Projects My love for old cars

Being black on black it is kind of hard to see, but I have stuck a strip of electrical tape along the mounting edge of the rear fenders. The tape over the bolt holes is cut out with a burring tool.
This gives a little layer of a plastic between the metal fender and the metal body.




The electrical tape is also put on the running board bracket where the front of the rear fender will mount to it.




The right rear fender is fastened in place.




Here you can get an idea of how the chrome tail pipes will look under the back edge of the running board.




All of the mounting bolts and screws are stainless steel.




The mounting pad for the front lip of the rear fender is recessed the thickness of the metal below the surface of the rest of the running board mounting bracket.
The fender lip is fastened in place with counter sunk screws. There is a bolt welded to the underside of the running board that will fit down thru the slot in the fender lip and the mounting bracket. A washer and nut will go on the underside and be tightened up to hold both the running board and the front of the fender in place.




The rear fender on the driver side is fastened in place.




This is the fuel fill access door on the side of the trunk.




Open it up to gain access to the gas fill neck.

 

I need to fill in this big hole behind the glove box door.




These are the cardboard patterns for making the glove box.




The panels are cut out of thin aluminum and pop riveted together.








This is then fastened in place. The back panel is tapered to clear the curve of the model-T cowl.




The glove box is about 8 inches deep.




Close the glove box door and it's all finished.

 

Some of you may have been wondering why the progress on this project seams to have suddenly stopped ?
One reason was because I was getting ready to attend an antique tractor show in Tipton, Indiana on the 9th thru the 13th.
The main reason that the progress has stopped is because I ran into a problem that turned out to be one that I caused it myself.

This is the intake manifold that was on the engine. With this style of intake, you have to have both carbs connected to the throttle linkage so they both run together at all times and they need to be adjusted so they are both flowing the same amount of air and fuel.




I wanted to be able to run progressive throttle linkage so the engine runs on one main carb with the other carb starting to open up at a little above mid range throttle.
There is one intake manifold currently available that will allow you to run two carbs on progressive linkage. This intake cost $700 for just the manifold and over $1,350 complete with carbs and fuel lines ( you still have to furnish your own progressive linkage ).




Besides the cost, I personally don't like this style. It looks like just what it is, a two carb adapter mounted on a single carb manifold.
So I made my own two carb adapter and plenum chamber to fit on my two carb manifold.




Actually, the upper two carb manifold is and old Almquist adapter that was made back in the 50's and early 60's to mount two carbs on a single carb manifold. Similar adapters are still available to bolt two carbs onto a single manifold.

These don't really work all that well. Granted, you have two carbs and you can run progressive linkage but they both still feed down into a small manifold that is designed for a single carb.




The dual carb plenum that I built seams to work quite well.
The single opening in the bottom of the upper two carb manifold is larger that the port area of the two carbs together so there is no restriction.
I have it set up so that both carbs are flowing at idle. That way the second carb already has air flowing thru it when it starts to open up.
The second carb starts to open at about 65 percent throttle and they are both all the way open at full throttle.
The engine is pulling a steady 20 pounds vacuum at idle and the engine will die if you put your hand over the top of one of the carbs.
The compression ranges from 170 to 180 pounds between all eight cylinders ( I believe the stock 49 to 53 Mercury is around 125 pounds ).

The problem is that when I rev the engine up, it blows white smoke out and water is dripping out of the exhaust.
That is a distinct sign of water getting into the combustion chamber. So naturally, We figure the problem is the old head gaskets that I've had laying around for years.
I bought new head gaskets ( $140 plus shipping ) and it still blows white smoke.

We ( my son and I ) checked everything ... no water in the oil, no compression gases in the radiator and we don't smell antifreeze when it's smoking. Frustrating to say the least.

Then we started paying closer attention to my home made carb adapter because that is the only thing on the engine that isn't store bought.
Condensation was forming on the outside of the base of the carbs, the upper manifold and the plenum chamber because there is no heat from the engine getting up to it. It gets bad enough so that water drips off. Logically, if water is forming on the outside then water is also forming on the inside.
The base of the carbs, the upper manifold and the plenum chamber feel really cold, even with the engine at 160 degree operating temperature.

Quickest and easiest solution would be to s**** my home made upper manifold and plenum. Then bolt the carbs right to the dual intake and run on both carbs all the time. The most expensive solution is to buy one of the new manifolds that will still allow me to run progressive linkage.

Being the stubborn **** head that I am, I want to keep my homemade manifold and make it work.
So I machined up two blocks out of aluminum to fit under the carbs.




The red lines are where I drilled 1/4 inch diameter holes into the blocks. Then I milled out the area on the sides where I drilled into the blocks. A small piece of 1/8 inch aluminum was fit into the top of the milled areas and welded shut. This forms an open p***age all around the port holes in the blocks. Holes were drilled and tapped for fittings so water lines could be attached to the blocks.


