless the threads are sealed. Use Indian Head shellac on the threads of the bolts when you re-install them.
Another option to removing them is to wrap the heads with aluminum foil.
If you can avoid pulling the timing gear covers It saves a lot of time, effort and possible troubles with getting them back in place.

The passenger side front motor mount bolt hole goes into the engine cavity (is open) and often leaks oil from around those threads making it look like the timing gear cover is leaking. Pull the bolt and coat it with shellac.

The oil fill pipe is a friction fit. This is another area that I use shellac on when putting it back in to keep oil from seeping out around it.

If your water pump stud doesn't want to come off don't sweat it and just leave it in place. Last thing you want to do is twist it off.

If your petcock doesn't leak but is just hard to turn I wouldn't worry about it. Not something that gets turned very often if your using antifreeze for coolant.

With the manifolds off it will never get any easier to open up the valve chamber and take a peek inside. You might be lucky and someone may have put in adjustable lifters and you can set valve clearances. At the very least you could clean out the valve chamber if there is an accumulation of sludge. Just be careful not to push sludge down the passages to the main bearings when cleaning it out.

Use shellac on the valve cover gasket and oil return pipe gaskets. Avoid using silicone on gaskets. Yes it works but it is devilishly hard to get off in the future and if a glob squishes out inside the engine it can break loose and plug oil passages.
------------
Dave
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rrich1
Posts: 59
Joined: December 29th, 2018, 4:02 am
Model Year: 1931

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by rrich1 »

Crosscut: thanks for the detailed response.

I think I'll leave the water outlet alone. I'll take off the timing cover bolts one by one and paint behind them, putting sealant on the threads for the open threads.

I got the water pump stud out after putting on on blaster on it....

Aaaaand guess who broke the aluminum fan that was already on there [https://www].

Now that I need to order a new fan blade I am tempted to order either a leak less rebuild kit or a new leak less one. I would like to keep my spending down as I've spent a lot recently in the AA. My water pump looks good except for that one corner with a small part broken off. There wasn't any leaks at the gasket.

Thoughts?

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David R.
Posts: 260
Joined: August 17th, 2019, 1:52 pm
Body Type: Chassis
Model Year: 1930
Location: WV

Re: Radiator repair and engine cleaning

Post by David R. »

I rebuilt mine. Shaft and impeller were done. Snyders has a new traditional one in the catalog for $89.95. About $35 more for new leakless. I would go ahead and replace if it were me unless you can weld up broken corner. It would bother me knowing that was broken. Mine had a 4 blade fan, harder to break. I broke a little piece off the casting where the grease fitting goes, but was able to grind it back and re-tap hole. Had trouble with lower left water pump stud, finally had to put a little heat on it.
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