Thread: Sunday Red: A 1932 Roadster Build Log Started in 2022

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That's fine. All I am saying is to verify with the chassis builder. Let them know which body your buying. They've probably done one or two prior so they may know what works or doesn't.
It's all about the communication. Try to minimize any surprises... That's all I am saying.

Regarding your 5 month engine build. I was in Summit Racing in Sparks, NV last Friday returning some tires, a guy at the counter said he's been waiting on a camshaft he ordered since last March. YIKES!
Concerning 30_40's reply to your picture with the temp indicator glued (RTV'd) on the block. That was installed from the wrecking yard where he purchased the engine. I bought a replacement (used) engine for my Trailblazer and I watched the rep glue that indicator on prior to me taking possession. And yes, it's for the rebuilder/wrecking yard to make sure you don't overheat it and bring it back for warranty replacement.

Originally Posted by blwn31

Regarding your 5 month engine build. I was in Summit Racing in Sparks, NV last Friday returning some tires, a guy at the counter said he's been waiting on a camshaft he ordered since last March. YIKES!
Concerning 30_40's reply to your picture with the temp indicator glued (RTV'd) on the block. That was installed from the wrecking yard where he purchased the engine. I bought a replacement (used) engine for my Trailblazer and I watched the rep glue that indicator on prior to me taking possession. And yes, it's for the rebuilder/wrecking yard to make sure you don't overheat it and bring it back for warranty replacement.

Well I definitely don't hope to be waiting 5 months for my engine. I'm taking it to the shop today, get it back in two weeks and I'll continue from there. The 5 months is being introduced by my wait for P&J chassis. My goal is to have a completed engine by the end of March

To that end, here is a question for the group - I have located a body and they can get it to me within a week or so. Is it a mistake to get the body before the chassis? I think I can still work on some of the basics of the body without the chassis and still be OK. Obviously I wont be doing things like drilling mounting holes, but I think I can put in some work while I wait for the chassis delivery, no?

Originally Posted by JimBeam

Someone else with more experience here can chime in but my understanding is that the body itself isn't stretched, its only the cabin area that is 2" longer. It just allows for more seat positions for longer legs. The overall body dimension is the same and, in fact, comes without mounting holes so that you can drill your own for whatever chassis you choose (Speedway doesnt even sell a 1932 chassis from what I can tell).

The body dimension is stock, only the seating area & doors are "stretched" 2". With your nominal 30" inseam I don't think you'll have too much problem with the room, but be careful about your top and windshield selection!! My roadster body from Show Me Rod & Custom came with the body mount holes drilled, and I believe that's the standard approach because the chassis are built with stock body, cowl and fender mounting holes in place.
Speedway does sell a '32 chassis, their PN 916-57050 set up for a traditional dropped I-beam front end. I believe you'd be well advised to check out some other body suppliers like Show Me, Russ-No-More, Rat's Glass (even more stretch!) and probably more instead of concentrating on getting one fast.

I managed to do just a few things around town today.

1. I dropped my block off at the machine shop. Hone the bores, polish the crank and clean up the block as much as possible. I will get it back in 1 week
2. Picked up my valve covers from sandblasting and those are now ready to paint. I have some paint coming tomorrow and will do some color tests at that time.

So not much else to do today other than clean up the garage a bit and keep looking for a body.

I'm doing my best to not let my hands go idle and keep the project moving forward. So I decided to do some color tests and I've also decided to do a valve job on my cylinder heads. Nothing is really wrong with them, I just want to clean them out completely and I'm also going to switch to roller rockers.



For rattlecan stuff I think these came out pretty good. I followed the instructions to a T and it went on smoothly. The gold was just a fun color to experiment with, I doubt I'll be using it in the final build.

Now, let's talk exterior colors:

I think this color came out much more on the ruby side than I would like. However, I do think it looks pretty different in sunlight and might be better than what it's showing here.


This one is listed as a hot rod red but it definitely has some strong orange undertones. It's not a terrible color but I'm not in love with it.

Both of these colors are OK but I think I will keep on looking. It's good for me to get these now, hang them up in my garage and live with them for a bit to make sure it's something that I will want to look at long term.

Engine block comes back to me on Thursday and I'm looking forward to that. If the machine shop ended up doing a good job on it, I'll let them handle the cleaning of the cylinder heads too.

I know you will want what you want but... roller rockers won't gain you a thing. But it's your monies..

