Dream #4326 Smashed

What was I thinking? Of course racing is really expensive. I've had long-standing dreams about racing SCCA events father & son even since I paged through the first Grassroots Motorsports years ago. Alas. Guess drag (& go-karts?) is still king. Does this article seem accurate to you guys?

Quote:

"Let’s put that in perspective: racing an old VW Golf or Honda Civic once a month costs as much as buying a Nissan GT-R or Porsche Cayman S on a five-year loan."

Option. $5.20  This Buick-crested beauty is attached to the lower edge of the instrument panel. Designed to hold an entire box of tissues and dispense them one at a time.

Why don't they make stainless steel kleenex-boxes available in Buicks anymore?

For the full 1955 option list for the Buick Special, see this link.

I have a special place in my heart for the 1950's Buick advertising.

stickeration

Cuz that's how I roll.

(Of course, a bit pretentious: the overbore is only 34 cc, but I feel obligated to use the stickers that came with the head gasket, somewhere not inside my toolbox.)

progress: quick update

I slapped the valve cover on with only an hour or so to work, today.  I didn't want to risk bugs and bits of crap falling into an open motor - they attract that sort of stuff.  I buttered the cam chain up with some motor oil before closing up the innards, which I hope will help it through those critical few minutes before oil pressure.

Surprise - the gasket kit I had did not contain the correct valve cover gasket.  I am at the point in the project where I am saying to myself with great frequency "screw it, I need to get this thing out of the garage", so I resorted to liquid gasket.  I hate using that stuff, so messy and doesn't work very well, but I knew I'd have to peel the cover off to recheck head bolt torque after a thousand miles or so anyway and I could install the proper gasket then.

I discovered one bolt hole stripped and in need of a helicoil, so the #1 front corner can't be tightened down and will dribble oil.  Then a bolt committed suicide in the most inaccesible hole right next to the breather cover! Crappity crap crrrraaap!  I didn't think of it, but all the valve cover bolts are probably heat stressed and should all be replaced.  This one twisted apart pretty easily before torque value was reached, so I'm def going to replace them all.  After I get it running.  So there will be another oil dribble above the #2 cylinder. The rest of the bolts torqued down just fine, thank goodness.

I feel better now that the motor is closed up.  All to do now is connect all the wiring, replace the spark plug caps and boots, slap the flywheel and stator covers on, install the carbs, and...wow, I'm almost done with this thing.  It would help if I spent more than one hour at a go on this thing, funny how a five minute procedure ALWAYS takes 25 minutes.

Yeah, one of these days I might actually get back to that '69 truck that's on the back burner.  Arrgghh...I want my own shop, my own shade tree in my own back yard so I can store all the projects I collect, dammit!

progress: adjusting the tappets

Here I am adjusting the tappet clearances with the world's most ghetto tappet screw adjuster. Small vice grips + #10 x 3/4" square drive pan screw.  The square drive fits the tappets perfectly.  It worked - not very well, but I was too lazy to go hunting for a piece of dowel like this guy suggests.  The procedure is pretty simple and pretty frustrating: undo the locknut, screw the tappet in or out until the .006" feeler won't slide in and the .005" one will, and crank the locknut down tight - after which both feelers will go in, or neither, and you have to do it all over again ad nauseam. And when you finally get it right, you get to repeat the process another fifteen times.  And this every 12,000 miles! Hydraulically self adjusting valves (like on Harleys and Moto Guzzis) are the much mo' betta' way, in my opinion.

The reason I did the adjustment this way is that valve clearances, especially on red-hot exhaust valves, tend to tighten over time, and the purpose of checking the valve clearances is not to check for loose valves but to check for tight ones.  A tight tappet will force the valve to stick open slightly,  there will be no metal-to-metal heat transfer, and the valve will fry.  Valves are 30 dollars apiece. So you want loose valves at the outset, not tight ones.

Also the valve adjustment range for the GS is very narrow: .004 to .005 inches, so checking them at the specified intervals is important!

progress: installing the cam chain tensioner - and oops!

Installing the manual (locknut) cam chain tensioner.  The old spring-loaded one was sticky so I ordered up a billet aluminum one from APE.

