The Jalopy JournalThe Tap… Part 2
I reported last week on the development of a tap in my ’39 sedan. This past weekend, I had a couple of buddies over and we set out to get rid of said tap. Reggie, Blake, Silva, and I met up and quickly dispersed of the intake only to find stock, non-adjustable lifters sitting in the bores. Shit.
We were all surprised as not many folks build flatheads with non-adjustable lifters anymore. Reason being, setting valve lash is a real chore consisting of fitting the valve assembly, measuring lash, removing the assembly, grinding, fitting, removing, grinding, fitting, removing, grinding… and so on…
Even so, the worse news was that because we were looking at non-adjustable lifters it seemed likely that I had a torn up cam to deal with as, obviously, a lifter didn’t just “back-off” as I was hoping. I think we were all convinced that some bad shit had gone down.
And then we got lucky. As we located the valve with excess lash and began to make funeral arrangements, silva noticed something laying in the intake valley.
“What the hell is that?”
Once we fished it out of the oil, we realized it was a small round “cap” made of hardened steel. One side of this cap had some brazing residue and the other looked as though it had been tapped millions of times by the business end of a valve stem. Hummm…
Silva and Reggie instantly got it figured. Apparently, the engine builder had gone about setting lash in this motor using a method that none of us had heard of. Essentially, he dropped in stock lifters and then made hardened caps to set up the lash for each valve. Once these caps were measured and lash was figured, each was brazed onto the tops of their respective lifter.
Amazingly, this cap had broken loose and rather than getting lost somewhere in the motor (and tearing up god knows what), it harmlessly fell in the valley and stayed there.
To be honest, my initial thought was that the engine builder was off his rocker. And continuing with honesty, I still don’t believe this is a good way to go about a flathead valvetrain. However, a little more research over the weekend netted an article written by Barney Navarro for Car Craft in 1956. The topic? Setting lash by brazing caps onto non-adjustable stockers. Barney did it for an ultra-light valvetrain in a motor set up to race.
My ’39, however, isn’t a race car. It’s a daily driver and I rely on it day-in and day-out to get me to and from work. Considering that, I much prefer a more proven valvetrain assembly and will be throwing in adjustable lifters as soon as I get a chance. Until then, however, we decided to tig the cap back onto the lifter and get the car back on the road. After all, there was no way to get a set of adjustables delivered by Monday and I had to get to work on Tuesday.
Thanks to my good pals (Silva, Blake, & Reggie), I was able to drive the car this morning. It’s pouring down rain, but I didn’t hear any taps… I’m back in the game.
Special thanks to Blake for the excellent camera work!