These two blocks are set on the manifold.




Then the carbs are bolted down on top of them and the two water lines are hooked up.
The line on the right is the water feed line and is connected to the heater outlet fitting on the cylinder head.
The left line is the return and it goes down to connect to the inlet port on the side of the water pump.



This setup works a lot better but it still isn't 100 percent.
This engine came out of a dragster from back in the late 50's and early 60's so the aluminum intake manifold is what is called a " racing model ". There is no prevision for the exhaust heat to get up around the mounting base for the carbs. The exhaust port on the engine is in between these two center bolt holes in the manifold.
With no heat going to the manifold, the plenum chamber is still running cold and it still builds up moisture inside it.




On what is called " Street manifolds ", there is a bulge in this area on each side of the manifold.
Now ... I can do a lot of milling and welding in pieces of aluminum to form a heat chamber in this manifold that I have or I can look for a manifold like this that already has the heat chamber built into it and sell my old manifold to someone that wants a racing type manifold.
The problem is that I need to find a dual carb manifold that has the same spacing between the center of the two carb mounts as my old manifold so the plenum will bolt onto it.

The past couple of weeks I have been emailing people that are selling flathead dual carb intake manifolds on ebay and asking what the dimension is between the two carb mounts.
Mine is 9-1/8 inches center to center and this particular style of Offenhauser matches that measurement. This one shown is for a 49 to 53 and I would prefer to have a 48 or earlier style.
I believe the Navarro manifold has the same spread between the two carbs.

So ... until I can find the correct manifold that I can afford, the work has come to a halt.

 

..... UPDATE .....
I finally found an intake manifold that will work for my particular problem.
This is new old stock and has never been mounted on an engine.

I want to thank banjorear, a member here on The Jalopy Journal, for fixing me up with this intake.

I don't have heat in my garage but we still have days throughout the winter where it is warm enough to do some work out there.
Even so, this project won't be finished until spring time now.

 

The top is machined off the center of the intake manifold.
This opens up the two runners that equalize the air and gas flow between the two carb mounts.




When I did the welding on the first intake manifold, I had it bolted down on top of the engine block to keep it from warping.
That is no longer an option with the engine mounted in the car and I don't have any other flat metal surface that will work.
So I scrounged up this old piece of s**** boxed steel and I'm using the power table feed for flycutting one surface to make it flat.




Here is the finished surface.




Then I drilled and tapped 12 holes in it.




The intake manifold is bolted down on the flat surface.
You can see some of the flow chamber openings in the center area that I opened up.




Four pieces of 1/4 inch thick aluminum plate are cut out and hammered in place so the are a tight fit to block off the openings between the carb mounts and this center area.
The top port hole on the right carb mount and the bottom port hole on the left carb mount are open all the way to the bottom of the manifold.
The other port holes are only open down to the raised surface that you can see in the center.
I drilled these two port holes out so they are now open to the bottom the same as the other port holes.




Pre-heating everything before I start welding on the manifold.




The four pieces of aluminum plate are welded in place to completely seal off this center area from the two carb mounts.
The two carb mounts are now seperated with the left mount feeding only the four intake ports under it and the other mount feeding the four ports under it.
The air and fuel is mixed together in the plenum box that bolts on top of this intake manifold so all eight ports are still getting the same mixture.

This center area is directly over the area that the exhaust flows thru so the air in it will be heated now.
This will provide heat to the two carb mounts at the ends of this area and also to the plenum that will be fastened on top of it.

The area of the plenum where the two carb mounts are will be sealed to the intake manifold but the area in the center will not be an air tight seal.
As the air in this center area heats up and expands, it will be able to leak out from under the plenum so pressure doesn't build up.

 

Good to see you were able to find the intake you needed.

 

Waiting on a part for my other project so today I spent some time working on the model-T.
Preheating the intake manifold in preparation for doing some more welding on it.




A strip of aluminum has been welded on along each side between the two carb mounts.
Here I'm starting to mill them down to the same height as the carb mounts.




The whole top surface has been machined off flat.




Then a notch was machined into the top of each of the sides between the carb mounts.
This is for the plate that is fastened onto the underside of the plenum chamber to fit into.

Note here that the three mounting holes in the left carb mount have been filled in.
The spread between the two carb mounts on the plenum chamber is 9-1/8 inch and the spread on the intake manifold is 9-1/4 inch.
I put aluminum bolts with red Loc***e in the three holes on that carb mount.




Three new mounting holes are drilled and tapped in that carb mount.




Here's how it looks with the plenum chamber sitting on the intake manifold.




The old intake manifold had a big open gap under the plenum chamber.




I like this manifold much better. The center is filled in right up to the underside of the plenum chamber.
It makes it look like the plenum chamber actually belongs on the intake manifold.

