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Mad Max - Galaxie Tow Rig

I did a motor swap in an older bmw many years ago, got it in and running letting it get good and warmed up. About the time the temperature was at operating temp, my buddy noticed a big cloud of smoke behind it (it was dark out and didn't notice right away). Sat there letting it run while I scratched my head for a while trying to figure out how the good running motor, that we even drove in the other car before pulling it, went bad from putting it in this car! All the while its putting out a steady, heavy stream of thick smoke clouding the whole neighborhood, I finally figured it out. The old motor had dumped a bunch of water/antifreeze into the exhaust and it was just burning up as the exhaust got hot enough, sure enough it quit smoking after probably 20 minutes running. It scared the crap out of me at first though!

True words Birdy! I wish that was the case with this guy, unfortunately it was producing the smoke instead of just burning crap out. Definitely a fair amount of stuff that is getting burned out of the tail pipes. I imagine I will have a faint amount of burning for a week or two with all the stuff that fell in from me, let alone what got in it while at the junk yard!

You said it BuckWild! Aligning and being super careful are the keys to this intake manifold gasket! From everything I've read it is a PITA to do right and requires lots of elbow grease.

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Well, started by rolling the old gal out and assessing the remains of the previous intake manifold. Took a few hours to get everything scrapped off, but was rewarded with a nice clean surface to mate to. This is super critical in getting any sort of a seal out of these 390's!

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Next I put down a seriously good layer of Grey Ultra Sealant. Around all the water jackets, intake ports, and bolt holes. Next I went got the new aftermarket Edlebrock gaskets in place and bolted them down lightly snug with short screws and the biggest oversized washers I could find!

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I let that sit over night and cure. The critical part here being that I have a gasket that doesn't slip on me as I put down the manifold + that is given every chance it can to seal with the addition of the sealant. Next Dave and I soaked the hell out of the top of the block with about a hole dang tube of Blue gasket maker and a healthy 1/4" bead of ultra grey around the openings on the top of the gasket. Now, for those who don't know, the intake manifold weighs about 90 pounds. With a steady hand and an engine hoist we gently seated the manifold on as carefully as possible, maintaining alignment and ensuring an even crush.

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Finally got her all assembled and put together again.

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Gave it a whirl, realized it already burned the gas we'd put in it, put in more gas, and VROOM! Boy does she sound good! Just ran her for 10 min or so, nothing crazy, but the white smoke is gone and the miss/engine stumble is cured as well! Sounds heavenly :D

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Dave and Gale approve :) Who knows, maybe by some unforeseen force this junker will have a shot at making it to Moab
 



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That sounds great!
 






Junker I would say no.

Classic I would say yes.

How many of those cars do you see on the road any more?

Now after your trip you need to come back and finish the resto.

With some more work you could really have a head turner.
 






It's a head turner for me now!
 






Good job! Glad its finally coming together. Now the key is good timing on the engine, especially since it will be pulling a trailer with a vehicle on it. Its a stout motor so you shouldn't have much trouble with it being underpowered.

Knock under load = holes in pistons.

Get the timing right! Too advanced and you'll be pulling the engine again. Too retarded and its not going to make much power and your economy will be heinous.
 






Well, here is where we are at. I bent a pushrod.

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Went to drive it, saw the neighbors next door. They liked it and I figured I'd rev it for them. Gave it a decent rev, nothing more than we'd been doing about every day to clear the smoke out of the tail pipes. Sounded freakin awesome! Then sounded like ****! Went to the parts store, got a new one, was good to go. Took it on the freeway at 65, found it runs pretty rich. Smoked out the freeway pretty good at a higher RPM. Breaks are still a little so-so, we messed up the oil pan gasket when we dropped the oil pump drive shaft, still need to replace it. And we need some smaller jets in the carb to bring the timing down. With the cam and higher CFM carb it is just too much gas and too little oxygen.

Won't be dragging the Exploder behind her this time, but soon we should have it running right :D Now I'm going to clear my head and have a good week in Moab! See yall next week!
 






Excellent job.

Look on the bright side, better to be 100% before a long haul. No fun sitting on the side of the road broke down!

P.S. Manual drum brakes were never known for stopping on a dime and giving you 9 cents change.
 






Excellent job.

Look on the bright side, better to be 100% before a long haul. No fun sitting on the side of the road broke down!

P.S. Manual drum brakes were never known for stopping on a dime and giving you 9 cents change.

True True! On the flip side now I can take a break from Max and clear my head, make it feel like a good fun hobby when I get back and give myself plenty of breathing room to make it perfect for the next haul :D

Here is where I got her too:

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In the words of the Terminator, "I'll be back!"
 






:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::D
 


















:salute:
 












How's Max comin along?
 






if'n y'all don't mind my askin'....what'd the galaxie set ya back?....just curious ...as thats a $20k car (even wrecked) over here
 






This was/is an AWESOME build thread!!! Super cool car, super cool idea and amazing follow through!!!

Would love to see some more progress!
 






Hey guys! Sorry for not updating this as religiously as I had been! I've got her running ok, still burns a little oil. I've narrowed it down to being valve guides on the driverside head. I picked up a pair off of the local listings for $125 and they need some machine work. I'm planning on getting them all cleaned up and getting them machined so I can just swap the leaky ones off and put the new set on. I did consider aluminum heads, but they wanted $1890!!! I only paid $1000 for the car so we are sticking with the cast iron... Here is a pic I took yesterday of the beast!

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I thought you had the heads done when the engine rebuild was done?
 






This beast is right up my alley! Congrats on doing something different. Love it :thumbsup:
 



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I thought you had the heads done when the engine rebuild was done?

Hey Shucker,

I did have the heads done, however, the place I took them to does shotty inspection work as I've come to find out. What they did do, valve seats and decking, they did a fantastic job of, but they dropped the ball inspecting the guides. It is very frustrating knowing I've got to pull that intake manifold again, but that's life and now I'm getting pretty good at taking apart and putting together this motor. Hopefully I'll have some better news about this one in a week or two.

Even worse, I started working on the 'other' car I haven't told 'yall about. ROUND 2????
 






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