521 maiden voyage

[±~~∞]

Hi, New here.

My 521 took its first (and extremely smokey) trip around the block today. I put John Candy in Uncle Buck to shame. Had been sitting since 1989. When i got my first car, this thing was sitting right where i picked it up for a year or so already.

L16, 4 speed

 

 

Stuff i have done:

-Cleaned rat turds, and all kinds of crap.

-Replaced all brake hydraulics and adjusters.

-Replaced one broken drum. (giant chunk missing, guess they were driving it that way!)

-Replaced clutch master and slave

-Cleaned up rust from leaking brake fluid inside and out

-Cleaned, sealed, and painted gas tank. (outlet was completely varnished closed, could not get a wire through it)

-Rebuilt carb (at least gaskets etc.)

-Spent one day working on my media blast cabinet and blasting one wheel. Cabinet exhaust trouble, etc etc. Found wheels from one of you in Hayward? that weren't half bad and .5 inch wider.

-Put 2 old tires i have had for years on 2 of those wheels. Did this by hand while salespeople from kirby vacuum shampooed my carpets. Thought they would get a clue i wasnt going to buy a $2k vacuum if i was saving $10 manually by mounting a tire, but they didnt.

-new battery, oil/filter

 

-cleaned up water connections, fixed leak.

 

Questions i have:

 

1) Help on paint color code: cannot find color code on radiator support or firewall. Think decal is gone. Color code lists online not clear enough. Any guesses?

 

2) Hoping smoke is from fuel.

Compression is

 

Tester 1

cyl 1: 204

 

cyl 2: 195

 

cyl 3: 185

 

cyl 4: 195

 

Tester 2

 

cyl 1: 200

 

cyl 2: 185

 

cyl 3: 177

 

cyl 4: 192

 

Ok, so cylinder 3 is a little lower than the others, but still high according to manual (standard 177, min 159). And isnt 200 out of range for normal?

 

 

Is this so different, that i must have valve or gasket issues?

 

3) water hoses coming out of firewall make 90deg turn, my hoses are kinked. Were these originally formed with 90deg?

 

4) any reasonable source of for good bench seat upholstery?

 

Here are some pics:

Took half the day to drag it onto the trailer. Gave up trying to free up one wheel.

in progress, sand blasted more than this:

When i get my blast cabinet up to snuff, i will take care of stuff like the pedals as i get a chance.

 

actually blasted this and bent the tank into place, it now appears to work. Here the float arm won't swing:

Sand blasted all of the top and some of the bottom, here with "metal ready" phosphoric acid treatment.

another 40 years?

[Xander_42]

Looking great so far. Can't wait to see more progress. Congrats on the first drive.

[Jayden71]

This is AWESOME!!!! Man!!

 

Another 521 on the road :cool: :thumbup:

[banzai510(hainz)]

Awesome

best thing is to get a electronic ignition matchbox or a Pertronix conversion if you have a single point dizzy.

 

that good you clean out the tank.521s have alot of rust in tanks and dirt from the filler hose going bad. Cloggs up the idle jets in carbs

[datzenmike]

Congrts one a great first post too.

 

High compression is what you want, higher is ok. That's an incredibly good set of readings.

 

Sure it's oil? Is it blue, white or black smoke?Oil smoke could be bad valveseals but they would have to be almost missing to smoke like that. Wouldn't cost or take much to replace them and can be done with the head left on the motor. 4-5 feet of nylon rope in the spark plug hole, turn motor up (by hand) on the compression stroke to compress the rope against the valves to hold them while you remove the springs.....

 

White could be a head gasket leaking coolant into the cylinder causing steam.

 

Check the oil level. Is there 4 qts in the pan? Overfilled? Check plugs.... oily and wet or dry black? Is one suspiciously clean???

 

Hoses aremolded with bends. Some year 720s have 90 degree fittings you can salvage for yours. Plumbing supply may have something. Motor will still run the same but your heater will work better without the kinks.

[DatWifey]

Nice looking truck! I could be wrong, but the your stock paint code very well may be 568. Looks like you've got a great foundation to start from!

[DanielC]

That is a nice 521! A lot of 521 trucks have at least a little front end damage, possibly due to the brakes not being the best brakes to ever come on a pickup. You need to keep the brakes adjusted, if you keep the stock drums. Every 3000 miles, or sooner.

Another bonus, A lot of 521 trucks have sections of the floor completely rusted out, or gone.

 

Follow the suggestions on Smoke color. Yes, the stock heater hoses have an immediate 90 degree bend to go to the right side of the engine. The hoses bend 90 again to go to the fitting on the head, and on the water pump outlet, above the alternator.

 

Wash behind the fenders or this will happen.

Wash above the headlight buckets, under the fenders also.

