Astro van cat conversion

[Snowy Rivers]

I had a SBC in a pickup that did that once.

I finally fashioned a hard stop to go into the #1 spk plug hole and bolted on a degree wheel...
Reworked the timing marks.....No more issues

 

[m1west]

I had a SBC in a pickup that did that once.

I finally fashioned a hard stop to go into the #1 spk plug hole and bolted on a degree wheel...
Reworked the timing marks.....No more issues

What really sucks is its a fluid damper and cost me a good chunk of change.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yes....that would suck

Any way to fashion a device to go into the #1 plug hole and reach the piston top.

Bring the piston up on the compression stroke until it just touches the tool.....Use a degree wheel on the damper.

Mark the spot where the thing stops....Reverse the crank back to a point where it stops.....Mark the location on the wheel..

1/2 way between the two locations is TDC...An accurate reading too......The mark the balancer using the degree wheel as a guide.....Good to go...
Real easy when the head is off....But I have done it with the heads on.

You might try using a video bore scope.....Crank the engine up on compression on #1 and watch until the piston reaches the top of the bore......There will be a few degrees that the piston does not move at TDC as the con rod rolls across....

Careful watching....With the degree wheel on the crank....As the piston reaches the top and no more movement can be seen....Roll the crank backwards until piston just starts to move back down...Reverse until the up motion stops....MARK THE WHEEL......Reverse the process and bring the piston back up and do the same procedure....Mark the wheel

There will be a few degrees between the two.....1/2 way between is the sweet spot...


The hard stop method is the most accurate IF YOU CAN DO IT.......But getting the marks within a couple degrees will get you pretty good....Then use the BUTT DYNO....And the ear....If the beast rattles with your boot on it....Too much timing..

 

[m1west]

Yes....that would suck

Any way to fashion a device to go into the #1 plug hole and reach the piston top.

Bring the piston up on the compression stroke until it just touches the tool.....Use a degree wheel on the damper.

Mark the spot where the thing stops....Reverse the crank back to a point where it stops.....Mark the location on the wheel..

1/2 way between the two locations is TDC...An accurate reading too......The mark the balancer using the degree wheel as a guide.....Good to go...
Real easy when the head is off....But I have done it with the heads on.

You might try using a video bore scope.....Crank the engine up on compression on #1 and watch until the piston reaches the top of the bore......There will be a few degrees that the piston does not move at TDC as the con rod rolls across....

Careful watching....With the degree wheel on the crank....As the piston reaches the top and no more movement can be seen....Roll the crank backwards until piston just starts to move back down...Reverse until the up motion stops....MARK THE WHEEL......Reverse the process and bring the piston back up and do the same procedure....Mark the wheel

There will be a few degrees between the two.....1/2 way between is the sweet spot...


The hard stop method is the most accurate IF YOU CAN DO IT.......But getting the marks within a couple degrees will get you pretty good....Then use the BUTT DYNO....And the ear....If the beast rattles with your boot on it....Too much timing..

Thanks, I'm up on all that. Have built many racing engines, all with degreed cams. I think I will just leave it alone. Its running good now by ear, no rattle under load or kick back when starting hot and all the symptoms I was chasing are gone. I may go back and advance it till it rattles or kicks back while hot then back it off until it doesn't. That will give me all the advance it will take. When we were kids on the farm playing with cars that how we did it to get every ounce of power out of the old motors in our beaters. Im just sad that I didn't figure it out sooner. Im sure my gas milage has also improved as well. I have driven cars before with retarted timing and they all ran hot and lazy but never had one lean pop the carburetor or run on when shut off. Thats why I was chasing the fuel system and only tried advancing the timing because I was tuning it up and thought I would give it a try to see what would happen. What happened is it fixed everything.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Copy.
Yes.....What we did when we were kids....Yeah buddy

My first car was a 1958 DKW.
Little 3 cyl 2 stroke....4 speed on the column.....Distant relative to the Audi ......

Great little car

 

[m1west]

Copy.
Yes.....What we did when we were kids....Yeah buddy

My first car was a 1958 DKW.
Little 3 cyl 2 stroke....4 speed on the column.....Distant relative to the Audi ......

Great little car

Ive never herd of that car, I came from Michigan and in the 1970's it was all American over there. Made in Germany?

