May 2011 Banger Meet Spring has sprung now drive'm

Hello gentlemen, I have a very nice and running 1928 chevrolet 4 banger I want to sell but don't know what its worth, would 600 bucks be too much? Thanks guys.

 

I have decided to go banger for my upcoming T coupe project....build thread coming

Here are a couple pics from a recent car show...HAMBer GARY?'s T roadster....long live the banger!

 

The engine I was referring to is an "A" block modified for full pressure using the Urb Stair method. I use unmodified stock baffles in my "B"'s also. The oil passages on the "B"'s are modified similarly to what you described. I use an early V8 oil pump modified for use in the "A"'B" blocks and modify to produce 40 lb. pressure. The early V8 pumps produce 80 lb pressure but 50 lb springs are available. I machined a "wring" fit collar and drilled and tapped it for an oil pressure gauge so I can check pressure before I install the pump. I do this with a coffee can 1/2 full of oil on the bridgeport so I can control RPM's . Can get messy! Old rule of thumb is 10 lb. pressure for every 1,000 RPM's. I don't think we have ever hit 4 grand at the end of the 1/4 mile, usually calculates 3600 t0 3750. Drivers never seem to know, the only time they watch the tach is at hill climbs. Drags are just " ballsout" seat of the pants.

 

Unfortunately, the Chevy 4's do not bring anywhere near the money that Fords do-probably for the following reasons-

They are 171cid vs 200cid for the Ford-36 vs 40 HP (and that only for the '28- earlier single exhaust port engines were the same cid but 27HP at best.

The Chevy bodies were all wood framed, so they rotted/fell apart while the engines were still fairly lower mileage, so in many instances they were kept when the car was no longer usable, with the idea of use as power for some piece of farm machinery--so there are many, many more engines than cars, relative to Fords.

Very little speed equipment was ever made for the Chevy. What survived is, for the most part, on collectors shelves.

Try posting on 1928 chevy 4cyl motor forum here-even if you can't sell it, you will get an idea of what it takes to get a C4 to run.


Herb

 

Hello. im bulding a B-engine and im planning to take the oil feed line on the outside of the block in to the valve door. and im curious whats the minium inner diameter of the tube i should use? You have to excuse my very bad english.

 

I paid $75 for my complete, but unknown condition, '28 Chevy 4. Like Chuck Spurgin, I picked up a Chevy because I couldn't afford a Ford.

And like Herb said, Chevy bodies are pretty thin on the ground, so you need to find someone (like me) who doesn't mind putting one into a Ford chassis.

-Dave

 

A restorer buddy of mine said of one of my trays that the holes would lead to problems...... He has been restoring model A(s) for as long as I been alive..... 1985 so he kinda knows a bit. The consensus seems to be they are not a good thing on here.-Weeks

 

If your friend is a restorer then he probably uses stock oiling. Holes in the dipper tray would destroy stock oiled "A" engine. If you are set up for pressure and have enough clearance on the rods then oil thrown off of the rods and transient oil should oil the cylinders sufficiently. I just felt the need to create more lubrication in MY cylinders because I noticed scuff marks in 1 engine. I also no longer use solid skirt pistons. As I have stated, currently my engines only run 1/10 or 1/4 of a mile at a time, intense acceleration (hopefully) only. People with pressurized hot engines have been drilling the trays or eliminating them successfully also for longer than you have been around. A lot of them install 1 way dams in the bottom of their oil pans to hold oil around the pump on acceleration.

 

If your getting scuff marks on your pistons could they be getting to hot for the clearance you have? I have seen many "stock" engines with scuffed pistons and they usually were set up for .002/.0025 clearance, one time on a hill without watching the temp gage and the engine seized. As far as your dipper tray holes are concerned, modern drag racers go to great effort to keep the oil away from the crank and rods to keep from frothing the oil and also reduce the parasitic drag. On a big V8 the drag can account for 50+ HP. I realize you're not turning your engine as high but you still have a large stroke crank, air in the oil makes a lousy lubricant. Look at the bearings from a drag boat engine, they used to show signs of insufficient oil and yet the gage would look ok. How much clearance do you have on your rod & main bearings?, with inserts at .002/.0025 & minimum of 45 lbs. you should have enough oil for the piston skirts. I once hooked up a oil tank with a air pressure regulator and a ball valve to pressurize the engine with the pan removed to see where the oil was going, so much oil came out it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. Pat

 

So in a way your saying that if I took a stock model A and converted it to full oil pressure and removed the oil tray alone, I would notice an increase in HP. I find that hard to believe. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. TK

 

Ok newbe question for a Banger... I am setting up the rod bearing clearance.. What's the measurement? I have set now at .001~.002... To tight?

 

If your running babbit, No.

With all of the bearings on and torqued with the pistons in the bores and no head, it shouldn't take more then 35 foot lbs of torque applied to the crank bolt to turn the engine over.

That is how I was taught.

.

