Hot Rods Spalding Bros Repro, for "Too Tall" Ganahl.

Thanks for chiming in, I know Pat is busy with the oiling system, and your experience is plenty welcome. I see that you live in Fountain Valley, back in the 70's when we were drag racing in the sand, there was a guy named Tom Brown from there. He had a very competitive, well built car, one of the few with a champ quickchange. Ring any bells ?

 

Thanx... nice to know. Gary

 

Again, thanks to all involved for a detailed and extremely informative build thread.
As someone mentioned awhile back, this is like looking at jewelry. Because I never really looked "under the skin" of the Spalding Bros. car until now, to me it's still mind-blowing to think how innovative and well-crafted the original car must have been. This one will be every bit its equal.
The dedication involved from all sides - hell, just the search for parts alone - is epic.
Like everyone else who's been following this project, I can't wait to see it in motion!

 

Looking good Marty.That weight guess.Is it before OR after Pat has lunch?
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

First, J.D. thanks very much for ALL your help lo these MANY years on 6-cyl. stuff. And big congrats on your amazing new GMC LSR records.
Second, I was hoping to get a lot more done this week, but it seems every piece needs to be custom made or massaged. But--at the risk of boring some of you--here's a quick look at what progress I've made on the engine.
To start, I got the custom-made Smith Bros. push rods, with matching 3/8" ball Allen-head adjusters with 12-point lock nuts, as seen below loosely installed. I also had to make longer valve-cover hold-down studs.


To improve the home-made oil distribution gizmo for the Buick 8 rocker shafts that came with my parts-in-boxes engine, I used a 3/8" bolt to hold the aluminum half-shells. It's rifle-drilled, then cross-drilled, with a brass elbow brazed on top, to feed oil down the two hollow shafts.


I had the Wayne aluminum parts polished, and here I'm trial-fitting front pieces. The timing cover is one I had cast from the Iacono original, which Keith Young loaned me, and I machined, adding a cover where the injector pump would go.

This is the Wayne intake for the BXOV-2 carbs. Note the valve cover doesn't sit down completely.


First I had to clearance the valve cover gasket around the head bolts and valvespring/shims.

Then I realized the oil-feed gizmo was hitting the valve cover. I was also worried about getting a tight enough bend in the oil line to connect it. Then I got the bright idea to turn the whole thing 90-degrees...

which solved both problems by allowing me to run the 3/16" oil tube directly into the L-fitting with a double-flare fitting and end. The next problem is to feed the oil line through that threaded hole at lower left, through the water jacket, out the other side (with a farrel fitting), and into the "oil distribution block." I have to make a fitting I can solder the tube to on this side to keep water from leaking out. That's tomorrow's first project. More news when it happens. Pat Ganahl

 

Well, it's down on all fours and rolling. I made some simple brackets that bolt to the outboard hub carriers, to attach to the torsion bar arms. It was a treat to make adjustments to the jack screws, and see how quick and easy it is to change the chassis set-up. I will roll it out in the sun and get some more shots before putting the body back on. Saturday the 13th is the Portland Transmission Spring Classic, my favorite outdoor show. Weather permitting, and if it's OK with Pat, I will bring it to display, along with some roadsters and specialty bikes.

 

I moved to FV in 71 and concentrated on buy our home and raising children. Racing waited until 75 and I didn't know anyone outside of Dry Lakes competition.

 

So, will Pat be driving it into the LARS next month, or will it be a static display? Either way, I can't wait to see this masterpiece in the flesh.

 

Don't see much chance of that happening.....!!

 

OK, at the urging of J.D. and TerryK, I guess you'd like to see more of what's going into this ancient Wayne 12-Port Chevy. I'll say (1) it's not smallblock Chevy, and (2) I've built more than a dozen of these early Chevy 6s, but never one anything like this.



Last time I was ready to thread the 3/16" copper oil line from the rocker shafts, past the pushrods, and through the block water jacket. This is the brass pipe plug I drilled and chamfered and slipped over the tube before threading the tube through the block and out a similar hole on the other side. The tube was about 3' long to start.


