Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

I'm also surprised by the amount of rust about the hood hinges. Other trucks don't have this much rust in these spots.

I'd love to see your truck Jim, if you're willing to show it on the forum, especially since you owned it for so long.


As for my truck, this is how Goliath looks now. The front end is completely tore down.

Decided to leave the engine in place for now. Sorry for the rag on the engine, its purpose it to keep peoples dirty hands from "inspecting the engine" :teehee:

I am hoping to remove the large crossmember tomorrow. I'll support the engine using a jack stand under the timing cover, just like the motor mount in the big trucks.
The crossmember can then be sandblasted.



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Got the inner fenders, radiator support, battery box, bumper, grille all straightened out, dents removed, rust repaired, ready for sandblasting.
Big parts in the photo will be farmed out, the small items I can do myself.



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Disassembled the front suspension, am taking everything apart for sandblasting. New balljoints will be installed.



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Here is a shot of the straightened out bumper. It was pretty crooked on the driverside. Along with the big dents in the front fender I am assuming they drove into something substantial. They crudely welded the bumper back together. Took me quite some time to reweld it and straighten it under the press. I made some support blocks from wood to aid in straightening.

New hardware will be used throughout the rebuild. Getting the proper Grade 8 bolts here is very difficult (I can get Grade 5 easily) so I am compiling a big list of items to purchase while I'm in the US. :upyes:

Hope to start on the epoxy primer and paintwork next week.

This time we're doing it proper. Having a good time here :rowdybeer:

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

A lot has happened since the last post. Got the whole front suspension torn down to rebuild. Sandblasted all the parts in the blasting cabinet.
I made an extension for the cabinet to be able to blast the front crossmember. I could not reach every spot, but at least I could do the cast pieces and sides.



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Here are all the parts from the front suspension sandblasted and prepped for paint. I could not remove all the pitted rust with blasting, so I lightly coated the bare steel parts with the rust treatment that I have good success with. This is applied in a light coat with a brush, left to dry ~15 minutes and the excess wiped off.



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Here are the first parts in primer. I assembled the spindles and wheel hubs before painting. I assembled everything with ceramic grease on the fasteners. I used a 2K epoxy primer. This will be followed up by a 2K topcoat, gloss black like the original.
The spindle/backing plate on the right only has a light coat on the picture.



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Here I am assembling the control arms. I marked everything before disassembly to clean up the control arms. All the threads and rubber seals looked very good. I am replacing the grease fittings, using the old ones for painting.



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While assembling I ran across an anomaly. The book lists this dimension of 3.50" as a reference measurement. I centered mine as best as I could and came out to 3.60". If I put it at 3.50" the control arm was pretty off centered in the control arm. Not sure what is going on here, any of you might have a clue?



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Because I had the steering box, idler arm mount and front crossmember off, it was a good time to repaint the outside of the chassis rails.
I am reusing some of the old hardware but have bought new nuts and have new bolts for the steering box/idler arm mount. Grade 8 bolts are a PITA to come by here and they are expensive (~5 USD per bolt...)
I only but what I need, they come in a phosphate finish only so they will be painted anyway for rust protection.

Before I leave for the US I hope to put together the front suspension for primer/paint the body panels. The truck will be moved into storage for the time being.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Update time!

Last time I left off that most parts were sand blasted, some in primer.
I continued spraying 2K epoxy primer on all the suspension parts.



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Here are the parts in the gloss black topcoat. This is a industrial quality 2K polyurethane paint (Sigmadur 550)

Both primer and topcoat laid down very well, even considering I was painting at low temperatures. I did preheat the parts to offset the cold and to prevent moisture from forming.



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Time to start assembling. The new phone that I have doesn't have the same picture quality that the old phone had, which is a shame.
Using part existing and part new hardware. I am using ceramic grease on all fasteners.



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Using new upper balljoints and lower balljoints. Here I am pressing in the new Moog 7053KT balljoints.

Continued in the next post.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

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Here I am reinstalling the front springs after both upper and lower control arms were reinstalled. You have to pay attention that the spring is properly seated in the spring pockets. It took 2 jacks to get the travel required to compress the spring fully.

