martybose

As an oversimplification, advancing timing will be like leaning it out, while retarding ignition timing will be like fattening it up. Marty

Just be aware that a wrap like this does reduce the life of an exhaust pipe, as the pipe itself will be hotter. That's why I prefer a ceramic coat, but only if you coat both the outside and the inside. Anecdotal note: A few decades ago I was at a DTM race in England, back when the DTM cars were more advanced than F1 cars. The Mercedes factory cars had a gorgeous stainless header and exhaust system that was fully wrapped. When we talked to the mechanics, they said that they threw the entire system away after every weekend, because they had experienced failures during the second weekend when they had tried to stretch it to two races. As always, YMMV. Marty

Agreed; mine slid on just fine! Marty

Many years ago I bought a Mercury Merkur (2.3L turbo) that had been a dealer demo car. A couple of months later I was picking it up after a routine service and overheard one mechanic telling another that when my car arrived at the dealership they had taken it out that first night and took it up to about 120 MPH of the freeway. That might help explain why at 30K miles it suddenly started using a quart of oil every 300 miles. I won't ever buy a dealer demo car again! Marty

My 230 had three different casting numbers on the rods when we took it apart, but with .060" over pistons in it, it had definitely been apart a time or two. Just as an aside, any chance that your motor is a 230 and the mystery rod is a 218? They did shorten the rods when they lengthened the stroke ..... Marty

Sorry to hear about your discovery, but I'm not so sure about your plan. None of those bearings look good at all, and just replacing them might just destroy another set and damage the crankshaft more. I'd also be inclined to pull apart one or more rod bearings, because with that much damage you'll usually lose the rod bearings as well. Marty

Nowhere's near 30 seconds, more like 15 seconds of running time. If you do the math, they get rebuild after every 1000 revolutions of use! They're also designed to be assembled using calibrated impact guns. Until a few years ago when they eased up on the rules about computers on the cars, the fuel curves and the clutch engagement were controlled by time-calibrated air solenoids; now they use computer-timed controls. Marty

Did you retorque the head after it had been run? The head gaskets will compress after going through a few heat cycles, and you have to retorque them. I usually have to retorque twice before the head studs stop moving. Marty

You must have caught him in a good mood; he won't talk to most of us. Anyway, There are no less than 3 jets in each barrel of the Carter-Webers, and they don't match at all. I believed that the bottom end was too rich and the top end was too lean, so I bought some extra jets for it. I played around with the primary jetting after reading a couple of books on it, and about all I succeeded in doing was killing my freeway gas mileage, so I have temporarily returned to the original jetting. Well, sorta; it turns out the two carbs that I bought at the same time from Langdon didn't have identical jetting! So I picked one and made the other one match it. I was just about to start playing around again when I bent a valve with the compression tester adapter, so I'm waiting for parts to put it back together again. Marty

Amen to that; I'm waiting for a replacement valve or 2 to put mine back together for that very reason! Marty

Good move; glad it worked! Marty PS: Wow, I hadn't noticed that this post would put in the exalted status; will wonders never cease!

What he said above. Essentially the ceramic coating (both inside and outside were coated) is an excellent insulator, so the header is a LOT cooler than they were when they were just painted (and starting to rust). Marty

It strikes me that (1) the bad radiator is going to be replaced no matter which motor you run, and (2) what makes you think a late model 12V starter is inherently more reliable than a 60 year old 6V?? There is a huge market in replacement starters that makes the latter unlikely. So far you haven't done anything that makes me think a late model V-8 would be more reliable. More powerful, sure, but that's it! Marty

You definitely want to move some weight to the back of the trailer; without a weight-equalizing hitch (which you can't use on a bumper-mount anyway) the excess tongue weight will move the car around a lot in crosswinds. Marty

I had my cast iron headers ceramic-coated several years ago. A very impressive drop in underhood temperature. They still look nice now; the only place it has discolored is one that got nicked by a dropping tool. Just be sure that you get them installed and run for the first time while they are really clean when the final hardening takes place. Marty

The guru on these things on another forum has said that most of them had problems with porosity causing leaks. Marty

It almost sounds like you've installed the long block into a bare frame with the radiator in the original position. If so, you will need to move the radiator forward by reversing the mount, then you can move the engine forward. If you don't do this, you will find that the body won't fit back on because the back of the engine is in the way. You may need to modify the crossmember to get clearance for the front pulley as part of this move. Marty

.... or maybe even more. My block was rather thoroughly checked for cylinder wall thickness with a sonic tester before we bored it .072" over for my custom pistons, and my machinist said that it could have gone much bigger if we wanted to. Marty

When we decided to make my 230 9 to 1 compression, my machinist said that I should always run 91 octane in it, because flatheads are inclined to knock a bit. Based on the experiments on my timing hill, he's right! Marty

Fiat Abarth 850 double bubble? Marty

I hadn't thought to check that. I looked at mine, and in fact I see entries there for the years I was on active duty. It was hilarious, as I working summers while going to college before I went in, and I made more taxable income in those 3 months each year than I did during my full years of active duty! Marty

If I was to hazard a guess, I'd look at the rear leg of the intake manifold. Think about it a minute; both of the back cylinders share the same intake port. Marty

That's neat! How much work was it to make the original horn ring mount and work? Marty

I've got a few years before I file, but one of my coworkers who filed this month told me something interesting. If you served in the armed forces, sending a copy of your DD-214 (discharge papers) to Social Security will entitle you to credit for the years you were on active duty and increase the payment amount. Marty

Maybe so; I was going on my wife's experience consolidating container loads to Hawaii. As long as you stick to strictly metal parts with nothing that can burn, be an oxidizer, and no liquids of any kind it is fairly straight forward. Anything beyond that is subject to a bewildering set of regulations concerning what can and can't be shipped together, and the fines for non-compliance are eye-watering. I won't even get into export licensing for new products, the lack of which can get you fined as well! Marty PS did I mention that the fines are against the shipping agent, not the originator??