This ain't as pretty as sweating 2" copper plumbing pipe, but it's the same process. The tubing has to be soldered here to keep block coolant from leaking out.


Finding a 1/4" npt fitting with a 3/16" farrel wasn't easy, but this is where the oil line comes out the other side of the block, and how it's sealed.


With that farrel tightened, the tube had to be tightly bent and trimmed to fit into a smaller farrel in the side of the "oil junction block" on the left side of the block. Initially the large hole, fed by the pump, pressurized the main oil galley, and fed oil into the smaller hole, which fed the "dipper" toughs for the rod bearings. To convert to full-pressure oiling, with a full-flow oil filter, the process is reversed. The plate shown, with two hose-clamp tubes, came with my engine. The front tube fed oil to the filter, the rear one fed filtered oil into the main galley. I'm making a new aluminum plate for threaded fittings for screw-in hoses (like Spaldings used).


I've had to make many of the gaskets, so here's a cheap trick I figured out: Cut a piece of sticky-back automotive sandpaper, stick it onto the area, trace around the edgers with the edge of a pencil, then cut out the holes with an X-Acto knife. Peel it off, stick it on a piece of gasket material, and cut around this pattern. Next I peeled it off the gasket and stuck it onto a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate as a pattern for my new plate.


Here's the new plate roughed out and test fitted, along with a bracket I made for the early Mopar oil filter, starting with a generator bracket with the ends cut off, welded to a piece of angle iron, with a gusset added for good luck. No, this ain't jewelry like Marty's work, but I don't think it will break.

Here's the slightly modified filter test-fit in place. Next I'll have to get hoses made to proper length with correct ends. Also note longer studs installed for the intake manifold, which of course included breaking off 3 originals, drilling, extracting, and retapping. My manifold had no provision for the 4th (lower) stud or bolt, so I drilled and spot-faced holes inside (through the carb holes) for 1/4-20 Allen bolts, which I'll show later.


Here's a first look at the bottom side, with the Wayne steel center caps, GMC rods, and liberal drilling and grinding to get everything balanced. Note the two oil holes in the lower pan rail, plus the fixture in the upper rail that holds the oil pump.


This shows a pipe plug in the forward oil hole, which was originally fed by the pump. Sitting on the upper rail is a little doohickey every early Chev/GMC needs, but is very hard to find. It's a threaded bolt with a tapered end and a stop-nut that locks the oil pump in place. Luckily I found one in a parts box.


This shows where it goes. The tapered end tightens into a corresponding hole in the pump shaft, and is then secured by the lock nut. If this is getting boring, let me know.


This photo shows a stock GMC pump and pickup, in place, along with the stock-type metal oil-feed tube with stock compression fittings. My plan is to use a flexible hose (as Wayne did) with A-N type fittings. But first a problem.



This is a stock 216 pan that I cut the dipper troughs out of. But it's only 7-1/4" deep, and the GMC pickup is 8-1/2.
Wayne sold a 2-1/2 gallon pan (10 quarts!) which I consider excessive--and have never seen.


I didn't get a pan or oil pick-up with this engine. But it did come with this GMC pump with this flat plate on the bottom. The threaded hole is for the pick-up tube. So my next step is to make/modifiy something to work, unless somebody out there knows what the original Wayne setup looked like??


OK, here's the candy shot for today, then it's time to get back in the garage and figure out some more things. Thank goodness this engine was in a track roadster, and came with the sprint-style straight-out headers. The nice copper-brass radiator you see in the background was made to our dimensions by U.S. Radiator for Rick's Radiator in Azusa, CA. We're getting there. The one big thing I'm missing, ironically, is a Spalding-type ignition, or a Stewart-Warner tach-drive adapter as shown in the Wayne catalog. Til next time.
Pat Ganahl

 

Just..... amazing.

 

I never get tired of reading your descriptions or seeing your pics Pat. I've always loved your attention to detail. And Marty is doing a great job as well. Looking forward to seeing the pics of the finished car.

 

Great write up on "working on" one of the engines/head most of us will never get to see/touch.

