Quick update time. I followed the plan that I outlined in my last post. I attempted to fill the spin on oil filter prior to installing it on the mount. I'm using the Valvoline VR1 20W50 as my oil, based on reading some posts in another thread. I had set the bottle in the sun while I was doing some other things, so it was warmed up when I got around to the truck. It poured easily out of the wide mouth jug, but barely flowed through the 1/16" restrictor hole on the filter! In fact, I made quite a mess when the oil surged out of the jug and splashed onto the filter. So, I just sat there staring at the oil not going into the filter. After about 5 minutes, the oil that sat on top of the filter finally seeped in, but I had reached the end of my patience. So I spun the filter into place after wiping it down, disconnected the coil wire and set about cranking the engine to try and fill the filter. It took a while, but the pressure gauge started registering pressure. Then it went up, then it leveled off. Time to fire the engine. Well, not so fast, partner! I have not mentally adapted to the Carter carburetor that uses the manual choke. The original Rochester carburetor was an automatic choke version, which only required pumping the gas pedal once to set it. After cranking the engine to fill and pressurize the oil system and then forgetting to set the choke, the engine would not start and I ended up flooding it. Bigly! By this point, I was out of time to work, so it had to sit. The other thing that I found out during this session was that the electric fuel pump was barely working, if at all. Normally, I can hear it. This time it was just a faint sound. Today, I went back out and gave it another try. The electric fuel pump does not want to run and fill the carb bowl from the momentary switch. I can kinda hear it, but it is very weak. So, I set the choke and cranked anyway. It took a second, but the engine roared to life. I say it that way because at the very moment that it fired, my neighbor was walking by and the sound of the split exhaust and dual muffler made her jump! Anyway, I let it warm up slightly, adjusting the choke as required and then pulled the truck out into the driveway. My goal was to turn the truck around and let it run up to operating temps to check for leaks and operation of the parts that I had recently installed. Turning the truck around went well and I pulled it into the garage facing inwards with the exhaust pointed out. I let it run. It took quite a while to reach 180 degrees, but eventually did and I checked the upper radiator hose and found it was hot. So the thermostat was working. The electric fan is on a 195 degree switch. It took a really long time to get to that temp. So the mechanical fan was doing some work, even though it only covers the bottom half of the radiator. Having a brand new radiator was also helping, I'm sure. While the truck was running, I worked the headlights. They were nice and bright! Then I noticed a leak inside the cab! I went around to the passenger side and there is a puddle of coolant on the garage floor! Time to shut things down, which I did! Long story short, I did a poor job of installing the hose clamp on the heater hose. It was on the wrong side of the bulge that holds hoses in place, so coolant was seeping out around the hose, dripping down the firewall, hitting the cutoff switch and flowing into the cab and down to the floor! Holy crap! As if that wasn't enough, one of the fittings on the oil filter also had a leak. Not nearly as bad as the heater hose, but one that I'll need to address before running the engine again. On the positive side, the oil pressure was at 30 lbs and steady throughout the run time. I also noted that as the engine came up to temp, the amount of exhaust smoke was reducing. I'm excited to get these issues fixed and get it on the road in the neighborhood to see if that is repeated when I'm driving it. So there you have the good, the bad and the ugly! Next up, leak repairs...and possibly a new fuel pump! I might wait on the pump and see if it breaks free while I'm driving around. I dunno!
