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11/15/20: Over the past week, I’ve continued reassembly of my engine to the point that it is now installed. To accomplish this, I fabricated L brackets to attach on head bolts 10 and 12 to lift the engine, attached the HF 2 ton leveling device and built the engine stand featured in the “Tech Tips” minus the wheels. I needed to be able to set the engine on down so I could disconnect it from the engine stand in order to install the bell housing, flywheel and clutch.

Installation was somewhat time consuming as I had to re-rig the engine three times. The HF leveling device I bought in retrospect, was not needed and only got in the way. I originally placed the hand crank forward only to find that once the engine lift was raised it interfered with the crank. I lifted the engine from the engine bay, set it back down in the engine stand and reversed the lifting device. Lifted the engine and tried to install and the crank hit the firewall and would not allow me to get the engine back far enough to seat on its mounts. When I removed the engine for the third time, I noticed that I didn’t have to change the level of the engine at all to remove it so it should be the same for installing it. I reset the load leveler with the handle forward and this time it installed easily and I never needed to move the leveler. Hindsight is 20-20.

I also installed the tranny and subsequently ended up removing it as the torque tube ball seal cork gasket was non existent and the was never adjusted properly. I couldn’t see a way of removing the torque tube ball seal assembly required to properly adjust the ball seal, without removing either the transmission or the rear tranny cross member or the tranny. The crossmember didn’t look like it has been removed in a long time if ever so removing the tranny appeared to be the easier option. When I first got the truck on the road, The tranny was near empty and now I know why. The only problem is I can’t locate these seals/gaskets locally so I ended up having to order the kit online. I have close to a weeks worth of work before I can start her up, so its not really an issue at all.

Here are some of the fixes/improvements that I made along the way:
1. Replaced the front motor mount that had a few extra pieces including the sidewall of a tire with new.
2. Replaced the rear motor mounts with new.
3. Replaced the intake and the exhaust manifold with one I purchased from a fellow “Bolter”. On the old manifold, the heat riser was missing rhe holes where the shaft came thru were welded up. Living in the north east, I considered it necessary to have a working heat riser.
4. I also drilled out and tapped the vacuum port on the intake from 1/8” NPT to 1/4” NPT. I am adding a PCV valve in the near future and wasn’t sure 1/8” was going to pull enough vacuum for both the vacuum wipers and the PCV. By drilling and tapping while the manifold was off, I was able to clean out all of the metal debris.
5. I replaced the throttle linkage to one that was original to a ‘52 (provided from a fellow “Bolter”) including a new return spring and the lower spring clip. The linkage that was previously installed was from a ‘59 car and utilized the rear pivot mount on the block. This setup was hokey as the bell crank was slightly over center at idle which concerned me that it might get stuck and the return spring was mounted weird. The ‘52 uses the front mount behind the exhaust manifold. I also welded and turned the worn bell crank pivot to tighten up the bell crank.
6. I added a block coolant drain valve which was previously plugged with a pipe plug.
7. I added a period correct original oil bath air filter replacing one that was rusty, too small and didn’t fit the truck.
8. I replaced the bell housing (also provided by a fellow “Bolter”), which was cracked above the drivers side rear motor mount and installed a new clutch lever pivot.
9. I replaced the oil filter inlet/outlet hose with period correct lines. The previous hoses were just gas line with hose clamps.
10. I added a tee to the oil supply to the oil pressure gauge and oil filter so I could attach an oil pressure gauge directly on the engine.
11. The flywheel ring gear was a bit torn up on the leading edge, so following some advice I found on this forum, I heated it up, removed it, flipped and reinstalled it, then broke the leading edge with a Dremel.