[b-man]

.....to check the condition of the reverse-flow cooling system pieces.

So off came the valve covers, intake manifold and valley pan.



The water pump still turns freely and the pump cavity looks to be in pretty decent shape.



After removing the balancer I can see the primitive cork front seal assembly has long ago stopped doing any sealing. Getting the front cover cut for a modern neoprene lip seal is definitely on my list of things to do.





Timing cover assembly removed, there's really no other way to get access to the cooling tubes in the heads since the rubber connecting hoses are rock-hard.





First peek at one of the thin stainless steel cooling tubes, driver's side shown here. I was sort of wondering if they'd even be in there at first.





Passenger side tube, clearly somebody in the past just crammed in the last bit and made a mess of the end of the tube, worse than on the driver's side tube.



I managed to straighten the end of the tube enough using long needle nose pliers and a thin screwdriver to be able to coax it out.



Here you can see one of the gusher holes in the tube that directs the coolant toward the valve seats.



Here's the cooling tube in all it's glory, there's really not a lot of information or pictures of these things available.





The cavity in the head is cast so that you can't insert the tube in the wrong orientation.



The driver's side tube was a lot more stubborn, I ended up using a C-clamp to hold the pliers tightly and then I tapped on the clamp with a lead hammer to finally free it.



Here again you can see the gusher holes in the tube pointing inward toward the valve seats.



Driver's side tube laid out for inspection. I'll have to do some careful straightening of both ends of these tubes before putting them back in the heads.





Another attempt at showing the shape of the cooling tube cavity in the head.



Cooling elbows after extracting them from the old hoses.





Timing cover ready for a long soaking in some cleaning solution.



I stuffed some rags into the cooling passages at both ends of the heads to keep any errant coolant or rust flakes out of the engine while I flip it upside down.



Some nice green coolant trickled out, a good sign.



The bottom end looks fairly clean.



A closer look at the heavy webbing cast into the lower end of the passenger side of the block.



A better look at the thick front main cap.



Measuring the the cap thickness with my cheap Harbor Freight garage calipers.



We have a 1.375" measurement.



All of the connecting rods have their corresponding cylinder numbers stamped in, telling me that someone's been inside here before.



Not only that, I see clear evidence of some knurling on the piston skirts as well.





I pulled the windage tray and dipstick tube, exposing some pretty clean-looking rear crank counterweights.



The oil pump pickup is pretty clogged-up with crud, I'll probably treat this old soldier to a lightly used modern Melling M54D 60 psi pump and pickup before buttoning it up.

[cuz68]

This is a very good thread, I enjoy it very much.

[BruceWilkie]

Notice the gusher tube has 8 large holes that directed cool water toward valve guides. I believe the other holes are for flow balance. Well engineered cooling system. Approx 85% of all coolant flow went thru the heads and back to radiator.
More details here... http://www.pontiacsafari.com/EngineCooling/index.htm

[BruceWilkie]

Nice pics Bart. Main cap is approx same height as 455. Definately taller than any 400 caps I've seen. Main webs are beefier at the piston undercuts as well. (fwiw pre 59 doent have reinforcing rib but otherwise quite beefy compared to 61 up.)

[b-man]

Originally Posted by BruceWilkie

Nice pics Bart. Main cap is approx same height as 455. Definately taller than any 400 caps I've seen. Main webs are beefier at the piston undercuts as well. (fwiw pre 59 doent have reinforcing rib but otherwise quite beefy compared to 61 up.)

Would be interesting if someone could measure a 326/350/'61 & up 389/400 front main cap and share the measurement with us for the sake of comparison.

[BruceWilkie]

Originally Posted by b-man

Would be interesting if someone could measure a 326/350/'61 & up 389/400 front main cap and share the measurement with us for the sake of comparison.

Posted that a few years ago in race section. I'll look thru my pics. My pc crashed somewhere around same time and not all my pics were backed up. Pics were 59 389 caps 69 400 caps and 73 455 caps.

[BruceWilkie]

Guess its search time... not sure if a post or thread. Maybe 2012?

[gavin]

Nice pics b-man I need to learn how to do that.These pics are a 62 block and a 69 block .I would think the 61 block would be the same the same as the 62 block.Don't know about 63-64 blocks but wasn't 63 the year they went to thin wall blocks?Maybe they lightened the caps too.

[gavin]

Just looked at one of marvs posts in the 62-66 forum and his 64 engine is there with its pants off.The mains look fairly big to me.

[b-man]

.....an oil pan in better shape than this one.

Imagine that, the oldest Pontiac engine I've ever had the pleasure to play around with has the most perfect oil pan, not a dent or ding to be seen. It was also the filthiest one I've ever had to clean.