The instructions say to tighten until light resistance is felt (i.e. you are touching the the chain with the chain guide) and then back out 1/4 turn.

However in practice this will result in a cam chain that will jump the sprockets IF you do not have all the chain slack behind the intake cam!!!  One thing I've learned about this job is WHEN REBUILDING A TOP END, KNOW WHERE THE CAM CHAIN SLACK IS.  I actually came across a scary situation related to this - after installing the tensioner I realized that my careful job of setting the cams was wrong.  I had not ensured there was tension on the cam chain from the exhaust cam straight down to the crankshaft and, when I turned the engine a few times after installing the tensioner,  that slack in front was taken up and both cams were five or six teeth out of whack.  I had to loosen up all the cap bolts and painfully work the chain across several teeth to fix it.  So...word to the wise - install the tensioner (loosely) to take up all the cam chain slack before you button those camshafts down.

I won't know if the tension on the cam chain is correct till I start the motor and hear what kind of noise it makes.  You are supposed to set it somewhere in the vicinity of tightish, so the chain doesn't slip, then loosen it till you hear clatter, then tighten it till clatter goes away and lock it down.

Gasket sealant really stinks, by the way.

Another one for the blog roll

I am completely confident you all will find this new blog SO full of win.

http://clunkbucket.com/

Mechanical Art

I was at the Robert Mondavi winery last weekend and I came across what I gather is a grape crusher.



Elegant.

Garage Love

Here are some recent photos from certain imperfect'd adventures in the TAChouse. Denim, you're lubing to prep for the cam in these photos? CB, what are you up to?

New Car: another 1969 mustang

So I've got to throw this post up or I'll never do it. Short Version: sold green car, got blue one.

Loong Version:

About two and half months ago, as most of you know, I hesitatingly decided to put (what I have found myself calling "Numero Uno") my green mustang up on Craigslist. It was after a series of mechanical irritations but mostly the sinking realization that my hope of getting the rust fixed this year was totally irrational given the amount of grad school and wedding prep I was doing.

At about the same time, this blue one had just been sitting for weeks on CL for for near the same price as I was offering mine. I actually went and checked it out with another guy interested in it and got a better look at it.

While it was no trailer queen, it was nearly totally rust free (it's been SoCal car its entire life), had a f-code 302 just like numero 1, and the paint, though a single coat & shoddily done, was hella better then Numero Uno. Moreover, there had been entry-level work on the suspension (big sway bars, air shocks, poly bushings, and it was lowered 1.5 inches), & it came w/ a edelbrock 4bbl setup and power steering (still don't know if I like that last item). Cons also included the interior was @ 50% and it wasn't running.

I decided sadly, but once and for all, that I was game for selling numero uno.

Soon enough a kid with LA's skyscrapers in his backyard decided he was serious about my car after I drove it down there. This was after a series of mishaps including (quite embarrassingly) him and his dad driving up from LA and finding my car not running (points needed adjusting)... but nevertheless, SOLD for 3k, with a trunkful of parts I figured I wouldn't need. This was $500 more than what I payed in December '08 so I was ok with this (I figure I about broke even after all).

Then came the finagling for the blue one, and I got it! The owner moreover offered to get it up and running, which would entail, he claimed, just a new battery. Things were looking good: interiors are cheap on this car so I bought a bunch of upholstery, and I also bought the owners claim and hope for the best about the engine-- after all, 302's are famously stout.

Well the owner was wrong, and after a month of sitting in a deadbeat shop in Moorepark, car wizard Ricky in Santa Paula towed it over and got it running after another week and a half of experimenting ...thankfully no serious problems, it just needed a new alternator and distributor. And it needed brakes all around. Ouch. But hey, it was drivable, and, with the above mentioned mods, it felt waaay faster than my other one.

This basically leaves me where I am today. I'm pleased with the first mod on my part: OEM Mag 500 wheels, 14x7. Classic look IMO, and they were only $450 with tires on CL. Lots cheaper than Cragars, Torq-Thrust, or the crazy awesome Trans-am style wheels out there.

