Extreme Elco Engine Swap! - Roadkill Episode 4
On this episode of Roadkill
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Here comes the police. We're already going to get arrested, we haven't even left yet.
00:26 On this episode of Roadkill, we've loaded ourselves up with a '69 El Camino running on all seven cylinders.
00:31 This car smokes worse than a blue hair on a heater at the penny slots in Reno.
00:35 It needs a new engine, so we're going to go to Reno and put a new engine in it.
00:38 We've got, what, four days before Easter? Four days.
00:41 And whenever we do an engine swap, you end up running back and forth to the parts store like, you know, 30, 40 times.
00:46 So instead, we're going to the parking lot at Summit Racing where they have everything,
00:50 and we're going to change the engine right there in the lot.
00:52 We're cutting out the middle, man.
00:55 I bought a case of oil to get us to Sparks, Nevada, which is about 500 miles, and that's not enough oil to get us there.
01:01 Al Gore would lose his mind if he knew what we were doing today.
01:05 That is a pit bull.
01:11 Yep.
01:12 What is a pit bull doing in the car?
01:14 I might not have mentioned this, but I have to dog sit this weekend.
01:18 I just upholstered this seat, dog. If you barf, you die.
01:22 My life.
01:25 All right, finally.
01:27 Dog, get your paw out of my ass.
01:30 The really cool thing about this El Camino is that it's been in Finnegan's family since it was brand new.
01:42 His wife's grandfather bought it in 1969, and it's passed down through the family, ultimately to her.
01:48 It's been a really good driver in bone stock condition, but it has a jillion miles on it and is just a horrible smoker.
01:55 So, we're pretty much going to break the seal on this trip.
01:58 Should we just leave the dog in the car?
02:11 Sneak her through the casino, I think.
02:13 She looks comfy there, though.
02:15 Yeah, she's good.
02:16 Okay, let's check in.
02:18 [Engine revving]
02:20 Summit Racing, Sparks, Nevada.
02:23 I have spent so much money that's been shipped to me from here, I don't even want to think about it.
02:28 They're going to have every single part we need.
02:30 No.
02:30 We're going to make a lot of trips in and out of the showroom.
02:32 No, I'm betting you there's something critical that we have to have that for some reason they're out of stock on.
02:38 Something.
02:38 We'll just ignore that part.
02:40 If they don't have it, we don't need it?
02:41 That's right.
02:42 I can rock and roll with that.
02:43 We'll go around this way. There's like a big lot.
02:45 This is plenty of wide open space.
02:46 No one's going to notice when we leave a three-foot-around ATF stain on the floor right here, right?
02:51 I bet we can get it apart before anybody even notices.
02:54 Let's go see if they got the motor.
02:56 Is this a fart dog?
02:58 I think so.
02:59 Dude, she's jogging.
03:00 She is. Look at that. Picking up the pace.
03:02 That's never happened before.
03:03 I know.
03:04 Whoa.
03:07 This is like a speed shop, but much bigger.
03:11 I take it back. They're going to have everything we need.
03:13 We ordered a crate motor. We're here to pick it up.
03:15 And we need one of everything to put it in an El Camino in your parking lot.
03:18 Today.
03:19 We're going to see you a thousand times today. I guarantee it.
03:22 Yeah.
03:23 It's a 450-horse Blueprint 383.
03:25 We're going to need like header gaskets, water pump, accessory drive stuff.
03:30 Fluids.
03:31 Fluids, throttle linkage.
03:32 I forgot the tilty thing for the hoist.
03:34 We need the tilty thing for the hoist. Probably a whole lot of oil dry.
03:38 Pretend like a woman was doing this by herself in the middle of nowhere.
03:42 And that would be him.
03:44 Wow.
03:44 Dick.
03:45 Let me get my manager, James, out here.
03:48 Let me get you guys set up.
03:49 Okay.
03:50 Hey guys.
03:50 How's it going?
