Do you have a cam picked out? Also, for rotating assembly, look into the stock pistons that came in that block - they had a modern ring pack that is quite a bit better (thinner w/ less drag) than earlier SBC stuff.
It's bored 30 over, so I'll have to buy new pistons, but the cam will be the same 282/292 lunati roller cam that's in the current motor.
Well its time for an update. As I was surfing FB marketplace a week or two ago, I found an older ad for some tires. A quick message later and it turned out not only did he still have them, but he would take less! Score. So I finalized plans with @Austin kays to go to Des Moines and pick up my new block from Jason (@32fenderless), and make a short... ish ... (4 hour) detour to pick up the tires, then back to des moines to pick up some stuff from Adam's (@redzula) dad. We met up in Bethany at 7AM and made our way to Jason's shop. after the usual hour of BS, we loaded up the parts and headed out. we joked as we drove to the middle of nowhere Iowa, that the guy who had the tire either had a trailer home and a lean too, or a full fledged race shop, as our experience with marketplace deals led us to believe there was no other options. well turns out, it was a race shop. It was a rather sad tale of the guys father passing away after years of them racing multiple sports together, and the son having to sort and clean out the estate. In the corner, was an unfinished project or a fully lettered, black 61 bubbletop, with this sitting next to it... it was rather serious looking, but paled in comparison to the other race car in the shop. Apparently, the main racing that the father/son duo had been into, was Truck pulling. this motor is 719? cubes of big block chevy... ish with 5" bore spacing in its billet block, and a set of vintage enderle injection "tolilets" it made 1700+ on the dyno. (for size reference, those are 2.5" PRIMARYS.) after we drooled over all that stuff, we got back to the tires, that he said his dad had bought long ago, and stashed away for a future gasser project that never materialized. He said he turned a local guy down that wanted to use them on a trailer, and was happy to see they were going on a hot rod. The rest of the day was full of Mexican for lunch, a LOT more driving, and picking up pieces to deliver on another trip Austin and I have planned. when I got home around 6PM, I moved the block inside and had to take another peek. A much better start, for a motor I hope to do many miles with. The specs are the usual, one piece rear seal 350 small block. Cleaned, crack checked, acid dipped, bored and honed .030 over, and decked to flatten the head surface. Originally my plan had been to just use everything except the pistons and block of the motor in the T, but after talking with some friends, I've decided build it mostly out of new parts, and try to build as good of a motor as I can afford. The current cam will move over into the new motor, as will the heads (though they will need to be reworked) since they hold sentimental value for me. After the bench racing was over, I soaped up my hands and went to work mounting some tires. NOS, still with the nubs and stickers. no dry cracking and still pretty pliable, leads me to believe these lived a pretty sheltered life, with not much exposure to sunlight. They look great on my wheels, (side note, these are reported to be the rear rims from THIS car). "1934 Ford 3-Window Coupe built by Dave Puhl for Joe briske of Joliet Illinois, in the 1960's" Ok, ok, I can hear you from here, "but what do they look like on the car!?" Fully pumped up by the mockup, I muscled through the second tire. And seeing as it was late, and had been a full day, I went to bed. Sunday, after church and before lunch, I managed to sneak the car outside and steal a look from a distance. Tis good. As you can see below, the set of hubs I have don't have studs in them, so I just used some bolts to mock it up. new studs are ordered, and should be here in the next week. then I can see what it looks like with both of them installed. I also need to attempt to clean the backs of the rims and see if they will come around or if they need to be painted. The hubs will probably end up painted white. After lunch it got to a decent temperature outside, and I decided to see what the full top looked like again with tape. So I once again used a roll of wide white tape to fill in the gaps in the roof and get an idea for the full profile of the roof. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this. I got the bright idea to make a pass around the block with a full roof, and I only made it part of the way up the street till I was reminded that the front bow wasn't held on very well. The header flew up right after I shifted second, and folded my masking tape top up like a cheap suit. thankfully it flew out of the road, and didn't hit me in the process, and after I caught my breath from laughing, I was able to retrieve it from the roadside. returning to my driveway, joining the laughter of my wife and Dad who were outside playing with baby girl, I removed what was left of the roof and took off for a short loop of town. It was a beautiful night to drive around, I had the heater blasting, headlights on, and was having a good little drive. then I looked at the dash. See that? as soon as a kicked off the headlights and heater, it popped up to just under 12 volts. "ok good enough for the fuel pump to keep running all the way home" I thought. "wait. Fuel" one glance showed the needle pointing in the direction of E. So a quick redirect and I was on the shortest path home. I made it. I also snuck a little burnout video, (posted to my fb and insta stories) that you can't see the tire smoke for the oil smoke pouring out of the headers. She's tired, and ready for a rebuild. hopefully next week I will be able to pull this motor and start the process. I think its also time to look over the alternator wiring again, and maybe invest in a better Alternator. . .
I wonder if running one of those tiny Denso alternators in the spot you have it in now would allow a little more air flow and let them live longer?
