martybose

I've never heard of cracking a block with teflon tape, but I didn't have much luck with sealing up my head studs with it either. The last time I used Aviation form-a-gasket sealer (a truly vile-looking dark brown liquid) purchased at my local auto parts store with much better success. Marty

5200 RPM!!!??? I don't think there is anyone with a street-driven motor that ever gets anywhere near that kind of RPM. With that long stroke mine feels like it is thrashing pretty hard if it is over 4000 RPM, which happens rarely. That said, I've got dual Carter-Webers on an Edmunds manifold on my modified 230, and they ran nice out of the box. I have been experimenting with the jetting a bit, but so far all I've proven is that you can screw up the gas mileage by going too rich. Marty

I tried several different kinds of spring compressors when I had to change my valve springs in the car, and found that the kind that is C-shaped and has ratchet mechanism that pushes on the valve head gave me the most room to get the valve keepers in or out. Most of the ones that try to grab both ends of the spring wouldn't line up correctly to work. You need to put some tension on the compressor, then tap lightly on the side of the valve spring retainer to get the keepers to release. You also need to do something so that if the keeper releases suddenly and drops off, that the keeper doesn't make a beeline for the oil drainback holes in the block casting and wind up in the oil pan, leaving you one keeper short to put it back together again. Been there, done that; I had an extra, so there is a keeper in my oil pan that has been there for 8 years or so! Marty

I bought a Rhode Island Wiring replacement harness set, and replaced every single wire in the car. It really isn't that difficult as long as you have a Factory Service Manual (FSM) to give you all of the color codes so you get everything in the right place under the dash. You'll find that the harness to the back of the car goes over the driver's door, so you have to take the headliner loose to get it in. I did the whole job in my garage, found that taking out the front seat gave me enough room to get to the wiring under the dash. Marty

As I recall, all of the bolts except a few that go into the intake ports go into the water jacket. Marty

Or 50-55 if you are using studs with fine thread nuts. Marty

Grabbing a rag to snuff out a carb fire on a racecar, only to find out that said rag had just been used to soak up the excess gasoline when they pulled off the float bowl to change jets. Very spectacular! Marty

One of two possibilities: 1. nothing 2. something leaks or gets blown out by the increased pressure On some radiators it makes no difference, because the overflow doesn't go to the radiator fill. Marty

It is cheap insurance to keep checking the headbolts (after they have cooled down) every time you run it; I had to retorque mine 3 times before they stopped moving. Marty

Just a little bit tighter ......... Marty

I'm curious why everyone is talking about the vacuum advance, as my experience is that a hesitation like this is almost always related to the accelerator pump setting. It could be that the pump shot isn't big enough, causing a momentary lean condition until the air flow catches up. Marty

I bought my OD cable from Neal Riddle, and it turns to lock. Marty

Don't forget that some states register with the engine number, and others with the body number. My 47 is registered in California with the body number. Marty

Before you get too deep into machinework, answer this: How tight were the headbolts at the front 2 cylinders? When the head gasket went out on my original motor, I found that the bolts for that cylinder only had about 5 lbs. of torque on them, and when I put the new gasket in I had to retorque the headbolts 3 times after warming the engine up before they stopped moving. You may not need any machinework! Marty

I purchased a bunch of stuff from Phillips way back when, and was surprised when he contacted me about his head. But by then I had found my Edmunds head, so wasn't interested. I did hear from him a few years later, but nothing for the last three years or so. Marty

Don't be so sure. When I was looking at a set of metric rings to use in my overbore, I contacted Venolia. I told what bore I wanted and sent them a stock piston, a wristpin and a set of rings. Four weeks later I received a set of custom forged flathead pistons and pins that were gorgeous, and at a reasonable price. Marty

It was always referred to as the Dodge Plant when I was growing up, I don't know if they made Plymouth's. It did get converted to military vehicles during WWII, then reverted back to Dodge afterwards. Maybe I'll take some time off work to go visit the local historical society to learn more about it. Marty

The San Leandro plant has an interesting history. I'm not sure when Dodge stopped building cars there, but I do know that International Harvester built 20-30 class 8 trucks there daily in the 60's and 70's; I worked there until IH closed it. It sat dormant for a while, then Caterpillar bought it and converted it into a fuel injection pump manufacturing facility. They ran it for a few years, then closed it down again. Fast forward a lot of years, and it was converted into a shopping mall. The original two story main building is still there, housing a Home Depot store at the front and a lot of smaller businesses at the back. You can drive around it, and I can still find the outdoor dyno cell that we used to run all of the trucks on before they shipped out. Marty

Well, it doesn't have any of the main shaft bearings, so it isn't that complete. It actually looks more like a gasket set with the addition of some minor bearings. Marty

If all of that shrapnel was recovered from the oil pan, it definitely could have reached the cam when the piston came apart. Don't forget that the cam area is open to the oil pan for drainage, and clearly the crank was still turning as the piston was coming apart, so it could have thrown piston bits up into the cam area. Marty

Michael, I'll bet that if someone was to take a poll on the odds of most of us actually volunteering to help you with anything, the results would be very low. You clearly don't actually bother to read the answers posted in the threads you participate in, because three threads later you'll ask the same question again. I hope you get your car built one of these days, but I wish you would do it in silence with the help of the "experts" that keep giving you strange advice. Marty

There isn't a passage from the rod bearing to the wrist pin; the wrist pin is lubricated by splashed oil through the hole you can see in the first picture in the thread. Marty

Or maybe a missed shift at 9000 RPM! Marty

I can't help thinking that while your starter may be fine on the workbench, when you get it in the car and start turning over the engine it will draw a lot more amps, which may put your solder job at risk. I would think you should try to get a set of the correct brushes and replace your soldered braid ones. Marty

When we were contemplating my .072" bore, we checked every cylinder at the top, center and bottom of the bore, taking a reading every 90 degrees around the cylinder, for a total of 72 readings. None were less than .200" , and the bores were nicely centered in the casting. Marty