03:51 Mike.
03:51 Good. I'm James.
03:52 I'm going to destroy your parking lot.
03:53 Oh gosh.
03:54 Oh, we can get some more stuff for you.
03:55 Yeah, we need one of everything.
03:56 All right, let's go.
03:57 That's the sexiest crate I've ever seen.
04:14 You ever seen this happen to your parking lot before?
04:16 No, sir. I have not.
04:17 That's good. Thanks a lot.
04:20 Hey, David, where'd you pack those gloves?
04:21 Gloves are in the top of my green duffel bag there.
04:25 It's 10 of 2. It's snowing.
04:28 It would be really nice to get this done before dark.
04:30 That's not happening, but I like our chances.
04:32 You don't think that's happening?
04:33 No. Before dark?
04:34 How long do you think it's actually going to take to do this?
04:36 It's just a small block Chevy into a car that has a small block Chevy.
04:41 I'm saying five hours tops.
04:43 Five hours. So let's say if it's two o'clock right now,
04:46 you think we're going to be done at seven?
04:47 Ish.
04:48 Ish.
04:49 I will lay $100 that we're done at seven if you don't sabotage this on purpose
04:53 or through your own tomfoolery.
04:54 Okay, I'll just go ahead and call it eight o'clock.
04:56 Then it'll be another two hours of messing with timing and leaks
05:00 and the transmission blowing up and stuff before we actually go start drinking at the casino.
05:04 Oh, you want to actually think about, you know, doing it right.
05:07 Oh God, then we're not going to be done till tomorrow.
05:09 If we make a plan, you do this, you do this,
05:11 so we're not just both standing around in each other's way.
05:14 First thing, torque converter bolts.
05:15 Second thing, exhaust off the headers.
05:18 Third, headers off the motor.
05:19 Then you can get to the motor mounts.
05:21 I can be doing that while you're tearing off the front dress on the thing.
05:25 And at that point, it's bellhousing bolts and hoses and wires and out.
05:30 Ow, that hurt.
05:33 Woo!
05:34 That was a close one.
05:35 This was a brand new set of headers.
05:37 The cylinders are actually firing are gray.
05:39 The pipe of the cylinder that's dead is black.
05:42 The paint's brand new.
05:43 You could grab this.
05:44 It's not even hot.
05:45 Got it.
05:48 Did we forget to disconnect, like, the squirter?
05:51 Yeah, just pull it.
05:52 The lines were dry rotted anyway.
05:54 I'm going to go buy another jack because I'm tired of this one.
06:01 It's not going great so far.
06:02 The first thing is I got a blood blister on my finger from the engine hoist.
06:06 And then this jack that we brought with us is complete junk.
06:09 It's like folding under the weight of the car and not working the way it's supposed to.
06:12 So that's already cost us about 15 minutes.
06:14 In addition to swapping the engine, we're just going to go ahead and restore the whole car while we're here.
06:22 See how the back window here is really loose?
06:24 You push it in and out and it rattles and annoyed us on the way up here.
06:27 So the glass guy is going to come fix that.
06:29 Headers are off.
06:30 Converter bolts are out.
06:31 Wiring's undone.
06:33 I'd say we're probably, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes from having the motor out.
06:36 Lots of black clouds.
06:38 It might get wet.
06:39 Not worried about it.
06:41 This was held on with all one bolt.
06:45 Our last escapade with the Ranchero, at like 2 in the morning, we needed a pulley for the front of the motor.
06:51 And we thought, oh, we'll rob a pulley off of this.
06:54 And we got halfway through unbolting the fan and gave up or something.
06:58 Changed our plan and never put the bolts back in.
07:01 So we just drove 500 miles with only one bolt holding the fan on the car.
07:04 But the way I see it, we just proved that the other three were not needed.
07:08 They were quitters.
07:09 Yeah.
07:10 This is genuine snow.
07:14 Where's the dog?
07:16 Right there?
