Progress is progress.

 With the weather being nicer, and having a bit more free time as my son is able to entertain himself longer, time spent on the m38 is increasing. As more time is spent working on it, ambition and excitement continues to build, pushing me to spend more time working on it. 

I started off with finally picking up a battery. That in of itself was an easy enough task, well, as easy as a trip to Costco on a Saturday morning can be. 

All was going well in the garage after getting the battery hooked up. I got the oil filter housing back on, checked the torque on the oil pan bolts, and then went to bolt on the brand new fuel pump. While tightening the two bolts for the pump the flange broke off. I was barely above hand tight, so a part of me believes the casting was flawed. I put a blank cover plate on and decided to just use a gravity feed bottle to get some fuel into the carburetor. 

I managed to get the engine to pop a couple times, and it was about that time that I realized that I had not yet hooked up the oil pressure gauge. So the positive is that the engine makes oil pressure, the negative, is I squirted some oil out the side of the engine. I have an oil pressure test kit that I need to hook up before trying that again. 

Taking a break from the engine (I had actually forgotten that I owned the oil pressure test kit) I decided to start into the dash itself. I finished running the hand throttle and choke controls. Found the nut that holds the steering wheel on, and mounted all the gauges in the dash panel. That was pretty uneventful, but did require a trip to Princess Auto for some terminal connectors. Not that I need much excuse to zip on down to Princess Auto. 

Oil pressure lines for the dash are on order now, and with more open weekends ahead, I should be able to continue plucking off these small tasks, because any progress is still progress.

Soon... soon

Jeep m38 proving that things don't always go as planned.

If you've been around a while, you may have read my last update from April. (Right here) 

I outlined how I discovered antifreeze in my oil and decided a new head gasket was in order. A job that should take a couple hours at best on a flat head turned into a multi-week ordeal. Not being my full time job, meant I had to tackle this as time permitted, and like more things on Jeeps, it kinda snowballed. 

I wound up purchasing a stud remover, and asking the stuck stud to come out nicely with it. Which it did, so that's a win, and I did get the head removed. Much to my surprise, the pistons looks great, the block had no surprises, and everything was generally in order. Well, except when I drained the oil. 

The drain opened and started with green, followed by milkshake brown, then some actual oil, and then sludge. Lots of sludge. As much as I didn't want to, the oil pan was coming off. In it, I found a 1/4" of goo. It took a bit of time and some brake cleaner to get it to come out. Followed by cleaning up the pan and getting it spotless. 

I had to order in some more gaskets (note to future shade tree engine rebuilders, order the full gasket set at the start). 

Ultimately, the oil pan went back on, the valve cover got a new gasket, and the head went back on with it new copper coated Fel-Pro gasket. 

I have a set of new spark plugs, and we're just about down with that easy head gasket replacement. Next I need some high-zinc oil, some engine flush, and that should be it. Hopefully. 

The tunnel is a long one, but I can see some light twinkling at the end. 

As a small bonus for making it this far, here's the open engine turning over in all it's four cylinder glory. Something about being able to see everything running with the head off. Must be a flat head thing.