Oil pan porn.





Here you can clearly see where the new for 1959 Pontiac light blue paint dripped down the sides of the pan while the engine was being painted on the assembly line over 56 years ago.









Back on again keeping dirt out of the 389.



The timing cover cleaned up pretty nice too.

I can't believe how heavy it is.

[b-man]

PY member Bruce Meyer pointed out how deep the '59 pan looked compared to later pans, in the Street forum where I'm running this same thread subject. I really hadn't noticed it myself, but I was curious and got out the tape measure.

Good eye on the oil pan Bruce.

I measured my '64 421 HO oil pan and it is 6-7/8" deep at the center of the flat portion of the sump to the top of the pan rail.



The 1959 pan measures 7-7/8" in the same spot, one full inch deeper.

[mechanickeith]

The deep pans should be running 7 quarts total with a full sized filter.

[Jack Gifford]

Was there more than one '59 pan? I didn't recall them being that deep.

[Bill Hanlon]

I don't know what the difference was Jack, but the 1960 Master Parts Catalog lists "PUMP AND PAN package, Engine Oil, part number 989644" as available for 1959 and 1960 cars in the "SPECIAL ENGINE AND CHASSIS" section.

[Bill Hanlon]

... and wouldn't it make sense to sell as one part number a deeper oil pan with an oil pump that required a deeper oil pan??

[b-man]

.....a few more things before the holidays are over with. Tomorrow it's back to work so there will be less time to fiddle around and clean filthy old engine parts.

I removed the fuel pump eccentric, the timing set and the cam thrust plate. Everything came apart easily without a fight, I gently pried with two long screwdrivers on each side of the cam sprockets and slid them off without any fuss.



The timing chain is a bit stretched, but really not all that bad. Being in decent shape tells me that it was serviced not all that long before the car was sent to the boneyard. It will be replaced with a good used double-roller set I have kicking around.



Trying to ID the cam here, not quite sure what that stamping indicates. The factory stock '472' cam would have letter stamp 'D' on the nose. Not that it really matters all that much, I just want to know for the sake of learning the history on this old 389.

This old worn cam will be replaced with a good used 068 cam and lifter set, that is if it all checks out good. If not, I'll buy some new parts.



Here's the fuel pump eccentric assembly that also serves to fasten the upper timing sprocket to the nose of the cam.



Note that the outer sliding ring on the pump eccentric is not trapped or held onto the inner eccentric other than by the fuel pump drive arm, unlike later designs. This means you can't run the engine with an electric pump by just simply blocking off the pump opening in the timing cover with a plate, you must remove the timing cover and take off the outer ring so it won't foul up the works in there.



The distributor slipped right out, often on Pontiac engines they're stuck tight from varnish buildup. I've struggled with these in the boneyards and given up and left them there, even after standing on top of the engine twisting and tugging with all my might while using penetrating oil or solvent to loosen it.



Turns out it's a distributor that's used on a lot of '64 -'66 GTO engine applications, part number 1111054. I have the same 1111054 distributor that's been rebuilt and re-curved in my '64 421 HO.



Looks to be in good shape, so I'll give a good wiping down and use it as-is after putting a new set of points in it. These old iron-body distributors are very nice and accurate. The shaft bushings don't seem to wear out on them easily, they're a very good basis for a performance distributor build.



Here's the sexy, professionally restored/rebuilt 1111054 that now resides in my '64 421 HO.



Back to sleep until next time, I left the oil pan off to give the last bit of dirty oil a chance to drip out.

[b-man]

Tossed a few items on our shipping scale at work.

The bare iron timing cover weighed in at a whopping 18 pounds. The water pump added another 4.5 pounds.



Tri-Power intake weighs 39.5 pounds. Comparable to the weight of the popular '67 -'72 iron Q-jet intakes.



The 2-barrel intake weighs 38.5 pounds, surprisingly just one pound less than the Tri-Power.

[b-man]

I removed the oil pump, took it apart and cleaned it up. Here are a few of the differences between it and the later Melling M54DS 60 psi replacement pump.

To begin with it has helical pump gears in it, something I really didn't expect to see.



Melling straight-cut gears on the left, 1959 OEM gears on the right.



The pickup tube on the Melling pump is .750" O.D. with the 1959 pickup tube measuring only .575".





Here's a look at the pump castings themselves, note the different angles of the relief valves.





The pump cavities look very much the same on both, no real differences that I could detect.

[Bill Hanlon]

I have a new set of helical gears if you need them.

[Safari Larry]

Thanks b-man for all you're doing with posting these photos. This is VERY interesting.