Messages

It's normal for there to be air in the fuel bowl, above the level of the gauze filter.  At least in suburban driving.  After a long drive at highway speed, the fuel bowl generally fills completely with fuel.

"Small bubbles coming up the inside of the bowl" is bad.  Soft-drink or beer-size bubbles (choose your poison) coming up from the bottom of the fuel bowl indicate a leaking seal around the bowl.  Bigger bubbles coming up from the rectangular inlet just below the gauze indicate a leak on the intake side of the fuel pump.  The braided hose, if you've still got one, is the prime culprit.  The rubber cracks and air leaks in.  Fuel may not leak out because there's a slight vacuum at the pump inlet.

Check also that your fuel cap is the vented type.  If the cap's not vented and the fuel tank and lines have no leaks, after driving for a while a partial vacuum occurs in the tank, causing fuel starvation.  Go for a drive with the fuel cap removed and see whether there's any sign of fuel starvation.

Rob

Blacky,

Progress has been stalled for the last year.  I spend any free time on the weekends filling the green bins with leaves and garden waste . . . "high-maintenance" is a generous description of the house and yard.

I think I need to get gardeners or landscapers in on a regular basis.  Or take a good chunk of long service leave.
Probably both, actually.

Rob

Craig,

Good on you for 3D printing the gear knob.  "Maco" made up a batch of reproduction gear knobs a while back and still may have them.

I think FE-FC gear knobs started to fall apart very early on.  I've seen more than one FE-FC with an FJ Special gear knob.

rob

Craig,

Boot lock (barrel, not the mechanism?).  Doesn't matter that there's no key.  I'd end up re-tumblering it to suit "Found Object".  Add it to the Delco distributor after you've done the distributor up.

Rob

Craig,

I've used Astor Metal Finishers in Villawood, and also Blu-Chrome.  Blu-Chrome is a production house, in that they don't repair parts.  The condition you give the parts to them in is the condition you get them back in, but re-chromed.

Much further away for you is Hamilton Chrome in Newcastle.

Rob

Craig,

It's wise to put a ground wire from the D- (aka ground) terminal on the generator to one of the mounting screws grounding the voltage regulator.  FB/EKs had this wire, but FE/FCs didn't.  Your electrical system will have much improved voltage regulation this way.  If you put a ground strap between the engine block and the body, it'll do the same job.

Rob

Coupla thoughts:

My FC was a chronic overheater.  The modified head gasket helped a lot, but a heavy-duty three-row radiator core was the magic ingredient.  Expect to pay around $1000 for a three-row recore.  You won't regret it.  Just don't put an expensive recored radiator on an engine that still has sludge and scale in the water jackets.

It's not absolutely necessary to do an engine-out to clean all the gunk out of the water jackets.  You can do it in place, but - you have to take the transmission cover, gearbox, clutch and flywheel off.  Then you can remove the rear welch plug.  And you'll be working inside the car with a Gerni . . .  (Did this also, when I fixed the FC's slipping clutch).

Is your fan original FE?  If so, replace it with an FB/EK/EJ fan.

Check your new water pump for correct clearance between pump body and impeller.  Should be 0.008-0.015 by memory. (Fellow car club member had overheating troubles in his FX ute.  Could not work it out.  Finally measured impeller-to-body clearance. 70 thou.  Water pump went into bin, replaced with one with correct clearance, no more overheating.)

And once you have cleaned the gunk out of your water jackets, go to Bunnings, buy a big bottle of Diggers Rust and Stain Remover.  Warning: oxalic acid powder.  Poisonous.  Very effective bleach.  Wear old clothes.  Put a couple of cupfuls into the radiator, then fill with water.  Take the car for a good drive.  Drain the cooling system while hot.  Repeat as often as needed until the cooling system stays clean.

Now you can put a three-row radiator core in.

Rob

Here's something to try before you take the engine out -

Take the rocker cover and sideplate off.  Remove the rocker assembly oil feed pipe and the brass fitting in the block.  Set the engine to firing instant on number 5 (I think that's the right position for the groove in the camshaft journal) and drive the oil pump.  If the camshaft bearing has been installed correctly, oil should start to run out almost immediately.

