My first vehicle! 1956 CJ5

[gmwillys]

Bmorgil is offering great advice. '56, I know your dilemma well and have played on both ends of the spectrum of whether or not to perform a total rebuild. Our Heep was a back yard mosquito fogger when purchased. It sat in a garage stall for years being used very seldom. After my Grandfather retired, he was looking for a rig to go around the farm on. An agreement was made that he could have the Heep for nothing and could do as he pleased with it. He brought it home and pulled it into the shop to see why it was burning so much oil. He found that one piston had a hole in the face of it, drawing oil into the combustion chamber, and pushing oil out of the PCV system. Long story short, the one damaged piston was replaced with a quick dingle ball hone to knock down the high spots. Since the "rebuild" the engine has run well, but one can tell that it could use a total rebuild to make it run to perfection. It's great for trail rides and parts running/ice cream runs, but other than that it stays close to home. The Heep II wagon was started as a complete teardown and rebuild. Whenever I get the body work done up, then it will be time to figure out the driveline. I am figuring on going with one of Bmorgil's LS builds with a mild build since the wagon is already top heavy.

[bmorgil]

A Jeep Wagon with a nice high torque smooth running LS would be awesome gm! Let me know. We could put in a nice throttle body injected aluminum block LS.

I love your story on the piston in the Heep. I did a similar thing on a 1963 Ford Falcon. After doing everything correct, a "friend" folded a ring and then attempted to drive the piston in anyway. It took a sledge hammer and some other gyrations (my Dad) to get the stuck piston/ring assembly back out. It left a scratch .010" deep! I did use a hand hone and a few hours to hone it until the scratch was gone. Some oversize rings and it ran! It fouled that plug a little quicker than the others and that piston slapped a bit, but I was able to sell it to a fella who needed a cheap car. It ran for a long while. After some time it did start to foul that plug a lot after some miles got on it. Eventually that "sloppy" cylinder gave up. Like you said however, the new owner knew to baby it and not take it on endurance runs!

[gmwillys]

Since I have had the Heep in my care, the engine runs well, but I can tell it's starting to get tired. The plugs all look good, and it doesn't smoke excessively, albeit that she runs a bit on the fat side of fuel to air ratio until it warms up. As long as it does what I ask of it, I'll keep her going for Gramp's memory. Then when it's time, it will get a full mechanical overhaul.

The wagon had an early 350 SBC when it was purchased at the farm auction, and it was tired then. I was bouncing back and forth about rebuilding the SBC and applying a Holley Sniper fuel injection kit, but after hearing how good Bmorgil's pickup sounds, I think I might as well go that route.

[56willys]

Since I have had the Heep in my care, the engine runs well, but I can tell it's starting to get tired. The plugs all look good, and it doesn't smoke excessively, albeit that she runs a bit on the fat side of fuel to air ratio until it warms up. As long as it does what I ask of it, I'll keep her going for Gramp's memory. Then when it's time, it will get a full mechanical overhaul.

The wagon had an early 350 SBC when it was purchased at the farm auction, and it was tired then. I was bouncing back and forth about rebuilding the SBC and applying a Holley Sniper fuel injection kit, but after hearing how good Bmorgil's pickup sounds, I think I might as well go that route.

That's about how flossy ran, plugs always look good (and they are vintage plugs from who knows when) and only on very rare occasions would it puff a little smoke. Mostly after idling fo a while, it would smoke when I revved it up, then would clear out and be fine. It always felt good on power, although I've never been in other willys jeeps to compare.

Putting an LS in that wagon would be awesome. Even a stock 4.8 with a truck intake would have a good bit of power and be a huge improvement over stock. That's where I'm stuck with Flossy because if I engine swap it, the chassis is so short that I wouldn't really improve mph. Where as a wagon I feel like is big enough that with a Saginaw steering box and a few upgrades could cruise 65 mph pretty well.

[56willys]

Alright I called my first engine builder. He said that he's backed up and can't touch it until the end of July, so much for that feeling of optimism, haha! I called another machine shop and he said he can definitely get it done pretty quickly. Told me to finish getting it torn apart then bring it over and he will look it over and go from there. So there's still hope. He said he'll work with me to make it run well with the least amount of expensive work. But make sure I don't have to do it again. I'll get it to a bare block, then clean it up and take it to him, he said he can measure it while I'm there and give me an estimate on pricing.

