Picked up a 4 speed jetfire

[jensenracing77]

I pulled the turbo system and intake manifold tonight. I will try to get all the bad antifreeze out of the heads and intake. I will also have to replace all the rubber hoses. I have 5 lifters that will not pump up and making lots of noise. I am planning to pull the lifters and rebuild them tomorrow and put them back in. I am only doing enough to this car to get it running as good as I can for what is there. I don’t plan on spending any more money on it than I have to at this time. I hope to get it to the point of “lot driving” and back in one piece. I don’t want this to be apart long term if i can help it.

On the back you can see the cobbled up mess for the coolant lines they did on the 62 cars. I am undecided if I will put it back together as a 62 or update it to the 63 style. I may leave it the 62 style till I rebuild the engine and turbo system at a later date (or later year)

You can also see the crystallized antifreeze in the head water port. I hope I can clean this all out good.

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[jensenracing77]

I have 14 of the lifters rebuilt. Turned out that all but 4 were stuck. I have two left that are stuck real bad. I have them soaking in carburetor cleaner now and will try to free them up later tonight or tomorrow. The rocker shafts and rocker tips are both very nice still. I for sure believe the miles are accurate with no more wear than there is. The odometer shows 44027 miles.

I did find that the passenger side rocker shaft will not come out without removing the heater blower motor housing. The back bolt is to long and hits. I just left it in place and raised it far enough to get the lifters out. I guess I could pull the cotter pin on the back side and slide the shaft out to the front but I will just leave it and not take it off.

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[jensenracing77]

Started cleaning the intake manifold and found that the antifreeze has eat up the inside real bad. I believe I can still use it but when I have some extra cash I will try to find an extra for when I rebuild the engine. This intake has a 158 date code on it and I would like to find one close to that.

I was also looking at the turbo setup and found that no longer than i had it running it completely coked up the turbine impeller. Obviously the seal is bad. I had already suspected that it was bad because I had some oil in it after I primed the oil pump with a drill. I had hoped that after it was spinning and with oil pressure it would seal but no luck. I was not wanting to dig into the turbo till I rebuilt the engine but looks like that is also going to have to be done now. I have the setup Jim rebuilt that I took off the automatic car still. I will pull the turbo from that setup and install it on the 4 speed carb setup. I have enough stuff that I should be able to get this system working as it should, I just didn’t want to do it yet. I will not do a “restoration” on the turbo system, just a rebuild so that it matches the used look of the car.

[jensenracing77]

I have one more lifter rebuilt but the other one for sure is not rebuildable. I got it freed up but after getting it apart, the inside bore of the lifter has to much corrosion to trust it. I will go ahead and buy one lifter for that lobe.

[jensenracing77]

Here are some pictures of the bad spots of the aluminum intake manifold. I think I can get it to work good enough till I do the full rebuild on the engine.

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[jensenracing77]

I was just contacted yesterday by the guy that did the story in Hot Rod magazine. He runs the Barn Find and Hidden Gems section of the MCACN (Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals). He asked if I could bring this car this year. We are thinking about it but just not sure yet. We were not able to go to the Oldsmobile nationals this year because something came up so maybe we will go to this??? Have to talk it over with my wife.

This is also part of the reason why I have not cleaned the car. They like that “as found” look for the barn find cars. I was going to start cleaning it next month when I am taking a vacation but I may just leave it dirty a little longer.

[jensenracing77]

Intake manifold is junk. I found some deep pitting inside the water port along an intake runner. I knew that area would have to be thin as deep as the pitting was. I used a 90 degree little poker and poked around from inside the intake runner and it poked right through to the water port. I have another one I can use but it is not a great one. I will eventually pick up another one but for now I will make my extra one work.

[jensenracing77]

Talking to a guy from the MCACN show and told him about this engine I got from Ken. He asked if I could bring it to display with the car. I had just put together a junk turbo system for a display but not going to take it now because I will take this. I have it mounted to a roll around cart so should be easy to load and unload.

I got the new lifters installed and the rocker shafts torqued down on the 4 speed car today. I should have it back up and running this weekend but I will have to use the old turbo that has a leaky seal. To have the car in the barn find section they don’t want to see to much replaced. They prefer it to look as found. The rebuilt turbo would look to nice under the hood. Looks like the turbo will be a winter project.

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[jensenracing77]

It’s alive again. I have to work on the fuel line from the tank, for temporary I just hooked a fuel hose from the pump to a fuel can. Runs much better with the lifters not stuck. Lots quieter also. I need to replace the crossover pipe also. It is rusted through in several places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODlI_v0Z7WY

[Greg Oakley]

WOW Eric the Jet looks great since you washed it! good to hear it running. Thanks for this post, very interesting.

Still looking for a Jetfire if you ever get tired of one of yours!

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