Jeff Balazs

James; Sorry to hear this. Discoloration and cracking like this usually comes from running with a very lean condition. Just a guess..... but I suspect you had an air leak on that branch of the inlet manifold at some point. Inlet valves probably hung open under extreme load causing the lack of power. With the mass of these engines being what it is problems like this probably get "masked" from easy detection. In a lighter modern engine it probably would have shown up as a spike in engine temperature. Jeff

I love it!!! I hope 48dodger see's this......maybe he will add an event like this to next years BBQ. Jeff

Welcome. Very Nice 57. I looked at one here before I bought my Pilothouse. Ironically it had a lot of rust and that became the deciding factor. Not all California cars are rust free...... Jeff

James; The fact that the loss of power does not happen until it has been running for quite a while seems to point towards it being a valve or valves sticking open or not seating properly. If it were me I think a close examination of the valves on the offending cylinders would be in order before I put the head back on. Again a temporary vacuum gauge should give an indication of when and what is happening. Jeff

Sorry James; I forget that some of you guys have more than one of these. Thought we were still on that other one......... I am not all that familiar with the oil passages on these engines......but it if I had to venture a guess I would look very closely around the valve ports for a small crack. Jeff

James; Didn't you just go through this engine? I was under the impression that you just had the head off.....etc. If so certainly you checked it for warp....? If you do pull it again you really ought to check the manifolds closely for cracks and warp. I know when I had my manifolds off the mating surfaces required a fair amount of work to true and clean them up. Jeff

Joe; That is a real beauty! My hat is off to you.........very.......very nice job. Jeff

I am very surprised it would start easily and run decently with that small a gap. When I still had points in my trucks distributor it seemed fairly sensitive to this setting. After several hours running time it became harder to start and when I checked the gap had narrowed to around .016". I reset it to .020" then it was easier to start. I really felt the rubbing block was wearing too rapidly so I switched over to a Pertronix module. I am not suggesting you do this......only bringing it up because the construction quality of points sets seems to be a variable. Jeff

The truth behind the "myth" is that crude from that region was extremely low in sulfur. Sulfur content was almost zero. And it was not an easy component to remove from the product during the refining process of the day. And when sulfur mixes with any water from condensation in say an engine sump guess what forms? A mild form of sulfuric acid. Not real good stuff for bearings etc... You never seem to hear anything about this these days. I guess this is common knowledge that has been lost in the mists of time. But you can be sure they knew all about it back in the day. These days crude spec's are all over the place and refineries have had to get way more sophisticated in how they process. Sulfur is only one of many many components that need to be removed or treated. And all of the facilities have the ability to remove or strip unwanted stuff like sulfur........but this wasn't the case until the last 20 or 30 years. When you got motor oil back in the 60's that had been made using crude that contained a lot of sulfur a fair amount was still present in the final product. Jeff

Don; Good thing she was a gentle giant.....'cause if that thing had kicked you in the head you would have known it! Or perhaps...... not. Jeff

I have always considered running without a thermostat as a work around for some inadequacy in the cooling system. Any water cooled engine is designed to work best at a specific temperature. Removing the thermostat takes any accurate control of that temperature out of the system. Sure it may seem to help with some situations but isn't it really a better idea to address the real problem? With the thermostat out of the system there is really no way to know if your engine is really running at the correct internal temperatures. All you are really seeing at that point is the water temp at the sender. This isn't the condition the builder designed for.....and you have no way of knowing what might be running too hot or too cool or how it may affect the temperature of the lubricating oil. If you are experiencing overheating problems and you have eliminated all other potential sources like a bad water pump, incorrect timing, a lean mixture..clogged cooling passages.. etc.... then the problem has to be in how effective the radiator is at dissipating the heat that is generated by the engine. It is really as simple as that. You may get by with borderline fixes in a cool environment but here where it does get very warm it does not pay to count on these types of "repairs". In most instance this condition can be corrected with a trip to the radiator shop for a recore or a simple tank and flush. Sometimes due to operating conditions an upgrade is called for. "Desert cooler" type radiators are fairly common here. These are simply a larger capacity - higher efficiency radiator. They work very well when the original equipment radiator is not quite up to the task. Generally there is no need for any other modifications. Jeff I have always run about a 50/50 mix here. In my opinion there should always be some form of rust inhibitor in the cooling system. Most antifreeze already has this in the blend.

