Projects A Speedster Comes Out of the Weeds—Build Thread

What Loudbang said. Thank you for a excellent presentation.

 

I still feel like I owe you one, as you have been instrumental in moves and acquisitions over the years! I'm glad I could return the favor and I'm really glad we got it stopping correctly! And we learned a bunch too!

 

I'm thinking about the thread on the C1 Vette with braking issues, and I think this may be a contributor to his problem, if not the main cause.

 

I saw that thread and wondered the same thing. EDIT: I added a note and link to the C1 thread. Maybe it will help. Thanks for the prompt.

 

Fantastic build, what a cool car. Congratulations. Great vision to dig that out from the overgrowth and make a stunning and fun ride!

 

Merry Christmas everyone! December 25 is my thread anniversary, as many of you know. Since starting this thread years ago, my little speedster has transformed from weed-bound relic to fun little runner. I’m grateful to all who have followed along over the years—your likes and comments have been a great motivator.

I’m afraid after last summer’s extended ordeal with my ’39 Lockheed brakes I took my own little break from the thread. So I’m using this year’s Christmas post to get everyone caught up on Clementine’s progress since then. (Yes, Clementine is what my wife has named the car. Who am I to argue?)

When I left off last summer, the car was being prepared for a 300-mile endurance run. @Hitchhiker and I had finally got the front brakes licked, and with that knowledge in hand we figured the rears would be a breeze.

Uh, no…

Same as with the fronts, we arced the shoes with a body file and installed. Gave the drum a spin and heard that tell-tale grinding that anybody who’s messed with juice brakes on a Model A has come to dread.

Logic told us it had to be the shoes, since that was the only thing that had changed. To refresh your memories, with limited time to prepare for the endurance run, I was forced to use the god-awful new reproduction shoes that just about every Ford parts dealer is selling these days. The fronts had been real hit and miss—took me two sets to get one good set with properly bonded material. So I tried a different vendor for the rears, but when they arrived it was obvious they were identical and from the same manufacturer.

However, at least this new vendor had the courtesy to include a little piece of paper containing home-made directions for dealing with common issues. See below:

As you can see from the text in the picture, possible problems include the shoe being too think at the adjuster, or the tab at the wheel cylinder being too long. Neither of the issues seemed to be our problem. We measured the lower shoe and adjuster and the adjuster was a hair thicker. The drum spun, so that kind of ruled out the tab at the wheel cylinder, although I filed a little off a little bit as a test. No change.

So now we figured somehow the dynamic of the drum/axel/shim relationship had changed. We pulled it apart and I spent a whole lot of unnecessary (as it turned out) time grinding the backing plate lip and drum for clearance.

Somewhere around our millionth test fit, my brother showed up. I spun the drum so he could hear it grind. “Apply your emergency brake just a little bit and try that again,” he said. I did it, and the grinding sound was gone. “The outside of your shoe is dragging on the drum.”

Doh!

Sure enough. I took a grinder to the outside of each shoe, and when I was done the drums spun freely. So you can add that to the list of possible problems with these new shoes.

At the end of this, my advice to anyone working on ’39 brakes would be to get good relined original shoes if you can find them. Like I said, that’s what I would have looked for if I hadn’t been in a time bind and settled for what was available.

Now here’s the kicker: two days after we got the brakes fully sorted out, the endurance run was cancelled.



My brother and I decided to make the best of it and do a modified version of the run anyway. Just the two of us aboard Clementine, no other speedsters involved. The day before our planned drive, I trailered the car up to our family place in Blaine, along the Canadian border. That evening I gave it the standard pre-trip prep—lube everything, check the oil, etc.

When it came to checking the radiator, I did my usual thing, which is to pour in maybe a cup or so of coolant until I can see it rise above the baffle. Only this time a cup of coolant didn’t do it. So I kept pouring. And pouring. Then I spotted the steady stream of coolant escaping under the car.



Clearly, the Universe really did not want me to do an endurance run this year.

