Fuel pump rebuilt; pistons & cylinders ordered; full flow oil pump / filter ordered

No bodywork progress yet. It is hard to be patient, but I spoke with Don this week. The '40 Ford he was working on is finally finished. I'll be going to the shop next Tuesday to spend the whole day working on the car. Hopefully we'll make some decent progress; I anticipate either working on getting the nose fitted up, maybe even tacked on, or working on the door/lockpost areas.

In the interim, he has been working on improving the old repair to the accident damage in the tail section, which was pulled out in rather poor fashion many years ago and then covered with a pretty thick layer of filler.

In the interim, I kept my motivation up by spending money (of course!) and rebuilding/cleaning/selling parts. As for selling: in the last three years I built up quite an inventory of parts I either needed or thought I would need for the car, including a set of high-compression forged pistons and cylinders, aluminum valve covers, extra cams/cam gears, rods, etc. I got good deals on eBay and I couldn't pass them up. You know the drill, if you have ever had a real taste of eBay. Well, I got together everything I knew I wasn't going to end up using and resold it. I cleaned everything up and made most of it better than it was before I purchased it, and I got my money back, sometimes a bit more. All very nice because I had some expensive purchases left for the C motor.

I got around to ordering most of the missing parts for completing the C motor overhaul, including a set of big bore pistons and cylinders, as well as a full flow oil pump cover from Precision Matters. Ron LaDow, the proprietor of Precision Matters, has always been very helpful with advice and answers for me throughout the 356 restoration, and I totally believe that his full flow oil filter is a great key to longevity for 356 motors. The original 356 motor only has a bypass oil filter design, which Ron's careful and scientific analysis has shown only filters a miniscule portion of oil. With bearing, crank, rod, etc. prices being what they are, metal and other foreign object contamination (and damage) is not what we need. Full flow oil filtration should solve this problem in most cases. While the pump cover is expensive ($495), it would more than pay for itself with any one expensive engine rebuild part. Piece of mind is worth a great deal as well. I'll have a review as it is installed and used.

The other thing I've done is rebuild my fuel pump. The one that came with the car didn't have any pumping action left in it. I ordered a rebuild kit a few months ago; they cost between $25-30 and included a new pump diaphram, filter, and screw set. Installation is pretty much as easy as splitting the pump housing, replacing the diaphram and filter, and screwing things back together with the proper springs in place. It is much more cost effective than a new fuel pump, which would cost on the order of $200.

I hope my next entry will include shots of the last stages of bodywork on the shell of my 356 coupe!

Posted by pbrown at March 26, 2005 10:34 PM