Thread: One Way To Build A '32 Hyboy

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They look perfect to me.

Tom

I have about 180 miles on the Ole' girl and she is doing pretty good., but there have been issues. There have been two major issues.
1) Last week end I went to this car get together that goes on every Saturday morning. For the guys that live here it's the Donut Derelicts. Early every Sat. 200 to 300 cars gather in this parking lot at 5:30 am and leave about 9. I got there early because I was leaving early to meet the guys from my car club at 7. So about 6:45 I got back in my car and left. I was going south on the 405 making the transition onto the 55 north. Now I have been really babying this thing and I figured it was time to see how she really handled. This on ramp is a real big sweeper, I think the posted speed is 50 mph. I was going 80 to 85 and this thing just hugs the road and went right threw the corner, as it straightened out I heard this huge noise, the right front dropped then this long noise that I have never heard in any car. I pushed the clutch in and the engine died. I could still steer it but I knew something in the suspension had broken. There wasn't much traffic so it was easy to get to the shoulder. I got out and walked around the front and the top of the shock was still attached to the rocker arm but the spring and main body was jammed into the harmonic balancer. It was forced into the engine with so much force it was actually holding part of the weight of the car up. I called AAA for a flat bed and we went home. As I took it apart to see what actually caused it, it became obvious immediately. The top of the shock was only screwed onto the shaft with 3 treads and no set screw. I got them and never checked to see if they were assembled properly. I had taken the springs on and off many times but always did it from the bottom, by removing the spanner nuts. So another lesson learned, check everything no matter what. This could of been really bad, if it would of broken anywhere threw that turn it would of been pretty ugly.
2) If you have followed this build along you know that I fill the radiator in a cap located in the cowl vent that goes into the heater hoses. There are 3 bleeder vents, 2 on the motor and 1 in the radiator top tank. It takes forever to get all the air out. But I figured I would just live with it, if everything worked properly how many times would I have to do this!! Well it didn't work properly and after a hundred miles the problems in the cooling became evident.
They only make one thermostat for this engine, a 195. The computer doesn't turn the fan on till 215 degrees. With a 12 pound cap you are screwed the water is so close to boiling there isn't enough time for the water to cool by the fan. The other problem was the recovery tank wasn't getting enough vacuum from the heater hoses to pull the water back into the system. So the hotter it got the more water is would spit into the recovery tank and never get back into the system.
I called the radiator shop and explained the problem, and he said, "I told you so", and I have to admit, he did. So the solution was to put another radiator cap on the top tank of the radiator and a recovery system off of that, just like a regular car. But I can't have that, I don't want to see the cap or a reservoir tank. There is just no room for all that stuff. I went to the radiator shop and they found a real small radiator cap off of a Honda. There is just enough room to weld in the bung at a 45 degree angle off the front of tank so it will still be hidden by the grill shell. Now all I had to do was find a place for the recovery tank. I took the grill insert out and started looking inside the grill shell for any available room. I figured out if I enclosed part of the radiator and grill shell mount I could in close part of it and it would become my tank, so that's what I did. Now it runs at 180 with a 16 pound pressure cap. It's real easy to fill now with the additional radiator cap. The other thing I did was drill 3, 3/16 holes in the thermostat so It would circulate some water before the thermostat opened all the way. I also by passed the computer and put a 185 degree fan switch. So far it is working fine, I have my fingers crossed.
Ken

Ken,
Your problem solving skills are amazing! I would still be looking for someplace to hide the recovery tank and would probably have a radiator cap sticking through the top of the grille shell with some kind of ornament hiding it. I will file this away in my memory for future inspiration... Wow! again.

Ken, Great solutions! You can reprogram your ECU to turn the fans on at different temperatures. Mine is set to come on at 195 now. Also you can experiment with the Thermostat to open at different temperatures by putting a small spacer below the shaft. an 1/8" ferrell is just the right size and can be sanded to different thicknesses. That assumes that your thermostat is simialr to the one on my LS1. Glad you did not crunch anything when that suspension slipped!

Pat

Jim-Thanks, but I cause most of these problems

Pat- I will have the computer reprogrammed when it gets tuned. If I understand your suggestion correctly, your saying to space the thermostat open that amount? Sorry it's early, no coffee in me yet.
Ken

Looking back at your pictures it does not look like you have the same thermostat housing that the LS1 has, but this may work. I got this tip from one of the LS1-LS6 build books, I can find it when I get home tonight. Original Gen III motors had the thermostat build into the housing and had a wax motor that open and closed it. You can easiliy take it a part and place a spacer in the mechanism that will cause it to open sooner. It does not hold it open. On the one I messed with, I used an 1/8" ferrell from a compression fitting and sanded it down to the recommended thickness (it's in the book I will find tonight) and this was supposed to have the thermostat open at about 170 degrees. I ended up not using it because the housing routed my lower house in a way I could not use. I found a different housing that actually uses standard Chevy thermostats and stuck a 180 in there and that works perfect. Enough rambling, I just wanted you to know that these thermostats can be manipulated. Also I believe in the later Gen IV motors they changed the design to have a more easily changed stat.