I noticed some yellow paint marks in the front crossmember which convinced me I have the Heavy Duty spring package (I have the 10 leaf leafsprings in the back too, I took 2 leafs out of them previously)

The front springs are so heavy that I could not fully compress them to start the nut on the upper balljoint spindle without lifting up the truck, so we used a large steel tube to hold down the frame so I could start the nut.
Then I torqued both balljoints nuts to spec.

I kept track of the alignment shims and put them back in the right order, but plan to realign the truck after I come back from the US anyway.


The local company that does all the zinc plating for me finally had my parts ready so I could continue the front suspension work.

I went ahead and assembled the front brakes with new hardware:



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Had the dust covers zinc plated, cleaned up the wheel studs and pressed them in. Cleaned and repacked the wheel bearings.



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Finally ready to lower it back on its wheels. The new dust caps are from Dorman, part number 13977. Took me a while to find replacements but these fit well! I also installed new lug nuts.



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The parts that I got from Pat (Rustbucket on the forum) finally arrived!
A set of OEM bumper brackets, the patch panel I need for the hood corner, and a headlight ring. I also ordered the correct large flange hex head zinc plated bolts to reassemble the body panels. These came from Ebay and the seller only shipped to the US, so Pat snuck them into the box for me.



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The weather is warming up here. Already have most of the body panels in primer, plan is to shoot the radiator support, inner fenders, filler panels in gloss black this week. This will be the last week before flying to the US to I have to put the truck back together for storage.

Plan to do one more update before I leave! Have a good weekend!

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Here's the last update covering the front end sheet metal.
As mentioned I blasted the small items myself, larger ones were farmed out.
I recieved the panels back sand blasted, they did a nice job. I went around the nooks and crannies to get the last dirt, blasting media out and then coated the double seams with the linseed rust treatment. This should prevent rust from forming between the seams. The picture was taken before the excess was wiped off.



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The next step was to spray everything in epoxy primer. I used the same high build primer as I did to coat the front end parts. Here are the radiator support and bumper with a good coat. I use the wires to move the parts around.



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The high build primer is easily sanded smooth to create a flat surface for final paint. This was my first time doing it and I learned a lot about body work. Paint doesn't hide any flaws! :teehee:



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The parts were then sprayed in the Sigmadur 550 topcoat. I then continued to prepare the parts for assembly on the truck. I chased all the threaded holes in the panels and add the fender seals to the inner fenders. I bent staples from stainless steel TIG wire to replicate the factory look.



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I wanted to use new hardware but had a hard time finding the correct bolts for the sheet metal panels. I ended up finding them on Ebay, Pat (Rustbucket) shipped them to me.

The left is the Ebay large flange bolt, the middle is an original sheet metal bolt and the bolt on the right is the typical small flanged bolt. The bolts with the small flanges are used mainly for the bedsides and fenders.



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Continued in the next post.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Here are the headlamp mounting plates. They were black on my truck, so I painted them black as well. I riveted the adjuster screw nuts to the plates, as well as the springs.

The holders for the lamps were zinc plated. I freshened up the headlight rings.



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I ended up painting the grille and bumper in white but the paint did not spray well and leave a good finish, so it will be redone. I did get a almost perfect color match with the original, so the plan is to use the color from the paint and match it in a 2K polyurethane paint and redo the whole thing.

I am also planning to black out the bar behind the GMC letters.



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Here is a shot of the installed bumper brackets. I sand blasted and painted them.



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The parking light lenses were long gone, so I bought new reproductions.
I had the original "buckets" zinc plated and riveted them together with new gaskets.



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Here is a picture of the restored engine bay. I forgot to dust off the heater box :banghead:



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The truck has been parked in storage for now, since I'm leaving for Wyoming tomorrow. Hoping to resume working on the truck when I get back.

See you in 6 months!

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Great progress! I dont always comment, but I'm really digging your thread. Enjoy America! Wyoming is very friendly and fun, though I imagine it's going to be covered up in a blizzard by the time you get there!
Maybe let us know you got touched down safe!