 

[m1west]

We drifted quite a bit off the snow cat, any update on your progress. The drift discussion on EFI did lead to me figuring out the issue with my truck, and now agree you can get by with a carb. on your cat. I would jet it for the elevation you are going to mostly run at, and use the return filter you talked about also routing your fuel line away from anything remotely hot. Having your engine in a compartment outside the cab is also a good thing. Go with a big aluminum radiator oversized for the task will also be a good thing, burning rpm and going slow under load makes a lot of heat. You get the engine and transmission done by spring, you may get it going for next winter.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Ah well.....So we hijacked the thread....no biggy.....

Yes.DKW (Deek) were German mfg....

Slow going now since the weather has gone crappy.

The S10 bodies are above the 2100 chassis and there is loads of room for the air to flow back under the cabins.
The area up front where the radiator mounts is limited.....24" wide x 19" high radiator will fit
I can get a nice radiator fit the spot.......Two rows of 1-1/8" tubes.
Mfg says it will be plenty to cool the beast....
The radiator mounts in the same spot as the original 2100 radiator did. BUT IT WAS A DOWN FLOW
Aluminum cross flow with a shroud.....Going to use the S10 Blazer fan with a fresh clutch....S10 serp type water pump
(Same pump used on the 350 engine)

Very easy to mount the fuel lines away from the exhaust as that stuff is in the belly of the chassis..
The ledge along the top of the 2100 chassis is perfect for mounting the fuel lines.....Good distance from the heat..Slip the lines in some heat reflective sleeve.... or ????

Mixing and matching of parts gets interesting.

I was out to the machine shop yesterday to pay the fella for the work that's done on the heads so far.

I decided to go with a roller cam...The lowest lift Roller is .503" lift

We need to cut the valve guides down on the Vortec heads to get enough room under the spring retainer at full lift.

The new springs have loads of room...No coil bind....Todd found a set of positive type valve seals that will work with the tool he has (I did not want to buy tooling) so we make another bastard child.

This trip was my first chance to see the heads after the machine work was done (Almost done) Valves look new, heads do not need surfacing......Very nice parts.......We got lucky with buying that complete Vortec engine......

Todd also drilled the steam holes in the heads to match the 400 block holes....He also added the water bypass port to the RH head so the coolant flow matches the GEN 1 type.....

The Vortec heads do not have a coolant bypass....The Vortecs use an extra hose plumbed into the intake manifold and connected to the water pump.

Since I want to use the early Serp drive (1990) water pump that fits the 400 it just made sense to add the hole in the head to match...

Only the 400 sbc had the steam holes in the deck/heads ...400 has Siamese cylinder bores in order to get the 4.125" (Now 4.155") bore size....The issue is/was the area at the top of the cylinder walls would form steam pockets that could not go anywhere.....The holes allow coolant to flow up into the heads and keep steam pockets from forming......

Guys have tried to use better flowing 350 heads on these blocks over the years without drilling the holes.....IT ENDS POORLY....AND A LOT OF SMACK HAS BEEN CALLED ON THE 400 BECAUSE OF IT....

Gotta have steam holes...then life is good.

My one concern is keeping the carb inlet air warm enough to keep from icing up the carb....Vortec intakes do not have heat passages like the carbureted intakes.........

I think the idea of an air box behind the engine with an inlet down over the head pipe to pick up warm air and then plumb that to the air cleaner...........
Air does not need to be HOT just 50-70 F inlet should be sweet.....
I still have not picked an intake manifold as yet......

There are some Mercruiser cast iron ones available......These have a carb mount pad that is on an angle and that is not good.....Mercruiser outdrives sit on a fair slope and the carb pad are cut to keep the carb flat......

I may get one and make an aluminum adapter plate and then toss the manifold in the mill and cut things flat.

Sitting the manifold on the ends where it sits in the ends of the valleys would allow getting the carb base adapter parallel with the real world....The engine sits in the cat with the main line parallel to the body....NO ANGLE.....

The cast iron manifold will be far less likely to warp......The Vortec intakes use 8 bolts and a straight up/down position on the bolts ...unlike the older 12 bolts used on Gen 1 engines....The Gen 1 also use bolts that are 90 degrees to the intake port surface of the head...

The Mercruiser intake may be the ticket..........

A 1-1/2" aluminum spacer cut to solve the angle issue.....
Still thinking about this ....

