Sept 1st - Sept 2nd - Sept 3rd - Sept 7~9th - Sept 10th - Sept 11th - Sept 12th - Sept 19th - Sept 21st - Sept 23rd - Sept 24th - Sept 25th - Sept 26th - Sept 27th - Sept 28th 
 

September 1st - Engine Accessories Clean Up

After the Ryhope show on the 24th of August, we were away from home for a few days. While away, I got a phone call to say the cylinder head machining was done, so on September the 1st, I went to collect it. After I got back, I started to clean up the various parts of the engine that had been removed.

The fan was first, as it had various patches of surface rust. Nothing major, but I decided to strip to to bare metal. The water pump pulley and various brackets were next, some of which were stripped while some were just wet sanded.

The last parts for the day were the water pump and thermostat housing, which were both stripped to metal. Next will be the radiator and fan shroud.

 
September 2nd - Engine Accessories Clean Up

All of the 2nd was spent degreasing and sanding the fan shroud and radiator. The shroud is done but there's still a few small difficult areas on the radiator that needs some attention before painting. I think that's all the accessories inside the workshop ready for priming, but there may still be a few small parts in the garage.

 
September 3rd - Accessory Painting

All of the small parts were given a coat of red oxide primer today. I haven't done any more to the radiator and the cylinder head could do with the upper surface cleaning and painting.

September 7th~9th - Accessory Painting

Across the 7th to 9th of September, I got two coats of olive drab on both sides of all the parts, plus all the hardware.

On the 8th, the cylinder head was stripped to bare metal, before priming and the first coat of olive drab applied. The next day, I got the second coat of olive drab applied.

The radiator was also given a first coat of smooth black Hammerite on the top tank and late in the day, it was turned over to paint the bottom tank. This was just an undercoat before the final sprayed satin black.

 
September 10th - Pump Repairs & Gasket Making

The water pump rotor had some severe pitting on one blade, shown in the inset image after I'd already started to weld it up. It took several applications of weld and grinding to fill the holes and get it smooth again. After that, a search in the household recycling bag got me some pizza box cardboard, to make some templates for the various gaskets I needed. I'd bought some large sheets of gasket paper and thicker, steel reinforced gasket material, to make my own gaskets, having not found any listed on line. I'm often needing gaskets during my vehicle maintenance, so it's never going to come in wrong. There were five to make, two paper ones for the water pump, two thicker ones for the thermostat housing and bypass elbow and a thick one for in the top of the radiator cap.

 
September 11th - Engine Bay Clean Up

On the 11th, I was back out in the garage, starting with the water transfer tube. With a small hammer, I peened out the end of the tube, to make it a tight fit into the block and unable to fall inside the engine as shown in the inset image. I may yet coat the outside of the peened part of the tube with some JB Weld epoxy, to fully seal the hole in the block and guarantee it can't move. When that was done, I cleaned up the water pump mating face and removed all the oil and grease from the mount just below it. The water pump studs also had their threads cleaned up with a die.

The top of the engine block was cleaned next, along with a little corrosion on the smooth parts of the studs. Those threads were also cleaned with a die, but weren't actually too bad, as I was able to screw the die onto the threads with just my fingers. The engine mount just below the water pump was stripped and primed and the frame around the outside of the radiator was cleaned, sanded and primed. The last job of the day was to spray a satin black on the radiator tanks and front face.
 

September 12th - Engine Bay & Accessories Painting

The engine and radiator mount were given a coat of olive drab first thing this morning, as I needed to head out mid morning. When I got back, I decided the air filter and horn might as well be repainted while everything else was in bits.

It took some time to degrease the horn and particularly the oil bath air filter. Once the oil, grease and road dirt were cleaned off, the horn was wet sanded, while the air filter was stripped to bare metal with a rotary wire brush.

Once dry, both parts of the air filter were primed and I also cleaned up and primed the metalwork on the Norwegian radiator blind bracket.

September 14th/19th - Painting & Re-assembly

On the 14th, the horn and air filter got their final black satin coats of paint. The transfer tube was also painted in black Hammerite ( inset on block image ).

I started the 19th by installing the transfer tube with a seal of JB Weld epoxy. Next, I applied Wellseal to the back of the waterpump and its gasket. After that cured a while, the gasket and backplate were coated in Welseal, then the backplate fitted. The backplate and second gasket were coated in Wellseal and that gasket fitted and finally the gasket and engine block were coated and the pump fitted.

A few other bits of radiator and fender hardware were also cleaned and primed.