Right now it's at Ricky's again because the windows came screwed up: misaligned and non-rolling. Easy to break into. This fix has gone from a 6 hour attempt on my own part, a day job at Manny's, to 8 days there and counting. Tomorrow at 2 he says. Manana, Manana. Well, hopefully it will be ready to drop off at the upholsters sometime on Monday for new front seat upholstery and a headliner.

Though I'm deflated at the lack of driving I've gotten with this car because of all of the hang ups (I havn't even mentioned the fuel pump problems I'm still having--more on that in another post), I'm genuinely relieved to have a car whose body doesn't need work.

I'm also excited about the steady stream of good deals I've gotten on performance and restoration parts off of eBay including:

-Built Ford Racing aluminium heads (Previous owner put down 353 hp with a Ford x Cam and intake upgrades (!))
-Hooker long tube headers
-A holley carb which needs rebuilding (sort of an impulse buy, but I want to learn how to rebuild carbs--I think. We'll see if I regret this)
-Shaker ram air assembly and hood (actually the hood was freaking expensive). This will replace the overkill fiberglass hood which is also cracked and saggy.
-Fresh Grant steering wheel to replace the old and beat-up Grant steering wheel.
-Other interior goodies like an original AM/FM radio (subject to future experimentation)




With the interior done, the parts installed, painted, and cleaned up, a set of flowmasters (another $300), and a cam, I think I'll have a great cruiser. I'm hoping to sell my fastback shell because the roof swap would be overkill for this car. Oh, and the car has a slush box. That will change this summer.

For the long-term this car feels like 'the one.' A clean body will become all the more precious and rare as I move back to midwest, and getting married soon means the likelyhood of getting another car like this is next to none anytime soon.

So there it is! I hope to post in the future the little projects I can manage myself, gathering from the sagacity of the imperfect'd crew along the way.

P.S. I also recently got a horribly awesome beater car worthy of its own story, soon to come. Here's a hint...

progress: setting the timing

The manual says the number of pins between the arrow labeled 3 on the exhaust camshaft sprocket, and the arrow labeled 2 on the intake camshaft sprocket, needs to be 20 inclusive. Adjust the crankshaft so the T tick mark (not the R tick mark) lines up to the guide tick in the stator window. Set the chain, count the pins three times (then count them backwards), then torque down the camshaft cap bolts in diagonal sequence to 70-100 inch-lbs. Then don't touch anything till the tensioner goes in - more on that later.

FWIW, according to Paul the rule of thumb in setting timing is to make sure the camshaft lobes on one side or the other are diametrically opposed: either facing each other or facing away from each other; but it is necessary to reference the manual for your specific motor. There are also rectangular notches machined in the ends of the camshaft to help with this.

A five-year-old could put a Suzuki motorcycle engine together. I could seriously give my little brother the book and some tools and tell him "here, build this".

I remarked recently at supper with crashbox and ho mathetes that auto mechanics seemed to partake both of art and of science. Art insofar as learned techniques exist, esp. in manipulating the dynamics of fuel and air through available adjustments on a motor; science insofar as the parts of the whole motor exist to each other in a planned order and that order can be grasped.

Now the art aspect of this has mostly to do with tuning, which is undeniably an art, the art of making an engine run well for a specific purpose. And as with all arts, in it one moves away from the theoretical and toward the practical. What works is paramount; not what is supposed to work. It seems to me appropriate to be constantly meditating on the function of this part in the whole while I have my fingers seating nuts and bolts. One views the motor teleologically, as an organism whose design is to, well, run properly. Like any organism, its parts (organs) act toward this end synergistically and any disturbance is rejected. It is better not to take apart a well running motor for this reason, and why part-specific performance upgrades must be approached with such caution. Disturb the part and you disturb the whole.

The science aspect is much easier to deal with, so much easier that most people substitute it for the art. Numbers, settings, volts, psi: it all adds up to a functioning machine. Or not, and when it doesn't clearly some number or setting is wrong. Black and white, find the missing term. Accessible to logic, easy to work out when you have all the data. The laws of physics are laws because they are constant, the variables act according to formulae. A machine acts in accordance with its assembly, its metallurgy, its structural design, all of which may be analyzed.