THE PIX
Looking from the rear....Loads of air space under the bodies.
From the front....Front clip goes back on with a tilt forward mod.....Plenty of room under the bodies for air flow.

 

[m1west]

Ah well.....So we hijacked the thread....no biggy.....

Yes.DKW (Deek) were German mfg....

Slow going now since the weather has gone crappy.

The S10 bodies are above the 2100 chassis and there is loads of room for the air to flow back under the cabins.
The area up front where the radiator mounts is limited.....24" wide x 19" high radiator will fit
I can get a nice radiator fit the spot.......Two rows of 1-1/8" tubes.
Mfg says it will be plenty to cool the beast....
The radiator mounts in the same spot as the original 2100 radiator did. BUT IT WAS A DOWN FLOW
Aluminum cross flow with a shroud.....Going to use the S10 Blazer fan with a fresh clutch....S10 serp type water pump
(Same pump used on the 350 engine)

Very easy to mount the fuel lines away from the exhaust as that stuff is in the belly of the chassis..
The ledge along the top of the 2100 chassis is perfect for mounting the fuel lines.....Good distance from the heat..Slip the lines in some heat reflective sleeve.... or ????

Mixing and matching of parts gets interesting.

I was out to the machine shop yesterday to pay the fella for the work that's done on the heads so far.

I decided to go with a roller cam...The lowest lift Roller is .503" lift

We need to cut the valve guides down on the Vortec heads to get enough room under the spring retainer at full lift.

The new springs have loads of room...No coil bind....Todd found a set of positive type valve seals that will work with the tool he has (I did not want to buy tooling) so we make another bastard child.

This trip was my first chance to see the heads after the machine work was done (Almost done) Valves look new, heads do not need surfacing......Very nice parts.......We got lucky with buying that complete Vortec engine......

Todd also drilled the steam holes in the heads to match the 400 block holes....He also added the water bypass port to the RH head so the coolant flow matches the GEN 1 type.....

The Vortec heads do not have a coolant bypass....The Vortecs use an extra hose plumbed into the intake manifold and connected to the water pump.

Since I want to use the early Serp drive (1990) water pump that fits the 400 it just made sense to add the hole in the head to match...

Only the 400 sbc had the steam holes in the deck/heads ...400 has Siamese cylinder bores in order to get the 4.125" (Now 4.155") bore size....The issue is/was the area at the top of the cylinder walls would form steam pockets that could not go anywhere.....The holes allow coolant to flow up into the heads and keep steam pockets from forming......

Guys have tried to use better flowing 350 heads on these blocks over the years without drilling the holes.....IT ENDS POORLY....AND A LOT OF SMACK HAS BEEN CALLED ON THE 400 BECAUSE OF IT....

Gotta have steam holes...then life is good.

My one concern is keeping the carb inlet air warm enough to keep from icing up the carb....Vortec intakes do not have heat passages like the carbureted intakes.........

I think the idea of an air box behind the engine with an inlet down over the head pipe to pick up warm air and then plumb that to the air cleaner...........
Air does not need to be HOT just 50-70 F inlet should be sweet.....
I still have not picked an intake manifold as yet......

There are some Mercruiser cast iron ones available......These have a carb mount pad that is on an angle and that is not good.....Mercruiser outdrives sit on a fair slope and the carb pad are cut to keep the carb flat......

I may get one and make an aluminum adapter plate and then toss the manifold in the mill and cut things flat.

Sitting the manifold on the ends where it sits in the ends of the valleys would allow getting the carb base adapter parallel with the real world....The engine sits in the cat with the main line parallel to the body....NO ANGLE.....

The cast iron manifold will be far less likely to warp......The Vortec intakes use 8 bolts and a straight up/down position on the bolts ...unlike the older 12 bolts used on Gen 1 engines....The Gen 1 also use bolts that are 90 degrees to the intake port surface of the head...

The Mercruiser intake may be the ticket..........

A 1-1/2" aluminum spacer cut to solve the angle issue.....
Still thinking about this ....

THE PIX
Looking from the rear....Loads of air space under the bodies.
From the front....Front clip goes back on with a tilt forward mod.....Plenty of room under the bodies for air flow.

Got that motor assembled yet

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Noooooooooo....Between the nasty weather...the holidays and having the crud....Not much happening.

