fbekholden.com

Looking good Drew.

Sorry, mucking around with subi zorsts and XU1 centre caps.

I’ve got another lense you can have Drew.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

Hey Drew, I have a couple here in a box too, glass ok, but reflectors are in poor nick.

I dont/ wont use them and prefer 7inch sealed beams that fit straight in and are similar wattage/amps, but significantly better light. Others go halogen with more modern reflectors. LED is a good option for existing wiring and the updated H4 bulb type reflectors.

If you are powering up the car then those old bulb beams will be shining somewhere behind your rear bumper when you put the pedal to the metal

Brett027 wrote: Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:35 pm Hey Drew, I have a couple here in a box too, glass ok, but reflectors are in poor nick.

I dont/ wont use them and prefer 7inch sealed beams that fit straight in and are similar wattage/amps, but significantly better light. Others go halogen with more modern reflectors. LED is a good option for existing wiring and the updated H4 bulb type reflectors.

If you are powering up the car then those old bulb beams will be shining somewhere behind your rear bumper when you put the pedal to the metal

Brett do the sealed beam units hook straight into the existing wiring?
Do they have a good life span?

Drew, Rares sell a conversion socket that splices straight in to your wiring in the headlight bucket.
As for lifespan, they are still around in cars as original fit. You can buy 7 inch 70/60 or 50/60w hi/lo for $30. Both of those will fit straight in to bucket and you can use existing switch and wiring. 70w by 2 lights is 12amps so just within the limit of the circuit breaker in the original switch.

For a daily driver I would use a Narva semi-sealed beam conversion kit ( about $230). These come with halogen bulbs which will require fitting a relay or can be fitted with LED bulbs which is current best practice. A fused dual relay costs about $35 and is an easy install on the junction tab on the battery side. You can then run your drivers side hi/low wires across the radiator support for the other headlight.

I use 70/60s on my sedan and they work well with no mods other than the 3 pin socket.

Thanks Brett, your info has exactly answered my un asked questions mate.

I think I’ll roll with the low cost option to get the car on the road and look at an upgrade down the track.

Spent the morning at my mates machine shop doing a touch of decking. The mill I own was didn’t have enough travel to get the job done at home.

Actually surprised the HSD head wasn’t decked on the manifold face and it needed it done so I hd to go and do it myself.

I hate work like this on a finished unit but I had no choice.

Also decked the manifold too.

So finally I am starting the engine build, I will post heaps so you guys can point out things to me if it looks like I need some education

First job is to align the manifold and extractors to the ports in the head.

Manifold seems easy as the rings will keep the alignment whilst I drill the roll pins in.

I’m a guessing I will need to fit the extractor gasket and drill through that as well?

Drew,

I'm going to jump the gun.

Clean the mating faces of head and block, sit the head on the block, and try to insert your thinnest feeler gauge between the two in as many places as you care. If there's no place where you can, then - with a Texta, draw a cross-hatch pattern on the block deck and on the head face. Sit the head on the block, and move the head in little circles, or back and forth and side to side. Then examine both faces to see where they make contact with each other. It's best to do this now, rather than wonder why the head gasket weeps after the engine's assembled.

If I seem unduly pessimistic, it's Sod's First Law of Automotive Metallurgy speaking: Surfaces which have been machined flat aren't.

There'll be another post on fitting the front engine mount plate, and yet another about the rear main bearing cap and rear main bearing oil seal.

Rob

I always appreciate good tips Rob!

Both the block and head have been decked… is this not good enough?

My first obvious issue is the manifold clamps.

Cleary they are not clamping evenly.

In the past I would weld the clamps on the ends to raise them up but then they would bend in the middle when tightening.

What’s a good work around on this?

For the manifold clamps, I normally grind one side down so that they sit square.


Cheers,
Harv

My approach is to reduce the width of the inner extractor flanges to the same dimension as a standard exhaust manifold. Or, you could use the "hand milling machine" to "en-thinnen" the back face of the flange to accommodate the taper in the clamp. The welds may need relieving also. Is there any way you could set the extractors up in that mill of yours and make the faces co-planar while you're at it?

. . . and usually the clamps have been bent by over-tightening. They may need straightening.

And about machined faces: yes, they've both been decked, and it would be fantastic if they mated; but more than once I've had a machined head rock on a decked block. To the point where I match the faces by hand. Hours and hours of work.

Rob