 

I'm running a Carter rotary electric fuel pump on this. It is capable of maintaining 5 to 9 PSI pressure and pumps 72 gallons per hour.
The pump runs all the time while the key is on and constantly recirculates the fuel.

I didn't have a pressure regulator in the fuel line but when I had first started the pump up, it pushed the fuel up into the carburetors right away.
We also didn't have any problem with fuel shortage when we were test running the engine so I figured that I didn't need a regulator.

While talking with my son, he explained that the fuel was getting up to the carbs simply because of the fuel pump's volume but there wouldn't be any pressure in the line. He said that while this was fine for an engine that was basically idling most of the time, it most likely would run short of fuel at highway speed.

I put this fuel pressure gauge on the fuel block and he was right .. there was zero pressure.




So today I have added an adjustable fuel regulator to the return fuel line just before it goes back into the fuel tank.
Once I get the engine running again, I'll adjust it to the 2 to 3 PSI that the carbs are rated for.

 

Did some work on the model-T today. The new intake manifold is bolted on the engine and the plenum chamber is bolted to it.





The spark plug wires are put back in the cap and the fan and alternator are installed.





The heated lower intake manifold should heat the plenum chamber without any problem but it still could take some time before that heat radiated all the way up thru the Almquist manifold and onto the carbs.

So I still need to keep the water heated risers that I made. The inlet and return water lines are fastened to the two risers.






When I got my first model-T back in 1964, it had a round cast aluminum plaque mounted on the front of the radiator.
This plaque is for the antique automobile club of Florida. The plaque was attached to the radiator with a long small diameter bolt going thru the center of the plaque and thru the radiator with a washer and nut threaded onto the back side.
My radiator has a newer core that has a bug screen on the front of it and I really don't want to poke a hole thru the fins to mount the plaque there.





There is an indented area on the firewall that was behind the distributor on the Hemi engine.
I decided to mount the plaque there instead. This way it can be seen easily from either side of the car.

From what I understand, the AMA stood for: Automotive Manufacturers ***ociation. This was started by a group of car manufacturing owners in 1926. Later ( I believe it was after the war ) this " club " became a nation wide antique car club and they kept the " AMA " logo. The club faded out some time in the 1970's.

 

My intake manifold modification is a success.
However, there still is a water leakage problem on the left side.
The exhaust on both sides looks alright with the engine idling but the left side still blows white smoke when I rev it up. It isn't near as bad as it was but it still is a lot of smoke.
The right side exhaust is okay when it is reved up.

 

I don't believe I've shown a recent photo of what the finished interior looks like.

 

Brilliant dash, looks factory it is so well executed!

 

Those are beautiful. You have enviable skills!

 

You sir, are a man of the utmost skill and resource , I am really learning from this. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Love the whole concept of the car and attention to detail. More please.

 

Started the engine up this morning and smoke is coming out of both sides of the exhaust with the engine cold.
Sitting in the car with the engine running, the oil pressure dropped down to just a couple of pounds. I shut it off and when I pulled the dipstick out it was empty ?

I then noticed a small amount of oil on the floor by my right foot. Oil had dripped off the exhaust pipe.
Here you can see a drop of oil on the end of the lower exhaust clamp stud and a spot of oil on the floor under it.

I put a gallon of oil in the engine and the oil pressure came back up to where it should be.




Pulled the heads off today and found that there are two problems.
You can see the oil pooled in each of the cylinders and there is antifreeze in spots on the heads and copper gasket ( I should have put gasket sealer on them and I didn't ).

Even though pistons and cylinders are wet and oily, the valve area is dry and sooty just like the ends of the tail pipes. That is why I didn't think it was burning oil.

Left side.






Right side.






Pulled a piston out and found out that the oil seal wasn't working at all. The piston groove is .155 wide and the oil seal is only .120 wide so the two oil rings slipped off the expander ( should have checked the width before I put it together but I didn't do that either ).

When I was searching the internet for piston rings, I found a couple of places that had rings for this large of an over bore ( .120 over ).

The bore diameter in this engine is 3.307. One listing had flathead rings for a 3.313 diameter bore for around $80 and another listing had flathead rings for a 3.307 bore for around $40.

Naturally, I bought from the second listing. They were for the exact same size as my engine ( only .006 difference - no big deal ) but they were half the cost.

It doesn't always pay to get the best price. When the rings arrived, I almost sent them back ( I should have ).
They weren't the original thick cast iron rings that I was expecting but were newer thinner rings that ***embled together to fit the width of the piston grooves.




There are two matching rings for the top groove. A thick and a thin ring for the second groove and the two oil rings with the expander ring in between them.




Thinking that someone has figured a way to use the newer type rings on the old flathead, I went ahead and used them.
Obviously they don't work.
Here you can see slight marks on the cylinder wall where the two oil rings slipped off the expander ring and the high spots of the oil ring expander rubbed against it.