Don; Thanks it sorta does. Circuit specific.....check! Glad to know I am not the only one here who has had a serious run in with a horse. My accident which was actually caused by a stray dog ....squashed all hope of me becoming a root'n - toot'n cowboy. Never could come to grips with the "lost of trust issues" I had with large animals after that.Too bad too as I would have enjoyed riding the range......or at least what was left of it. All that is left of the old dream is that I finally have the right truck for the job. If you watch the movie "the Rounders" you will see that the two aging bronc busters drive a '52 Dodge 3/4 ton. I have the truck and I am aging....but I will leave the horse part to someone else. Jeff

Tim; I get the part of stepping up the voltage from 6V to 12V. What I am having trouble understanding is how my positive ground chassis "accepts" a negative ground lead from the stereo and how they peacefully coexist. The unit I bought is made specifically for this purpose but I expected it to have a separate ground lead for the stereo instead of just a single common ground that goes back to the chassis. It does work just fine but I will be damned if I understand how. It could be my own "wiring" that is preventing me from grasping this. You may appreciate this. When I was 11 I was thrown from a horse and suffered a fractured skull and severe concussion. Unfamiliar horse....no saddle and of course no helmet.....meets angry dog. Aspiring young cowboy takes a bad fall. I never lost consciousness so instead of being kept in the hospital I was Xrayed and sent home. Turns out they missed the fracture the first time. My folks rushed me back in and this time the Doctors tell them it isn't possible to have this severe damage and not pass out....and if I was that badly injured I would not still be alive. This time they xray again and I imagine they have an "Oh S%$#!" moment. And I was sent home again where I spent about a month in bed while the swelling went down and my brain rewired itself. No therapy in those days......just a few EEG's. No wonder I have a few crossed wires huh? Jeff They say what ever doesn't kill you makes you tougher.......but sometimes I have trouble getting things through my thick skull.

Mike; As I said you are welcome anytime. It does help to be able to see things up close. I got very lucky with my bed as it is all original and was just in need of new boards. I took it down to bare metal and had it painted so it is nice and clean and you can easily see how it all goes together. Jeff

Very nicely put Don. My own observations on my engine is that is around an 8 degree window (4BTDC to 4ATDC) and anything beyond that makes for hard or at least harder starting. As this has been my first experience with a Mopar L6 it took me a while to come to grips with this. I suppose because it is in such a soft state of tune I was expecting it to be more tolerant of how the timing was set. Actually nothing could have been further from the truth. This window could vary some from engine to engine but it really isn't going to be by all that much. Jeff

Tod; Yes exactly. I am glad we have this option. I thought about going that other route.....but I honestly I would rather have it this way. I suppose if I had my project to do all over again the switch over to 12 volt negative ground would be something I probably would do. It would be less expensive than sticking with 6V and and make several of the upgrades I did much easier. Oh well....... Jeff

Tod; I could be wrong. Maybe it is the amperage output that is affected by the voltage from the electrical system? I know I saw something about this. Hey though as long as it works I am happy with it. Jeff

Tod; That is the same unit as I put in. I think the output voltage is directly affected by the voltage going in. Anything less than 7.2V is going to produce less than 12.6 V according to what I have read. I have all new upgraded wiring, battery and a 50A alternator so I should be OK. Not sure how it would do if used on an original electrical system? Might be ok if the system is completely up to spec.......but I would guess it might suffer if the electrical system has any weakness. Jeff