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Well, I'm back from the States and Canada! Sorry Fetch, for never updating here.
I spent 3 months in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Then we went to Kyrgyzstan for 2 months. After coming back I drove around the States. Visited people in Montana and Utah. I then went to Alberta, Canada and stayed with friends at a farm. I was the farm mechanic there and helped to get a GMC Bluebird schoolbus ready for the new season.

Stopped by Matt's place (63gmc4x4). Didn't have a lot of time to visit, but we had a great time there. Drove in his '62 with the 351 V6 and T5 trans.
Was awesome to finally meet a fellow V6 enthusiast.
Thanks for the opportunity, Matt! It was awesome and I hope to meet you again someday.



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Back in the Netherlands, I wanted to freshen up the 478 again. I made some mistakes in the initial engine build that I wanted to set straight.
This week I took the engine and trans out.



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Still had that homemade heavy duty engine stand, it comes in handy now.



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Some of the issues I need to address:

Oil leaks - I used the junky FelPro rear main rope seal, in combination with a pitted sealing surface it leaked a lot of oil. I've learned a lot about sealing technology and the proper chemicals to use since then.
I bought a NOS rubber rear main lip seal. I need to fix the pitted area in the crankshaft.

Bearing clearances - I finally spent the money and bought NOS main and rod bearings. When I put the engine together, the rod bearing clearances were too large. I still need to try the NOS bearings but expect the same. I think I need to resize the connecting rods. I ran 20W-50 and SAE 50 oil because of the large clearances.

Filtration - it looked like a lot of debris got in the oil and scored up the bearings. The crank just needs a polish. Don't know how the debris got in the oil but I have some extensive cleaning to do and I need to check the oil filter bypass valve.



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I had my camshaft ground by Jones Cams in SC, along with reground lifters from Delta Camshaft in WA. I bought new cam bearings as well.

I'll repaint the engine and exhaust manifolds.

Gonna see if I can use a factory GM high torque starter in combination with the GMC V6 starter nose. Looks like I have some modifying to do but seems doable.

I scored a reinforced clutch that seems to fit without any trouble with the hub.

I scored a bunch of 2.5 inch stainless and figured I'd weld up a single exhaust similar to factory but made out of stainless.

I have the original SM420 that I freshened up with the 2nd gear synchro fix ready to put in when everything is said and done.

Then onto bodywork - right rocker, floor, A-pillar, kick panel, cab corner, right door, windshield, hood corner and around the hood hinge.

I guess it needs to be painted too, thinking about red again. Thinking about GM WA9260 (Victory Red). We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I'll be posting my progress here.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Tore down the rest of the block. The bores and pistons look excellent.
There's some carbon buildup but nothing to worry about I think.



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Cleaned up the crank in the lathe, still needs a final polish. Looking at having the rear main seal area spray welded up and then turned/polished to final size. There's pitting there that needs to be repaired.



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Happy with how the cylinder heads look along with the Cummins diesel exhaust valves. Valve lash was always in spec and rarely needed adjustment so couldn't be happier. Still using the stock valve springs which have very little seat pressure I must admit. Not a problem on a low RPM engine though. I've looked around for stock valve springs that are comparable in size and have more seat pressure and found Ford 460 valve springs are close (MELLING VS840) I haven't tried them but they definitely have more pressure. Might switch the valve springs out when the new camshaft is broken in.

One is the things I wanted to make was an oil pan spacer. The longer stroke with the 305/pickup oil pan makes for a close encounter of rod bolt and sheet metal. Not ideal. I previously dented the oil pan to make clearance.
The real solution is that spacer. Its fabricated out of steel strips and then milled flat. About 3/8" thick. I did have some chatter while fly cutting it so I ground it flat afterwards. Should seal up with RTV to the block I think. Still using a cork gasket on the oil pan side.



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Almost have the short nose high torque starter ready, will post my progress on that in the other thread soon.

The rod bearing clearance is way out of spec. Rods need to be resized. They aren't stretched or oblong or something, can't explain why there this way. Possibly it left the factory this way in '62. Crank (and main) journals are in right in the middle of spec. Again something I should have done the first time. Anyway, I'll be doing that, too.