If no oil, then get a short length of coathanger wire with one end rounded off and put it down into the oil feed hole.  Have somebody else turn the engine over very slowly while you put a finger on the end of the wire.  You should feel the wire rise and fall as the end of the wire drops into the groove in the journal.  If you can't feel anything move under the wire as the engine is turned over, it's a pretty sure sign that the camshaft bearing's been installed wrong.

If there's no oil flow, but yet the hole at the top of the camshaft bearing is clear, that may mean that the passage leading to the oil galley is blocked (camshaft bearing installed so the second hole is on the outer side of the tunnel, not lined up with the the passage leading to the main oil gallery).

Both of these conditions will mean an engine-out, camshaft out, sump off, remove and replace rear intermediate camshaft bearing.

Rob

(I have a newly reconditioned grey motor with the same problem.  I'll need to do this same diagnosis myself . . .)

Vern,

Or go to Burt Bros with the damaged one and get them to make up a replacement -

Rob

Ken,

My bad.  You're right.  Your motor has the original style of timing cover.  I went out to the carport, popped the hood on my Humpy, and - it has an "F" timing cover.  The later covers are the "+" style.

(and I corrected my earlier post)

Rob

Can't help but notice that the engine's in an FJ, and the timing cover is EK-EJ indeed an early one.  The early front engine mount plates are fairly notorious for stripping the 1/4" threads in front of the front main bearing cap.  For reasons known only to themselves, GM-H engineers decided to drill recesses in the front main bearing cap rather than providing a tapped hole.  The tapped holes and an extra bolt came later . . .

Is the block an early, i.e. no letter prefix in the engine number?

(I swapped over to an EJ front main bearing cap on my Humpy and modified the front engine mount plate to suit.  It used to leak oil between the front engine mount plate and the block.)

Rob

Yep.  It was close to the end of the month, and the "users active" count is usually above 2000, so I wondered if it was LLM bots scraping content.

Rob

"See androids fighting Brad and Janet; Anne Francis stars in . . ."

Al,

The row of screw holes must be an early FE thing.  RET may be able to help you here . . .

Rob

Al,

You're right.  The board (which is just thick card) is glued to the parcel shelf, then the vinyl is glued on top of the card.  At the rear, the vinyl wraps over the rear window flange and at the front it runs over the return for the rear seat squab, where it's also glued down.

Rob

Are ute mudflaps different from their sedan equivalents?  "Found Object" came with Nasco mudflaps, but I think sedan and ute rear wheel arches and inner quarter panels are different.  I can certainly measure up the sedan mounting brackets.

Rob

"If you know anyone that needs original FX/FJ boxes let me know."

(raises hand)

Not that I've blown up a gearbox in the last 30 years (say), but a source of supply is always useful.  Particularly if any of the Humpy people want an original gearbox.

Rob

Craig,

I've put my gearbox nerd hat on -

Since both your gearboxes are very early, can you tell me which of them has extra ribs on the bellhousing?  From memory, they run from the lower bellhousing bolt holes down to the bottom cover (and also prevent an early gearbox being used in a later model with hydraulic clutch, 'cause the rib on the right interferes with the clutch slave cylinder).

Both gearboxes should also have -

1"AF drain plug
six holes for the clutch cover
short selector lever (compared with FE-EK)

The FX gearbox should have a welded steel rear extension housing, the FJ 'box will have a cast alloy rear extension housing.

As always, pictures are good . . .

(I also believe that the very early gearbox cases are in demand among Humpy purists . . . )

Edited to add:  The FX mainshaft can only take a single-row bearing.  Probably the FJ too.  The second groove, for a double-row bearing, had been added in 1957; and double-row bearings made standard at FB.

Rob

Craig,

Yes.  You need to have the inlet manifold machined to accept the spacer rings.

Rob

Craig,

Inlet manifold rings -

Measure the ID of the counterbore in the inlet ports.  Go to an exhaust place.  Hopefully there'll be a size of pipe only slightly larger than the inlet port.  Cut the pipe to the right length, then slit it and grind the gap until it just fits in the inlet port.

Rob

Craig,

I once had some Holden Engine Grey mixed up, and it was like a mustardy greeny grey.  The PP427 is a lot closer to the original colour, but like all things Holden, "original" depends on what year your engine was made.  If you have an oil filler cap or rocker cover that you like the colour of, there are paint places which will match to suit.

I found that the Dulux colour Charcoal Grey is a good starting point.  But that was 1984 . . .

Rob