This time I can’t blame the issue on a sloppy parts manufacturer—this one’s on me. In the course of this build, the radiator was rebuilt and then modified several times. One of the modifications was to change the upper inlet from the stock 45-degree angle to a custom 90-degree angle (for fan clearance). This change also required relocation of the radiator rod support brackets. For some reason I figured/hoped/deceived myself into thinking they’d be OK atached to the tank further down. Nope. What with the tension of the rods and a whole lot of trial panic stops during brake trails, one of the mounts had broken loose an opend a hole in the tank.


Second trip cancelled, I trailered it home and got to work on a fix. Ron at Greenwood radiator was pretty confident he could beef up the brackets as they were. But I didn’t want to double-down on a solution that had already failed once. So instead, I fabricated some simple little brackets that mounted to the shell, using select pieces from my pile of useful scrap.




This moved the mounts further out to where the rods are perpendicular to firewall and radiator. To eliminate tension in the rod, I reworked the corresponding firewall mounts as well with a simple relief cut-and-weld. Worked fine.




Of course, my fancy chrome rods no longer fit—not great loss, as they were all bent up anyway as a result of last year's "incident" during the Mt. Baker run. Plus, dirty secret, they were metric thread. Which is just wrong.

I had a set of reproduction ’32 rods on hand that that worked fine—a little long, actually, but that was just a matter of shortening and cutting new threads. Put those on and I was back in business.

That pretty much takes us through August. My wife and I then spent September bopping around the neighborhood and taking in a few low-key Cars and Coffee events until the roadster weather came to its usual abrupt end.

I guess technically, our final car event was Halloween. The neighborhood kids loved our costumes.

Now it’s winter, the fancy new garage heater is working great, and I’m girding my loins for the off-season’s big project, which is an in-car ring and valve job. The engine runs great with a surprising amount of power, but it pumps out blue smoke something fierce. Like, a quart every 200 miles fierce. It’s so smokey I usually try to get in the rear of the follow-the-leader runs, because that oil stink is no fun for any open cars behind me. I’m new to the group, and people like the car as well as me and my wife, so for now they’re too polite to say anything. But I don’t want to turn into “that guy.”

So, time to tear into it. I’ll keep you all posted. Merry Christmas!

 

Nothing like some fine tuning...truly part of the big picture as things like brakes, leaks and smoke usually don't improve with age and then theres the fitment challenges...This year will be perhaps Clementine's finest yet!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours...

 

The wife and I got behind a guy (actually he pulled in front of us at one point from the side of the road) at one of the fall poker runs I like to do every year, his car was really burning a lot of oil, we said he was fumigating for mosquitos, and gave him the nickname "The Fumigator".

 

Attaching the support rods to the front of the top tank doesn't work so well, I had a very similar problem with the radiator in my A pickup, with an aftermarket aluminum radiator. I beefed up the support rod mount and spread the load over a wider area, and it's been OK like that for a number of years now.

 

Really enjoy seeing what you do to resolve the usual teething issues of any hotrod. You always come up with some great fixes that look period correct!

 

Very nice update and glad to see you back! Merry Christmas Gary

 

Hi again everyone! Ready for a little mid-winter four-banger adventure? In my last post (Christmas) I said I’d be tearing into my engine soon. Well, the time has come. And for good or bad, you all get to follow along.

To recap: My little speedster's engine smokes and goes through oil like crazy; like, a quart every couple hundred miles crazy. But at the same time, it does not act like a tired motor—runs really smooth and is peppy as hell; pulls away from other Model As without even trying. But the burning oil stink is unbearable; when stationary it’s like I’m idling in a line of diesel trucks. I need to wash soot off the boat tail after any kind of extended drive.

Engine backstory: I got this engine and chassis from a fellow in Montana. He knew nothing about the engine; it was an abandoned project when he bought it, and then it sat for a couple decades in his possession. Then it sat for anther 6 years in my garage before I fired it.

I had the head off once when I changed to the Winfield yellow head, and the combustion chambers looked fairly clean. But I had only run around the block a few times. Since then I’ve put about 500 smokey miles on it. Last week I pulled the plugs and pretty much found what I expected:


Fingers crossed, an in-car ring and valve job will take care of this. I’m hoping when I pull the pistons I’ll find a clear cause, like stuck or broken rings. I’m also hoping fresh gaskets will alleviate the many small-but-persistent oil leaks.