Pat

Ken that shock absorber incident could have been much worse. Glad to hear you came out of it unscathed. Creative solutions to the heating! Still working on engine install, it fit alot better with the wrong mounts and angle!

Ken, really sorry to hear about your problem but glad it didn't turn out worse. In a strange kinda way it is good that you have posted this though, because it points out that no matter how we engineer our rods, things can happen. That is why I post all the good stuff that happens to me when building a car and also some of the bad things that rear their ugly heads from time to time. It is all part of the game, and those who are just starting in this hobby need to understand that and not get discouraged...................you fix them and move on.

Let's face it, we take a bunch of parts that were never designed to work together and mate them into a running, driving creation, and we do it without the benefit of engineering degrees (well, some of us anyway ) and without millions of dollars worth of equipment and years of R and D time. The fact any of them go down the road is pretty amazing.

Thanks for posting that story. I bet you have helped more people than you know.

Don

Ken, I'm glad nothing happened to you and only a minor amount of damage to the car. It just reminds me that I need to give mine one or two more passes with a handful of wrenches before I finally start driving it in another month or so. Just today, I found that my battery box hold down thru frame bolts had no nuts and my electric radiator fan was connected to a dead terminal on my AAW module - so there are probably more gotchas.

Glad You didn't get hurt, and the car can be repaired.
BradC

Thanks you guys, I'm really thankful nothing serious happened.
I'm really glad you are checking your car again. I think that I'm as anal as they come and I missed a pretty obvious thing to check. I think someone should make a little check list book that list every part as you make your purchases. Then as you install them you physically mark your book that they have been checked. That means every part is taken apart before you install it. I would of caught this if I had that little hand book. Just a thought.
Don, you have inspired me from the very beginning. I guess I'm selfish, because when you suggested that I document my build I really didn't want to take the time. All I wanted to do was read everyone else's builds. Now I'm going to document more on here. If I can help one other person from having a accident or any kind of problem I want to do that. I want to thank you for that.
I have been working on my sedan at work all week and it is time to start on the frame. I laid out the rails and have made my complete build on the frame on paper. I was ready to go, then your post popped into my head, and I stopped because my camera was at home. I'm going to document every move and hope that someone on this bored is helped. Wait till you see this baby
I'm rambling because I'm tired, I hope you understand my objective.
Ken

Ken, you know that we'll follow every move.

Maybe you should ask your wife do the picture taking while you work. I tried to document mine that way but being almost a Luddite and not liking the "new" photo processes when I started hadn't made the change to digital so it got real expensive for film.

Ken, guys like me really do appreciate the way you show the details of your build. I seem to have the same problem with my rad, it runs the same temp ranges as yours. My expansion tank has the two holes in the bottom one flush and one with a standpipe. I figured the line from the rad cap goes to the lower opening but I don't know where to run the return from the standpipe. I've just left it open so far and it does boil over and leak out never returning to the rad.
What I gather from reading your thread is I have to run a line back to the cap some way and not just let it leak onto the street.

Sean

I LOVE to read other people's builds, and the more pictures the better. Sometimes you wonder if I am boring people with some trivial thing I have done, but then I remember how much I enjoy them and figure maybe others do too.

It's a lot of work to document a build because you have to stop after you do some step, sweep up the floor and pick up your mess so people actually think you aren't a slob (), then you have to wash your hands so the camera stays clean, and finally you have to take the picture. Finally, when you get all done for the night, and are bone tired, you have to download the pictures and do your post. I'm tellin' you, this car building stuff is hard work !

However, there is a real upside to doing it. You have lots of eyes watching you and waiting for the next update, so it keeps you moving and probably doing better work than you might do otherwise. It is also very nice to hear feedback and compliments from everyone. Makes working in a cold or hot garage so much more tolerable.

I've also loved watching your threads and builds Ken, because I know that you normally don't like to jump in the spotlight so much.........you are a very private kind of guy. But seeing you do more and more of these posts has been very cool, and you have taught us a lot about the right way to build a car. When I log on and see your thread come up I can't wait to see what the latest update is...........and that goes for all the builds that are going on right now.

Thanks everyone for sharing your projects with the rest of us.


Don

Ken you've just wrecked my vision of you.
I thought with the nice work you do,
that you were a designing engineer for all the auto manufactor's.
Just kidding Ken I love your clean work.
I look at your stuff then at mine and get this sick feeling
in my stomack. I'm glad you at the other end of the country.
This lessons the chance of you ever parking you stuff next to mine.
If you lived near me I would have to leave everything parked in the
back yard. Kurt