Rust free 40 plymouth sedan

[40plyrod]

3 minutes ago, mrwrstory said:

Putting together clean new/refurbed parts is just the best, eh!

 It's fun but the worst is yet to come!?

[40plyrod]

Lastly install the valves and keepers. I was able to do this but it definitely tested patience. Trying to get my fat fingers to put the keepers in with everything else in the way and all covered in assembly lube...(insert pulling your hair emoji here)

[40plyrod]

And now for the problem! As mentioned this engine is being put together at home from a mixture of parts from different engines. Parts are being sent out to the engine machine shop, machined there in house or in the case of the cam sent out from there to the cam shop. The only person that has all the parts at the same time is yours truly and I don't have a real blueprint or master plan. My instructions for the machine shop is plane the head a little, make the cam a little "lumpy" with no real measurements, so this is what happens... 

 

Yup! I read about how sometimes if you have too much lift and plane the head too much you'll get interference problems but that won't happen to me right? Luckily I decided to put the head up on there to check just in case. I would have hated to find out there was a problem at startup? Turns out that I am able to get the clearance needed with a different head. I think the head may have had too much taken off or had been machined before. This is a very unscientific way to check but if I measure the thickness of the head at the bolt head boss there is a massive difference and the combustion chamber look significantly smaller. Oh well, you gotta learn someway and now I have a great spitfire wall hanger ( almost an offering to the god of speed ?)

Edited September 1, 2019 by 40plyrod

[mrwrstory]

Doah!!! 

[Ward Duffield]

It would be great if someone could post an overall thickness dimension for stock cylinder head that are known never to have been cut!

[dpollo]

the gasket may give you the clearance necessary

[Los_Control]

Is there a way to set the head and gasket in place, then use plasigage to check clearances?

Seems like there would be a bare minimum clearance needed, and that would then be the question ... how low can you go?

 

edit

After thinking about this, don't Hot Rodders check and shim the heads to get optimal compression range?

I had a old toyota with a known head defect, poor bolt placement and head warpage.

The recall installed a shim with the head gasket to cure the warp .... I just stacked 2 gaskets on it. Drove it for years with no issues.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Los_Control

[mrwrstory]

Isn't it a bummer when all the new parts you've collected don't go together.  Similar situation when installing a reman'd transmission.  'Sposed to be a bolt-in.  Clay told me where the interference was. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 8:33 PM, 40plyrod said:

Lastly install the valves and keepers. I was able to do this but it definitely tested patience. Trying to get my fat fingers to put the keepers in with everything else in the way and all covered in assembly lube...(insert pulling your hair emoji here)

 

[40plyrod]

Well, David came to my rescue again and supplied another spitfire head. I'm going to be a little more careful this time, I don't want to deplete the entire supply of spitfire heads. Plans this time call for cleaning up the head and installing the head with gasket and putty in the combustion chamber, that way I'll know how much I have to "play" with. I'm thinking of being quite conservative this time and only surfacing it to be flat.  Comparing the thickness of this head to the last, it seems at least 1/8" was machined off. I'm fairly confident that the machine shop wouldn't have taken that much off so it must have been machined a couple of times before and I didn't check it before sending it out.

Edited September 13, 2019 by 40plyrod