I did get to the shop and paid him for the head work and we thrashed out the mods I want done to the heads to allow the Roller Marine cam to have plenty of room and not have spring retainers hitting the seals......

Decided on the Comp cams XM270 HR This will allow the 406 to run right in the sweet spot at 4500 RPM FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.......Not really lumpy but will speak with authority .........

Between all the crap going on ...holidays and such plus feeling like crap.....No interest in much of anything.

Getting ready to clean out the shop and get my work area organized and all the engine parts off my work bench.

When I ripped that L31 Vortec apart I scavenged all the parts to use the Serpentine drive and the heads and just put the bolts and such in containers and tossed the entire lot of the stuff in a pile on the bench.

I want to clean off some shelves of old crap from ages past that really needs to go away.....Then organize all the new stuff.
There are boxes with such stuff as carburetor, air compressor, pistons and rods. The crank is sitting in the corner too....

Just no organization at all.......


I do not want to open up the big baggy with the block in it until I have stuff ready to work....

Also I want a clean spot to put the heads when they come home too..........

 

[m1west]

Im only getting things done between the raindrops myself right now. Not good project weather.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Yeah buddy
Watching the news ....looks like you folks are getting a buttload of rain.....

Never a happy medium....too little or too much....or too much too quick...

We have been getting the Northern edge of whats been hitting Cali lately........

Hope all is well with you folks.....Looked like some spots down there were pretty soggy....

 

[m1west]

Yeah buddy
Watching the news ....looks like you folks are getting a buttload of rain.....

Never a happy medium....too little or too much....or too much too quick...

We have been getting the Northern edge of whats been hitting Cali lately........

Hope all is well with you folks.....Looked like some spots down there were pretty soggy....

Just heading out for chores, big blow with lots of rain last night, wonder what kind of surprises await for me out there.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Hope all is well....

 

[m1west]

Hope all is well....

Surprisingly only a couple buckets an a plastic drum blew around. No down trees. Feel lucky

 

[Snowy Rivers]

That is a good thing......Downed trees always seem to fall on power lines and other needed things...
Or block the road..../

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Not much happening on the Cat.....Weather has kept outdoor work pretty much to "Only necessary stuff"
Yesterday I did open the doors on the rear cabin (Black S-Wagon) to see how things were doing....AS IN WAS IT WET.

Seems to be all dry inside.......The front bulkhead has remained water tight.......

Spring is coming......

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Got an update on the Vortec heads........The change order is complete and the valves can handle .580" lift

The chosen cam has .503" lift.....Good to go.

The Vortec heads cost me Zero $$$$ after selling off the short block.....So all that it ended up costing was the machine work and parts (Springs, seals and a set of head gaskets) We used the fresh gaskets to locate the steam holes and the coolant bypass hole on the RH head (The bypass is different on the newer blocks/heads....so adding the bypass hole allows things to work properly when running the 1998 L31 heads on the 1980 400 block.

Steam holes must be drilled to use any NON 400 HEAD on a 400 block.....

Bottom line....Fresh set of GM 062 Vortecs cost $595 .........

 

[Snowy Rivers]

A BIT OF AN UPDATE...

Finally got started on cleaning up the shop this weekend......
Stopped of at the Home depot and grabbed some metal shelving units.
In the process of cleaning up I discovered a pair of nice metal halide light fixtures......Gonna yank out the ballasts and convert these bad boys to run the CORN COB type LED lamps........
The shop area has 4 foot tube type lights on the walls and a couple over the lathe and the mill......But more light will be nice......

I'm thinking seriously about swapping out the Fluorescent tubes to the plug and play LED.....Better light and all around better lamps

The two MH fixtures have nice all glass refractive covers that really get things lit up......

The back part of the shop has a couple storage rooms that we put in and waaaaaaaaay back in a corner there was a huge metal desk that a friend thought would be handy.....NOT....
Sadly the additional rooms were built in with a walkway along one wall and the damned desk would not come out.....So we had to disassemble that beast completely and carry it out in pieces.........

Now with the area cleaned up we can get going on assembling the shelving and then sorting out CAT PARTS and such....

Get the lights wired in and good to go......

Gonna be nice having an overhead light directly over the engine assembly area ....

With so many different parts from the S-Wagon as well as parts from the L31 Engine that all need to be kept collected together it was just a must to get organized.....