 

The stock 521 fuse box, when new, was adequate for a stock truck. If you add any electrical accessories to the truck, you must add separate fuses. The headlight fuse is prone to overheating, I strongly suggest you wire your headlights with an additional relay to take the headlight electrical load out of the stock fusebox. This is necessary if you upgrade the headlamps them selves.

 

Check to make sure there is a good ground from the alternator to the voltage regulator. There are two thick black wires connected to a ring terminal, that goes under one of the bolts holding the voltage regulator to the inner fender, behind the battery. Check other grounds also. Frame to bed, cab to frame, engine to frame, and cab to engine. Having good electrical grounds will go a long way to preventing odd electrical problems, and if you have odd electrical problems, check the grounds.

It is especially important that the cab to engine ground is good. If it goes bad, the lights mounted on the cab will try to ground through the throttle cable, and the choke cable, if your truck has a manual choke. This destroys a hard to find throttle cable.

[Z chopper]

Another bonus, A lot of 521 trucks have sections of the floor completely rusted out, or gone.

 

 

good examplen is 5th pic on post #65

 

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/34226-look-at-what-i-was-offered/page__view__findpost__p__557684

[±~~∞]

Congrts one a great first post too.

 

High compression is what you want, higher is ok. That's an incredibly good set of readings.

 

Sure it's oil? Is it blue, white or black smoke?Oil smoke could be bad valveseals but they would have to be almost missing to smoke like that. Wouldn't cost or take much to replace them and can be done with the head left on the motor. 4-5 feet of nylon rope in the spark plug hole, turn motor up (by hand) on the compression stroke to compress the rope against the valves to hold them while you remove the springs.....

 

White could be a head gasket leaking coolant into the cylinder causing steam.

 

Check the oil level. Is there 4 qts in the pan? Overfilled? Check plugs.... oily and wet or dry black? Is one suspiciously clean???

 

Hoses aremolded with bends. Some year 720s have 90 degree fittings you can salvage for yours. Plumbing supply may have something. Motor will still run the same but your heater will work better without the kinks.

 

Thank you, I keep pretending it might be just burning off condensation or fuel but it doesnt stop. Also trying to pretend its not blue at all. I believe it is blueish. Great idea with the nylon rope, i think this is exactly what i am going to do next.

 

Oil level is good, oil looks good.

 

I put in old plugs i had, so not real clear on previous condition... wet, Appear to be getting to much fuel. Never really have time to get the engine warm. Smokes out the neighborhood first. Smoke takes a few (20?) seconds to start.

 

 

 

Nice looking truck! I could be wrong, but the your stock paint code very well may be 568. Looks like you've got a great foundation to start from!

 

thank you, i will check that out

 

 

That is a nice 521! A lot of 521 trucks have at least a little front end damage, possibly due to the brakes not being the best brakes to ever come on a pickup. You need to keep the brakes adjusted, if you keep the stock drums. Every 3000 miles, or sooner.

Another bonus, A lot of 521 trucks have sections of the floor completely rusted out, or gone.

It does have damage to the drivers fender and light socket.

Floors not bad, except the passenger side has a hole. Overall not bad, rocker panels still good nice (at least on the outside!)

 

Follow the suggestions on Smoke color. Yes, the stock heater hoses have an immediate 90 degree bend to go to the right side of the engine. The hoses bend 90 again to go to the fitting on the head, and on the water pump outlet, above the alternator.

 

Wash behind the fenders or this will happen.

 

Wash above the headlight buckets, under the fenders also.

 

The stock 521 fuse box, when new, was adequate for a stock truck. If you add any electrical accessories to the truck, you must add separate fuses. The headlight fuse is prone to overheating, I strongly suggest you wire your headlights with an additional relay to take the headlight electrical load out of the stock fusebox. This is necessary if you upgrade the headlamps them selves.

 

Check to make sure there is a good ground from the alternator to the voltage regulator. There are two thick black wires connected to a ring terminal, that goes under one of the bolts holding the voltage regulator to the inner fender, behind the battery. Check other grounds also. Frame to bed, cab to frame, engine to frame, and cab to engine. Having good electrical grounds will go a long way to preventing odd electrical problems, and if you have odd electrical problems, check the grounds.

It is especially important that the cab to engine ground is good. If it goes bad, the lights mounted on the cab will try to ground through the throttle cable, and the choke cable, if your truck has a manual choke. This destroys a hard to find throttle cable.

 

Thank you, although it sat, i think they drove it around the property once in a while considering the dirt clods that hit me whenever i am underneath. Planned on really cleaning the underside when i could drive it around afterwards to dry it out.

[datzenmike]

Is it possible the dip stick is the wrong one for a 521? Can you drain out the oil and put 4 qts in (like an oil change) and check the dip stick. I've seen this happen and it's over full though the stick reads correct. The crank splashes way too much oil onto the cylingers and the rings can't handle it.