I am stuck at work but you are welcome to come take a look at my truck bed any time. My shop is just a few miles south of you ...across from the Irvine Auto Center. (949) 461-9558 Jeff

I have run across enough problems with Champion plugs over the years that I do not trust them at all. EVER. That said the OP's problem may not actually be a problem with the plugs at all. I think it is more likely it is either the coil or some other component in the ignition system...maybe a combination of things...and/or a timing problem. Any chance a badly worn timing chain may be contributing to the problem? I never hear anyone talking about this but my otherwise fairly fresh rebuilt engine had a pretty sloppy timing chain in it. Mine had sat for years and when I pulled the head and oil pan it was obvious that it had very low mileage on a rebuild. But when I pulled the timing cover the story was a bit different. Just another idea..... Jeff

Can't say I understand how this gadget works........but work it does! Still a bit baffled about how the common ground functions. On one hand I have a 6 volt positive lead from the battery cable to chassis......and on the other a 12 negative lead from the stereo hooked up to the chassis as well. I must be missing something??? But what the heck it works fine. And it sure is nice having tunes. Yeah!!!!. All the extra effort I put into insulating the cab paid off very nicely........it sounds truly amazing. May just be an old truck on the outside.....but it is almost a bleeding concert hall on the inside . I couldn't be happier and I spent less than 200$ on a stereo and 4-3 way speakers. With my trusty Ipod hooked up I am good to go. No commercials.....no crap....just music I really enjoy. Gotta love that! Jeff

Ok......perhaps.... but what about the difference in polarity? How can a 6V positive ground and a 12V negative ground be common in the chassis? Jeff

I have a question on how the unit I bought actually works. It only has 3 leads......one red lead is 6V neg from ignition switch.......another red lead is 12V positive to stereo.......and one black lead goes to ground (positive in this case) which the manufacturer claims is a common ground ??? The diagram also shows the ground lead from the stereo (negative in this case) going to a common ground. It sure looks like a short circuit to me. I don't see how this could be. I called the local vendor I bought it from and asked for an explanation of how this works. He said he couldn't begin to explain it.......but it works fine and it is not even necessary to isolate the radio or antenna. He said he has put dozens of these in and never had an issue. But could not explain how it does this bit of wizardry. Anybody have an explanation of how this actually works? Thanks in advance. Jeff

James; I do love a good mystery.......although it is too bad you are having to go through this. From everything you have posted about this problem it sure sounds like the root of it is heat related. My guess is that it could be something very difficult to spot......like a small crack in the intake manifold or a part that warps or distorts when it reach's a certain temperature. Honestly I hope it is the valve adjustment for your sake......as these other things can be extremely difficult to pinpoint. This is why I suggested hooking up a vacuum gauge. A sudden or even slow drop in vacuum when running at a constant speed could confirm this theory. Keep us posted as I am very curious about what you find out. Jeff

I don't see any need to take the carb off. If there is an actual spark happening "around" the correct time.... then ether should get a reaction. May not start but it should at least make some noise like it is trying to. Lumpy we got way off topic....... I have a 49 AJS 500 single and a 74 250 AJS Stormer. The Stormers were MXers and off road bikes made by Norton- Villiers. Has a variant of the famous Starmaker 2 stroke. I have owned it from new and used it as a desert racer. Good thing you are on this side of the pond..... I know folks in the UK that would have you drawn and quartered for putting an AJS sticker on a Yamaha. Heck now that I think about it I may just have to give them your name and collect the bounty. There are some interesting similarities between the story of Chrysler and Associated Motorcycles that produced AJS and Matchless M/C's among many marques. They were both the smallest of a Big 3 and each had a long tradition of engineering firsts. Owner Charlie Colliers won the very first IOM TT in 1907 and was a huge proponent of endurance and race testing. And just like we see certain Mopar products pull down huge $ at car auctions today you will also see AJS racing bikes hitting astronomical $ at M/C auctions. Jeff