 

Thanks Pat. Remember all you GMC /Chev6 nuts out there. That screw device Pat showed to hold in the oil pump is put in is for the correct placement of the oil pump. Once the "pin" end of the screw goes into the detent of the pump tight to put the pump at the correct level in the block you back it off a flat then tighten the locking nut. This allows the distributor shaft into the pump drive not to be in any kind of a bind.
Not positive on a Chev, but a GMC has a fitting on the side of the block where the original bypass filter dumped oil back into the crankcase. That oil at that exact spot fed oil to the distributor/cam gear mesh. Most remove it when adding a full flow and also never knew its existence. Just another 1/8" hole that needs a pipe plug. Thanks again Pat.

 

Very interesting.
Nice work.

 

Great stuff, keep it coming!

 

Pat, is this the Wayne pan you are talking about? It looks to be crudely made from a stock pan.

 

Gofannon: My copies of the Wayne catalogs are Xeroxes, so I couldn't see the pan welds. I've done worse in the past. But the '52 catalog does show the inside of a baffled pan, as well as a GMC oil pump installed with a flex hose and a screened pickup "cup" mounted right on the pump.
So then, since I'm getting old and have forgotten a lot of things I knew or once read, I pulled these 3 small booklets off my shelf to reread. The Calif. Bill one was written in '48, and is strictly Chevy, showing Wayne parts of that era (i.e., same as my engine).



However, the Floyd Clymer one, written by Roger Huntington in '55, has lots more pages, info, and photos, including some slightly confusing diagrams from Wayne for wet sump and dry sump "full flow" oil systems.


One of the Wayne diagrams is shown on the right page above. I like the direction to "cut the pan with a torch." But I thought I'd remembered a picture of a straight tube pickup, with an angle-cut end, on a GMC pump, and there it is on the bottom of the left page (with the Wayne flex hose). So I'll figure out something to fit on my pump--and modify the pan with something other than a torch.


Here the upper left photo shows the screened pickup and "cup" clearly. At right are some of the pieces used to modify the pan, as well as an inside look at a Wayne enlarged and baffled pan. Guess I'll devise my own.


On a totally different note, I also went down to Anaheim yesterday, to Dennis Webb's wonderful 1-car garage/shop to see the progress he's making on the Ingles nose. He says it's very rough at this stage, but wanted me to approve the size and shape. I said, "Hey, you're the expert. Do what you think is right." And he will. I should have taken a picture of the near-complete, beautiful Kurtis midget body just to his right. Dennis will also make the grille. I am very, very lucky to have craftsmen like him and Marty working on this car.
P.G.

 

Dennis Webb, one of the true metal craftsman ever. We are very fortunate to see his work while still under construction. Thanks for showing.

 

I feel 'blessed' to be reading about every step of the way.
Uncharted territory here, in the greater sense... Thanks, Marty, Pat, Dennis...and a HOST of others.
History in the making...er, RE-making!

 

Great to see more of Dennis's wonderful work, it makes the deck lid I built and installed today, look pretty small. First off, the original car didn't use factory made Dzus plates like we are accustom to. So I made flat, triangle shaped ones that welded in the corners, like they did. I am fortunate to have a deep throat kick punch with a die that punches all three holes at the same time. For making the lid, I have a die for my old Niagara bead machine that beads and curls the metal at the edges of the panels, I use it on all the the Track Roadsters.

 

Now for the moment of truth ! When you roll a newly constructed car outside for the first time, and can stand back and look at all of the angles, it gives a far better perspective, than looking at it up close and inside. Now I can't wait to mount the nose and build the hood !

 

Damn, that's looking good! It's really starting to come together now. I'm looking forward to the hood, nose, and the Wayne engine.

 

Damn, that looks like 1950!!

 

Man I wish that was mine.......

 

Outstanding.

 

Just a few OMG moments there Marty when I saw the pictures of the car taken outside.

Makes one think: why aren't T roadsters as popular these days as they once were????

Here is a picture of one I found on the interweb, showing the potential of these cars.

 

Ooo-la-la! Looks fabulous. Gary

 

Bitchin'!!! I hope I get to see it @ Portland Transmission!