Thread: One Way To Build A '32 Hyboy

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Amen Ken!

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