Various tooling for building the new 12" wheels is scattered about the shop and it needs to be all stored together.
I have a huge mountain of Tire guides that have been collected over the past couple years to allow building two new tracks for the cat.....Several 5 gallon pails full of backing plates from the grousers.

Amazing how much space this stuff takes up when you are not organized..........

The recent acquisition of two tracks to scavenge for parts really added a lot more goodies to keep track of.

The one track had been "Patched" and a second set of "Lacers" or "Hinges" added.....These are the heavy duty type and much better than the Flexco type that are shown in the 2100 Parts manual.

So with two complete sets of these heavy hinges we can complete both tracks.

Interestingly the inner belts have 7 finger style and the outer belts have 5 finger style.

The plan is to use two 12" belts with the 43" grousers .

This will require a mix and match of the various parts to complete the two tracks.....But we have enough good parts to do it.....

I had originally planned on using the flexco lacers all the way.....But these heavy hinges are just too good to pass up...

Getting excited AGAIN......

With all the work last summer on getting the S-Wagon torn apart and mounted on the cat chassis (All outdoor work) there was ZERO attention given to the shop area.....

The engine block came home and went on the stand and got bagged up.....And now the heads are done and ready to come home......


Amazing how much stuff it takes to make this all come together......And when you are not paying attention stuff can get lost......

I have tried real hard to save all the bolts from the L31 (1998 VORTEC Donor) that bolt the accessory brackets, Alternator, water pump and such to the front of the engine.......GM did a nice job there and we got all of it.....

The final assembly will be a tad convoluted......The 400 block has the Gen 1 style cooling system that requires a coolant bypass port on the passenger side of the pump.......The vortec is a lot different and does not use this.....


The 1990 S10 has a serpentine water pump and it retains the GEN 1 coolant passages.

So will use the water pump style from the S10 (Pulley slightly different...but same diameter)
The serpentine brackets from the L31 Vortec all fit (Using the Vortec heads)

Bottom line....We added the coolant bypass hole in the RH head to match the 400 block and also added the steam holes to match the 400 block.

The valve covers from the Vortec (4 center bolt type) are in the pile of goodies.

Saved all the rocker arms/balls and nuts off the VORTEC heads (Strung them on a wire so the parts all stay in pairs with the rockers and balls staying as matched parts) Vortec rockers are "Valve guided rockers" with a slot at the tip to guide the rocker as opposed to push rod guided/guide plate system...

The piston/rod assemblies are all ready.....Sitting in a box.......

The AC compressor (To get modified to be an air compressor for the steering)
Several more wheel centers to finish the needed track wheels......

A couple alloy 12" wheels I scared up (Want to use the alloys with filled tires on the First and last axle on each side)

Just on and on......Looking forward to getting this menagerie all sorted out and within easy reach as things move ahead....

With outdoor work pretty much impossible...This is a good time to get this other work done.......


OH......Not to mention several tools that were purchased last summer that do not have a place on a shelf to call home.

One such item was a hand band saw from HF.......Made several jobs a bunch easier.....

The new air compressor that replaced my old one is larger and is always in the road.......


Nuff for now.......

 

[Snowy Rivers]

We went after "Project Cat shelf" earlier today....

Got the shelf assembled and in place......Felt obligated to start filling it up with cat parts..

Got the drive sprockets tucked neatly between the two shelf units as well as the axle tubes and shafts for the OC12
Lots of engine parts on the new shelf...

Still cleaning off the other shelf units of old junk that needs to go away......

The official cat parts place now.....

For the curious folks the are wondering what the big azz steel beam is overhead......

We took a triple wide manufactured home a set that bad boy on a full daylight basement.....

There are nine 12" wide flange beams sitting on square steel tube posts that are welded to anchors in 1 cubic yard concrete piers....That are then surrounded by the 6" thick concrete slab......

The Wide flange beams support several 6x12 wood beams that sit across the steel beams at right angles.....These are wedged at about 6 foot spacing under the steel frame of the house sections......

A crazy idea....Worked sweet....

The picture looking down the long hall way...The wall on the RH side is part of the downstairs apartment.

1000 Sq ft apartment that was my folks years ago....We rent it out now.

The rear section is my shop and place to hide chit........