Haven't checked main bearing clearance with the NOS bearings but think we should be good there.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Spent the last weeks measuring, prepping and getting everything ready for re-assembly.

With the new NOS bearings, rod clearance is .003" and the mains are .003"-.004". Wish they were a little tighter but within spec. Where I got the weird rod bearing clearance readings from I could not tell you.



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Replaced the old cam bearings with the Durabond GM5 cam bearing set. Made my own installer tools on the lathe. All went in smoothly except for the no. 4 bearing. It's too tight, can't get the cam in. Ended up putting the old one in. It was still in good shape. Clearances are looser than spec, around .004" while max spec is .003".



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Ideally the block needs an overbore, it has about .004" taper where the top ring reverses linear motion. Since oversize pistons and rings are nowhere to be found sleeving would be an option but that would set me back financially... machine work is overpriced here unfortunately.

I did manage to score new piston rings! I contacted a company here in the Netherlands (THN) if they could help me out. I gave them the sizes I needed and they had them in stock! Unfortunately they didn't have new oil control rings. My old ones can be re-used I think. I got from them a new chrome top ring, 2 cast iron 2nd and 3rd rings. They are all square rings (no taper or bevels) The manual does call for a ring with a bevel, probably to help oil control. Hoping that these new rings do help with oil control, looking at the carbon buildup on the pistons I think some oil got past the old rings.

We'll see. With these engines your trying to do everything to get them as best as you can with what you have. You can get them perfect but it'll cost ya or will take years to find the right parts...

Spent a lot of time prepping and cleaning the rest of the parts. I bought an genuine GM bypass valve for the oil filter housing. I will run the break in without a bypass valve though. I made a bypass blocker, that should force all the oil through the filter. This will be changed out after break-in is completed.
There are 2 different bypass valve pressures:
11 PSI Bypass Valve: OEM Number, 25013759. This is the standard bypass pressure.
30 PSI Bypass Valve: OEM Number, 25161284. This mean for systems that use an additional oil cooler.
I bought the 11 psi version to use. With the right oil it shouldn't pose a problem. I plan on running either a 10W-30, 10W-40 and SAE 30 with ZDDP.



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I honed the block to prepare for the new rings.



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Block is pretty much ready for re-assembly, now the rest of the parts needed to be cleaned up, inspected and repaired where needed.



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Then onto re-assembly. That should be a lot more fun to do.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Still working on preparing everything for re-assembly.



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Found the culprit of the dirty oil issue... used the wrong oil filter gasket.
Fel-Pro doesn't supply the right gasket for a spin-on oil filter adapter in their gasket kit and I never bothered to check. This allows some oil to bypass the gasket from dirty to clean side. Live and learn.
Decided to not run the bypass blocker, I'll stick to the OEM bypass from the get go. I found the specs for the differential pressures in the filter I'm using on Bob Is The Oil Guy forum (I've did a lot of reading and research on oil and filtration)

Instead of the typical Wix 51049 I'm going to run a Baldwin filter instead.
I cannot find any reliable filtration data on the 51049. Only found a "micron rating" of 21 (I'm assuming that's nominal, meaning absolute should be higher) I'm sure its a good filter but I don't like "not to know things".
I'm going to run a Baldwin B1428. It has the same 13/16-16 thread and diameter and gasket location. This filter has an anti drain back valve as well.

Specs from BITOG:


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B1428

BX=2: 12 microns (nominal rating, 50% efficiency)
BX=75: 25 microns (maximum reliable filtration ratio, 98.67% efficiency)
Established Micron Rating: 12
Average Efficiency: 89.44 %
Burst PSI: 300

Flow
3PSI: 2GPM
5PSI: 5GPM
10PSI: 9GPM
15PSI: 11.5GPM

The V6 has a 14 GPM oil pump according to the GMC advertisements. This is probably the rated max flow at 3800 rpm. Now this isn't the actual flow to the filter and bearings. A large part of the flow goes back to the pan without passing the filter via the oil pump pressure regulator. Oil pumps are oversized to account for worst case scenarios.

