Thread: I bet you thought.....

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Thanks Steve. Don, his GF and her Daughter actually got to spend the night anchored out Friday night. He called me and said he was drinking a Bloody Mary, sitting on the back deck, and looking at the stars. I guess all the work he and Taylor put in the boat for the past 9 months are now forgotten. I have to give them credit, they did a nice job.

It looks like all three of us are getting to the end of our current projects. Dan says when this one is done he is going to just enjoy having some time and money for other things. For the past 5 years every spare cent he had has been put into his RPU. I think a lot of us can relate to that. It's fun, but it's also nice when it ends too.

Yours is really coming along well too Steve. You are very close to being done.


Don

Tonight Dan I were bored so we decided to put the body back on my 27 to see how much I would have to modify the firewall to clear the new valve covers. After we got it on we found only about an inch of interference and it was all caused by the new Edelbrock finned aluminum valve covers I had just bought. They are super high to clear roller rockers.

After some thought I took them off and there is tons of clearance between the roller rockers and the top of the firewall tunnel so I have decided to simply use a lower set of valve covers. Don liked the Edelbrocks when I bought them, so maybe I can talk him into trading for the set he has on his T bucket. His clear his roller rockers and he is using the same lift cam I am, so they will work on my engine and eliminate the need to modify my firewall at all. If he doesn't want to make the swap I'll just buy the same set he has and save the other ones for some future project.

I guess the next step is to pull the body back off and start prepping it for paint. Still on the fence on color.......maybe black, maybe dark blue, who knows? Once I get it in primer and blocked I can make that final call. Here are a few pictures of how it looks back on the frame. It will settle down a little lower once I let the clutch out for the first time, that is what happened years ago when I first built it.

Don

Looking good Don ....... damn you guys got way to much space inbetween project vehicles .... can't you add a few more machines to take up the cleaned floor space?

Paul

Hehe Paul, last week Dan and I couldn't take the mess any longer so we spent a couple of days cleaning up. I put 6 big garbage bags of trash into the dumpster and we finally can breathe in there. It should stay like this for about a week knowing us. One good thing is that as his car and my car come together there are less parts laying around loose.

So how are you coming on yours Paul? Any new progress?

Don

Looks pretty cool Don. My neighbor and I went around town looking at different cars for a future project idea. He can get his hands on a Jag straight six with dual overhead cams, complete engine with transmission for free and was contiplating a open front roadster much like this one but track style. There is a similar style one here locally sort of what J Robinson's track style build looks like that I thought would be cool. The biggest problem for my neighbor(Mike) is the length of that Jag engine.
Anyway it's great to see the puple passion ride again under new colors!

That Jag would sure look different, and sound great I bet. But you are right about the length thing. Even the sbf I have is a couple inches longer than a sbc and those inches make a lot of difference. But your buddy should go for it, the wow factor would be worth the work.

And you are right about the color change........I like it a whole lot more in black this time.

Don

Originally Posted by stovens

Looks pretty cool Don. My neighbor and I went around town looking at different cars for a future project idea. He can get his hands on a Jag straight six with dual overhead cams, complete engine with transmission for free and was contiplating a open front roadster much like this one but track style. There is a similar style one here locally sort of what J Robinson's track style build looks like that I thought would be cool. The biggest problem for my neighbor(Mike) is the length of that Jag engine.
Anyway it's great to see the puple passion ride again under new colors!

If he's building from scratch like J is, he can always lengthen the wheelbase to accommodate the longer engine. Just remember, though, that Jag engines are very expensive to repair so that "free" engine might cost a bundle by the time he gets it on the road. I used to own an XK140 coupe and that thing kept me in the poor-house.

Originally Posted by jamesanderson1

Wait for a few days I will talk with some experts about this and let this problem solved for you.

We'll be waiting patiently.

These Chinese spammers are so persistent. (frown)

Don

Looking good Don.

