Recent Posts

Update, I ended getting 70mm U bolts made up from West Coast Suspensions in Bayswater WA. Great  to deal with and reasonably priced.

Hi all clearing out some of my FC gear and have for sale a clutch and brake master cylinder tin can type. The brake one has Holden written on it plus part number tin can has hole on underside and surface rust on the outside not sure of condition indside. The clutch tin can unscrews from the clutch master cylinder appears to have no holes but has surface rust on outside and overall looks serviceable. Open to reasonable offers. I would really love to put pictures up but can't work out how. So apologies please message me and I can email if interested. Or if someonelse would like to put the pictures up I can send them to you. I am located in WA

Cheers Dave

Would like car gone soon so reducing price to $27,500 o.n.o
Cheers

VAN HAS BEEN SOLD, thank you for your calls and views, the new owner is a real enthusiast, i'm really happy for him and me.
Thanks again

Yep ,captive nuts broke loose . In my FC this happened ,I went right through with crush tubes and bigger bolts .

Rod ..We don't apply anything to cool ,by cool I mean down from very hot to warm ,( museum workshop where I volunteer )we removed some exhaust manifold studs recently from a 1918 International Engine block ,plenty of thick cast iron ,we have been amazed at the condition of some of the bolts and studs in this old engine ,it really helps if the parent steel in a stud was originally good quality ,our guru of stud removal The Right Honurable John Hills heated the area around the stud with oxy ,not stud it self ,until just glowed dull red,left it few minutes ,then with Record brand multigrips,rocked it back and forth till first sign of movement ,apply some oil and WD40 together,back and forth to get that brew to work its way down thread ,then out they came ..then clean up the thread with tap ,we have new studs UNC ,all good ..totally different circumstance with water manifold studs on same block ,he wouldn't touch them , too much corrosion ,engine spent some of its life in water , he said stud would not come out ,the area where it is will just break out piece of the cast block ,don't want that ..we have not formulated final solution,as you can imagine in a group you have 10 suggestions..
Your water pump ,its one of the countersunk slotted screws that holds the spacer plate on to the body of the pump ,if its not a slotted screw then it may be a replacement and wrong thread ,its unusual for a screw that installed/removed with a screwdriver to break ,how ever as its a thru screw,set it up accurately and drill out ,should remove with easy out ,give a good soak with penetrant ,wouldn't be a need for heat ...cheers Vern .

Cheers Vern. I will give that a try. Do you think I should let things cool down naturally or shock it with cold? I have a can of Loctile Freeze at hand.

Oh I forgot another broken bolt / "screw" I need to attend to, bugger. This is a broken screw in the water pump which hold to plate onto the body. It never ends.

Cheers

Rod

Hi Again Vern and all,

While the title of this thread has moved off track, I thought it best to respond to some of the points above re the head etc...

I took the head to the engine rebuilders shop. The owner wasn't too fussed about what I identified as being a crack. He said while it was in a classical spot for a crack to appear, he was sure it was a casting mark as I thought it maybe. Initial inspection indicated that maybe a basic rebuild was required. Anyway after it had been hot bathed and pressure teset I go the call I was hoping not to get. The "casting mark" was indeed a crack but another two were located. There were no concerns about doing a repair but the rebuild was going to be more substantial including new valve seats (current ones recessed too much), red motor valves and valve guides.

I possed the question about testing a couple of other heads I have, to see if we could find a better head. The owner was great and said there is a point that the expense of testing additional heads is outweighed by doing a repair. Anyway I dropped another two off today. One was a virgin head in that it had no sign of having the head shaved (full thumb print). It had a lot of surface rust and the seats were too far gone (rusted signifcantly due to no valves being present). If it comes up ok it will still need a full rebuilt. The second one was much the same but had less meat. The owner wasn't concerned about how much was left (thumb print was still present)as the motors weren't high compression anyway. This head is interesting in a couple of ways. Firstly when taking out the valves they seemed to be "very" tight. More than just gummed up. As I worked through I found two guides that were cracked and one broken off at the head. I have never seen that one before and it semi confirms my belief around the tight valve to guide clearance. Once again if this head comes up a full rebuild will be needed. The other interesting part around this head I will discuss below.

When we were looking at the heads I spoke about the great work that Rob and then ultimately Harv did in getting the New Improved Head Gaskets made. The business have done many grey heads over the years and continue to do so. I spoke about how Holden modified the gaskets in 1963 and then how Harv has got these remanufactured. He hadn't heard about these gaskets. He spoke at length about heads in general and the antomy of how they are made in order to improve coolant flow particularly to the back of the head. This made a lot of sense in regards to why the gaskets, in this case the grey holden, were modified particularly with the larger hole in the head and block. I said I would show him the differences when I collect the repaired head. As you know I can get long winded but here comes the second interesting fact about the second head spoken about above. In its past life it must of had one of the original modified gaskets installed. How did we come to this conclusion. The owner identified that it has a larger hole at the back of the head compared to the other one. Initially he thought it was corrosion but on closer inspection this didn't seem to be the case. I am hoping that if this is the case that the gasket did its trick and that there are no cracks with this head. If this one gets rebuilt at least I won't need to redrill that hole.

Cheers

Rod

hey Rod ..yep , hot box bolts will teach you to swear , Mapp gas and stud remover good way to go ,heat it up then let cool down , believe it or not ,we have some times initially turned the stud/bolt in the tightening direction ever so slightly and then,in the undo direction , when it moves back and forth , back and forth , with some oil and WD40 together , then should turn out ok ..if you have a problem you've got someone to blame ...Vern

Hi Vern,

While I haven't got an oxy I have MAPP Gas and I am going to have a go using it. I have also got a stud remover tool which grips the stud much more (contact surface)than the vice grips. I just need to take the plunge. I am sick of broken bolts and having to remedy them. In addition to the Main Bolt saga I had, I had two of the four holt box bolts break. I welded nuts to them, etc... but still didn't work. I was then faced wilth drilling and retapping. I am getting good at it!

Cheers

Rod