Technical ***March 2021 Banger Meet Thread - Equinox Sacrifice For Bangers***

Dick,
It does look good, just not my priority, "parts left off cost nothing and cause no service problems"
That was a quote from a well known designer.
Oh man that polished Dough Nah Van is a thing of beauty, it would be unique enough for a coffee table, but a shame to not run it. Is this the Serr 4 port test bed? it surely is stout enough to handle everything that head can dish out.

If I ever find a Miller or big inch Offy, I would contemplate the Wife accepting the table, I don't think I will ever have to cross that bridge....

John

 

Did the Old Man say: "Boy! Yer Gonna Drive Me to Drink'n, If You don't quit Drive'n That Hot-Rod Lincoln!"?

 

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Serr 4 port... what’s that... ha !
Steves new creation is a full OHV CROSS FLOW... 8 PORT ! And yeah , this D will handle everything that new Serr can dish out !
You have a litter of Ds now, and probably know more about them than most owners !
And the internals in mine are high end goods... good to take a licking and to keep on ticking !
My partner is the BEST... but people are very different , eh.
She doesn’t understand why anybody would spend $ ...getting dirty rusty filthy greasy smelly junk and spend forever messing with it... for WHAT ?? “It doesn’t even run” !
This should tell you that.... if I want to visit any ‘engine coffee table’, Ill have to go to the shed.
I tell her that greasy stuff is what keeps my OLD skin so purty !

You must have seen an example of the 8.-PORT ? Steve took an example to the OLD MANS club meeting... that you belong to, eh ? Or did you miss that mtg ??
Development has been a loong number of years ! But , yeah the first fully functional copy will power the D. I think it’s close to happening. Custom intake/exhaust being worked on, and dyno is reserved. I won’t hold my breath and Im not an optimist. Just want it to happen before I can’t use it.... ergo, the table idea.
BTW... Since this is a completely NEW invention, it will be named SERR -8 PORT.
Nothing to do with miller.

 

Yes, Steve has been working on this a long time after taking over the Eubanks project. This new version has nothing really in common with the Eubanks head. This is pretty much a new venture, I like it. The 4ever4 meeting was at a Chino location and yes, I have seen the new version. It looks like it has quite a bit of potential.

The more time I spend working on the D'vans, the more I like them. It is too bad that no one has picked up the torch and started to make more of them, looking at Burtz and Buttermore, there must be some sort of market. This next year will be quite interesting. I am looking forward to seeing them both run.

Best, John

 

Hey John,
What ever happened to Eubanks ? I liked him.
Steve has the last of the Eubanks heads ... on a shelf.. unfinished. Too many problems Im told.
Regarding ‘more’ Ds, I had a nice long conversation with Mrs D. Bottom line... no more will be made.
My experience is that you are correct, in that there is a market for more ! This is a very good thought out engine. Most don't know who Donovan was. He went thru many years racing Fords B blks. He had same troubles that YOU and many other racers dealt with trying to improve on the inherent short comings.
He knew from experience what improvements Fords B should have !
He used his considerable resources to design the D, before he passed. Mrs D brought it to life !
I’ve listened to guys swear that there are more being made/sold....it just ain’t so.
If I remember correctly, you’re the one that schooled me about how costly just buying the tooling/patterns is.

 

I acquired a Donavan head years ago and priced the rest of the parts. $10 grand was more than I was willing to pay. May still have the head.

 

Dan, I too liked him, he took the time to start introducing me to the player/guard of the Bangers.
Like we all face, Dan passed late last year, too many to keep track of, unfortunately.
Ed (Donovan), Arnold Birner and one other I believe were the forces behind the "D" motor.
The castings pretty much have the AJB logo somewhere in them. Like Dan, they are bench racing and swapping lies together.
I did some preliminary work on the foundry and the cost is high just to get started. If the competition rules allowed the "D" motor, it would be a no brainer. As of now, it is not worth investing into. I will keep making the girdle motors.

J

 

I got a call from Dan Eubanks when he was closing his pattern shop. I went over there to see what he was getting rid of. I ended up buying some patterns, but also bought one of the heads he finished.

 

Hey denis,
Pictures and prices can still be viewed at Donovan web site. I don't

believe that site has been taken down.
The flathead you have cost $700. , back when available. My block came from an estate in your area...missing head and other parts which normally were included when the engine kit was bought.
Ds came in various configurations, per buyers request, i.e.- flathead; ohv, etc.
Mine was flathead, however l am changing over to full OHV Crossflow.
The complete kit was 15K and change to my memory.

