9/21/07
A couple of downers for today:
1-It is now raining, so that takes the car shows out for tonight
2-The Hemi lifter(s) were sounding VERY noisy, and should not do so given they are flat tappet hydraulic lifters. They have been surprisingly loud from the beginning, but as of yesterday one in particular was clacking badly, and the motor was running roughly.
I pulled the valve covers off (I have NEVER before pulled off Hemi covers or adjusted shaft rockers) and after some chasing around by phone I dove into the adjustment. It turns out the firing order is the same as standard Chevy. However, the balancer has no markings at every 90 degrees, so I used the position of the rotor in the distributor to approximate where I was in the firing order. Naturally, the starter knocks the engine about half way around, so it took many clicks to come up with nearly all cylinders. I felt I was probably over-adjusting the valves, but as I have no previous history with how much slop is allowed, I did what felt right.
It started up and was much quieter, although one or two valves were still making a comparatively tiny noise. But the thing is sucking oil BIG time, and smoking out of both tail pipes. I had called Mike Landy this morning trying to get some guidance. He put me on hold, and Mike Cook came on the phone to inform me they were in the middle of a “meeting” and Mike would call me later.
No call. So, I called Landy (not there) and spoke with Mike Cook, who also was bewildered. He posited that I might have hurt the valve stem seals. Whatever, it ain't right.
So it is back parked inside, and will await a tow over to Landy for their inspection, as it is smoking WAY too much to drive.
9/28/07
I reached Mike on Monday and he forgot, and said he'd come Tuesday. That came and went and after several calls I finally reached him and he said now it would be NEXT Monday. This entire car thing is SO fraught with unkept time lines.
I talked with Bob Lambeck, famous engine builder, and he said he was nearly certain some oil just ran in the cylinders as is usual when taking out Hemi plugs, and that it would certainly abate within a few blocks.
NOT. After a mile of driving around, and idling for several minutes the other day prior to that, BIG smoke still emanating. PERHAPS I have a plug loose. That would be a good thing.
I put the car back in the garage under the rack and tomorrow I'll let Ollie give it a shot.
10/2/07
Chris and Ollie were a no show on Saturday, as was Landy on Monday (yesterday), for the third time. I talked to Mike just now and he promises he'll come tonight at 7 PM.
No plugs were loose. I readjusted the valves yesterday, and it still smokes.
10/2/07
Randy came by this afternoon, annd posited that the manifold might be loose to account for the higher idle when hot. He was SO right. VERY loose. AND, the smoking stopped immediately! Randyu noted Chevys suck oil from the valley if the manifold is loose. Obviously the same is true here.
Mike came by. He said the “knock” we've heard sounds like a wrist pin. He says it will stay exactly the same forever. He will check the build sheet, but feels certain it was spec'd correctly.
He said the manifold takes 100 inch pounds, but just did them all by hand anyway. They had loosened since I tightened them this afternoon. He noted the manifold is tapered, and it loosens up as it is tightened, so needs repeated hits.
He thought Randy was right about the manifold sucking oil. I forgot to ask about the gaskets.
He leaned out the idle as much as possible, and noted that it might take a .78 jet compared to the .80 in there now to make it idle better. He noted he dynos for power, not streetability, as he is not driving the engines. He also said that little difference could make a big difference in quality.
He is putting a 426 crate motor in a 65 for some guy right now.
I will wash up the Hemi tomorrow, maybe push out the Bird and put it up on the rack and check a few things, wipe down the underside, etc.
It will certainly be easier to stop without the 2000 RPM idle.
Mike said the dipstick tube needs some bending to get the stick to go through the 1/2” hole in the windage tray. He said the pan was changed by Julius. So chalk up one more screwup by Julius.
Mike concurred you just can't find qualified people anymore.
10/5/07
Roy spent several hours yesterday trying to solve the dipstick issue, but without success. He took the dipstick sleeve out several times, a tough task. He DID get the coat hanger version to get through the windage tray into the pan. So maybe that will be my way to check oil levels.
We will need to get it up on the rack, and perhaps fab up a new tube and get one of those round and more flexible dipsticks, like a Lokar unit.
Randy came by today and we washed it up (badly needed) and Hemi'd over to Bob's. The car runs great, and got the usual amount of attention.
12/3/07
In what could have been a perfect storm of disaster, I took the car to the John Force show in Yorba Linda , a 70 mile trip one way. Well, the Force show was great, and I made some interesting connections, about which I will tell you later. But the thing sounded clattery when I started it up to leave, and the valves came and went being noisy. I stopped and put three quarts of oil in after reconnecting the oil pressure wire (knocked off during the above engine cleaning) and seeing the gauge at about 1/4 rather than its normal 3/4. I searched out a Pep Boys and found tools necessary to tighten the manifold, which was not loose. That's also another story all its own. But here's the thing: NO dipstick reading, NO oil pressure reading, and NO understanding that the intake gaskets were sucking oil out of the motor.
Talked with Landy, talked with Troy at West Oaks, and I'm going out there to buy intake gaskets in the mid-morning. Roy and I will drop the pan if Roy's whiz-bang Chrysler dipstick does not work, nor if our intended attempt to use a speedo cable as a dipstick does not do the trick, either.
Turns out at the show there was a guy named Wayne who owns the ONLY nostalgia/restored Budweiser funnycar. The VERY short story is that he loves my car, but must sell his, for about $.75 MILLION, THEN he can buy it. OK then.
12/24/07
Roy spent all day 2 weeks ago struggling with making something work. We finally used a throttle cable (a wire inside a spiral sleeve) and that did the dipstick trick. We drained the oil, put 5 quarts back in it, and could NOT get the oil filter off. It had been WAY over tightened and/or put on dry by the Quick Change place at the last oil change. We think this is really a 6-quart pan. Roy managed the filter trick a few days later. It took me a week to finally get some gaskets, this time all the way out at CIFCA's old headquarters at Good Vibrations Parts and Jim Maher in Whittier. This was a LONG drive. The gaskets are NOT installed as yet. Tomorrow being Christmas, I MIGHT give it a try.
Troy had given me a lot of tricks regarding checking the fit, etc. on these historically troublesome gaskets. I'll give it a shot.
12/28/07
In an annoying turn of events, I finally pulled off the manifold, and found the gaskets had sucked into the ports in some areas. I took the entire manifold, with gaskets intact, to Landy. He immediately said that whoever put these on did it wrong. I reminded him that HE had done it. No, he said, a flunky assitant had done this, a fellow he shortly thereafter fired. He reiterated he had done the dort block and heads, but definitely had NOT installed the manifold. He said come back in a couple of hours. Turns out it took until late rin the day following day. John and I picked it up, and were told there was an $80 fee involved. As Mike was not there, I noted to the fellow who loaded the manifold into the truck that I would speak directly with him. Mike called alter, and gave me 5 minutes of exacting installation instructions, and reiterated I owed him $80. I asked, What is it in this whole process that I did wrong?” Mike said he had told me that the new company and owners were not paying for anything done previously by Dick Landy Industries. I noted that I had dealt with HIM. Short story: I'm paying the $80.
I think this sort of sidestepping responsibility is rampant in this business, and it stinks. I like Mike, but I think this is just another sad example, along with Chrysler basically flipping me off on the defective NEW motor, and Chevy doing the same some years ago on the crate motor.
We followed all instructions, and went to start the car and found it had a nearly dead battery. John has it started now. We'll re-torque the manifold after we warm it a few times.
