<VV> Off Season Projects
ricknorris at suddenlink.net
ricknorris at suddenlink.net
Thu Oct 31 06:11:11 EDT 2013
As always Smitty, I enjoy your articles...or should I say your pain. GG!
--
Rick Norris
#36 Sunoco Corvair
www.corvairalley.com
---- Smitty <vairologist at cox.net> wrote:
> Smitty Says: My off season projects have continued right on through the
> summer and I am still trying to catch up. It began towards the end of last
> winter when Spike started smoking. I determined that it was the #1
> cylinder. Pulled the head off and pulled the cylinder. Found the upper
> ring groove crushed and binding the ring. Runaway boost?? I would have
> assumed that the Safeguard should have caught that. Anyway, new piston, new
> rings, and all is well. Ready for VIR.
> Meanwhile I am making mod # 14 (or is it 22) to the water injection system I
> built. I am getting crazy power and can hardly wait to get on the track.
> Had a little lifter problem on #4 exhaust. It didn't want to stay adjusted.
> Had a real ball at VIR for maybe 10 laps. Could not get my old brain
> recalibrated to the tremendous speed and was over cooking corners all over
> the place. Caught one quick glance at the tach and was turning well over
> 6500. Said to my self, "Self" this isn't right. Safeguard is supposed to
> shut it down at 6200. But who cares when it is running this way. My Bud
> Paul took the car out and broke a rod cap. (Not a bolt), and the rod tried
> to wrap around the crank.. It didn't even make a full revolution.
> So I bring Spike home and pull the engine. Looks like I can salvage the cam
> and lifters and a few other odds and ends. I put in a new block, crank, two
> cylinders, 3 pistons, New rods and ARP rod bolts. Fired it up and it sounds
> beautiful for 20 seconds or so before the rocker arm starts tapping again
> and then a horrible racket. I pull the top off of the engine and check all
> the rod bearings. They are fine. Out comes the engine again. I pull the
> flywheel and find that the bolted flywheel is banging on the bell housing
> bolts. What is pitiful about this is that I had a newbie over at the house
> watching me put the engine together. I was very carefully explaining to him
> what happens when you use washers in the wrong place. OK, I'll take credit
> for that snafu.
> I put it all together again and put the engine back in. You must realize
> that I am old, and I spend a lot of time hurting from bad lower back,
> arthritic wrists and shoulders, not to mention severe sinus problems. Some
> days I could only tolerate a couple of hours of work. Not looking for
> sympathy. Just letting you know why things go slowly.
> So the engine is in and it is running great and the lifter is silent.
> Better take it down to the State inspection station as it is about 9 months
> out of date. When I get out on the street I find that it is reluctant to
> take throttle. It is gutless to an extreme. Looks like I am going to have
> to go through the tuneup procedures again. I get the car inspected and head
> home. The lifter clattered for a minute and went away. Car goes in the
> garage and as I am checking things out I get that sick feeling. I wonder if
> I miss-indexed the cam?
> Out comes the engine again. The tranny and bellhousing come off and there
> it is. off by one tooth. I have put together many many engines and each
> time I have lived it mortal fear I would do that some day. I am so anal I
> don't see how I could have possibly done that. Well, it is what it is so I
> tear the engine down. When I lift the crank out I don't believe what I am
> seeing. The two center mains are trashed. Somehow, somewhere a load of
> grit has come from the oil galleries and ruined them. I order new mains and
> go to work polishing the crank. All day long I am remembering pulling the
> plugs at the ends of the galleries in my newly acquired block, and running
> long bottle brushes through the block and crank and flushing with oven
> cleaner and gasoline and water and then doing it over again. The end
> casting was torn down and got the same treatment. The oil pump was opened
> up and cleaned. I will never know where that stuff came from.
> I put the engine back together again and meanwhile find why my Safeguard
> failed me. The hose that feeds boost info to the unit had thousands of tiny
> cracks in it. Pressure was bleeding off and feeding bum dope to the unit.
> I don't feel like taking total ownership of that deal. I know one thing, I
> am getting sick of working on the engine. We have a club meeting that night
> and I decide to test run the car. We hadn't gone far when the lifter
> started clattering again. Aww Man, when is enough enough. I go ahead and
> take the car to the meeting and as we are trucking along the lifter goes
> quiet and then starts up again. Off and on, but by the time we get home I
> know what it is. I break out my data from previous inspections of the
> engine. #4 cylinder had been 110 lbs right along until the next day when it
> struggled to make 95. Off comes the head. Out come the springs. All
> valve seats look fine. That is there is no evidence of any of them moving.
> But the exhaust on #4 has a smokey trace on the seat about 3/8" long. Ah Ha
> you miserable ^$#^@. You did move didn't you?
> I acquired a good usable head that needs guides. I am tired of this game.
> I am going to support the economy, and give the head to a machine shop with
> orders to not heat the head over 350 degrees. That is where we are right
> now. Waiting for somebody to do something I have done 20 times in my past.
> But I am tired.
>
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