Filtration with the B1428 is excellent. Even the max. particle size at 25 microns is smaller than half of the bearing clearance. This isn't gospel but should put it in perspective.

With a 11 psi bypass valve I'll need a flow of at least 9 GPM for the bypass to open. Pretty sure the oiling system isn't capable of flowing 9 GPM. Only time the bypass opens it at a very cold start when the oil is thick and you decide to rev the engine to the moon or when the filter is clogged. Oil, even most multigrade oil, is thicker when cold so there's more resistance to flow through the filter. 11 psi is quite the differential pressure. I don't expect it to open anytime soon.

I don't know what viscosity of oil and the temperature they tested this with though. I'm assuming 10W-40 at operating temperature. But judging by the provided data and comparing flow numbers above I'm pretty sure the bypass will rarely open.

Except the intake and head gaskets I'm making all my own gaskets. Head gaskets are the 305 V6 gaskets that I'm converting using my little setup that I showed before. The old head gaskets that I did that way look mint so that gives me confidence.



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Making gaskets is fun I think. I like doing it.

Here's ones of the old head gaskets. Looks mint, as you can see I used some additional sealer. Got it as a recommendation, basically don't use that stuff because all it does is plug up the coolant holes in the cylinder head. Fel-Pro doesn't recommend any sealer either so no need.



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The timing cover protruded .016" above the oil pan gasket rail on the 478 block (this is the 305 timing cover) With the cork gasket this didn't pose a problem, but now that I'm using the oil pan spacer I went ahead and milled the surface to even them out. See the result below.



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Gapped all the new piston rings. Made sure I gapped them to spec at the bottom of the bore, just below where the top ring stops at BDC. Only needed to gap the chrome plated top rings, the cast iron 2nd and 3rd rings needed no gapping, they were right in the middle of spec already.
Have a little trick up my sleeve so I can freshen up the old oil control rings. I'll share that when I get to it.



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Right now I'm working on the cylinder heads. Will be covered in a later post. Have some interesting things to share there as well.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Well, all that theory is fine and dandy if the filters actually fit...
Read on the forum that there's 2 spin on oil filter housings types (thanks BobBray)

My oil filter adapter is the smaller PF24 style. This takes the Wix 51049 filter with the small gasket size. The PF24 filter is outdated now.

The PF35 style adapter takes all the filters I bought :teehee: Notice the difference in gasket diameters.



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Anyway, I've ordered new filters and an oil filter cutter to inspect them after use.

These are the filters I'll be using.
Wix 51049 - known and loved

Fram Extra Guard PH11 - turns out these actually have excellent filtration (99% @ 20 microns)

AC Delco PF61E - this filter should fit my adapter. Its a smaller diameter filter with the right 13/16-16 thread.

BOSCH 0 451 104 026 - has an anti drainback valve

MAHLE OC 103 - has an anti drainback valve as well.

After all the reading I've done it basically boils down to this:
To make an engine last, you should:

Avoid excessive cold starts and short trips - most engine wear occurs during the warm up phase - less starts and warm up cycles = less wear. Short trips = bad for cylinder walls and engine oil.

Never beat on a cold engine, let it warm up. Drive gently and avoid high load until at operating temp.

Load = wear - at any temp.

Make sure the engine is well maintained. Right oil at right level, periodic oil and filter changes. Fuel system is right. PCV works right.
Oil filters get worse when they age, air filters get improve when they age (until a certain point).

It is sure easy to lose yourself in heated internet debates about the most minute things.

Can't say my engineering mind will approve of any oil filter that lets a bigger particle size than 30 microns pass - the Baldwin B9 for example (fits the PF24 style) has an absolute rating of 40 microns - don't need a rock catcher, but an actual oil filter please. Will that filter make an engine last - probably so, and you'll never notice a difference in engine performance.

Your thoughts?

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

I am enjoying this thread, even though I doubt I will rebuild any more engines,
Thanks.
I love that massive 4 main support system GM gave our 305 crankshafts.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Thank you Jim! It makes my day to recieve some positive feedback. I enjoy making these writeups as well.

Did you rebuild a lot of engines back in the day?