 

Strangely reminiscent of the Cook head without the cartridge fire. There was some discussion about plug location, it looks like this one is centered up a little better than the prototype run in the 4E4 lakester.
John

 

Hey John,
Sorry to learn that Eubanks has passed on !
He was a very intelligent nice person. I bought from him each time he called to offer something new that he made. All except one time. He called about starting his Eubanks OHV HEAD. It was one of those times when $ was tight...and he needed it like NOW ! Oh well.
John, you are pretty observant...to pick out those letters on the D blk. I think I remember them... inside the valve lifter area.
The guy who you can’t think of his name is....Gary Allison; Donovan Engineer and D machinist !
Gary also inspected each/every D for pressure leaks. Did you also find/observe a quarter inch circle... with a P stamped in it ? You will locate this inside the cam gear area. This was marked by Gary.... after each blk tested and passed pressure test... by Gary.
Interestingly, YOU ended up with the only D that never passed, and so Gary didn’t stamp it as passed ... trivia , eh !
Gary was the principle machinist for every D also. An invaluable member of the team ! He also sold/mailed parts ordered, until all parts were exhausted/ ran out. Nice guy too.
Unfortunately , I only knew him for a month or so prior to his retirement.
Arnold Birner was the pattern maker, and the guy who requested ...that the patterns be changed for the LAST (#31) blk poured... for himself. Gary said he wouldn’t pass it... had too many faults !
Not many have any idea how very expensive that kind of work is. Ask Steve Serr, who is ‘only’ making a head !
As far as NOT allowing such to compete, my opinion, they are only harming the hobby.

 

Hey John,
Interesting, you mention the ‘prototype’ run in the lakester. Dan said that he took possession of that one, after it was run... and naturally sold it to recoup $. That was the only one , of the 3 he made, that was finished to run ! All 3 are accounted for. R.I.P. Dan.

 

Quick question for you Banger experts - If I were to replace my Model A cam with a warmer cam (maybe a B cam or touring cam?) what else would I need to do other than upgrade the cam gear? Will I have to do a valve adjustment? I currently don’t have adjustable valves.

 

Get a good cam gear set direct from Dan McEachern 510-532-8228

 

If you are going to change out the cam this would be the time to upgrade to adjustable lifters. You will have access with the cam out and it's not good practice to run used lifters on a new or reground cam. With a cam change you will definitely need to adjust the valves, so again, go with adjustable lifters as part of your upgrade. I would also recommend changing valve springs; they're relatively cheap and will help ensure your success with a new cam. I use and would recommend the single nut adjusters sold by Bratton's and several of the other Model A vendors; they have a bigger foot than some of the other adjustable lifters on the market and are recommended by Bill Stipe and some of the other cam grinders. You should be able to do this work without disturbing the head if you choose to do it that way.

 

An A with stock valves? split guides and stock springs? my advice isnt popular,but here goes. Replace valves guides and lifters,inspect valve seats,cut, lap or or replace with hardened seats where needed.Pull pistons and rods,hone an re ring pistons,adjut rod bearings and adjust main bearings..then install B cam..Doing the cam alone warms up a tired engine..refreshing the engine when installing the cam gives the best bang for the buck..

 

Railcarmover- that all sounds great but 90% of that I have never done before.


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There's no time like the present to learn.
After you finish you will appreciate a modern motor so much more...

J

 

^^^what he said^^^ Not being the brightest bulb I chose the tools as a career, after longer than I care to admit doing it I still get wood when I fire up the junk I build...

 

I did this to mine. There is a lot of how-to in the search engines here and elsewhere. These old motors are real forgiving to work on, in my opinion. I think anybody with a bit of wrenching experience can teach themselves to do everything on Railcar's list.

 

If you're still reluctant (or unable due to lack of shop space); go check out a local machine shop/engine builder. See if they'll let them allow you to watch! This is if you have the time and money. Also you should check out the local community college. They'll doubtless have a course you can take! Still best is to try DIY! All that being said, if you do anything; be prepare to suffer a "Life-Long" malady: "WRENCHING & FIDDLING"! It's incurable; I caught it 70 years ago!

 

Hey Retson,
Here are few pics. Picked it up this morning.
Hope pics show.
Blk next... B-gift so got to geet past slobbering over crank, rods !
Rods BEEEFY, and numbered for guys like me
Who never had tinker toys to assemble.
CRANK is beautiful !!

 

Can’t wait to hear it run!

 

Well my “new to me” engine should be coming soon for the Quick Tee (T is silent)

It’s got new rings, stainless valves, a 6-1 head, .330 lift cam, new one piece valve guides and springs.

 

Hey Retson,
Here’s THE block !!
I feel a little like a FORD assembly guy must have felt... messing with new caste iron !
This thing is really HEAVY.
WHAT a beautiful piece of equipment !!

 

Christmas in March?!?!?!?
Looking good, J

 

Mind if I borrow the engine for a while?

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Checking in for March....we’ll the downside to getting Covid and being outta work for 3 weeks is it gave me a chance to finish my 31 widebed pickup...now I got 2 banger powered jalopy’s to play with! I took it out for the first time last weekend, did a few laps around the neighborhood....

 

Hey Leon,
If you lived closser, that might work. Having a time with mostly one arm working. You could use that owner manual shown, and have it running in no time.
Beauty of this equipment.... ALL the machining is done so that it can be assembled fairly easily.
Buy some bearings... off the shelf. Same with gaskets, seals etc.
Luckily, Ive been collecting ‘stuff’ for this engine for a while. One NICE thing... an A oil pan bolts right up. I have several A pans and blasted/ painted one that’s good to go ! I have an extra bronze set of McEachern timing gears.
And, Jim Brierley just happened to cut me a nice five bearing cam... with a dual grind. This will work with the OHV Head that I’ve saved for years. You could run it for break in , eh....as long as you have driver license !