I'm going to get the correct rings and different head gaskets and it should take care of everything.

 

This engine only has four rod bearings with two rods mounted on each bearing.
The inside of the bearing revolves around the crank journal and each rod revolves around the outside of the bearing.

I have removed the four pistons from one side. This exposes 1/2 of the rod bearings and I've wrapped a zip-tie around each bearing.




WIth the other four pistons removed, the zip-ties hold the rod bearings in place on the crank.
When I'm ready to put the pistons back in, I'll do all of them on the one side first. Then I'll cut the zip-ties and install the pistons on the other side.




The old rings are removed from all of the pistons and they're ready for the new rings.

 

Okay .. just had an interesting learning experience.

Seams that the other piston rings that I had been considering buying for the $80 would not have worked anyway.
On those rings, the top two grooves are 3/32 ( .093 ) wide and the oil groove is 3/16 ( .1875 ).
That is the size that all the new pistons take because the larger 3/16 oil ring is a lot easier to find.

On my piston's, the top two grooves are the same at 3/32 ( .093 ) but the oil groove is only 5/32 ( .156 ).
This was the size of the original factory oil groove and in 50's and 60's, oil rings this size were easy to get.

I could take the rod off all my pistons and put them up on the lathe and re-cut the oil groove out to 3/16 but that is a lot of work.
So I went internet hunting and found one company that still has some of the flathead .125 oversize rings with the 5/32 oil rings.

Summit Racing has them in stock and they cost $184.03 with tax and shipping.
A set of new rings is on it's way to me.

 

Hey Retired,

It's a very good thing you are a problem solver. You seem to run into one unexpected thing after another. I've enjoyed looking through your thread. Looks like a very nice Tall T. I had a chance to buy one of those ('27 I think), when a teenager for $50. It was pretty complete and running, but would have still been a money-pit. Ha ha, aren't they all. What was your profession, before "Retiring"?

Al Hook (Retired Engineer)

 

I worked in quality control in the machining industry

 

With a single rod bearing being shared how does that work? I just cant figure out as the rods are not in the same orientation around the whole swing of the crank. Are they effectively free floating and spin over the crank and within the big end of the rod? How do they keep oil on both surfaces then? This is not stock, correct?

 

The bearings are free floating between the crank journal surface and the rod surface.
This is how they were designed from the factory.
The bearings are gauged by inside diameter and outside diameter and they are sold as std/under, under/standard, std/std, under/under to compensate for a crankshaft re-grind or rod re-sizing so you would have a thicker bearing if the crank was ground down and / or the rod was bored out.
There are oil holes in the bearings to p*** oil from the crank thru to each rod.
I run 15W40 oil to make sure that there is a good film of oil on both sides of the bearings.

 

When I rebuilt this engine, I put in the factory 2-piece front crankshaft oil seal that came in the gasket set and when I rolled under the car to take the oil pan off, I saw that it was already starting to leak a little.
Awhile ago, while I was searching the internet for other things, I came across a kit to put the newer single round neoprene oil seal on the front of these flathead cranks so I have ordered one.
To install this new front seal, I need to pull the front cover off the engine.





Also back when I was first working on this, I had ordered a new electronic distributor. It was on backorder at the time and took about three months to show up.
As long as I have to pull the the distributor out anyway, I may as well put the new one back in.
Here is the new distributor in it's box with the old distributer sitting in front of it.

 

You will need to machine the crank snout spacer and remove the spiral for the new style neoprene seal the work.

 

The kit comes with a smooth spacer to replace the old one with the spiral.

 

The piston rings finally arrived so I'm working on the model-T today.




The pistons are back in the engine with the correct rings on them this time.

 

I'm installing the new HEI distributor instead of putting the original one back in.




The other distributor had the push in style of cap so I have to switch all the wires over to the new HEI wire ends and boots.




The new distributor is all wired up and ready to go.




This distributor comes with a 3-wire quick connector and I have it down in front of the block to the right of the distributor.

 

My mind isn't seeing this. Is the fan sitting inside the shroud? At some point, you have to be able to tighten the belt, so how does the fan move in relation to the shroud? Not being a smart-***, I'm having a problem figuring out a shroud for my radiator that I can use with the stock adjustable fan mount on my 59AB.

 

With the fan belt tightened, I drew a line on the metal base for the fan shroud.




This is cut out allowing clearance all around the fan.




And a strip of metal is fastened to it to form the shroud.




With the shroud in place, the fan sits in the center of it when the belt is tight.

 

Umm, what happens when the belt stretches, and you have to re-adjust it?

 

5/8 wide belts don't stretch much but for what little they would stretch, there is a good inch of clearance between the top of the fan blade and the shroud.