Lovey, the 1955 Eldorado restoration story

[Roger Zimmermann]

Bad luck. Why did not use brass plugs?

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I agree with Roger.   Brass is better.

Plus, with all the pounding that can be seen on the replaced ones, it is no wonder they are leaking.   All it takes to seat them is for one swift "well-placed" dent in the centre to deform these to sufficiently seal.   What you have to do is, hit the centre once, thereby deforming the outer diameter to press hard against the hole side.   Hitting multiple times all over the place is only leading for inaccurate distortion.

When I fit these, I use a small amount of Loctite sealer to assist in the sealing.   Never had one leak.

Bruce.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Thanks guys for the tips.  These plugs are what I found, I did not locate brass ones.  There was a light coating of Permatex applied to the plugs and block prior to insertion.  As for hitting, since the engine is in the car, limited distance to get a hammer on it and only a couple have direct access so it is difficult to seat them like you would out of the car.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

When I find access problems, I find a way of using an extender, like a Socket extention, and try and bring the hitting end out to somewhere more easily struck so I don't hurt myself, or other parts.

Bruce.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

If you absolutely can't knock in a brass plug, these will work.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NOE6004002?impressionRank=9

Get the right size and your in business.

Mike

[David King (kz78hy)]

If you absolutely can't knock in a brass plug, these will work.

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NOE6004002?impressionRank=9

Get the right size and your in business.

Mike

Thanks Mike,  I've used these in the past for an emergency.  It was a fail in the head as the plug could not be fully seated and blew out...2 different times. 

We will get this fixed w/either the brass or redoing the steel ones.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Yesterday was a full day on the car.  Oil sender replaced, fuel pump, radiator removed and reinstalled.  Fuel pump pivot shaft was removed & inspected.  A very slight bend to it, just a few thousands.  Noticed the fuel pump housing was warped a little down at the lower end.  the pull off gasket had good witness marks on the upper portion, but faded out down low and oil was getting past it.  We used some special loctite stuff I had left over from rebuilding leveling valve which lock the parts and can provide slight filling of any gaps, this was use on the ends of the pivot shaft.  A little RTV on the new pump gasket.  It was dry during test.

The coolant fittings out of the water pump showed slight weeping so that was addressed.  Had to remove the radiator for that. 

There is still oil coming out the rear of the engine, not terrible, but enough not to live with it.  Going to replace the pan gasket again with a different gasket (going to use Best vs. Felpro) and also do the rear main seal while we are in there.

One success was to find and fix the A/C leak in the 58 Eldo Brougham and get that charged and working after several years of not working.  I hope this lasts a while.

[David King (kz78hy)]

2 months later and another attempt at the leaking oil.  Yesterday my friend and I replaced the pan and rear main seals.  The seals in place did not present with an obvious issue.  The seal to grooves in the block and cap were tight, no room for shim/gasket material.  I bought both of the seals discussed in a thread in the Technical page to pick the one we thought would work best.  The seal removed looked to be the Best brand version.

We inspecting the seals we noticed the Best version did not match up well to itself where it meets.  There was an out of round condition and joint between the them was not molded with a perfect fit or matching surface, these had void in it.

The Felpro one was round and both halves matched together much better, so it was decided to use it.

The seal was slightly clocked in the groove to have one end extend ~3/16" to mate up the cap halve.

Once it was back together and tested, it was dry for the warmup run.  Fingers crossed this finally killed my oil leaking issue.  No coolant leak either, but the brake master is leaking, so it has to come off, again.  At least this is not as hard and the other issues.

[David King (kz78hy)]

More photos of the rear main seal replacement.

[David King (kz78hy)]

more photos.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Brake master was pulled off around Christmas time.  Broke the mounting foot attempting to remove the head cap.  Bought a new unit from Caddy Caddy and head cap is 1/4" and mine is the 5/16", so I had to swap the head caps.  No wrenches big enough so I bought new big wrenches and sockets.  I managed to lose the clevis pin that connects the brake pedal arm to the master cylinder clevis, so I order a pin and washers from Fastenal, should be here tomorrow.

So, brakes are almost reinstalled and photos next time I post.  I'm getting back into the garage to get this beast finished.