07:17 Hey, dog. You doing good, dog?
07:18 Okay.
07:19 It's 3.30.
07:26 I think we've been working for not quite an hour yet.
07:30 And we're almost ready to yank the motor out.
07:33 We just got to get a couple hoses undone,
07:36 clean up the mess we're about to make when we drop coolant all over the ground,
07:39 and then hook the hoist to it and yank it.
07:41 This is efficient.
07:47 Yeah!
07:50 Not our parking lot.
07:52 Yeah, this is pretty bad.
07:54 Oh, we'll clean it up flawlessly.
08:00 Things are going really well, except for the bolts in the bell housing.
08:03 They just aren't going to come out.
08:04 We're gashing ourselves on sheet metal screws coming through the firewall.
08:06 We're smashing our fingers.
08:08 We're cursing.
08:09 And it's slowing us down quite a bit.
08:11 And I've already spent about 20 minutes doing what Finnegan's doing here.
08:14 And maybe if he spends another 20 minutes on it,
08:17 then we'll be able to take a break and spend another 20 or 30 minutes on it.
08:19 It's now stripped.
08:20 And it's now stripped.
08:21 So that will turn into roughly two and a half hours.
08:24 Okay.
08:26 If we could point this downwards and you could somehow leverage it while I hold it up top,
08:30 we could probably get this out.
08:32 [Bleep]
08:33 [Bleep]
08:34 I'm in a bad mood, so I'm just going to open up this so I can at least see the new motor.
08:38 That'll cheer me up a little.
08:40 It's beautiful.
08:48 It's a lot better than that piece of crap we're ripping out.
08:52 But I'm staring at it realizing we need even more parts now.
08:55 What makes you think this piece of crap is coming out?
08:58 I got faith in you. Get the bolt out.
09:01 It's only one bolt. Come on.
09:03 Is it technically a bolt when the head is like perfectly machined round?
09:07 I'm getting that bolt out.
09:09 I promise you, you are not going to get that bolt out.
09:12 I'm way too angry not to get it out.
09:14 There's no way that you are getting that bolt out at all.
09:17 Because it's in my hand, bitch.
09:21 You're a dumbass.
09:22 Make me get back in the car.
09:24 [Music]
09:29 Looking great.
09:30 Feeling great.
09:32 Oh, we don't have motor feet to put this on.
09:35 We need to go back in the store.
09:38 What time is it?
09:39 Five o'clock.
09:40 Five? So we need to get running in two hours for your bet and three hours for mine.
09:45 Or five hours before the store closes.
09:47 This right here is what one would call the power steering low pressure return line.
09:52 You didn't disconnect that?
09:54 Let me check. No, I didn't.
09:55 [Music]
10:01 Engine lift plate, carburetor bolt-on style.
10:04 [Music]
10:08 Woohoo!
10:09 I'll just take this drain pan which has absolutely no liquid in it from the previous spill.
10:20 [Splashing]
10:28 That reminds me. I think I need to go pee.
10:31 It's 5.30 which means it took us three and a half hours to get the old engine out.
10:38 The good news is that it is out. The bad news is that that was supposed to be the fast part.
10:42 Now we have to figure out all the little things that are different between the new engine and the old one.
10:47 So we're kind of behind schedule now but we will prevail.
10:49 We will be working in the dark but we'll prevail.
10:52 [Music]
11:01 War parts.
11:09 The sun came out but it came under the clouds.
11:12 It's actually colder than it has been all day today.
11:14 And we got to get to work.
11:17 [Music]
11:21 I'm literally freezing my giblets off right now.
11:24 [Music]
11:34 A lot of people don't realize that you can adjust your starter clearance to your flywheel with the engine out of the car.
11:40 This is the famous Chevy shim situation where I'm going to add a shim just because the engagement is a little bit tight
11:46 which moves the starter down which moves the centerline of the starter gear away from the ring
11:52 and just makes a little bit looser fit so it doesn't make that horrible noise that Chevys make when they're wrong.