Thanks Bm for the tips on oil pump removal, I was worried about heating it up. But I held a torch to the block for like 20 seconds. Then a couple light taps and it slid right out!

Hopefully it will work out at the machine shop, he's done work for a friend of mine. I'm just thinking back to what led me here, one little 40 dollar seal. Should have kept putting oil in it, haha! But it will be good to have it built, it would have been much worse had it completely blown up and left me without a usable block.

[bmorgil]

You are going at it the right way '56. The machinist will fix what you need.

Will it run better? Lets analyze it. The cylinder with the hole in the piston and the busted rings was not firing. It takes combustion pressure to fire. So if you fix that problem you will pick up one more cylinder, as well as a much smoother running engine. So if your engine was sealing compression like a brand new motor, it was making 75 hp. As the compression pressure drops, so does the horsepower. Picking up one cylinder is 18 hp. and 28.5 ft.lbs. of torque. A 25% increase is hard to get without nitro.

In order for the engine to "smoke" the oil needs to be mixed with the hot fire of a combustion event. Since Flossy didn't smoke per se, that tells us that cylinder was good and dead. Sometimes sufficient oil will build in the cylinder and make its way to the hot exhaust manifold and other cylinders, like when it idles for a while or, it gets to a higher rpm. When that occurs it lets all the smoke out.

[56willys]

You are going at it the right way '56. The machinist will fix what you need.

Will it run better? Lets analyze it. The cylinder with the hole in the piston and the busted rings was not firing. It takes combustion pressure to fire. So if you fix that problem you will pick up one more cylinder, as well as a much smoother running engine. So if your engine was sealing compression like a brand new motor, it was making 75 hp. As the compression pressure drops, so does the horsepower. Picking up one cylinder is 18 hp. and 28.5 ft.lbs. of torque. A 25% increase is hard to get without nitro.

In order for the engine to "smoke" the oil needs to be mixed with the hot fire of a combustion event. Since Flossy didn't smoke per se, that tells us that cylinder was good and dead. Sometimes sufficient oil will build in the cylinder and make its way to the hot exhaust manifold and other cylinders, like when it idles for a while or, it gets to a higher rpm. When that occurs it lets all the smoke out.

What your saying makes since, now that I think about it. It always did have a bit of a (stutter is the wrong term) but something like that at idle. Almost like a partial misfire. I always thought it was a carb issue. And the exhaust valve in that cylinder is much darker then the rest.

[56willys]

Another question, I'm about ready to pull the cam out. The timing gear is tight on the cam and I don't have a puller that will work on it. The gear is a plastic type material and I feel like it's pretty fragile. Rather then attempt to pull it off and possibly break the gear (I don't need another part to buy) can I remove the cam with the gear in place. It looks like I can get to the retainer bolts through the gear. But I'm not sure if the motor plate will be in the way. Other then to pull the cam I don't think there's any reason why the gear needs to come off.

[bmorgil]

Yes on yours you can pull the cam with the gear on. Make sure the lifters are out of course! On a chain set up it wouldn't work because the chain will bind unless you loosen the gear.

Before you remove it, check the backlash between the gear teeth. Most people throw away the cam gear and replace it as a good practice. Since we are on an "economy run" here, if the fiber gear checks out good, save the money. Likewise on the cam. Make absolutely sure you know what lifter came off of which lobe. Do not mix up the lifters to cam lobe relationship. If the shop says the cam and lifters check OK, reuse them. In mine I still have the original cam and lifters. They were still in great shape. Not a lot of spring pressure or cylinder pressure in the "Go Devil". It is gentle on a lot of components.

[LarrBeard]

"Make sure the lifters are out of course! "

YES! Once upon a time about 1964 I rotated the cam gear to get access to a bolt. I reached through the hole in the gear and then the cam slipped off the top of the lobe. MY FINGER WAS CAUGHT BETWEEN THE GEAR AND THE BOLT HEAD. You can't drag a motor around by the tip of your finer. I was caught!

I was able to reach a wrench and turn the camshaft using the bolt that holds the gear. Lost the fingernail but I learned a lesson.