Originally Posted by 34_40

I know you will want what you want but... roller rockers won't gain you a thing. But it's your monies..

You think so? What makes you say that?

I’ll take a shot at this one.

I think what Mike is saying is that any HP gains from adding roller rockers to a stock valve train will be so negligible that it won’t be noticeable when driving the car.

I know there are a lot of advertisements out there that claim 15-20 HP gains. What is often not mentioned in many cases is that the rocker in question has a different ratio than the stock rocker and/or the heads are using valve springs with considerably more spring pressure than stock.

Many of the less expensive roller rockers are cheap for a reason (google “roller rocker arm failure images”). Depending on how the rocker comes apart it can easily lead to catastrophic engine failure.

But I’m just an old man…..what do I know.



.

Roller rockers do little for performance with stock heads and valve train, quality roller rockers (as in the spendy ones) might add a bit in reliability but only if you intend to put the engine to some high rpm usage. Unless you're going to get some porting done on the heads done on a CNC machine and go to a more aggressive camshaft and heavier valve springs and push rods I doubt you would see anything in performance gains. Then there's also the work necessary to get roller rockers to "work" right, ie centered on the valve. I've ran a number of stock configuration rockers on Ford 5.0's over the years and found the factory pieces work fine through about 5500 RPM, with stock heads and valves the 5.0's are all done making horsepower at not much over 5,000 RPM. Are the cylinders nice enough that they will clean up with only honing, and where will that leave your piston to wall clearance? Invariably the cheapy roller rockers will break even easier then the stock ones! As a PS, there have been a number of threads on CHR concerning how best to set roller rockers in relation to push rod length to get the roller portion of the rocker centered on the valve. If it isn't done correctly aftermarket rockers of dubious quality can push on the valve stem and cause a lot of extra wear on valve guides and undue wear on the valves themselves.

Roller rockers fall into the same category as octane boost, much ado about nothing.

I nearly lost the engine in my coupe due to a roller rocker failure. The pin came out of a roller, the roller got into the adjacent rocker and caused it to break. Running "loose" the lifter fluttered to the point that the pushrod bent and the keeper spring in the top of the lifter popped out but the lifter stayed together. This was as we arrived in Des Moines for the GoodGuys event. Found the broken rocker, got a ride to a shop that had a set of Scorpion's and a couple of pushrods. Replaced the two bad ones, said a prayer and it started and ran just fine. Didn't know about the keeper spring as with everything adjusted the spring doesn't do anything, but a year later I was on my way to meet guys in Oklahoma to drive to the LA Roadster Show and a little piece of that spring got into the oil pump and seized it - zero oil pressure at 70mph but I dumped the clutch and shut it down. A 200 mile flatbed ride home, pulled the pan and started the search for cause.... the oil pump shaft had one and a half twists in it before it sheared.

If you go roller rockers buy the good ones, not no-names, but you're not going to gain anything over stock, and you may actually compromise your reliability. Doing it again I'd use stock rockers but you'll do what you want to do.

I'm seeing a couple of comments/concern over the quality of the rockers I may be choosing. Here is my planned purchase from Summit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-77780

Originally Posted by JimBeam

I'm seeing a couple of comments/concern over the quality of the rockers I may be choosing. Here is my planned purchase from Summit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-77780

I have been watching this thread and stayed away as I’m more of a SBC guy. I’ve done a few Ford builds in the 289/302 era of Mustangs and Falcons (1960’s) but they were pretty much stock in terms valve trains. The 5.0 you’re working on represents a lot of Ford factory engineering and in my opinion, Ford got a lot of things right and aside from converting to a carbureted from FI and a set of headers, I’d just slap on some eye candy. The rocker arms you’re looking at will add virtually zero in terms of noticeable performance on the street and you won’t even get to see those pretty red aluminum guys at work! To take advantage of what roller rockers were designed for you’d need to dump $10G in the internals and see north of 6,000 RPM on a regular basis – not what you’ve described as your desired outcome.

In my world, $650 is a good chunk of money and for your build, I’d put those dollars into polished aluminum valve covers and a sexy air cleaner setup.

Regards,
Glenn

Originally Posted by glennsexton

....
In my world, $650 is a good chunk of money and for your build, I’d put those dollars into polished aluminum valve covers and a sexy air cleaner setup.

Regards,
Glenn

I agree with Glenn 100%. Apply that $650 to something like gauges, which you'll need.