Sorry for the slow response, Family situation.
To further clarify, I'm 68, been working on and with this truck for a long time. It's a '46 Chevy 1/2T, it's run fine for years and I just finished all the running gear. Chassis, brakes, transmission, shocks,springs..... It's has run fine, [b]NO LEAKS[/b].
Details: '46 1/2T Chevy, '61 235CID, later model? (mid 60s) 2T stake truck 4spd top-loader, 'Pumkin' from a '61 1/2T with better gears.
Why I did it...
I've been collecting parts since buying it in the early 70s. Including lots of NOS parts & custom,speed equipment.
Kids, no further explaination needed.
I now have all the time I need to 'get it right'. It had what appeared to be a broken stud for the exhaust manifold next to the firewall. After teardown it became apparant that it was a missing stud and filled with grease and dirt. Not possible to fix a broken stud in that location.
I wanted to get the balance of my 'goodies' installed, Fenten Headers, Clifford 4bbl intake, 390cfm Holley, better Alt brackets, Solid state Distrutor, and Air?
This wasn't my first rodeo, but I obviously made some mistakes. The teardown was uneventful except for my discovery about the stud. I was planning on doing a valve job, but inspection proved unnecessary. Cleaning all parts meticously, I'm a little compulsive about that. Painted the head and block with POR15 and took particular pains with the head/block matting surfaces. Finished them with a razor scraper.
Assembly, fresh oil, cleaned all holes, matched head gasket to both the head and block. This seemed odd, gasket holes for pistons, bolts, pushrods, all seemed correct. Gasket water jacket holes seemed much larger and odd shaped. The actual head/block holes were ~1/4", gasket holes 3/4". Everything torqued to specs. Completed the assembly and reinstalled the dist., had marked before removing, but took a few attempts to zero in a close adjustment. Running time during this was without coolant and probably about 2-4 minutes each time. doubt if it was an hour max.
Disaster--- pulled from garage to fill cooling system and checked all hoses, plugs, correct and tight. started filling and noticed water gurgling hard, thought I had missed a plug or? Checked below engine, no water, but with my oversize aluminum radiator I thought it was the water falling from the fill neck to the bottom of the radiator. I eventually saw that the level had reached the top, but something was wrong.
At this point, after crying a bit, I checked the dipstick and saw it was way over, and I had filled the oil pan with water. Pushed the truck back into the garage and reflected on my troubles.
Drained it all the next day after doing some research, no results. The engine hasn't been moved.
Besides the head gasket I had installed the brackets and spacers for putting an alt up high and compressor down low. And the water pump pulley was very diffiocult to remove, corrosion. I removed the upper spacer/bracket between the head and thermostat housing. All seemd fine. Never had any problems with first cut on valve setting, not an issue. Guess I'll pull the head and check the water hole alaignment. I can't imagine the water going into the block that quickly.