On the 21st, I began carrying parts back out to the garage. The radiator was first, lifted into the cowl and bolted into the large 'U' channel that supports it. I needed to remove a little paint from the stub on the water pump where the pulley fits, as initially it was too tight for the pulley or the fan.

With the radiator in, the two rubber hoses and the curved water pipe were attached, to the pump and bottom radiator outlet. It was easier to get in without the fan. The water pump pulley, belt and fan were next to be fitted and bolted up. With those on, the generator was bolted up to tension the belt.

The longest job was then to get all the bolts back in on the radiator cowl and fenders. These bolt through the fenders and fender brackets, through the cowl and into the 'U' channel. All the right side fender bolts had also been removed, so everything needed aligning and the bolts fitting by a few threads until all the bolts had their threads started. Once all the bolts were in and the two top radiator support bars connected, they were all tightened up.
 

Today, the cylinder head was refitted and bolted down, along with a number of brackets under the head bolts that support the oil filter, horn, coil and oil fill tube. With the head fitted, the thermostat housing was fitted. I've left the thermostat out for now, as it's one less point of potential overheating causes. I did test it back in June and it was opening and closing okay, but it's just easier to leave it off and rule that out as an issue.
 

I opened 'the box' and Schrodinger's engine is alive!

The first run happened on the 24th. It sounded a bit odd at start up, due to being in the garage and also not having the oil bath air filter fitted on the carb. That needs to be left off until the engine cools and I can re-torque the cylinder head nuts again. I gave it 30 minutes running at various rpm, starting in the garage, before rolling outside to dissipate the exhaust fumes. No bubbles on the radiator and to the touch, a noticeable difference in the temperatures of the radiator inlet and outlet pipes. The engine wasn't under any load, but the temperature stayed a steady 140F. I drove it up and down the drive, to put a small load on the engine and also to turn the tyres, as it's been sitting on the same spot since June.

After putting it back in the garage again, I went for lunch. I had a minor heart attack after lunch, when I went back to the garage to find water all over the floor! After a moment to recover, I found the rubber hose to the water pump had come loose. It was under a little tension from the curved feed pipe and having used some Wellseal gasket seal on the pipe, the heat had softened it, allowing the tension to ease the pipe loose enough to weep a steady stream out of the pump. The wellseal was cleaned off, the pipe refitted and the engine run again briefly with no leaks an hour later.

Not connected to the engine work, I also tried a repair on the clutch pedal rubber pad. This fell off in June, due to a large split. I found some flexible rubber glue in the workshop, and squeezed it into the splits, wrapping some electrician's tape around the outside to hold it all together. I also found some plastic mesh, which was chopped up and glued over the split on the inside and back of the pad. I don't know whether the rubber pad is wartime or a Norwegian addition.
 

This blind is pulled up over the radiator via a small chain and steel wire inside the driver's compartment. This wire goes over the top of the radiator and curves down to the blind. The fuel pipe allows the wire to pull over the radiator without cutting into it. With the radiator already fitted, could I still fit the pipe?

Fortunately I was able to prise the radiator cowl up enough to get the pipe in. After that, the cylinder head was torqued up again and the engine given another 15 minute run. The clutch pedal pad was also refitted.

During testing on the drive, both the inlet and outlet pipes of the radiator were hot to touch, the outlet being noticeably cooler and I was able to hold it, unlike the hot inlet. So the radiator was cooling the coolant and it was circulating, but not cooling well enough under load. From the start, I had my doubts about the radiator being the sole issue, as back in May, the Dodge was perfectly happy for 28 of the 30 mile trip to Blyth Battery. The temperature only started to rise in those last two miles.
 

So following the test drive, I suspected that the core of the radiator might be furred up through all the cooling tubes, restricting their effectiveness at cooling, while not actually preventing a good flow. My next step was to give the radiator a flush treatment, which was always the plan once I got the engine running again anyway. I was out on Friday evening and passing a Halfords, so picked up some Wynn's Radiator Flush. 

If a flush doesn't help, my next action after that would be getting a new core fitted to the radiator. There's nothing I could see wrong with or in the engine to cause overheating. It runs fine on the drive, but gets too hot under load once driving.
 

This time it was a thirteen mile route including fast and slow roads, plus several hills. Once warm, the temperature hovered just under or just over 160°F, the same temperature that the thermostat opens at. After getting home from the trip, the temperature was still stable, so I do believe I've finally got the Dodge sorted and back on the road. I'm still going to be watching everything closely over the next several trips out, but I think I can relax a bit finally.