Return to the BUILD
“In this stage, you will assemble the engine fan, including its pulley system, as well as fitting the spark plug wires.”
This stage is going to be challenging and require more time than usual because of all the little spark plug wires. Just be patient and you will do just fine!
Contents
Parts
Materials: The Belts are rubber, the Cables and Pipe are vinyl hose, and the rest is plastic.
Build
Engine Fan and Cooling Pipes
Step 01
Combine the Fan Pulley Front, Center, and Rear parts as shown:
Retrieve your Engine assembly from the previous stage. Slide this pulley assembly over the upper front post of the engine, as shown:
Fit the long post of the Engine Fan into the center of this pulley, and secure all of these parts to the engine with one (1) EP screw:
I decided to give the rivets on the Engine Fan blades a little dot of Metallic Silver Sharpie to add some color here:
Step 02
Stretch one of the Belts around the Generator pulley and the rear grooves of the Fan and Crankshaft pulleys:
Stretch the other Belt around the Power Steering Pump pulley and the front grooves of the Fan and Crankshaft pulleys:
The front of the engine should look like this now:
Step 03
There are two things I did a little differently here. First, I pre-installed all of the cables/pipes in this issue and trimmed them down to fit better in the steps below. I also cut lengths of 22 gauge Crafting Wire a bit shorter than each of these cables/pipes. By inserting the wire into each one, they become stiffer and more malleable to make it easier to shape them the way I want:
Second, I know this is a small detail, but it is easy to do. I connected all of these spark plug cables to the correct Distributor Cap Plug according to the real firing order of a 1959 Cadillac 390 V8 engine, pictured below:
Finally, I recommend removing the Air Filter assembly to get to the Distributor easier. See Stage 9 for the steps that installed the Air Filter:
Fit the end of a 90mm Cable to the forward most Spark Plug (cylinder #1) on the left side of the engine:
Feed the other end of this cable through the closest hole of the Ignition Wire Junction:
Attach the free end to this Distributor Cap Plug as shown.
Pictured below is the correct cap plug for cylinder #1:
Fit the end of an 80mm Cable to the next Spark Plug over (cylinder #3) on the left side of the engine:
Feed the other end of this cable through the next hole of the Ignition Wire Junction:
Attach the free end to this Distributor Cap Plug as shown.
Pictured below is the correct cap plug for cylinder #3. You may notice I turned it around to match the Cable. I also removed the center Distributor Cap Plug for the Ignition Coil to make the installation of these wires easier (I reinstalled it after all eight spark plug Cables were added).
Fit the end of a 70mm Cable to the next Spark Plug over (cylinder #5) on the left side of the engine:
Feed the other end of this cable through the next hole of the Ignition Wire Junction:
Attach the free end to this Distributor Cap Plug as shown.
Pictured below is the correct cap plug for cylinder #5:
Fit the end of another 70mm Cable to the next Spark Plug over (cylinder #7) on the left side of the engine:
Feed the other end of this cable through the next hole of the Ignition Wire Junction:
Attach the free end to this Distributor Cap Plug as shown.
Pictured below is the correct cap plug for cylinder #7:
Step 04
I recommend doing the second part of this step first as the Pipe Joint is easier to get to without the rest of the spark plug Cables in the way.
Slide one end of the 70mm Pipe over this pin of the Pipe Joint (07H):
This 70mm Pipe is never connected to anything later on. I believe it is the crankcase vent hose and just drained oil on the ground back in the 1950s:
Now, we can repeat this spark plug wire process on the right side of the engine, with a 100mm Cable on the forward-most Spark Plug (cylinder #2), a 90mm Cable on the next Spark Plug (cylinder #4), and two 80mm Cables on the rear Spark Plugs (cylinders #6 and #8):
Here are the connections at the Distributor (in the correct order). I also reconnected the center cap from the Ignition Coil here:
With all of the spark plug Cables in place and some careful tweaking of the wire shapes, our engine should now look like this. I think it is much cleaner than the big loops of spark plug wires you would get without trimming them and adding the craft wire:
Step 05
Push one end of a 70mm Cable over the inner pin of the Starter Solenoid and the other end over the inner pin of the Generator Plug.
I trimmed these and added craft wire inside, just like the spark plug Cables above:
Repeat this step with the other 70mm Cable and the outer pins:
After tweaking the shape of the wires, we should end up with something like this:
Step 06
I noticed that these Cooling Pipes have the hose clamps molded into them. So, I masked them off and used my nearby Metallic Silver Sharpie to add some color to the clamps. They didn’t turn out perfect, but not terrible at all:
Fit the keyed pin on the shorter end of Cooling Pipe 2 into the hole at the top of the Water Pump Housing.
Not sure why, but I did the upper pipe first here:
Fit the socket of Cooling Pipe 1 over this pin at the front of the engine at the bottom of the Cooling System, as shown.
The free end of this should point directly away from the engine (where the radiator will be soon):
Slide one end of the Air Control Filter Pipe over this pin at the front of the Fuel Pump, as shown:
Once installed, bend the free end towards the rear of the engine. It will be routed and attached later:
Finally, if you removed the Air Filter assembly, you can reinstall it now for the last time:
Thoughts
Not only was that our longest issue yet, but it was by far the most complex. Those spark plug wires require some good dexterity and vision! I think it all turned out very nicely and am looking forward to the rest of the build.
Next Up
Stage 13 – Front Chassis Frame/Cover, Brake Distributor