Yes, the GMC has massive mains and rods, a sturdy bottom end for sure. Nothing wrong with a beefed up engine! Adds to the reliability and doesn't need fancy oils to make it last.

Hoping that after all this work it'll go for the 200.000 miles without a major rebuild - as was advertised in the 1960's. I love these engines.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Using my GMC to make most machine shop and parts runs, I rebuilt (in no particular order) 2 VW,s, 2 Packards, 1 Bristol (AC), 1 Ford, 1 Triumph (TR3), 1 Mercedes, 1 MG (TD) and maybe some forgotten.
Other work on other makes.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Nice Jim. Looks like you have a lot of experience. Did you ever do any work on the GMC V6?

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Been a little while. Got a new job as a machinist so that takes up quite a bit of time.

Been working on the cylinder heads and the crankshaft.

Took the cylinder heads apart and cleaned them. Valves and valve jobs looked good, none of them leaked a drop of brake cleaner when I sprayed it in the ports. There was quite a lot of carbon build up on the intake valves. I used EGR cleaner to clean the valves, combustion chambers, and ports.



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I needed to regrind the exhaust valve as they had the weird concave wear, which is often attributed to weak valve springs which was something I already suspected.

Decided to regrind the intake valves too, because I had it all apart. I then checked the valve stem to seat runout in the lathe using a dial indicator. All except 2 were within .0015". I touched them up again and they were were good to go, too.



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I reground the exhaust valve seats and lapped the seats until I had a good contact pattern. I then made a valve seat runout gauge. The book mentions that they should be within .002". Quite a few were outside the spec, around .0025". I touched them up until there were all .0015" or less.



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Knowing all the valves and seats were good, I could move on to the springs.
The Impco article that I posted years ago about 401 V6's on propane foreshadowed that the stock valve springs are too weak. They upgraded to a Ford valve spring using a spacer.

Went ahead and ordered Melling VS840 springs. These are stock replacement springs for a Ford 460 V8. They are too almost identical in dimensions but a little shorter. I went ahead and tested the stock and Ford valve springs using my redneck setup in the drill press to find out what the actual pressures are.



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The GMC manual lists 76-84 pounds of seat pressure. When I tested mine I got 64 pounds of seat pressure. The Ford spring without spacer got around 40 pounds of seat pressure. The GMC springs didn't make the free length spec either. Looks like they have been getting weaker over the years. Better to replace them now.

I wanted around 100 pounds of seat pressure and less than 280 pounds over the nose. Mike Jones recommended me to not exceed 280 pounds open pressure, otherwise break in springs are needed to break in the camshaft.
A little extra seat pressure should aid in heat transfer and prevent the valve from bouncing on the seat.

Using these springs I designed a spacer and made it out of chromoly steel that I had laying around. Old hydraulic cylinder rod makes for great bar stock. It locates on the valve spring rotator and in combination with the Ford spring gives me 100 pounds of seat pressure and 220 pounds of open pressure. I'm about 1/4" away from coil bind at full lift, so plenty safe.
The spacer in the picture sits cockeyed, was due to a locating bore that was too tight, fixed that later.



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I milled a small groove in the nose of the spacer to aid in oil drain.



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Installed new valve stem seals and reassembled the heads. I already cleaned up the rocker arms and polished the rocker arm shafts.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

I mentioned before that the crankshaft rear main seal area had pitting and needed to be welded up. I had a company lined up that would do it for me. Even did the prep work that they requested - then the company didn't want to do it.



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Fine, I'll do it myself. Getting sick of these companies not living up to their word. I try to learn and do everything myself, and for good reason. No BS, fast turn around, a learning experience and all that for a fraction of the cost :upyes:

Because of the flywheel flange I cannot use a Speedi sleeve or repair sleeve out of 1 piece - impossible to install. The sleeve needs to be split.

Took a scrap piece of honed cylinder material that we use at work. Its made out of 304 stainless. Made a repair sleeve out of it.



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I undercut the area for the sleeve in the crankshaft. Its about 9/16" wide. I made radiused relief cuts at the ends to prevent stress risers.

Lifting that massive crankshaft in the lathe is a 2 man job - its a beast of a crank for sure.



