Forest Service 3A

Upgrades abound, young Nathaniel! Or was that in there before? I don't recall but don't remember that it was. In any case, very nice as usual. I was thinking T98 but the shift tower told me T18 so, I was unsure. The glossy paint obscured the details a bit as well.

I am interested to watch the engine work progress. Please keep us up to date as you proceed. Keep up the great work.

 

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Great job w/ this one!

Looking forward to seeing some more pics!

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Started to put the engine back together today.



Oil pump all apart, cleaned and put back together.



And packed with petroleum jelly



The machine shop ground both ends of the tappets.





The valves, cam and crank are all back in. Also put the pistons back on the connecting rods and the rings put on the pistons.

 

Got a question . what is the reason for the jelly in the oil pump?

 

So it can pick up a prime on startup.

 

Got the engine all all back together today along with my dual carb intake. There will be a write-up on making the intake once I finish the whole set-up on this jeep.



I also started work on the on board air mount. That's why I didn't paint the whole engine. There will be more on this to come as well.

 

Nice! Looking forward to the detailed write-ups.

 

Got the OBA and alternator bracket done today. I turned down a piece of 1/2" pipe in the lathe so it would fit in the original generator mounts. I only did the ends so there was a shoulder left to keep the pipe from sliding out. From there I made a plate that the compressor was mounted to.



I went to the local hardware store and got some turnbuckles for the tensioners. I made some bushings up in the lathe that fit inside the eyelets. I didn't want to use rod ends because I wanted to keep the "government repair" look. This compressor was nice to use because it had two pulleys.

 

After lunch, I got the engine all painted and I made a custom throwout bearing up too.

 

Finally got the dual carbs all done.

 

Yes it is.

 

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Great progress!

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I set the engine in last night and test fit the OBA and alternator. Everything clears perfectly!

 

I did some measuring yesterday and realized the transfer case shifters were going to hit the toolbox, so I made up a bracket that moved them forward to their original location.



I got the transmission in today. That wasn't too bad. Hardest part was getting the shifter in through the hole in the floor!

 

With the T18 being longer, the transfer case shifters we really far back. So this bracket brought them back up to where they would have been with the T90.

 

Im so close to firing it up! Just waiting on a few parts to come in...

 

This past Monday, tragedy struck. I started up Ted, after priming the oil system, and he was running great, after some carburetor tuning. I let him get up to temperature and I followed the break in procedure in the manual. Then I took him for a test ride around the house. There was nothing out of the ordinary for noises other then the ticking of the valves, which is expected. Oil pressure was great as well. Then badness. About 2hrs after initial startup and while driving, the jeep came to a abrupt stop and I mean a DEAD stop. A few choice words were said at this time. The engine would not turn over...

I towed it back to the garage with the other fire jeep (how ironic). My immediate thought was that the head gasket blew and a cylinder was full of coolant. So I pulled the plugs and nothing. Next, I drained the oil. Looked perfect with no metal in it. Next thought was a bent valve, so I pulled the manifolds off and valve cover. Nothing wrong there. Next idea was the oil jet somehow broke off and got stuck in the timing gears. So off goes the oil pan and timing gear cover. All is well there. Out comes the engine next. I started popping bearing caps off and checking the pistons to make sure the pistons didn't get stuck in the bores. Nope, they all move fine. Then off comes the rear main cap.

Voila, the rear bearing had welded itself partially to the crank. I brought the crank and bearing back to the machine shop and they were amazed at what happened. They polished the journal again and it turned out to be ok. They also ordered a new set of main bearings. I guess it could have been much worse, but it still sucked having to pull the engine out.