OT: Starting a new project... MB 190SL

Cam before:

Cam after cleanup:

Cam looks good! HOW did you clean off that rust and all?

Glass bead blaster

400, 600 and 1000 grit wet sanding paper Ospho acid treatment on the shaft, but not on the lobes or bearing surfaces.

Oh this thing uses no bearings.

Jan

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:

I LIKE! ;-)

Keep us updated!

BTW do you ever need any old Porsche (pre-70) parts?

We do all kinds of porsches daily, mostly aircooled and from 50's to mid

80's, and some later model stuff thrown in everynow and then, boxsters, cayennes, whatever. The shop has stayed away from watercooled modern stuff until I joined, now we are expanding. It's an old skool shop like that :D Needed a young punk like me (37) who understands modern technology as well as old mechanical schtuff.

Oh just pulled the brake master cylinder. Would you believe, brake line, bleeder and mounting bolts all came loose as if it was a new car. No PB Blaster, no cussing, no stripped or snapped fasteners, no bruised knuckles. I did have to pop the piston out with air, but that was to be expected at least. Some minor rust or caked on crud in the cylinder, cleaned right out when I honed it.

jan

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:

NOW I want to hear the engine run after you put it back together!

You are fortunate that the car resides down there. Up here there would be little left of it IF it was left outside for that many years. My buddy has about four 356s that need restoration. The convertible D is almost finished but has not been touched in maybe 20 years. I guess he is in no rush! lol

Just have fun with your extra projects! dave

Heard back from Delta cams. Cam resurfacing (weld and grind back to stock spec) $85 plus shipping both ways.

Did some initial cleaning on the head...

Before:

After:

It also has a funky inline brake booster, some american cars used a similar setup... uses vacuum from the intake manifold but has no mechanical connection to the master cylinder, just brake fluid lines between single circuit master and distribution block:

I had hear that Nissan had copied the MB strait 6 for the 240Z, now I can really see the similarities.

Does that cam resurfacing place also do cam followers?

T> Heard back from Delta cams. Cam resurfacing (weld and grind back to

That straight six in the early Datsun Z cars is an excellent engine. I too had heard that it was copied from MB. I had a '76 Datsun 280Z for a while. It had a tragic ending. I wasn't there at the time, but Scott can fill you in on those details. He had a somewhat difficult drive to work one day!:~(

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:12:28 -0800, Tony W scribbled this interesting note:

-- John Willis snipped-for-privacy@airmail.net (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

Don't know. This cam presses directly on the rocker. I suppose they could do those too? I just don't need it.

Jan

T> I had hear that Nissan had copied the MB strait 6 for the 240Z, now I

With the rust that was on them I'd think the surface hardening would be compromised.

T> Don't know. This cam presses directly on the rocker. I suppose they

The friction surfaces on the rockers were clean and shiny for some reason.

The oil in the engine was Kendall, last oil change was done about

1000miles ago... that's 25+ years ago that is :D It was just the cam lobes that were immediately under the oil fill cap that had rust buildup on them, bad enough to leave a pitted surface after cleaning the rust off. Everything else cleaned up nicely. Didn't need to do much.

If the guy had turned the engine over once a year, he would could have saved a bunch on the project...

Tony

Wonder what that comes out to in RPMS..... LOL.. mAth heads go at it :)

I agree. I have a friend start up and warm up my beetle engine at least once a year for me still, back in Finland. The engine has maybe 500-1000 miles on it. I can't help but wonder how the valve springs have survived, some having been compressed for 25+ years. I'll look for new parts and try to make him understand why it would be a good idea to replace the valves and springs. I don't know the history of the head. If those are the original valves from 1961, I think it may be time to replace them. I'd hate to see him lose the engine due to a failed spring or snapped valve.

Nothing much to report... been a little slow, mostly cleaning and glass beading, painting individual parts. Waiting for a portable blaster to arrive... Ordered one from Harbor Freight for $28 or so :D Just got home from the shop where I blasted a tote bin full of parts tonight. More painting to follow tomorrow.

I'll put some pictures up later.

The next step is to order some brake parts so I can redo the brakes completely. Metal work will soon need to be started too. Means I will need to get a welder soon.. I am not sure if I need to take the engine out, I may need to get it and the trans out of the way to be able to do a proper job with the floor pans and all the rust underneath and in the engine bay. So I won't be putting the engine back together yet, the external parts would just take up too much room.

I will also try to find a place where I could have the whole car sandblasted, at least the underside.

check out a few of the rusty 356s my buddy is now selling

these are real projects! lol Did you read any of the reviews on the yahoo harbor freight tool newsgroup? I like the 115V Lincoln MIG welder since it is even easy for me to weld with and the spool of wire seems almost endless!

I have my eyes set on Millermatic 211. It can use either 115V or 230V.

200A peak and I think 150A easy. Not quite like my old 400A Esab, but it should get the job done. I'd also get a spool gun for aluminum :) All for just under $1200. Now to find someone to pay it for me ;)

Oh still need to get a bottle. No not that kind, I mean the shield gas for welding. Oh what the heck, the other kind too!

Haven't tried vinegar. I've done quite a bit of electrolysis rust removal though. But I really like a glass beader. The blaster thing I'm getting is small enough for me to switch out the media real quick, depending on what I want to do. Got sand and glass media waiting for it.

Back in Finland there was a sand blasting truck service that came to your house with a big truck and blasted anything you wanted. I didn't use them, since there was an industrial shop on my street that did sand blasting with some HEAVY duty equipment. Like a fire hose, trailer compressor, and a tall 2-story silo for sand...

I like POR15.

I'll probably be ordering some lead from Eastwood, I'll take a look at what else they have.

Jan

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote:

Cool and keep us photogenically connected to your project!!! ;-)

I liked it when Topline used to glassbead the aircooled VW engine parts but they stopped using it since they had trouble cleaning all of the glass bead media out of the parts. Heck they stopped remanufacturing the aircooled stuff and sold their machinery to Mofoco. 8^o

Glass beading would really polish up the parts and make them shine like new. ;-)

NOW it seems to be paint that most places use. :-(

Have fun! One out of many daves

Talked to a local company here that does car sandblasting. They require that the car be delivered stripped down to a bare shell, and it would then be mounted on a rotisserie. First quote for blasting EVERYTHING, underneath, trunk, inside, body panels etc... $2500.

Then I asked if they'd do just the underside, fender wells and maybe outer body panels from knee height down. $1300. Still needs to arrive completely stripped.

I don't think the car needs to be stripped to the last nut and bolt, it would take so much time that I'd have to charge a lot more for labor, and it just won't fit in the budget. And this is not a show car restoration.

The owner was just at my house, saw the progress and ordered some parts online. He was very happy to see what I had done so far, and to be able to start getting parts.

Now getting quotes and cost estimates for different ways to get it blasted.

Jan

dave AKA vwdoc1 wrote: