59 Chevy 7.3L IDI swap

[ptwcruiser]

I think that's what Ill do for right now. I can still use this one as a mock up.

I found a salvage yard with an 89 IDI from a fleet vehicle. 160k miles but I don't know much more about it yet. 1 year warranty on it though. Is it another bad idea or am I looking in the right direction with a warranty?

 

[IDIoit]

depends on the price.
sounds like a winner tho.
under 500, id pick it up.

 

[ptwcruiser]

they want $800. And I would have to drive 100 miles to get it.

 

[The Warden]

they want $800. And I would have to drive 100 miles to get it.

If you can hear it run and it sounds happy, low blow-by, good compression, etc, that may not be an unreasonable price. If it's on a pallet and can't be started up, IMHO that's high.

 

[ptwcruiser]

I figured that since I already had my engine mostly apart, I wanted to see the rest of it. Since Im not going to use it, Ill learn what I can from it. So I got all of the pistons out and took a bunch of pictures. Looks like it had a really bad ring problem on some of the cylinders and all of the rod bearings were well worn. Ill post the cylinders that did not look like normal wear. (other than bearings of course, all of them were about the same)
Cylinder 1 (broken compression ring)

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Cylinder 2 (pit in cylinder wall)

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Cylinder 5 (damaged oil ring and piston, cylinder scarred)

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Cylinder 6 (piston and cylinder looked fine on first look, after a closer look, I found a white spot that wont wipe off half way down the cylinder. Looks white with the light above the cylinder, and black if I hold the light below the cylinder)

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Cylinder 7 (most of the oil ring is gone, piston very damaged, cylinder has deep scars)

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This is what all of the rods and bearings looked like.

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I havnt taken out the crank yet to see those bearings. So far, the crank looks normal. With how worn these bearings are, can a piston "kiss" a valve? I didnt find any spun bearings.

 

[The Warden]

With how worn these bearings are, can a piston "kiss" a valve?

Tolerances are tight, but I don't think they're that tight. In a pic you posted earlier, I saw what looked like a valve imprint, but there's so much gunk on the top of the piston that the valve may not have made contact with the metal on the piston. Are there any valve imprints on any of the other piston tops?

In any event, that engine's in pretty bad shape...I'm sorry, man

 

[ptwcruiser]

only #7 had a valve mark. Is it possible that the bearing damage is from extra exhaust from the blow by and old oil? or is it more likely evidence of a deeper problem i am likely to find like a balance issue?

 

[snicklas]

One thing I noticed in some of the pictures, is what appears to be an issue with the oil squirters.

Not sure if this happened during dis-assembly, but the pic of cylinder one, the squirter is almost up against the cylinder wall. Cylinder 5, I don't even see the squirter, and 6 looks like it is just about right........ Maybe part of the problem is the oil squirters were not where they were supposed to be causing an oiling issue, or low oil pressure, as a missing squirter would just hemorrhage oil and effect the overall oil pressure in the engine.......

This engine could be saved, but I would sleeve all 8, have the crank checked, and have it balanced....... but that is not something to do on a tight budget........

 

[ptwcruiser]

I did mess up the oil squirter in cylinder 1. I didn't know they were there until I had already bent it out of place. All of the others are normal. As far as I can tell the problem was damaged rings. There was a pretty thick mess of sparkling oil in the bottom of the pan with the pieces of rings.

A friend needs my garage to get his hunting truck ready so I put it back together and Ill just use it as a mock up for now. Depending on the condition of the next 7.3 I get, Ill hang on to this one and might build it up later. Time to get to work on fitting this monster in the 59!

 

[ptwcruiser]

Well I almost succeeded in wasting away my summer. But I did get the old inline 6 out and the bad 7.3 in place to start working modified engine mounts. I have an aftermarket chevy cross member that the manufacturer says can hold a big block. Has anyone seen adaptors for chevy mounts to a ford big block engine? or front motor mounts for a 7.3?

 

[ptwcruiser]

I think I have solved the engine mount problems. I will have to fabricate my own mounts but it doesn't look too difficult.

The exhaust will be a problem though. The stock manifold exits directly into the steering gear box. Eventually I want to upgrade the steering system but I was hoping to use the stock set up for now. I though about turning the stock manifolds upside down or swapping the sides but the oil cooler is in the way. Will the 7.3 operate properly/reliably with custom headers?

 

[79jasper]

Better than factory actually.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[BrandonMag]

Will the 7.3 operate properly/reliably with custom headers?

The 7.3 in my '89 came with headers, I'm pretty sure it had a little more oomph than a stock IDI of the same vintage.

You'll have to run NA, though. Unless you have some serious fabrication skills.

 

[ptwcruiser]

Thanks. Good to know the headers will work out. I will probably have to get some professional help with it. The last cylinder will need to go up then toward the front before joining the rest. I'll get a pic of it to post on here later.

Here is a pic of the engine in place. Motor mounts aren't made yet but it is sitting on the aftermarket crossmember. The brake booster and battery pans I just set in there to figure out where they are going to go.

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[ptwcruiser]

Its been a long time since I posted. I recently moved to Florida. It sucked but I towed the 59 here behind the UHaul. (I need to come up with a name for this truck) Anyway, I have some more pictures since my last post. I got a friend to make me so motor mounts to connect the Chevy crossmember to the BBFord mounts.

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