That new/old Jeep smell

[JTS71 Mach1]

Here's Hoping. 

JTS

[Mister 4x4]

Well, life continues to get in the way.

I'd forgotten to mention the 2 weeks of 'Snowpacolypse' we had a few weeks after Dave left with his Jeep.  Our power was out for 5 days, with only 35-45 minutes every 18-22 hours or so.  Good thing our home is well-insulated.  Teens and high singles outside, never got below 58 inside the house.  We put all of our fridge stuff outside in the snow and only lost the fish sticks... bummer.  LOL!  Then, as a result of the deep freeze, several water mains blew up around town, so we followed up no electricity with no water for a week while they worked that out.  After that, we kind of just kept our heads low, not wanting to tempt fate for anything else to go wrong.

Then, in July I got 'new truck-itis,' and picked up a '21 Ram 1500 Longhorn 4x4 w/only 4800 miles.  Newest thing I've ever owned, and that 4800 miles whacked $12K off the sticker.  With that and full trade-in value on my 2012 (which was nice w/only 80K miles), I have a dang-near brand-new totally loaded truck for less than $50K, that won't be north of 16 years old when I retire in Jan 2028.

About 5 weeks later, we went to Oklahoma City and picked up 2 Cocker Spaniels from a rescue in Grove, OK.  It's so nice to have dog breath and wagging nubs in my life again!

A few weeks ago, I finally got around to cleaning up the Jeep's engine bay and ordered a bunch of stuff to get the drive train back in the Jeep.  Hopefully, I'll make a big dent in it between now and 2022, since I'm on use/lose leave and the weather is supposed to be awesome until at least this time next week.  I went through the engine and everything actually looks really good, so I'm just going to clean it up and run-it.  If I have to pull it out at some point, so be it.

Here's the engine bay clean-up. I scrubbed it with some Purple Power, then hit it with the same 3M Rocker Texture and Duplicolor Black engine enamel I used on the inner fenders.  Looks a TON better, I think.









I'll get some more pics up soon as things start to happen (more than me just cleaning gunk off the engine).

[Mister 4x4]

Got most of the gunk off the engine today.  Just need to pull the timing cover tomorrow to finish up and paint the block.  After that, it's ready to go in.



Driver side after scraping and starting to hit it with the die-grinder loaded up with buffing cookies.



Here's the passenger side before getting started. I have new headers, so these exhaust manifolds are going to the metal recycler (along with the ones from the Mustang). Someone decided a mechanical oil pressure gauge would be a good idea... and they're not bad... right up to the point they start leaking and the nylon hose goes brittle and cracks. That explains all the gunk on the transmission and transfer case.



Here we are [almost] all cleaned up. Just gotta get that timing cover (along with the oil pump, distributor, harmonic balancer, and water pump) off tomorrow to finish up and paint.

[Mister 4x4]

Today, I pulled the water pump first thing - eewww... nasty.  Also popped the oil pump cap off and cleaned out what I could behind it.  The aftermarket mechanical oil pressure sending unit is now in the bin as well - gotta find the right fitting to put a proper electric oil pressure sender back on.  Also got the rest of the main body of the block cleaned up with a conical wire brush... that little die grinder really blows through the air in the compressor - seems like it ran non-stop once I started using it.  Also dropped all of the bolts for the oil pan and water pump in a jar of Simple Green to soak.  Hopefully, that'll clean them up.

Tomorrow, install the new water pump and oil pan, tape off a few things, and paint this sucker.


Yeesh! That's the crud that was hiding in the water pump, and not very inspiring. It didn't seem to go any further into the block, so hopefully just running some anti-freeze flush when I get it running will clean out any leftovers.


The die grinder and conical wire wheel made quick work of the icky water pump residue. That shiny spot was about the only bad spot that corroded. Fortunately, it's in a spot with lots of material behind it, so no blow-thru to be expected.


Almost done with the wire brush. Getting close!


Taped off the oil pump, and hit this side with the wire brush one last time. Ready for paint!


One last shot after finishing up with the wire brush. Ready for paint! Keeping my Jeep in gray scale, I'd actually thought of painting it black, but changed my mind to go with Duplicolor Cast Iron, since I'll paint the pulleys and accessories gloss black, and have a bunch of chrome goodies to go with it all.

[JTS71 Mach1]

Man cleanup Sucks! Getting everything clean enough for paint is a giant PITA. It sure looks good when done though. I usually paint my engines with whatever color is left on the shelf from the last project, LOL. I was partial to some shade of Ford Blue, but have used Copper, Black semi and gloss, Red, Orange, just to name a few. Looks good Keep at it. 

JTS

[Mister 4x4]

So, after cleaning the bolts I left soaking overnight in Simple Green, the engine is painted.  Well... Okay... everything except the top end, which all of those components (intake manifold, valve covers, distributor, et al) are getting replaced.  My focus was to get this sucker in the Jeep, and work on the rest later.  Tomorrow, get the engine mounts cleaned up & painted, then stuff it in.


Got the new water pump and oil pan on - it's ready for paint!


Duplicolor Cast Iron, sticking with the gray scale theme of my Jeep.


I'm loving this color! Only one tiny little run, but it'll be on the bottom, and... it's an engine, after all. Like, who really cares if it's perfect, right?!


I thought about pulling the timing cover and painting it Cast Aluminum, but then I saw some other AMC engines painted all one color and decided that would be good enough. I've got lots of new chrome goodies for it, anyway.

[JTS71 Mach1]

I hadn't ever heard of Cast Iron as a color? I'm with you as I think it looks great. I hope it's durable as well. Nice.

JTS

[Mister 4x4]

Thanks!  I was pleasantly surprised with the color, expecting it to be a little darker, actually (according to the cap).  Should fit right into the 'gray scale' theme.

Not much in the way of pics between yesterday and today - mostly just cleaning gunk off the motor mounts and inspection plates and chasing down bolts that seem to have gone walkabout.  Between all the B-Day messages and calls from my awesome friends and family, it was going kinda slow anyway - which is just fine with me!  Finally threw in the towel today and went to the hardware store and AutoZone for some new ones.  Hafta see just how cold it is tomorrow to determine if it all goes in this weekend or not.

[JTS71 Mach1]

Well Happy Birthday, a day late is better then never. LOL! So it's supposed to get cold in the great state of Texas. Hear in NE. Arkansas it was near 70 today, and tomorrows high is only supposed to be 32, with 20 degrees overnight. Just in time to start buses that have sat for 2 weeks. So being the boss, I took it upon myself to go up today while it was still warm and rainy, to start and run them all to charge the batteries, hoping that will help them start easier Monday morning when it's 20 degrees outside.

[Mister 4x4]

Thanks!  Yeah, it's a little too cold to work on stuff today.  In the sun it's not so bad, but my Jeep's under the carport, and it's pretty much a shaded wind tunnel, so the wind chill in there is probably still right about 32 or so.  It should scrape 60 tomorrow, so I'll hit it hard then... hopefully, having the drivetrain in the Jeep by the end of the day.