Thanks for the reply, I'm trying to correct a high compression problem and wondered what was high. I once ran 9.5 to 1 with just a plain fiber head gasket no fire rings. It lasted for a few runs. With this head I will have 9.7 with a ,061 solid copper.
On the flathead Plymouth I ran a standard copper asbestos composet McCord gasket. Worked fine had all 15 boltes in that and still 9.5 to 1 CR. Tried one of those all fiber gaskets. never made it to the start line. Blew during warm up.
For the life of me, I don't see the point of a solid copper head gasket. Any gasket only works by compressing to accommodate small hills and hollows on the surfaces. Solid copper works on things like diesel injectors and banjo type fittings, because there is enough force to compress the small area of copper involved. But no way are you going to be able to generate enough force with 15 or so head bolts to do any kind of compression on all the area of a head gasket- so if you can get a satisfactory seal with a solid gasket, you probably can run no gasket at all-- the copper only adds another two surfaces with their own inequalities, however small. I run no head gasket on my Chevy 4 (7.5-1), only have cut grooves in the deck to seal the water holes with O rings.I did lap the block and head together. Harley used no head gaskets on their K and KH flathead bikes, both stock and race, just a coat of aluminum paint between the aluminum head and the cast iron cylinder Herb
I got my cam back from Jim Brierley today and it looks mint...(thanks Jim) Now if I could only get ROSS pistons to ship my pistons I would be a real happy camper or is that a HAPPY BANGER. I might have to steel my friends banger that is just sitting in his shop and put my B cam in his engine just so I can drive my car. The first car show of the year is this weekend and I have no wheels Bill
OK guys I would like your input... I got off the phone with my buddy and it looks like I am going to run his engine for the spring. I wount to put a cam in it for him for letting me use it. What is the most cam I can run and with stock valves. He has a 5.5 to 1 head I might run my 6.5 Alum. one on it too. He has a down draft intake and a 81 but I might run my 94 just for a little more Air Thanks Bill
Bill, I'd say that a Good B cam and a single 97 with 5.5:1 head or 48 carb with 6.5:1 head would be great. I like Strombergs, but if your only running a single carb, a 94 would work too. B distributor or FSI electronic unit. Don't use Champion plugs. Use adjustable lifters. Put 1/4" spacers under the valve springs. .
Thanks Crazydaddyo... I just happen to have all the parts. Is a diamond cam the same as a std. B? You still have not told us about that little banger you have have in your hands.. thanks as always Bill
Perhaps, but if you are running a Y block head on a Plymouth PB or a Morton & Brett OHV conversion on a '26 Dodge Bros. Your not going to find any other gasket. If you, as I did, cut away a lot of the gasket so that you are only clamping down on a small area around the combustion chambers and not spreading your force over the whole deck surface, it seals quite nicely. In my experiance. Your results may vary.
Chopit is right, with a single carb the valve size isn't too important. The B or C grind would work well or a mild touring grind.
The head that I'm considering running is a Winfield Crows foot that has been milled .200 and has approx 95cc chambers and at this time the pistons are .020 over the deck. The head has been ***** punched and only has .190 between valve chambers in cylinders 1 and 2 and cylinders 3 and 4. When I tried it it leaked but after removing it I found a "proud" thread where I had installed a "Helicoil". (the pick punches did transfer into the solid head gasket as did the fresh surfacing tool marks in the block) I bought the head from an old timer who told me the head was "cherry" not sure how a head that has been milled .200 could be "cherry" but this is what he told me. This head would clear 2" intakes but he said he ran 1 7/8" intakes The other cast iron Winfield I have has valve chambers very close to the Al repop that I have. Very little valve clearance around the back and side. I think I will get the valve radius dimensions for the "B" gasket 573G from Best if I can and open the repop up to fit the gasket. Could be a lot of work, haven't checked the repop but original cast iron has different radius in the wall behind the exhaust than the intake. The repop would be approx. 8 to 1 with out the relieving. Here is a number for those that might be interested, with a 4" bore each 1/16" (.0625) Of gasket thickness or compression height of piston figures out to 12.87 cc's rounded off. 3.875 bore is 12.07
My use of solid copper gaskets has been limited to OHV motors used in race cars. The first ones I made were for a 455 Pontiac a guy was running in a 68 GTO with very good heads, Kinsler injection, and a DeLong roller cam at 12.5 cr. He blew gaskets all the time mostly into the water jacket. But once between cylinders and tourched a 1/8 X 1/8 slot in the deck surface. I dry decked the motor so that it couldn't blow into the water and made some copper gaskets. Never had any more blown gaskets with the Pontiac. Went 200+ in my Vega and 186 in his GTO. Running WOT pretty much the whole 5 miles. So for me if it works I like it.
I know this may be considered bad form...ie should go in the cl***ifieds, but here goes anyways. Have a Diamond block Model B to sell. Lots of work already done. Here's the list from memory; Diamond Model B block correct side cover Latest style Ford 'C' crank, drilled for pressure to rods. .020 .020 NOS Model B rods, not yet sealed (still have dippers) Stock (good core, not worn) Model B cam ready for your grind. Some port work, and chevrolet '235' valves / one piece guides, machined and fitted. Spring spacers for increased pressure. Block has been acid washed. Sleeved to standard. Decked. No pistons have been bought yet. Babbit removed. Flywheel lightened, balanced, V8 clutch. This will be a world cl*** motor when finished to your spec. I have about $3000 in the project and would like to recover that. Any interest? jim dot galli at frontier dot com or PM me here.