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I split the sleeve and degreased crankshaft and sleeve halves. Loctite 648 was applied to the sleeves, but kept away from the split line. The sleeves were then installed on the crankshaft and clamped in place.



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Using TIG welding, I tacked and welded the sleeves together. Contraction from the welding pulls the sleeves tightly together, resulting in a very strong mechanical bond to the crankshaft in combination with the Loctite. Made sure I got good penetration as there quite a bit of material to be machined away. I ended up with about .0043" wall thickness.



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The crankshaft was then reindicated in the lathe and turned down to the original diameter and polished. Didn't run into any inclusions or problems with the sleeve moving or coming loose - all looks well.



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I'm very satisfied with the result, I didn't expect it to work this well. In combination with the NOS rubber lip seal this should be more than fine.
By the way, the bearing journal is dirty with dust and WD40. It looks fine when its all clean.

Only have got a few jobs left before the engine can be put together. More to follow soon.

Hope you guys enjoy.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

A few years ago I researched for a replacement valve springs. I ended up using Comp Cams 972-16

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(this is for a V8, so I have four spares). I tested the spring and got slightly better than stock specs requirement.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Thanks James. I too looked around for springs that were a drop in fit but settled for a stock replacement spring thats a fraction of the cost. With access to machinery it's easy to whip up the part you need to make it all work.

Melling does offer a more heavy duty spring (Melling VS280) with an inner damper. This is probably the better spring to use as you can use a thinner spacer to obtain the same seat pressure.

Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

Let me start off with some fantastic news! I managed to score new oil control rings via the company that supplied the piston rings as well!
They only had 4 5.125" x 1/4" rings with expanders left, so they threw in 2 130.5mm (5.138") rings. I installed them and gapped them, needed to open the gaps up somewhat due to the larger bore. Looks like they conformed to the bore pretty good so I'm happy. These bigger rings are plain cast iron, they should break in quickly. They don't have an expander spring but have good wall tension.



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I had already prepped the block for assembly so I was ready to go.
Started with the camshaft that was reground by Mike Jones.



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Installed the NOS main bearings and NOS rubber rear main seal. A small dab of RTV on the seal halves.



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Lifted the massive crankshaft in, a 2 man job. Installed the main caps and paid attention to seal up the rear bearing cap real good.
A dab of RTV in each corner, RTV where the side seals go, anaerobic sealer where the cap meets the block, and assembly lube on crankshaft seal and bearing.



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Crank turns over real smooth, couldn't be happier.

Installed the idler gear and timing cover.



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Then onto pistons. All of them installed real well. Coated bores and rings with engine oil. Staggered the gaps.



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Re: '65 GMC 1500 project. From the Netherlands
 

I then degreed the cam, as I was curious about the gear set vs the timing chain. I've seen in the manual that all camshaft timing events for the 401/478 occurred 6 degrees later than the 305/351. Made me think they retarded the camshaft 6 degrees with the timing gears. My camshaft had an intake center line of 108 and it installed at 115, so ended up with the cam 7 degrees retarded. That confirms my suspicions there. Should have communicated that to Mike when he ground my cam but oh well.

If I didn't install timing cover I could have tried to install the cam straight up or advance it somewhat by using a offset key or milling in a new keyway slot, but I don't know where the torque peak will be exactly so we'll see.

Retarding the cam moves the torque peak up, a general rule is that 4 degrees retarded moves the torque peak up 200 rpm, meaning I'd be looking at a 350-400 rpm shift on torque peak.

Makes sense for GMC to retard the camshaft in the bigger engines so they can use the same camshaft for all displacements. If all else equal, the bigger displacement with the same cam causes the torque peak to occur sooner, so they retard the cam to compensate.

Installed oil pump, pickup and RTV'd the oil pan spacer to the block. Then installed the oil pan with a cork gasket and RTV.



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Then installed the spin on oil filter housing with the GM 11 psi bypass valve. The bypass presses into the housing, used some green Loctite to ensure it doesn't come loose. I used some sandpaper and the milling machine table to sand the gasket surface flat.



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I ended up with something like this:



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Next up: top end.