Technical ***April 2021 Banger Meet Thread - Fooling with Bangers***

Donovan Engines
Last month one of the posters shared several great photos of his Donovan "D" 4 Banger engine all polished and bright. I am out where what I call the the left coast right now, travel here at least 4 times a year and am based in Santa Rosa. Because of the Covid thing visiting my friends of 30 years has been difficult. But with the vaccine and a lightening of restrictions it has been possible to see and meet with quite a few friends. Today I was able to meet with Steve Nelson for a couple of hours and get updated on several of his projects. all of which are very interesting but because of the Donovan post last month I thought Steve's Donovan project would be of interest to many.

Steve has a finished Alum. Rutherford Head going on a completed Alum. Donovan "D" engine that will go in his 31 Coupe, he is having to splitting his time with 3 other large projects. This Donovan project is progressing quite nicely and will make a great driver, so another "D" engine will be on the road

 

Just a word of caution about alloy castings; new or for that matter, all! As you assemble them; any where there's a threaded screw or bolt hole, apply a non-hardening thread sealer (red, green or blue Loctite will NOT work)! I us a "Permatex product.
Then when your engine is complete; pour a ceramic based "Block Sealer" into your engine's cooling system (follow instructions on the product)! If you don't you probably will have a "Lawn Sprinkler" of sorts! This goes for Donovan, Serr, etc. Zakira's Garage at one time produced a Model T 5 main block! Aluminum castings are notoriously porous. And in the machining process it's easy to bore a hole into a water jacket!

 

Are you saying loctite won't work in aluminum, or that it won't seal/lock the thread if there is a leak inside the threaded hole , due to porosity?
I have a pair Norton Commando cases here which the PO had soda blasted to remove the factory paint, the cases had oil coming right through the crankcase in places. not pouring through but a wet stain appears which would not clean up until the engine was dismantled and vapour blasted...I haven't tried to seal, test or reassemble. The stain was also present on the inside after washing in the parts washer but disappeared after vapour blasting.

 

"Permatex" Non-hardening Thread Sealer will expand and contract with Aluminum; "Loctite" will NOT! I've used both for decades. I used each for their intended use!

 

Porosity in castings, uh huh.
Been there, done that, found a fix.
The Aluminum castings have actually been getting better lately, it has to do with the alloy and the sand technology.
The last batch of girdles cast wear incredibly good.
Back to the subject, I have been using a service that does casting sealing. The process is done in an autoclave, both pressure infusion and vacuum, then cured. The Harley Davidson castings are done this way and you would be amazed how many V8 heads.
I did have a cross flow 4 port head that was spider web cracked in the ports. I used a vacuum on the water jacket and cleaned the cracks with brake clean under vac. Then added/dobbed JB weld on to the cracks. As the vac pulled it into the cracks it would stop as the epoxy hardened. I am told this was caused from exothermic reaction to the epoxy when exposed to the vacuum. In any event, it worked, no more leaks.
John

 

necessity is the father of invention

 

Then he needs to pony up the child support

 

Binger, do you still have the snow tires on the coupe?

 

Those are impressive figures, so everything on that motor must be about right.

I see a lot of cast ally dual carb intake manifolds for bangers, some are quite plain but not attached to the exhaust for heating. while others like this one are deeply finned, but fins are usually used to increase the surface area and aid cooling, so I'm wondering if in this case are they there to absorb under hood heat coming from the headers and radiator, to prevent icing.

Could someone explain for me please? The reason I ask is that I'm having icing problems experimenting with a fabricated dual carb manifold on my Chevy banger.

 

I have icing issues with a single 94 on a ansen(burns,tattersfield whoever) intake using a header.fabbed a sheet of aluminum to cover the top of the intake,trapping 2&3 exhaust heat to the intake runners..it works well after the manifold warms up,shorter than without it..today I fired up cold and put my heat gun at the carb base to warm it some..worked perfect with the plate..

 

I meant the distributor cam. The roadster has a Isky 1007b that Pete1 ground for me back when I first got it running.
Which I like very much, by the way...

 

It feels good to be back in my shop. I don’t get a lot of car time and that’s ok, there’s more important things. Working on some not so good vibrations. Thanks Winduptoy.

 

You will have "Good Vibration" now ‼️ vey satisfied with my Rattler flywheel from Winduptoy nice oil pump to .

 

And they call me mellow yellow....how sweet it is !

 

RPM "You Asked For It" Drags June 27 Barona Dragstrip in San Diego. https://www.rpmnationals.com/
Who's going?

 

There's a V4 Lakester that's going up for sale over on landracing.com . . .

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=3693.msg335926#new

 

. . . and here's some more on it . . .

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php?topic=18443.msg0#new

 

out for a drive Saturday night clutch would not disengage, had to step on brake and kill the engine. While waiting for a tow I popped off the cover for the throwout and saw that one of the three levers on the pressure plate had broken off.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Haven't gotten back to this thread, waiting for the Dyno owner to get back into town so I can get clarification on the corrected numbers on the readout.
Went to see my buddy east of me, a 120 mile round trip, and took the Vicky. It dropped a cylinder on the way home. It broke a push tube.
There is an advantage to a flathead...
New ones on order from Smith Brothers.
If you drive them, something will eventually break
Heck, it was broken when I bought it...

Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Well this is exciting, still waiting to get the race block from my friend!
Current one is just for mockup.

 

That sucks. Must have been abused in Iowa and at the ice racing!

 

First drive since I got a new shoulder. Shifting is still a bit difficult.

 

to hell with cars..Im going to spend the next week rolled up with a woman I aint seen in years..

 

Yes, 1 time I dumped it MUCH harder than normal in the Iowa hillclimb.

 

Ok so the model 27 model T engine is seized solid. What is involved in fitting a 32 Model B engine and transmission. leaving everything else as original Model T??

 

I feel like adapting a B trans to the T rear end might be a hassle unless you make it open drive. Why not run an A rear end?

 

An A with a quick change

 

In that case, I would at least reinforce the frame. Possibly box it.

I'm no expert, but I would it would be relatively easy to make the two side mounts, the hard one would be the front motor mount. Maybe use a 28 solid mount timing cover, and make some sort of motor plate.

 

Be careful about the “T” frame
It was a alloy steel that may make boxing difficult
John