Thread: tappet adjustment 350

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regarding Street's antenna idea - how is frame mounting any different, tire to ground wise, than fender mounting? Assuming both use rubber grommet/washer to isolete the metal of the antenna from the metal of the body/frame?

Did the GM in -the-windhield antennas from the 70s work any better?

As I understand what Streets is describing (he can clarify if needed) is that a fender mounted antenna with a rubber grommet IS isolated from the metal fender by the grommet, but Streets put the antenna in electrical contact with the frame depending on the rubber tires to isolate the antenna from the Earth. Streets says that way he has a much larger antenna, the whole frame. I have not tried this, but I have two comments. First that larger antenna can certainly "hear" the radiofrequency from the ignition system, although RF suppression plug wires can reduce this (what about turn signal blinking). Second, it may work to some extent because it depends on RELATIVE conduction induced in whatever antenna is there. Thus the rubber tires are like the rubber grommet for the fender mount. My claim was that the tires did not prevent the problem of trickle charge loss in the case of positive ground batteries, BUT that process is slow while the frequency response of an antenna is very fast, as in rapid rattling of electrons within whatever metal antenna is there, in Streets' case the whole frame. Maybe it works, but I am surprised it has for Streets since he is in the North East where it is common to use a lot of salt on ice in the winter and it is more likely that wet tires will conduct electricity with salty water on them than for dry clean rubber tires. Maybe Streets is really providing a "tip", but one that surprises me!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Thanks again for your replies. Well I replaced the head gasket (350 Chev) and got it running OK, but only on 7 pots. My original problem was water in the oil. Off with the head again, send it to RocketDyne (local head specialist) for a pressure test. A bit of poking revealed a hole in the exhaust chamber - there's the problem. My engine had 2 different heads - the one with the hole was a 333882 (crap apparently) - the other is a 462624. Found 2 spare 462624's. The first one was cracked, still waiting on results of a recon on the other. I believe these are a better head anyway, although the valves are smaller than the 882.

Looking for a spare rocker cover so I can do my tappets hot as suggested.

Cheers
Graham