11:57 [Music]
12:01 8.15 way past either one of our estimates.
12:04 Well 15 minutes past my estimate but as you can see we're nowhere near close.
12:08 And right now the mandrel for the harmonic balancer installer is stuck in the end of the crank and we're trying to solve that.
12:15 And Summit is going to stay open for us till 10 o'clock tonight which is very cool.
12:18 But what that means is we've got a little bit less than two hours to get this thing in the car
12:22 and get every single part we need to wrap this thing up.
12:25 So sketchy as usual.
12:28 Ultimately the answer is we had to buy a balancer puller.
12:31 I'm going to pull it off, take that little yoke or little stud out and then put it all back together.
12:37 Just a complete time killer. It's one of those things.
12:41 You ever sit in a spa too long and it's just way too hot you know and you got to get out and get back in.
12:46 Have a beer. This doesn't feel like that.
12:50 The balancer problem set us back an easy hour. I blame Freiburger completely for that.
12:57 We're just trying to figure out what last minute things we need before the store closes
13:01 because Summit's literally done for the day.
13:03 So if we don't have everything we need we're probably not going to finish this till tomorrow.
13:08 I'll go to the Nice Warm store.
13:10 Ah, s***.
13:12 We walked into Summit, ordered the last few parts, our final fling for an order
13:22 and it poured snow apparently when we were gone because check it out the windshield is like covered.
13:27 All our stuff, tools, everything covered in snow when we came out.
13:30 Which I take as the perfect timing to have been inside, right?
13:34 My tools are cleaner. That's the way I'm looking at it.
13:37 Check this out.
13:42 How's the dowel alignment on your side over there?
13:54 The motor's rocked up so it's not even close.
13:58 Nope. Fail.
14:01 Do you know there's still a dog in the car?
14:03 Really? Yeah.
14:05 Well we spent like two hours with Finnegan directing trying to get this together
14:10 and when that failed I just pretty much slipped it together and we're about ready to go home.
14:14 I'm punching you.
14:16 Okay, wrap it up.
14:20 Engine, transmission, bolted together, bolted in the car.
14:23 Thing of beauty.
14:25 Now it'll just take us about 15-20 minutes to bolt in everything else and we should be down the road.
14:29 So yeah, it's one o'clock in the morning and we're kind of defeated.
14:34 Our choices are work all night long and then sleep all day tomorrow and ruin the day
14:38 or go back to the hotel, have a beer, go to sleep and wake up fresh in the morning.
14:43 That's what we're going to do.
14:45 Now it's Friday and after a little bit of sleep we were refreshed
14:52 and a bunch of things that seemed impossible last night fell right together today.
14:56 So we're looking good and I think we might be out of here in a couple hours.
14:59 There's the wrong plug wires.
15:07 So we're going to make probably our 37th trip into Summit Place.
15:12 Good thing we're here.
15:13 Once again proving that we're better off here than we were at home.
15:17 We've been talking about how the car's been running on 7 cylinders and this is the reason why.
15:21 That is a broken rocker stud.
15:23 That literally broke the day before we were leaving
15:26 and we thought, if we're replacing the motor anyway, we'll just drive on it.
15:29 It didn't hurt itself, it just smoked a lot.
15:31 So close and yet so far.
15:36 Do it!
15:39 Runs good!
15:40 Here we go!
15:46 Oh yeah!
15:48 No issues, not overheating or anything.
15:50 So stoked!
15:51 Snowstorm parking lot engine swap, done.
15:54 Cross that off the bucket list.
15:55 That was a long two days, but we're finally here.
15:59 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:01 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:03 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:05 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:07 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:09 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:11 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:13 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:15 We're going to get the car out of the car park.
16:17 Long two days, but it is running and it is running good.
16:21 So we're going to go drink beer, sleep, and hit the road in the morning.