I got started last weekend. Off with the hood, water pump, distributor and manifolds. Also off with the odd home-brew oil-filter assembly someone added. Then removed the timing cover and discovered what appears to be my primary source of oil leaks: The valve cover and oil return tube were installed without gaskets. Looks like they were just given a thin coat of silicone that had long since failed.


The state of the valve chamber was encouraging. Relatively clean and sludge-free. And it looks to me like those are newer valve springs, which suggests maybe it’s had a “recent” valve job. Wouldn’t that be nice?


At this point I hit a little speed bump: The head was stuck. Unexpected after only 500 miles, but I did use Copper Coat when installing the new head, so I guessed it was kind of glued down. Bumping with the starter did not loosen it.

The Winfield head was freshly machined, so I didn’t want to mar it by hammering something between the head and block. The Google solution is to install standard Model A spark plug lifters and use a hoist, but Winfield heads have smaller spark plug holes, so the old-school spark plug lifters won’t fit.

I was all prepared to fab a set of lifters from my oil-soaked plugs when, fortunately, @Hitchhiker stopped me and told me about the rope trick.


Now, I’m pretty sure the rope trick is old hat to most of you, but it was new to me and did not come up in my Google searches. And no, it does not involve a magician and wicker basket, even if the results seem magical. I’ll explain it here for the benefit of any other newcomers.

It’s really simple: remove all the head bolts. Take an old rope and snake as much of it as you can through a spark plug hole and into the combustion chamber. Try to direct it toward the cylinder tops (driver side of engine). You probably won’t get much in there—I used ½” rope and got only a foot or so into the chamber.

Next, crank the engine. I didn’t want to use the starter for this, so I put the car in gear and pushed it. It rolled smoothly for a few feet and stopped, presumably when the piston came into contact with the rope. I gave it a hard shove and watched the head pop up about 1/8”. Success!


OK, got the head off and found pretty much what I expected: an oily mess, most notably in 3 and 4:



That's where I got by the end of the weekend, leaving me hoping I'm on the right path!

Next up: Oil pan and surprises

 

I have the same engine history. Hope to crank it in a couple of weeks for the first time/

Good luck on your journey.

jim

 

Good luck to you too, Jim! Firing one of these up after a long slumber is always exciting.

 

Never saw the rope trick before, but I like it. Very interested to see how the rest of this goes. Seems like re-ring jobs used to be common and now are almost unheard-of.

 

Great progress and you will get her going oil free soon! Gary

 

Neat trick thanks for sharing it!

 

Wow, I'm glad so many of you guys found this useful. That's what makes this forum so great; these old formerly common tricks can get lost over time if they aren't archived and repeated from time to time.

All that my searches turned up was elablorate instructions for making a jig out spark plug bases, bolts and plate steel. Which was cool and necessary when a head is seriously rusted to the studs. But this little rope trick would proably do the job in most cases, I think. Much less risk involved than hammering an old screwdriver into the gap.

 

Neato...and love the humor with the poster...

I was thinking about valves bending but Stogy's head was in overhead valve ville, wrong era...

Well!!, in a twisted way this not unknown issue brings a favorite Thread of mine and many others Bttt, yeehoo!!...the keep it simple tactics are admirable and a reflection of simpler times in the good Ole days...

Clark you're going to have to be careful on the pedal with 2 more cylinders breathing new found firepower...and no more Ole Stinky...big bonus!!

 

Ok since I have all of you with great minds. Gonna steal the thread for a min.
Does anyone make an adapter from a stromberg base to a 4 bolt carb ? I was thinking weber like a pinto.
Back to the evening news.

Thanks,

jim

 

Snyder's sells a Weber Carb Kit (carb, manifold, linkage). Don't know if they sell the manifold seperately. You could call them; nice folks.

Gotta say, I've seen these setups on Model As and to me they stick out like the modern doohickey that they are. Probably perform pretty good, though.

 

I had a hopped-up pinto with a modified Webber on it. the mods were in HRM. I made them, and you could feel the boot in the but. Quiet a difference over the stock. I have most of the carb.

