PT in a Bucket Part 2

[Badglas]

Evening all. Kael and I have been cleaning and sorting through the engine parts, and I've run into a quandry. I cannot identify where these bolts go. Having just done this repair on the first PT, I wasn't expecting any surprises. I'll just go look under the hood of the other 01 I just did; no help.

I have identified all of the upper and lower intake bolts, exhaust manifold bolts, T-stat housing and filler neck, pwr/stg pump and reservoir bolts, and the EGR bolts. The only bolts I cannot find are the 2 bolts that hold the heater hose bracket to the head.

I do not remeber seeing the small shoulder bolt when I did the head on PT 1.

I expected missing fastners, and there are plenty of those.

The attached pic is of my mystery bolts. Anybody got any ideas?

[mdskinner731]

bottom 3 appear to be the manifold/header bolts?? top one looks to be the bolt that goes into the intake manifold from the back of the engine pointing forward

[Badglas]

Originally Posted by mdskinner731

bottom 3 appear to be the manifold/header bolts?? top one looks to be the bolt that goes into the intake manifold from the back of the engine pointing forward

The bottom 3 have built in washers and are greasy. All exhaust manifold bolts are accounted for. They were easy to identify; they are the rustiest. The upper bolt does resemble the small bolt for the EGR tube, but that bolt was also easy to identify. It looks like it's been chromed.

I'm really stumped!

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Badglas]

Evening all. Mystery solved. The top bolt with a shoulder is the bolt that connects the A/C line to the condensor. No wonder I'd not seen it on PT 1 when I did the head gasket, because I did not drain the A/C.

The bottom 3 were my fault. Those are the bolts for the lower thermostat housing to head. I had accessory bolts where they didn't belong. My bad!

Problem solved. Kael and I put the head on after we figured things out. PT 2 will be back in action soon!

Ron

[Badglas]

Evening all. Kael and I have made some progress with our PT in a Bucket project. We started reassembling the engine last night. Thought I would post some pics to look at.
Pic 3 is front view with head installed.
Pic 4 shows the cams installed.
Pic 5 shows the timing belt installed.
Pic 6 shows old parts left to install.
Pic 7 shows the new parts left to install.

I think we had a pretty good night! Kael is ready to go again tonight, but "Pa" is just to worn out for more tonight, so Kael is going to get all the new gaskets installed on the upper and lower intake for tomorrow. If I leave him alone long enough, he'll probably put it together.

Ron

[Badglas]

Evening all.

"Pa" is still worn out, but my executive assistant was ready to go today. He insisted that he could change the radiator, but wanted instruction to make sure he got it right. He was also nervous about using the air rachet, he'd not used it before.

The pics are of Kael changing the radiator start to finish. The last is him standing proudly next to his finished product.

When he got done he called my friend Rod to see if he would come help put the radiator assembly in the PT. The next post will have pics of what they got done.

Funny how watching a 5 year old change a radiator can make a bad day better.

[Badglas]

Tonight's work continued.

Pic 11 shows the cam cover and accessory brackets installed.
Pic 12 shows the pwr/stg pump and bracket installed.
Pic 13 shows the upper strut mount installed.
Pic 16 shows the vacuum gage holding a steady 26 inches of vacuum.
Pic 18 shows the radiator assembly in place.
Pic 19 shows the A/C lines buttoned up. The tool in the picture is what I vacuum the cooling system down with. No air pockets ever.

Kael thinks we'll have it running this week. We'll keep you posted.

Ron

[Badglas]

Evening all. Well, Kael was correct; our PT in a bucket is now a fully functioning vehicle. Kael got the honor of starting it, and it did not disappoint, fired right up and just purred.

One twist. After it had been running a few minutes, I noticed a huge puddle of transmission fluid under the PT. I had Kael shut it off so we could locate the leak. He went and got the creeper and the flashlight without saying a word. He crawls underneath and says "Pa, can you get me a 1/4 socket and rachet?" He crawled back out after a few minutes, and with his head hanging informed me that he forgot to hook up one of the cooler lines, but he had fixed it. I assured him that it was no big deal and that people much older than 5 had made the same mistake before.

Last twist. I bought this thing in pieces. It had been diagnosed with a blown head gasket and a plugged radiator. When I inspected it, I could find no sign of a cracked head, and the head was flat to .0015. The head gasket showed no signs of any type of leak, and the cooling system was not rusty. Last night I disassembled the radiator, the core was clear. What was I missing? What had caused this PT to boil repeatedly?

I found out the answer tonight. After Kael fixed the cooler line, we fired it up and let it run to verify the fan was working properly. Anyone care to guess?

No low speed, no high speed, no fan. Yup the cooling fan is bad. A $3500.00 repair estimate landed this PT in my hands. Looks like a $100.00 cooling fan would have fixed it. Good for me, but I feel bad for the original owner. A shop I have always considered reputable has now lost that rating with me.

I'll post final pics over the weekend. Still under water restrictions, so I can't wash it until Saturday.

We've decided to keep it!

Ron

[Busted_PT]

Being a used car dealer has done that very thing for me. A lot of the reasons that cars get traded is the bad attempt at the maintenance the car needs. Then the car gets the blame.

Congrats to your mechanic on a fine keeper. Enjoy Guy's!

[dewey68]

You guys are awesome!!! I would love to come up with a find like that. I really want a base PT to serve as my winter driver and park the GT.