A little up date on the hot rod. Although I have heard from others on the hamb that good blocks are hard to come by, I didn't realize just how much so. Specifically when they are cheap or free. On #7 8ba with no success. All with cracks into the valve pocket or total water damage. Will keep looking. According to my source he has plenty more. My L100 or Tony's cam from the Ford Barn should be here soon. I look forward to hearing that lope along. Mean while I have brake lines to run and wiring. Ken
Looking good and great to see it moving forward. Oh wow Mr Bickel is the man for flattys and did you get one from him yet. So what’s the grind on the cam and not familiar with that one..
KiWi-L100 once again available to all that want it. The original L100 "Advertised " specs are as follows:- Lift In.=.375 Ex=.375 @ cam Duration @.050 In=246* Ex=238* Lobe centers 111
I made out to the garage today to work on the hot rod. With Christmas at our house this year my honey do list was getting a little lengthy so I took some time off. I finished up with the brakes and routed the brake lines. The back I changed up a bit and didn't like the rubber hose under the torque tube. Instead I modified it to be on the side for clearance. I then continued the lines on the rear radius rods per stock. Clocking the wheel cylinders worked out great.
Update on the block. I think I found a good one. It is tagged by Ford as an industrial engine. No ridge on the block. Std bore. It had adjustable lifters and an aluminum timing gear. I have my fingers crossed on this one.
older buddy told me of a real time/effort saver... when assembling a banjo rear put all the different thickness paper gaskets in on both sides... then as you tighten it up tear off the ones you don't need... beats taking the whole thing apart to change gaskets...
I cut off two long bolts and thread them in for dowel pins to hold the gaskets and guide the bells down while assembling.
AV8 driveshaft shortened. The roadster need the 40 torque tube cut 18.5" so the drive shaft needed the same amount cut off from the rear end with the coupler splines. This can be handled many ways but turning the coupler splines is the easiest on a small lathe. The coupler ID was turned to a .002 interference fit to the shaft where the cut was made at a depth of roughly 2.125". I heated the coupler up and tapped it on with a hammer until it was seated. While it was still warm I ran a weld bead around the coupler instead of the drift pin. It can now be reassembled in the torque tube. Before I did that I wanted to check how straight the coupler was as it relates to the middle of the shaft. We don't want a lot of shaft whip or vibration. It ran .015" which I would think would be acceptable considering how short it is now.
Fantastic build! I'm loving the detailed posts and pics. I really like the patina paint too, I'm going to try that on some of my stuff. I've got way too many projects and no time to work on them right now but I'm hoping to either get back to work on my sedan, find a roadster or both in the coming year. Keep up the great work; this is going to be a super fun car and can't wait to see it on the road!
Well the saga continues...... I got a phone call Thursday night my 3rd block has a crack from the valve pocket all the way to the lifter bore. I am starting to get more than a little discouraged. I had high hopes on this last one. I tried looking on Craigslist nothing. Tried this new place (new to me) called Facebook Marketplace. What do I find? A 53 8ba that has been baked clean and magna fluxed. Notes on the paper work noted good and needed a .040" bore to clean up. Only 3 hrs away. $400. Made the road trip this morning. It also was out of a running truck with rods/cam/aluminum cam cover/oil pan/oil pump and all the head bolts and hardware. I don't need the stuff but will make good resale to recoup my losses. I hope this one wasn't a waste of time.
Now I am getting paranoid. I posted pictures of the block deck and ran out to the garage to check what liked like a crack from the left head bolt! Just a scratch..... There are the normal head bolt to water jacket cracks. Those are pretty normal. Thread sealer fixes those.
By the time the grill and headlights are added the eye will have more to focus on, right now, because the tires are new thats the focus. I'm for removing a few more front leaves, you know, just till you can hear the tires and fender braces sing in harmony. Car's gonna be so bitchin..........
Update on my 8ba build: The block passed magna flux so we are moving ahead with boring .125" over. Rich Bickel Sr. has offered his help in putting it together in his shop. As I have said earlier in this post he knows flatheads as good as anybody. The bonus is he and his son Bickel Jr are legendary in racing and I am honored to work along side of of old man Bickel as he refers to himself. He also has a test stand set up flatheads for run in. I look forward to seeing how he approaches the 3×2 Stromberg tune. He calls them leakers and would prefer I had gone with the Holley 94's. Oh well.
Since I am moving with the engine build. I have a few things to address before the run in on the test stand. Yep rebuilding the Stromberg 97's. I have been watching all of Charlie's videos from Vintage Speed on the correct method of disassembly and rebuild. I ordered a jet wrench today to finish the disassembly. Until then I aged the progressive linkage from Vintage Speed by removing the bright zinc plate with muratic acid. Use in a well ventilated area. The fumes are pretty intense especially if the parts are aluminum. Gives the linkage a nice gray look that match the carbs.
I'll be keeping an eye on your 3 deuce stuff as I still have to do that to my flattie. Got the carbs all rebuilt and ready to go. Got the progressive linkage set up. Just need to decide how I want to do up the fuel lines.
I will have a nice followup with pv size/ jetting sizes and anything else that might be helpful with this kind of setup.
Looking great. Been following from the beginning. I just wanted to let you know if your fuel pump clearance is an issue. You can clock the bowl part of the pump around for more space. I had to on mine. Works good , no issues. Keep up the good work.
I am sure this gets a lot of discussion but pictures tell the story. I like the pictures not the articles.....LOL. To not have to buy the emulsion removal tool when rebuilding Strombergs. I just use a 6-32 tap to tap the end of the emulsion tube about 3-4 turns. Thread in a long 6-32 screw with a nut and washer. They come right out if the have being soaking with Blaster/Kroil for some time. None of mine ever had a anyone over tighten the jets. The holes look great. I will be reusing them and the jets since they were all #45
Thanks for the tip. I pushed my engine so far back that the intake made contact on the firewall. I decided to totally eliminate the fuel pump and add an old offy block off plate.
Now that I have all three carbs apart successfully, it's time to dip them in carb cleaner. I have found Berryman Chem-Dip to work the best than others. It is getting hard to get in my area already but it sure works well. Just use a tooth brush in the hard to reach areas and rise and blow the passages out with Gumout choke cleaner. I also love the raw finish. Now to figure out how to finish the bases? Flat black? Raw cast iron?
A couple of pictures on how the Stromberg bases look before and after the Chem-dip process. It really does a good job. A little thinned out black paint on the base so it doesn't look too fresh. Perfect. I will not get into the assemble as there are others like Vintage Speed that have complete instructional videos that are far better than I could do.
The Jalopy Journal