Concrete walls are 9 feet high and 8 inches thick...(Had to meet industrial code....Cause the county was not sure...so we went heavy)

Was an interesting set for sure.....

I moved a lot of goodies to the new shelf area.....Hardly notice it out front by the machine tools....
After we finish mucking out the other shelves there will be a lot more room for Cat parts.

We get the occasional MOUSE that gets under the roll up door (That OSCAR THE CAT does not catch) So the critical stuff that critters just can't be allowed to get into must be kept in plastic totes with snap on lids.....

I have the piston/rod assemblies all ready to go in....and DO NOT want mice peeing on the finished parts......

One of the not so nice things of living in the sticks......RODENTS......

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Today we may go grab another shelf unit......
Not sure yet

I have one spot along the back wall where the OC-12 is parked at the moment.....I need to measure that area to see if a 4 footer like the one we just assembled will fit.......

As soon as the floor can be seen again we can get a ladder in and go after hanging those nice lights....

The corn cob screw in lamps are waaaaaay cool beans.......6500K and when put in a fixture with a good diffuser they really light things up.
The 300 watt lamps are plenty
An adapter will let these lamps fit in fixtures that originally used the MOGUL BASE such as the Metal Halide bulbs
The fixtures we have originally had 175 watt MH BULBS and the 300 watt LED puts out way more usable light

Looking at the stuff on the shop floor yesterday....I have a BIG AZZ mag drill that needs a place to call it's own.
I don't use it much.....But it is sooooo handy when you need to drill holes and have enough room for the mag base to grab.

This machine is heavy too......Somebody in the past fastened a lifting ring onto the beast....Very handy to grab with the Skid steer and a chain.

Getting the mag drill and a few other items off the floor will really help....

 

[PGBC]

Today we may go grab another shelf unit......
Not sure yet

I have one spot along the back wall where the OC-12 is parked at the moment.....I need to measure that area to see if a 4 footer like the one we just assembled will fit.......

As soon as the floor can be seen again we can get a ladder in and go after hanging those nice lights....

The corn cob screw in lamps are waaaaaay cool beans.......6500K and when put in a fixture with a good diffuser they really light things up.
The 300 watt lamps are plenty
An adapter will let these lamps fit in fixtures that originally used the MOGUL BASE such as the Metal Halide bulbs
The fixtures we have originally had 175 watt MH BULBS and the 300 watt LED puts out way more usable light

Looking at the stuff on the shop floor yesterday....I have a BIG AZZ mag drill that needs a place to call it's own.
I don't use it much.....But it is sooooo handy when you need to drill holes and have enough room for the mag base to grab.

This machine is heavy too......Somebody in the past fastened a lifting ring onto the beast....Very handy to grab with the Skid steer and a chain.

Getting the mag drill and a few other items off the floor will really help....

I want a magnetic drill, so you can send it to me, to get it out of your way

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Haaaaaaaaaaaa......I know your pain.....When I worked in the Wood products machinery bizz the company had 4 of the mag drills in the shop.....We used the hell out of them for drilling frames and other large fabrications that we could not get into our large radial drill presses ....I was already away from that company and running my one horse trucking company when I had a need for a mag drill...(Or I could have borrowed one over a weekend)
I was adding an air operated booster axle on my first transfer dump truck......and I had far too many holes to drill in the frame attachment that mounted the assembly to do it by hand.....

I appreciate the offer...
But the mag drill will stay .

We did more cleaning and moving yesterday and found a couple more "Gold mines" (Piles of Chit) that got tossed.....
Unboxed the last of the 12" wheels I got for the cat and got them neatly stacked on the new shelf ready to cut the centers and weld in the new 5 x 5.5 centers.....
Son in law had dragged in a 50 gallon air compressor with a blown compressor....Oiless Devilbiss
Rod broke......BUT IT WAS FREE..

May see if we can repair it......
Got the 0C-12 moved out of the way (On a roll cart) and the 406 sbc thats on the stand moved....Now we have access to a large wall section to put a second shelf unit......
The shop area is like 6 pounds of Chit in a 2 pound sack.......But we are gaining on it.....


Image 5842 is looking the opposite direction from image 5835 and looks back towards the machine tools

Nice bare wall area is where the next shelf is gonna go....
Got started assembling the shelf and had a customer show up ....so that ended the shop cleanup.....
Today we will see if time permits us to get that shelf in and FILL IT UP
Getting this shelf in will give a designated place to store the fresh cylinder heads for the cat engine.