They seem to be pretty good as far as condition, and I've been running at least equally old rear tires most of the summer. I'm probably gonna take this one apart and see if I can sus anything out, and possibly just buy an AC Delco rebuild kit and rebuild my vintage one
It’s like the third or fourth failure, if the same part is failing I’d start to think it’s something about the environment it’s living in.
well that's what I have to determine by disassembly, IF its the same PART that is failing. I'm more apt to believe that it has more to do with the fact I've been using the cheapest chineseium alternators, but we shall see. After replacing alternators in new cars that are much more contained and hot during operation, I have a hard time believing mine is getting hot and failing, seeing as its out in the open air. It also bears thought that the first one lasted over half the year, and once I started getting them them from O'Reilly's, they started dropping like flies. I'm gonna start by making an external ground on the alternator, and see if that changes anything.
thanks Mike, they were kinda a fluke deal that marketplace served up to me, the dude said he had them posted for a long time, but a couple weeks ago was the first time I saw them.
haha I wish! unfortunately all that's left is scraps. In a much better update, I changed the belt, and added a ground, and was rewarded with 13 volts on my drive around town tonight. I also apparently got the oil burnt out of the cylinders yesterday, cause it was perfect today, and didn't smoke at all. I'm gonna drive it to work tomorrow and see how it goes.
Made it! smoked a little this morning, and it was a chilly ride in, but it was charging just fine. the ride home from work should be much more enjoyable. .
The funky trouser, that might be a good name for the car lol. Is the new ground all you changed to the charging system?
actually I'm doubtful that's what did it, I'm guessing its cause the belt was loose. That's one of the main things I wanna change when I put the new motor in, cause this bracket sucks.
Gotcha. Little jealous of your commute today gonna be a nice one today! I need to get some rear shocks figured out on the 46 So I can start putting “fake spring” miles on.
Things are about to get real. I drove the T most of last week, enjoying the oddly warm weather. It was mostly without incident, other than it was burning oil real good. But I had it sorted by the time Saturday rolled around, @travisfromkansas came up from Wichita (about 4 hours drive one way) to do a short podcast and a little ride along video on the T. we had a good time. And with that done, I decided this motor had fogged the town for mosquitos for the last time, as I was dying to see what the intake I got from @Dennis Lacy over a year ago would look like on the car. well, it looks good. there's a lot of stuff to move and figure out. but boy it changes the look. I had to throw in my flat cap Mallory duel point to see how it looked. Its tighter in some spots, and has more room in others. I'm looking for good examples of fuel lines ran on these. Yesterday I had to flip the T's around in the garage so I could drive the Tamale wagon for a bit. It took me less than 20 minutes to fix what's been wrong with the wagon for over a year now. so once I spin the roadster around in its spot, the old motor is gonna get stripped, and pulled so I can start deep cleaning, and removing oil from.... everywhere. For now its just sitting pretty making me smile every time I look at it. More soon I hope! . . .
I’m personally a fan of daisy chaining the carbs with short lengths of fuel hose via double sided banjo bolts. I’ve seen 4/6/8 set ups done one line per side off a fuel block but I’ve also seen them all in one row with the end carbs getting a loop to each other if that makes since. Kinda like a U
I was looking at this, but it wont work on this intake, as it groups the carbs much tighter than the offy or man-a-fre options. the fuel lines will have to go out to the driver side, and connect to log or something. But I really don't want to run big chunks of rubber line across the intake. I'll try to remember to take some more photos tonight.
As previously stated, more pictures. The Weiand intake is particularly difficult to make a nice set of lines for, most that I have seen mount a fuel block to the driver side of the intake and run 4 rubber lines into that. Any inspiration is appreciated. my latest idea is aluminum fuel line inside black rubber hose, so I can bend it and make it flow nice. In other news, I am moving my open house date this year! I just finished the flyer, and I'll be handing these out at the beginning of the season.
Replace those straight fittings with a bung that will take a banjo fitting? Hard lines can look great if the effort is done. Looks like the main issue is getting a straight shot without contacting the nearest carb. This picture is from this place, who are closed down. https://hotrodcarbs.com/store/
Yeah that is a bit of a mess with them that tight. My first thought is a 4 port fuel block mounted sorta between the intake and the valve cover about half way back front to back. Off an accessory hole or valve cover hole? I think Rob Lee has a cool knurled one in that position on his coupe. That’s what first came to mind. I’ll see if I have a photo. the idea of being able to swap the straight fittings for banjo or bent does help some but not a ton.
Old photo of how Matt had it set up a while ago may have been changed by now but it’s a similar block situation looks like he may have run it out the back of the fuel block to a return line it seems. I’d hit him up for ideas he’s always tweaking and changing things on that car.
While I haven't done much to the T, I've been busy working on daily driver stuff, and getting a model A coupe body ready to sell. Lincoln swap meet was good this year, this is just some of my scores. The pistons are perfect for the block I have, and the fenders have a chance of going on the back... I took the heads off and boy, this motor is used up. In other news, @CoolForSchool58 picked up these manifolds that may make it onto V2 And while I was in Cedar Rapids picking up a transaxle for my wife's Subaru, I stopped to pick up a cheap painless wiring harness I found on marketplace. While I was walking around the shop he was cleaning out, I spotted these on the floor, and asked how much he wanted. $30 So I shoved cash into his hand and put them in the truck. They are 2.02 heads, that look to have had a valve job semi-recently. they aren't perfect, but they are pretty clean, and WAY better that the worn out set on the roadster. I just got a motor from another buddy this weekend that will donate a crank to this puzzle, and then I need to make an expensive order to summit for all of my gaskets and seals. Bit by bit, we're getting there. I want to go to the Pete and Jakes open house this year, it being their 50th anniversary, and of course it needs to be together for my show... You're coming right? .
The Jalopy Journal