Model A block oiling system and pump question. I need a little ***istance from the experienced banger guys. I am building my first banger motor and need some help. The motor is a diamond A block, it has inserted mains and new inserted rods, fresh bore and pistons. I will be running a Harmon&Collins Riley grind cam with an original Riley two port head. This engine still uses the original oiling system,ie non-pressurized. I have a new Bill Stipe oil pump and these pumps are designed to take all of the oil out of the side of the block. So I figured I would increase the size of the port in the side of the block slightly. Route it through an oil filter. Out of the filter and one small branch going up to the rocker oil system setup on the head and another branch going back into the block just above the original port in the side of the block. I am thinking that I need to put the oil back in there for the distributor drive gear, center cam bearing area and then just through the original tube into the valve chamber. Am I thinking correctly or is this the wrong way to do it. Or would I just be better off with an original pump. Although I would like to filter the oil. Any thoughts or input would be appreciated. Thanks.
Regarding the Jern Thunderbolt adaptor: *If the hot ticket for a '28 Chevy short block is an Olds 3-port head, why are Fordists using the Chevy head and not the Olds too? -Dave
The extended exhaust ports on either end of the three port head mean that serious firewall butchering is needed. Herb
Originally Posted by Adam M. Does anyone know anything or even own this motor? I took these pics at the big 3 swapmeet in SanDiego. I posted these pics a couple weeks ago and I got one response. "Mac The Yankee" said it was a 28 Chev head. It did have "GM" cast in it. I wonder what pistons it would have in it with such a thick adapter? I think it looks cool, but I'd like to know if it works good too! Enjoy the pics anyway. On an A or B, the pistons come up to, or slightly above the top of the block (deck surface). On the Chevy or Olds heads there is no combustion chamber. On these engines, the combustion chamber is the bore, the pistons stopping well below the deck. For this reason, the bottom of that head is perfectly flat. The spacer does two things- it provides a combustion chamber, and also has counterbores for the Ford head bolts, and tapped holes for the Chevy/Olds head bolts. It also is machined to allow the water p***ages to connect. Herb
You will need to file/grind a relief in the portion of the pump to ***ure oil to the cam gear and valve chamber. I have C Yapps rocker arm stands on my original 2 port and although they required some extra clearance they did simplify the oiling conversion for the rockers. Did you modify the oil conversion on the head? If so did you drill oil return holes? You should also put in a restriction in the oil line to the rockers. I think I used a #60 size drill but it has been awhile. The original oiling set up works well up to probably 3500 for short burst's. The engines have been turned faster. Some people use stock pump with pressure to center main taken out of pump. You can increase the volume of the stock pump. If you look at a "B" pump you will see that the shaft is relieved in the center portion to allow for more volume. This is a simple modification to increase volume . The Stipe pump will certainly increase volume and pressure but the design of the oiling system can only use so much unless you make further modifications. The oil is pumped into the valve chamber and flows to the mains and cam bearings all by gravity . There is a large hole in the front of the valve chamber which empties the excess into the timing gear area.
Thanks for the reply Bill. Yes, the head I have has been modified for the oil system. It is set up with oil return and it also has restriction in the oil feed to the rockers, same #60 drill size. If I took all the oil out of the side of the block to the filter then right back into the block just about at the point of the distributor drive gear wouldn't the oiling system operate as normal other than having run through a filter first? I would also branch a line after the filter to go up to the head. Thanks
If memory serves me correctly the oil fills the floor of the valve chamber and flows past the dams in the floor when they fill up the oil runs down the tubes to the mains and cam bearings so the bulk of the oil should flow to the valve chamber it probably would work. I have to admit I have never installed a filter on a stock engine. never had one "cherry" enough to worry about filtering the oil. The stock "A" engines I had used whatever oil I could get cheap.I wouldn't use cheap oil in any of my current engines as I have too much invested but they are all pressurized.
I'm curious as to what you liked about it. I changed motors too so maybe I didn't see the difference because of that. I did notice the gear spacing was a little more even without the big jump. I would have to take the top off and count gears but I think mine is the 28 tooth. What did you like about the 39 gears? By the way, I still look at my bville pics and your car is just beautiful! we need some video at bville!
Mu olds head the ports are straight out the end of the head same as a banger. I dont think anything different than the chev head just 1 more exhaust outlet in the center. can post a pic if needed for my stock 23 olds roadster
Ken, The Olds head is longer because of the exhaust port "ears" at either end and don't fit small engine bays very well because of it. Bill
I was running the B trans stock so installing the 39 gears in the B case was great in itself, But I was stumbling to get started and had to rev the engine. By using the 29 tooth cluster it takes off like it has small tires I'm running 378 rear gears so it all works great. My son has a 32 Roadster with a strong flathead and he blew up his trans. We put 411 gears in the rear and a 29 tooth trans along with a 36% Mitchell overdrive in the driveline. Its a rocket ship off the line and will cruse at 85 with no problems.--TV
Here ya go! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bnToiII5-ow&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bnToiII5-ow&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
I got my ROSS pistons Yesterday very nice looking. I had them all CNCed on the inside for light weight and some light pins I think the piston and pin is only 601 grams. I wish I had money last fall my engine would be done Bill
I hope you folks enjoy these period photos. I'm into Model T bangers, and for a living I work on race cars and big fours and sixes from 1915 and earlier. I am reading all of the posts and enjoying them, you have all done a great job. And thanks to the 37Kid for sending me here. I have followed the talk about babbitt and inserts with interest as I do my own babbitting. I also machine new replacement inserts for early cars which I babbitt. The big key to getting babbitt to hold up is to keeping its thickness relatively thin and using the right babbitt. The thicker the babbitt is the quicker it will cause trouble. If any of you have interest in it pick up a 30's thru 50's Federal Mogul bearing service manual from which you will learn a lot.
The Jalopy Journal