Once there is enough floor space to do more than plant my feet ...Then a ladder will fit and the new lighting can get hung...

Another plus....Once things are better organized the Big Landa Hot washer can be rolled out and the cat can get a good wash off ....At present there is simply not enough room to roll that beast out... But that is changing......

 

[Snowy Rivers]

We got the second shelf all assembled and looking good.....Took less than 10 minutes to fill the damned thing up...

But we saved a place for the heads to go...

I need about 6 more of those shelves.....ARRRRRRRGH..

Or maybe less stuff......

I am finally seeing the concrete again.....

 

[m1west]

We got the second shelf all assembled and looking good.....Took less than 10 minutes to fill the damned thing up...

But we saved a place for the heads to go...

I need about 6 more of those shelves.....ARRRRRRRGH..

Or maybe less stuff......

I am finally seeing the concrete again.....

Put the parts together to make your motor and you will need less storage

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....Yeah....That would work..

The parts for the engine are not the biggest issue...
Biggest problem is all the other stuff.
We built this place in 1993 and moved in late in the year.
The other place had a good sized shop with tons of storage...

Then we had our business in town that we closed up in 2013 when we retired and all the crap left came home.....

Then there is a very active Daughter and Son in law ... they needed some storage when they were building their new house in 2016........An a lot of their crap never left.........

The Son in law and I are always grabbing more tools and such for the shop.....
Tony found us a sweet deal on a nice Band saw......Previous owner did not understand how to "Track" the blade and it kept popping off......

Adjusted that and we got a $1000 Jet saw for $500
Then I found another Jet saw at a garage sale for $20 ....It followed me home.
It is just a lot of accumulation over time.....Plus not dealing with the issue a long time ago......

Push came to shove when some clown decided they needed to build an engine........

Still have a 10' x 10' side room full of crap that needs to be cleaned out and shelves put in.

The two safes we had at the bizz had to come home.....They are big and heavy......

Just all in a days work Eh???

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Things are starting to look much much better in the shop.
Then a BIG BOMB was dropped..
My Grand son is 16 now and learning to weld......

I have a Millermatic 250 mig welder that I bought new in the late 80's.....Great machine and has served well.
But the Subject of TIG welding came up and the Grand Kid is learning that game......

He can't get enough "Butt time" at the welding table to really learn the tricks of the trade or to just sit and practice ......

I have seen some of the stuff that his teacher is showing the kids......Ahhhhh....Good stuff, but not what I would call Journeyman quality .....

Soooooooooooo.....Been looking at the various Tig machines that are affordable...

Right off....NOT GONNA SPEND $2-5K on a welder....I can use a machine that can do aluminum .....A great tool for the cat project......

I have looked at the various DIY welders and the sky seems to be the limit to what is available.

Having worked in the trade I know what a top notch industrial machine is like and what it can do (If the operator knows what they are doing)

A buddy of mine has a small shop and does a small "job shop" operation.....
He has a larger Miller Tig (Not sure of the model....(Old and dirty)

He recently picked up a Vulcan 205 from a guy that thought he wanted to weld.....Did not end well.....

I got the chance recently to sit and play with the Vulcan 205 (Harbor Freight)....Damned sweet little machine.....High Freq start....And a lot of adjustments......

Can lay out a nice stack of dimes for ya.....My skills have diminished since the stroke ...Just not as steady any more.

I am thinking about one of these units.......Price is reasonable for DIY shop and the Kid can learn a lot........

Anyone here have one of these units.......
Looked at the Eastwood.....Did not get to try it out.....

The Miller and other commercial stuff are just too $$$$$$ for a "Toy"
I see several older Commercial machines for sale on Craig's.......Somebody else's troubles me thinks in many cases.....
$500 to $1000.....Likely not a good jump.......

Still thinking..../

 

[J5 Bombardier]

We are leaning towards a Everlast Powertig 250 EX , that one is 240 volt only, they have others that are 120/240. Probably going to order one in the summer.
J5 Bombardier

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Sounds good
I have watched the reviews on these

 

[Alaska Snow Cat]

I've been looking at the Yes welders. they have a mig/tig/plasma that looks promising for a entry level welder.