Winter happenings-Moving into Spring

[81cutlass]

Dad bought this 73 IH 1110 pickup with a 345 V8 back in '03 I think. Probably the most rust free international out there. Spent most of its time in Texas. Originally it had some Ford plastic hub caps over some steel wheels and was in decent shape. At one point sombody did a poor job painting it lime green... Why? It was orginally a nice two tone blue with a yellow roof. Finally got enough time and I feel comfortable painting it now so its time to go back to the original paint scheme.

In 05 Dad welded in a early 90's Dodge IFS front end. Got rid of the stock solid axle drum brake front end. Changed seats twice, installed a vintage air AC system, changed wheels, ect.

3 years ago the motor started to run crappy. Ran rough, missed, ticked BAD. Put it in storage. Built the cutlass, built the firebird, fixed a jeep.

And now to the current time. Pulled the motor to discover the ticking was from the exhaust manifold gaskets being entirely shot. Its known that IH's have cam bearing issues, the bearings de-laminate and the cam journals dump all the oil. Top end looses all oil pressure. That happened on this motor. Also, the bearings got loose and the cam gears jumped a tooth or two. (factory gear drive) Reason why the motor ran like crap. Put in new bearings and a cam, re-ringed the pistons, honed the block. Moved on to the body, pulled the box off, fixing rust (its an IH, it rusts like nuts) and cleaning the interior up.

 

[Doug213xrj]

Re: Winter happenings

Nice work.




Doug

 

[DRIVEN]

Re: Winter happenings

I love Internationals! A late 60's trunk is on my "cars to own before I die" list. Those engines are absolutely burly. I noticed you said you honed it instead of bored it. I've been told that many machine shops won't even do that because the blocks have such a high nickle content that it's hard on their equipment. Not sure if that's true or not but from my (limited) experience, I kind of believe it. Got any more pics of it all together before the work started?

 

[Oldsmoletick]

Re: Winter happenings

Very cool project! There's a 68 IH in my soon to be garage, lol. The owner is trying to sell it, nice truck though.

 

[81cutlass]

Re: Winter happenings

The motor is stupid heavy. Cast iron intake, water pump, essentially everything along with a massive block. Its larger than a BBO and is 110 cubes less. Broke a come-along taking it out of the truck. Each head weighs more than my buick v6 block.

I dont know if the machine shops wont bore them but the motor had zero ledge where the rings usually wear the block away. Truck had like 100K miles on it I think.

I have a few pics.
Few weeks ago

3 years ago, thats my turbo 3.8 sitting on the mobile engine stand on the back.

 

[burgundy83]

Re: Winter happenings

If you end up real desperate for parts, my favorite local pick-a-part has maybe 6 or nearly rust free International pickups, none complete but seems like one could make a couple trucks out of them. It would be quite a drive lol, but I could probably ship stuff this summer. Just sayin And I've heard the same thing about machine shops not wanting to work on those engines because of the nickel. Nice truck!

 

[81cutlass]

Been working on the pickup pretty steady. Built 2" lowering shackes for the rear axle, epoxy primed the box, fenders and underhood area, sprayed 2K primer and am currently blocking it out. Also finished the interior mostly, used SEM paint to paint the seats and built some door panels. Not bad for my first time uphoulstering.

 

[DRIVEN]

Update?

 

[81cutlass]

Yes, it is mostly done. I was gone most of the summer with work and am now in college but I was able to plug away on it on the weekends. I will update from when I last posted.

Primed with 2k

In paint

Assembled

Dropping in the motor

Paint always looked like crap from the day I sprayed it. Looked like I stood 10 feet back and dusted the clear on. Broke down and bought a buffer and compound and 1500grit paper for the DA. Made it look 100% better. Cut the dust off and really leveled out the orange peel. Today I washed it good and gave it a good wax which helped alot too. Also got the dodge ralley wheels put on and put some beauty rings on. Still needs center caps but its close!

 

[81cutlass]

So it still needs carpet, and the seats to be recovered. The seat is out of a salvage yard 71 Travelall. 40 year old fabric sitting in the sun is britle so the drivers side seat got a big tear in from sitting on it. Have a bath towel on it to keep from exploding but dad and I are sick of working on it so its going to be like that for a while. Also has indoor/outdoor carpet for flooring since the carpet is special order and the interior isnt done yet so we dont want to get it dirty. Needs more paint on the kick panels and a little lighting and stuff but its quiet inside so thats all I ask.

Other wierd stuff-

When the motor first started up there was a bad water leak out of the intake. Thought for sure the intake was going to have to come off and put silicone on the water passages. Let the motor cool off after break in and started it up and it stopped leaking! Had another minor leak in the front coolant crossover tube but that was fixed with a bottle of aviation gasket maker. I love that stuff, never hardens so you dont have to scrape it off but seals great. Its a PITA to get off the paint though, dont ask.

Just a fun daily driver!