Thanks for letting me in,

Thanks,

jim

 

I ran an Offenhauser intake made for Mazda 2.0/2.2L engine from the 80s on my 89 B 2200 with a Holley 450 cfm carb that was designed for the Ford 2.0L Lima OHC engines from the late 70s to early 80s I believe. I had Competition Cams machine me a good street cam. That little truck was a screamer. We used to race mini trucks on the back roads in the late 80s and early 90s.

I used to be a Willys, AMC, Jeep, Eagle auto tech in the 90s. We used the old rope trick a lot on flat heads and some OHV engines. Until this thread, I had almost forgotten that old trick. Gotta be careful with OHV engine, it's possible to bend a valve.

 

It was actually a few days before I had time to get back to the engine, but last Tuesday I finally got a look at the bottom end.

The oil pan came off easy (and in a nice change the previous owner had used a gasket). I used one of those oil pump retainer doohickies that hold the oil pump in place. For those who don’t know, Model A pumps rest on a spring that rests on the oil pan, and that’s what holds them in. The retainer keeps it in place and is all of $6.25 from Snyder’s. Could probably have done it with a bolt, but I splurged.


OK guys, you know how it is when you’re so fixated on a single task that you completely fail to see The Great Big Thing That’s Staring You In The Face? Well, that was me.

I couldn’t wait to get a piston out and check out the rings. I was totally fixated on those rod caps. Two things vaguely registered—the cotter pins were modern, and the rod caps still had shims, which I’m told means there’s still provision to allow for wear and the babbit has functional life. Now lets see those rings!

So there I am lying on my back with a pair of diagonal cutters, and I’m having the darndest time getting into a position where I can easily clip the cotter pins. I couldn't get at the first one squarely because my wrist was jamming against the crank… you know, jamming against the big lobes on the crank…the BIG lobes on the CRANK…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little pea brain finally made the connection: This is a counterbalanced crank!


Now that is an exciting find. As any of you Model A guys know, a counterbalanced crank is a big deal. Not to mention it’s like $1,700 for a new one, and of course then you have to install it! Mine’s already there, spinning away happily.

This goes a long way in explaining why this engine runs so smoothly. In fact, it used to drive my brother nuts that he couldn’t get his Model A to run as smooth as mine. Now I know the reason. And it sure validates my plan of freshening this engine up.

At this point I forgot about cotter pins for a while and wormed my way over to the passenger side. Could I get lucky again?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yes!!! What you are looking at is the forward segment of the camshaft. And right there between the two valve lobes is a fuel pump lobe. Which makes it a Model B cam.

Anybody seen a BBC show called The Detectorists? It’s a dry comedy about a group of goofy treasure hunters who scour the English countryside in a mostly futile effort to find antiquities. By custom, if they ever find gold, they do a little jig called the Gold Dance.

Well, I don’t mind telling you, I got up off the floor and did my own little Gold Dance right there in the garage. Because somebody way back when put gold into this engine.

 

Bravo Clark.
There is a special " MAGICAL GOLD " in that engine indeed !

 

So is this an A block that had a B crank and cam put into it, or is it a rebuilt B engine? Don't the B blocks all have a diamond cast into them, or is that an old wives' tale? Either way, that's a huge score when it comes to flat 4's.

 

It is definitely an A block. Has a corresponding 1930 serial number and no provision for a fuel pump. I think back in the day, a machine shop would add counterweights if you wanted it balanced.

 

Clark you may wish to leave a few head nuts on loosely to keep the head from lift off. Just a thought.

 

Clark that head you put on was just returned to where it was probably at some time in its historic past...

It's interesting that due to the engine serial numbers being connected to the Vin's back in the day there may as remote as the possibility would be a back door into its history...

I'm just a minimally educated spectator but certainly admire and even learn a bit following you all in your adventures...

This is fun watching the action in the pits...

 

97 to Rochester 2G or Strommie WW:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/2655286...MI94fOq7ih9gIVeZpmAh1w0QjAEAQYASABEgLPL_D_BwE

97 to 4-barrel:
https://www.lakeheaders.com/products/stromberg-97-carb-to-4bbl-adapter

97 to SAE flange:
https://www.secretsofspeed.com/carburetor-adapters

97 to 4-bolt SU:
https://www.jackhammerspeedshop.com...r-for-stromberg-97-holley-94-to-4-bolt-intake

Cheers,
Harv




Cheers,
Harv