It's been a while since I've updated this particular (re)build thread of my 27 roadster, so I figured I should bring it up to date. As I posted on other threads, I got the engine all buttoned up and started. It ran great for about 5 minutes or so and then the oil pressure went to zero (it had been at 60 lbs idling). Tore it down and found the main galley plug had blown out, so I put a new screw in plug in it's place, put the engine back together, and fired it up. Ran great, had 60 psi again, but when I capped the headers and ran through mufflers I could hear a knocking sound from deep in the engine.

I tore it completely down to a bare block and had the clearances and bearings rechecked. Everything was perfect, and with a lot of advise from some very helpful friends on here I put it all back together again. The piston maker and Scat tell me it is stroker knock when it is cold and it will go away when it warms up..........I sure hope so.

One thing that I did notice was that my front crank pulley ran a little untrue and that was because I had to use a real mix of parts on the front end of this engine. It was a 1990 roller motor and I wanted to use a V belt instead of the serpentine it came with. Plus, I wanted to use Ford Racings short water pump kit that shortens the motor up by 1.5 inches or so, and I needed radiator clearance for a better electric fan. Problem is, Ford Racing discontinued the short water pump setup so I had to get bits and pieces wherever I could find them.

I found the correct timing cover at Jegs and the water pump at Summit, but the pulleys were long discontinued by Ford and nowhere to be found. So, I bought a Zoops aluminum pulley set for a small block Ford and also one of their spacers. I got it to line up, but the crank pulley didn't register correctly on the damper so it was off center a little. I finally found out Ford Racing made a spacer that would work with their harmonic balancer so I ordered one, but it had a lip on the front that wouldn't fit on my Zoops pulley.

Long story short, I took the spacer and pulley to a local machine shop and they bored the pulley out to 2 3/8 inches, and now the two mate up. It only cost me $ 30 for them to do that, and here I thought it was going to be a major undertaking. Today I got them back and installed them. Now everything lines up perfectly and I can start reinstalling the engine this week.

I'm also happy because I found this new machine shop that I didn't even know about and the owner is a drag racer and understands this stuff. He has an 8 second S10 truck running a blown big block on alcohol. My little pulley job was like child's play for him. From now on he is getting my engine machine work, for sure.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I had a lot to catch up on with this one. Here are a couple pictures of the pulleys and in the second one you can see the spacer between the damper and pulley.

Don

Hey Don .... this sounds great. Don't forget the YOUTUBE when it's fired.

Paul

My fuel system parts showed up this morning from Summit so we went to the shop and while Dan was working on his RPU I got the electric pump, filter, and progressive linkage installed. Finally tonight we fired it back up for the first time since I tore it all the way down. THERE WERE NO STRANGE NOISES THIS TIME!!

Not sure what the knocking was the last time, but I strongly suspect the mechanical fuel pump eccentric. Even with the exhaust capped up the motor sounds just like it should. Even that "stroker knock" Keith Black and Scat told me I might have didn't exist when it was cold or hot. My mufflers are a little quieter than I would like, but I can address that later on.

I let it run for about 20 minutes, oil pressure is right at 50 lbs idling, and it never got over 180 degrees. Now I can start sanding the body and getting ready for paint. I think I'll sleep pretty well tonight. And just for you Paul, I'll do a YouTube.

Don

Well done Don! Now post a video, but without any head scorching!
I still remember Don Jr.s fireup! Ouch! It is great to hear problem solved. What a relief. I was just talking to a few hot rod locals in the show today about your last project and how nice it turned out. I think I even convinced a friend to buy classic 27 roadster for sale!

Thanks Steve. Yep, Don still remembers that little burn on his head. We were replacing his brake light switch on his T yesterday and he kept reminding me to stay away from the hot headers. I told him he sounded like the voice of experience.

Don

That's one of the best things about this forum, helps keep us safe!
I just remember little stuff that I file for later thinking, better remember that!
Maybe you'll get a chance to do a video soon, tomorrow I'm out to the shop to work on the poor neglected truck, nothing like a car show to inspire us to work on our own stuff!