Science provides the background from which the art may be better understood, and art contributes real-world experience from which the science may be better known. They depend upon each other. Only a proper view of their mutual contribution to engine building will ensure the success of the builder. (A few expensive tools and some good tunes don't hurt, either)

progress: installing the head

mmmm...glistening scrubbed metal.  The 34cc overbore necessitated the appropriate Wiseco gasket, an elaborate 3-layer affair stamped together by brass pins.  The entire process of installation required almost an hour and a half, of which approximately an hour was spent by me either (a) rearranging the playlist in Winamp or (b) laying out nuts and washers on a paper towel in the EXACT pattern they were to be installed in the head.  The remaining half hour was a sweaty-palmed threading of an oily cam chain through a clean shiny gasket and clean head surface (thanks Jerry for the extra pair of hands!!), the setting of the head upon the studs and settling thereof upon the gasket and thumb-tightening all twelve bolts.

Then they were torqued, according to the pattern, to about 10 lb-ft.  I'll let the head sit and relax the gasket overnight while I scrummage through my tools and see if I have a more rigid 3/8 extension than the articulated Great Neck one in the Garage.

Note concerning torque wrenches.  If you're building an aluminum motor, buy the best dial wrenches you can possibly afford.  I'm not kidding.  The length of time an aluminum motor holds together is greatly dependent upon the uniform tightness of its fasteners.  Also, buy two torque wrenches.  One in inch-pounds and one in foot-pounds.  Most bike fasteners seem to require less than 20 ft-lb of torque, which is right on the edge of the margin of error of my 100 ft-lb big Precision Instruments torque wrench.  Also, when torquing down bolts, remember that you are setting up a lot of internal stresses in the bolt and threads.  When the torque level is reached hold the pressure for a few seconds to let those internals stresses stabilize, for example let the bolt untwist itself in the nut - otherwise you'll end up with a loose nut.

Homemade tappet adjustment tool coming up next...stay tuned.

(how does one caption photos? I continue to be frustrated by blogger's clumsy photo interface. insertion in text is not always what it seems)

Two Loves Combined: Diesel Motorcycles

At left is the M1030M1 JP8/Diesel Military Motorcycle. 

Apparently NATO standards have switched to a 'one fuel' requirement. In the near future, petrol/gasoline will be banned from US Navy ships, and so the Marines have been working to develop a usable diesel motorcycle.

A quick search of the internet reveals a small cult following of diesel motorcycles, especially across the pond.

Here is a beautiful example of a Royal Enfield 

 running a 440cc Italian 15LD Lombardini Engine. 

Here's the site for the British/European diesel motorcycle rally.

And then there is the world's only production diesel motorcycle. And the only available commercial model.

And these Dutch beauties.

Well, I am pleased to report that after six months or so I finally have the GS1100's engine back in my possession, freshly ringed and honed and cam-chain-guided and base-gasketed; and just about one year to the month after beginning this project I am in a position to finish it.

All the pieces and parts are carefully wrapped and boxed in various scattered locations about the Garage; the frame is washed and scrubbed; the two plastic parts are painted flat black, and I have a drawing in hand detailing the various things I need to do in addition to the shop-manual assembly procedure.

So, the legos are ready to stack and snap, the directions laid out on the floor; but unlike simply complaining to mom that I don't want to eat supper I have to conform to the hours available between the twin iron fists of work and of night.

(I wish I knew something about posting photos. Blogger doesn't seem to handle pics in sequence very well. Oh well, I'll have to do what I can.)

5000 miles in a 300D

This summer, I'd like to do a cross country trip in the 300TD Wagon, perhaps after I add a secondary fuel tank for SVO, and a filtering station for WVO. 

But this is pretty cool. I mean, Nova Scotia, after all.

TheStar_0507.pdf

Charlie just got his first bike!

We found this vintage wooden bike on craigslist; it is all real wood and has steel wheels with solid rubber tires---no plastic here. He's not big enough to ride it yet, but it won't be too long until he is scooting all over the place on it. And from his expression, he can't wait!