'77 J-10 360 Rescue-Budget build

[Auburnmark]

When I purchased this beast it had been sitting in the PO's driveway since 1993. He had removed the cam and a bunch of other stuff and lost interest I guess. Myself having much more time than $ these days my initial plan is to put the engine back together with new and used parts and see exactly whats what and go from there. I actually started this a couple of months ago and have received some good tips for you folks already so my initial posts will be just getting caught up to date.


As it was when purchased....

/77%20Jeep%20j-10/DSCN1132_zpsvkgmyihk.jpg[/IMG]

After getting it home and stuffing her into my tiny shop I removed the hood, grill, headlights and up on jack stands to remove wheels and tires.


Removed and cleaned oil pan and pick up tube.. wow! pretty mucky.

[Auburnmark]

New stock cam, lifters, push rods, timing chain & gears..

[Auburnmark]

Cleaned things up best I could.. block, timing cover, etc.... new oil pump kit with Bulltear bypass plug, new water pump, timing cover re-installed.

[Full Size Jeeper]

Just a heads up. I think I have read on this site that if you put a new cam you have to put a new distributor gear also. Do not use the old one. Also use engine break in oil when first starting.

[Full Size Jeeper]

Here is a link about break in oil.

https://youtu.be/YzFWnnxno80

[Auburnmark]

Thanks for the oil tip FS Jeeper..

This thing only had 63K miles on it so.. since I will be starting out with the original crappy prestolite distributor I decided to use to original distributor drive gear for now. They showed very light wear so hoping for the best. When I do upgrade I plan to transfer the distributor gear to the new distributor.

[Auburnmark]

New gasket set then reinstall intake.. I know... the blue paint is the proverbial lipstick on a pig! lol


Onward with the rest of the top end... hoses and wires and hoses and wires and...

[Ristow]

I'll always take good oem gears over new ones. Mad are what you want if you need new.

[Auburnmark]

Good.. Thanks Ristow. Me thinks they be OK until I'm able to go thru the engine properly.
Installed radiator, fan, new plugs, battery. Didn't want to chance what surprises might be in the gas tank (thanks for the advise everyone) so ran a fuel line to a two gallon gas can and.. she fires!
Idles crappy, carb leaks, radiator leaks, smokes like a train, pissed off the neighbors cause there's nuttin left of the muffler but a pile of rust chips on the floor but hey... all in all a good day!

[Auburnmark]

Out of the cave to hose off the 20 year old dirt and grime, then dropped out the gas tank.



No this is not oil.. its what came out of the gas tank! Off to the radiator shop for a good hot tank cleaning.

[Mikel]

Just a word of caution - I notice that your cam sprocket has six slots for oiling the chain. I had a similar timing set and I ended up wiping the cam gear because no oil was getting to it. I had all the oil passages lined up correctly.

http://theamcforum.com/forum/too-much-oil-pressure_topic70715_page2.html

If I were you, I would pull the distributor, move the oil pump with a drill and verify that you do have oil coming out of the gear.

Very cool truck. Good luck.

[Auburnmark]

Just a word of caution - I notice that your cam sprocket has six slots for oiling the chain. I had a similar timing set and I ended up wiping the cam gear because no oil was getting to it. I had all the oil passages lined up correctly.

http://theamcforum.com/forum/too-much-oil-pressure_topic70715_page2.html

If I were you, I would pull the distributor, move the oil pump with a drill and verify that you do have oil coming out of the gear.

Very cool truck. Good luck.

Thanks for the heads up Mike.
I had read some stuff on this site about that issue but got the feeling it had been resolved in the manufacturing of the timing gear sets. Reading your link above it looks like I have exactly the same gear you had so now I wonder. When I got the truck the cam and timing gear were missing so I did not have the benefit of comparing the two. I did verify that all oil passages lined up as you did with yours but... ??
I will double check it before I run the engine to much. Thanks again.

[Mikel]

Hello,
I strongly suggest you verify that you have oil flow through the gear before you start that engine. The factory gears you have now are the best you are going to find and are very expensive to replace. It does not take long to pull the distributor and drive the oil pump with a drill while looking at the gear with a flashlight.
Good luck.

[Mikel]

This is what you want to see.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=42ZFJrA19IQ

[Auburnmark]

Hello,
I strongly suggest you verify that you have oil flow through the gear before you start that engine.

Well.. I'm afraid that ship sailed several days ago. I have started the motor and brought it up to temp a couple of times already. I will pull the dizzy and check the wear to see what I can see before I start it again. I dont have a very good tool to turn the pump with and I don't have a welder to make one but I will see what I can come up with. Thanks again.