Finally time for an update. I ended up building a nice garage/shop starting at the end of the summer and officially finished it in January. This big project meant the 40 had to hibernate longer. The new garage is great and I am excited to have the space. It is detached from the house, but only a few feet from the backdoor. It has in-floor heat, a dedicated “project vehicle” space and plenty of room for stuff to happen. There is an upper story loft space with ample space for small wrenching (bikes, waxing skis, etc), storage, and a large home office room.I call it a loft, but it does have full headroom.
The garage is two bays deep and has doors on both ends for the one side which is nice because I can get a vehicle from my alley into my backyard if I want. The garage door that opens to the backyard will be especially nice this summer for working with the door open.Anyways, enough about the garage.
I pulled the 40 out of hibernation a couple of weeks ago and the first item to tackle was cleaning out all the dirt and mouse turds from the interior. I found some interesting bug cocoons underneath the gas tank.
After looking at the engine again I decided it is worth trying to get the 2f running and hopefully the whole 40 driving down the road in “as-is” condition. I was worried there might be moisture in the engine from the valve cover not being sealed on top of the engine, but it seems all good after a good wipe down.
I put some marvel mystery oil in the spark plug holes and all over the valve train letting it soak overnight and then repeating the process. It actually feels really smooth. I drained the oil too (what little was left in it) and put fresh oil into it.
The pic above shows the current status of the engine. The carb and battery tray was never reinstalled with the replacement engine. I started laying out the parts to do this and realized I’m missing some crucial items. The valve cover nuts are missing and are a special nut because of the shoulder they have that fits down into the donut gaskets. The carb isolator is also missing - it is a thick plastic spacer for anyone who might not be familiar with it. The front hard fuel line is missing too. I sent a message to Abe to see if he has this stuff in a box somewhere by chance and I’m waiting to hear back. I am hoping he does. Otherwise I'm looking for them in case someone has them sitting around? From what Abe told me and the number on the block this is an 83 2F.
I have some other big updates on build plans, but I’ll stick with the basics here as I want to get this 40 started.