[±~~∞]

Sure it's oil? Is it blue, white or black smoke?Oil smoke could be bad valveseals but they would have to be almost missing to smoke like that. Wouldn't cost or take much to replace them and can be done with the head left on the motor. 4-5 feet of nylon rope in the spark plug hole, turn motor up (by hand) on the compression stroke to compress the rope against the valves to hold them while you remove the springs.....

 

White could be a head gasket leaking coolant into the cylinder causing steam.

 

 

Took off the manifold, nuts suspiciously easy to remove. One side was all wet with water and some damage between intake and exhaust. Suspect this is where the "smoke" was coming from. Suspect the gasket was replaced (along with felpro head gasket) somewhat recently and loosened up. Figured i would put in a new $8 gasket and try it out but i had to try the nylon rope trick and ...

 

Ok, tried the nylon rope trick, wasnt holding up the valve well when ring compressed, then got rope stuck in valve and seemed all knotted up, LOst patience with that.

Some came out nice:

Some not as nice:

This is the only intake with pitting. Some of the exhaust valves look something like this.

 

I need a bigger box!

[Z chopper]

 

I need a bigger box!

 

 

get one of those sport bleachers seat pads should do the job better than a cardboard box

[±~~∞]

Updates in pics

Nothing better than an engine block resting in the kitchen sink!?

Dont remember if the images go in directly or with html code, so i will try this one and finish the rest next posts

[Jayden71]

Updates in pics

Nothing better than an engine block resting in the kitchen sink!?

Dont remember if the images go in directly or with html code, so i will try this one and finish the rest next posts

 

Now that is about the most Ratsun thing I have ever seen!!! :w00t:

[±~~∞]

Well that seemed to work. Here are more:

 

2 bad cylinders

 

 

Cracked and repair progress on alternator bracket: (I also welded up a patch in the oil pan but i am not proud of the results, so you wont see them)

 

 

 

Had bored out to .75 over.

 

 

 

Now: wtf? I still have smoke after warming up for a minute or two, less than before. i did not work on the valve guides and assume they are not in great shape, but with new valve seals i wouldnt think even worn guides would not cause a great amount of smoke. What do you think? It is reported that worn seals will cause smoke at startup. I have Nothing at startup.

 

Wondering if all the extreme crap from before is being burnt off in the muffler? I am going to warm it up a few more times to see if it reduces further. If not, i have another head that i will swap in.

[±~~∞]

Now that is about the most Ratsun thing I have ever seen!!! :w00t:

 

Now, its not like i cleaned it there! Just had to set it down.

[±~~∞]

Is it possible the dip stick is the wrong one for a 521? Can you drain out the oil and put 4 qts in (like an oil change) and check the dip stick. I've seen this happen and it's over full though the stick reads correct. The crank splashes way too much oil onto the cylingers and the rings can't handle it.

 

It took nearly 5 quarts to fill after putting back together. Haynes manual has 9.9 pints capacity listed. so i figure this is good.

This is how far the dip stick enters the pan about 5/8" below the pan rim:

[±~~∞]

"This is how far the dip stick enters the pan about 5/8" below the pan rim:" - 5/8" is the high mark on the dip stick.

[DanielC]

New piston rings have to seat themselves to the cylinder. The best way to do that is wide open throttle, then close the throttle, and lety enginre braking slow the truck down.

WOT forces the rungs against the cuylinder walls, and wears them a little, matching them to the cylinder walls. The closed throttle draws oil into the cylinder, and washes wear particles into the oil pan.

 

After the first time you get the engine hot, change the oil, and filter. Do it again after 100 to 300 miles. Then you can go to a normal 3000 mile oil change interval.

[±~~∞]

New piston rings have to seat themselves to the cylinder. The best way to do that is wide open throttle, then close the throttle, and lety enginre braking slow the truck down.

WOT forces the rungs against the cuylinder walls, and wears them a little, matching them to the cylinder walls. The closed throttle draws oil into the cylinder, and washes wear particles into the oil pan.

 

After the first time you get the engine hot, change the oil, and filter. Do it again after 100 to 300 miles. Then you can go to a normal 3000 mile oil change interval.

 

Thanks C,

I did change the oil and filter after first warmup. I replaced rings twice before in Honda CVCC's with no smoke to speak of. I get the feeling the kind of smoke i am seeing now could be from overheating in the cylinder walls, so i am afraid to keep it going once it starts to smoke. I will try more driving around the block when i can.

[wayno]

What head do you have, is it a 210?

[±~~∞]

yes, head on the truck is 210 and cut down to bottom of the lettering. Spare head i spoke of that i can swap is a U67.

[wayno]

yes, head on the truck is 210 and cut down to bottom of the lettering. Spare head i spoke of that i can swap is a U67.

 

It's not the greatest head out there, it has had some internal cracking issues, but usually having something to do with oil in the water jacket, is the smoke white, are you mysteriously loosing water out of the radiator?

 

[±~~∞]

No oil in the water. Not loosing water (yet).