16:25 Oh yeah!
16:27 Dog barf!
16:53 Stupid dog, we're leaving you here.
16:55 I hope you have some f****** Febreze, dude. It's everywhere.
16:58 That is disgusting. Look at that.
17:01 What if my wife finds out what happened to her seat?
17:04 Bleah!
17:06 Just kidding!
17:18 [Music]
17:20 Everything's been great so far this morning.
17:44 We're really happy with the way the car is running.
17:46 But we developed a pretty bad oil leak.
17:48 So now we're going to figure out what's up with that.
17:50 We pinched the gasket that was underneath the distributor.
17:56 So oil is coming out the back there where the distributor sits in the motor.
17:59 The only auto parts store in town doesn't have a distributor gasket.
18:02 But Freiburger came up with a great idea.
18:04 Robbing the one off of our brand new parts motor here.
18:06 So we're going to be all good.
18:08 [Music]
18:10 We're taking Highway 395 home to LA.
18:31 And it's just an awesome drive.
18:33 There's just so much to see. All kinds of cool nature and little towns all along the way.
18:38 I usually take a full day to see the sights.
18:40 But this time, unfortunately, we have to get home for Easter.
18:43 But that wasn't going to stop us from checking out this massive wrecking yard in Pearsonville.
18:48 '57 Ford. '56 Chevy.
18:51 Can we just move in here?
19:01 Oh, we need to check that out.
19:03 Alright, stay here. Hold down the El Camino.
19:10 That's like a '72 or '73.
19:13 That looks like a forestry truck.
19:15 This thing is money.
19:17 Small block. 318. Aftermarket air.
19:20 Hanta virus. Breathe deep.
19:22 This is crap.
19:24 I love it, but it's getting dark and we've got to get out of here.
19:26 But I'm going to force you to take that thing on our next trip. You wait.
19:30 It's not happening.
19:31 Let's go!
19:32 If you get the dog car sick, it's all over.
19:38 Stop it!
19:39 Don't lick me with your barf tongue!
19:41 No barf tongue!
19:43 All in all, I'd say that the trip went exactly as planned.
19:48 Which means bad.
19:50 I mean, after all, what were we thinking?
19:52 Snowstorm, parts missing, stripped bolts.
19:54 We should have known this was going to take forever.
19:56 But you know what? That's the fun we have on Roadkill.
19:59 We already know the El Camino runs really strong and cruises on the highway.
20:03 But we've got to do more thrashing than that.
20:06 Watch for that on our show Hot Rod Unlimited.
20:09 Laziest dog ever.
20:14 Dog.
20:16 Don't lick my face! Don't lick my face!
20:18 And that won't go under there.
20:27 You can lift it up four inches and use the leveler to tilt it and get all the fluid out.
20:31 Hello? Who's the authority here? Thank you!
20:35 So what you do in this situation is you just pick the engine up a little bit.
20:39 And then you use the leveler to tilt it to drain the water into the pan.
20:46 What's that going to do now that the parking lot is ruined?
20:48 It depends.
20:49 That's doing nothing.
20:51 Oh no, the other side is absorbent.
20:53 I think it's a bit late for that.
20:55 This side avoids the telltale sign on the panties.
20:58 You have successfully ruined this parking lot.
21:02 Call the EPA.
21:04 Can we be bottom gear?
21:07 I want to be low gear. Can I be low gear?
21:11 Oh my doggie.
21:13 Oh my doggie.
21:15 Don't lick my face.
21:16 Don't lick my face.
21:18 Look how cute you are, how much you snort.
21:21 Don't lick my face.
21:23 Don't lick my face.
21:24 Fire it up.
21:25 Hold on, we're having a moment.
21:27 I don't need to watch that.
21:29 Hmm, okay.
21:30 Go ahead, just stand anywhere.
21:33 I didn't need that nut anyway.
21:36 Bad dog stink.
21:40 [Music]
21:46 (upbeat music)