 

At the rpm you will run the engine, say less than 4,000 you may not feel the difference seat of pants. but i wouldn't get rid of the tray, it can act as a windage tray if you drill some 1/2" holes in the tray. obviously this will only work with a full pressure system. the engine in my avatar had a lot of development with the oil system before it was happy running at the lakes. initially it would loose all pressure by the 3 mile mark at bonneville. ultimately it was dependable shifting at 9,000 and that was in 1994 when i last ran it. pat

 

I'm not a modern drag racer and I don't recall, if I ever knew, how much clearance the solid skirt pistons had and the person responsible for fitting those pistons is no longer with us but he supplied the pistons and knew the purpose the engine was intended for.
Because of crank size and available inserts I only have .0015 on the rods which are replacement aftermarket rods for stock and are not designed for performance engines
I'm running an 80 year old engine with a modified 80 year old crank and the ignition, carburetors, and water pump are all of the same vintage.
I will close with this statement, my poorly engineered engine with its ill designed old stock "B" distributor, antique carburetors, stock undrilled oil baffle went 82 MPH in the 1/4 last year. Just think how fast it could go if I just knew what the F--- I was doin

 

Bill, I wasn't trying to put down your project, I think your performance is impressive. I was trying to share some of my observations and tribulations. Pat

 

Im REAL new at this Banger engine so im needy

I have my banger running and Im ordering parts for it to get me alittle faster down the road......
parts list are all bolt on like
thomas cylinder head
down draft intake may go with riely dual carb and reds headers split for 2 pipes
My question is what if any will it effect my spark advance and the "tuning" down the road I have to do with my stock model a
Is the self advancing distributor worth the money so I dont have to worry about lean or rich conditions and blowing up my motor I work so hard to get going

 

3/8's would probably be the smallest ID I would use, I'm using that size on my 2 port but it is not a racer. I ran it into a filter then back into the valve chamber oil passage. I made a bracket that bolts the filter adapter to the block utilizing 2 pan bolts and now I wish I had used stainless steel tubing.

 

Put a wheel on and measure, if your 40 style wheels are 16" they should clear as they are only 4 or 4.5 inches. I don't really have any expertise but I think they should fit.
I'm answering because no one else will and I don't want anyone to feel left out!

 

Define stock. If you are referring to the average tired old model "A" engine it probably won't last too long unless you check the clearances on your bearings and the babbit is good. Put all of those goodies on the see how she does. I would still worry about blowing up your engine. Self advancing distributors usually do your thinking for you if you set them up right. Don't lug it and figure out a way to check your timing. Find top dead center and set the distributor. Then rotate the self advancing distributor clockwise until it just doesn't quite kick back when you start it, with the starter of course. Then drive it and see if it detonates or "pings" if it does retard it until it doesn't. If you have trouble timing it contact NorcalSteve! Again, don't lug it, There are people on here that run the Strombergs, some even run 3 of them at a time, so if you have any questions ask them.

 

Greatest auto/banger mind you have meet? Who was and what was your most notable meeting of a person involved in the automotive world. I have just been reading about a meeting with Ed Winfield a man who started playing with bangers at an early age and was still sorting out problems for auto makers up until he died . He understood that performance?airflow started at a given point before the induction system to a given point down the exhaust.

 

Define "LUG IT" i have been looking at the self adjusting distributors and my engine is the stock banger tired im not sure what book would you rec. that i get to check clearences
thanks

 

As near as I've been able to determine, "lugging" an engine means running it at an RPM below its power band. Think of throttling way down in a 25 mph zone, but not downshifting to keep the RPMs up.

-Dave

 

I don't have a particular book to recommend, there are a lot of good books and most catalogs from "A" suppliers have the proper clearances listed. I would gather from your question regarding lugging that you are not too familiar with manual transmissions. Each engine has a "powerband" that it runs the best at. When you allow the RPM's to drop below the low end of the "powerband" you are lugging the motor. I'm going to stick my neck out and say your "a' would probably run best between 1800 and 2500. I'm sure someone else has an exact figure. If you want to experience lugging start your auto and proceed in 1 st gear as normal then shift directly into 3rd or "high" gear or cog, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on. Do this on a slight up grade to really get the full feeling because you should be lugging your engine but be careful as you could damage the engine.
What I would recommend is that you figure how to get the pan off and check the clearances with some plastgage and remove shims until you have the proper clearances on the rods and mains. This is providing that the babbit looks okay. If you find loose rods and have no shims then you will go to the next step.

 

Hello,

I've got a 30 Ford that I'm getting ready to replace the head gasket on. While I've got the head off, is there any way that the stock head can be reworked to improve the performance. Can I have the head shaved? If so, how much? I know that I can buy a high compression head and I have used the search function. On one of the links at the beginning of this thread, there was a brief mention of welding in the chambers. I guess I like to do things the hard way. Thoughts and opinions are welcomed.

Thanks,
Mitch

 

I asked about using a stock A head a while back, and the feedback I got was that the combustion chambers were of a really poor design, so improving compression on a stock head is only of marginal benefit.

-Dave

 

The casting on the stock head is too thin to be able to remove enough to raise the compression significantly.

.

 

It took a little digging but here are some pics of how thin every thing is

 

That's the low-comp model.......

I like the cooling slots in the bore