I'm showing y'all this stuff because I'm pretty pleased with what I've been able to accomplish (not being particularly smart or talented) and,....as encouragement to those who may be a bit tentative about jumping into something new. In Hot Rods,....it's always something! So I got these super-go-to-Hell adjustable rocker arms. And since they mess with the original geometry, custom pushrods are required. Tedious and a bit stressful to assure my measurements are accurate. Pretty satisfying in the end 'tho,...assuming I haven't goofed.
May not be that bigga deal in the overall scheme, but it took me forever to get the water by-pass bung threaded. Bought a 1/2 NPT tap at the local builders supply and then spent over a week driving around SoCal tryin to get a correct drill bit I could afford,.....for one hole! Recommended hole size did not allow the tap to engage so I had to get creative. Finally drilled 1/32" over size. Fixturing to get stuff square was a real PITA! And it took a BF Crescent wrench to cut the threads even in the oversize hole. Not pretty but DONE!
Uh, Mr Bill, you have a lathe and a grinder. You can make an oversize drill bit less oversize, just sayin. good job getting it done anyhow.
On the bright side. The weld on the cross over passes the bf wrench torque test. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Another way to get a pipe thread on a big lump is using one of these weld on bungs: In stock $3.55 Each 12555K83 This one's from the good folks at McMaster-Carr. Summit sells some as well, but they are tall and skinny so won't look right on an old casting.
Thanks Boys for the tips and tricks. Hope I can remember them if I do another. I am still working on getting accurate push rod measurements. Gary at QEC/73RR tipped me off to a home made valve spring compressor which will allow for more precise measuring. I am currently fabbing that tool which I will share when I am done. In the meantime, heads got torqued,.....discovering 85 ft lbs is just about all this old fart can muster! and the serpentine hardware finalized, detailed and installed. Liken the way it's looking!
Today was a very satisfying day. The rocker-arm rocker tool turned out just fine. Works on both intakes and exhausts.
More Christmas presents from our friend at QEC Man,...I dunno how anyone with big mitts could do this install and initial adjust.
Did the adjustable push rods in the previous Hemi. And yes, they are a PITA. Howeverrrr,...... I've never adjusted them since the original install, testimony to convenience of hydraulic lifters. Probably the same drill with the adjustable rockers so it's probably a toss up. I do have valve covers with the bumps for the stock adjustable rockers and believe these are necessary for clearance.
[QUOTE="wstory, post: 13830821, member: 59215" I do have valve covers with the bumps for the stock adjustable rockers and believe these are necessary for clearance. [/QUOTE]Yes
Finally seeing a little daylight on this project. Got the engine off the stand so's I could access the bell housing surface. One task I was really worried I'd forget was drilling the galley plug that is buried behind another plug on the bellhousing surface. That plug, which was mentioned several pages back, defied my attempts to remove it, and due to the fact that it was a 5/16" female square and I was ignorantly trying to remove it with a 3/8" square extension. So today I molested a perfectly good 3/8 extension in order to get that SOB out so's I could drill it. Sooo,....after dickin around for several minutes trying to engage my custom plug wrench,.... unsuccessfully, I looked in the hole to discover the machine shop had replaced the original square drive plug that stumped me, with a hex. Well shit! Anyone need a 5/16 square drive extension?
Picked up my clutch and flywheel from the balance shop this mornin and was excited to start puttin stuff together. First hiccup was no one had any pressure plate bolts. Soooo,....dammit, I decided to trial fit the adapter and SBC bell housing. A bit of a miss-match I'd say. A lot of material that can be trimmed away, making the bell housing area more svelte and space efficient for installing in the Model A.
Do you know if the Chevy bell line that you traced out is bigger than the hemi pattern? It would be shame to cut the adapter to find that some of the block had a bigger OD than the bell housing and wound up hanging in the breeze. I’ve definitely made that kind of mistake on different projects. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
What do you call 'big'? All of the EarlyHemi, Poly and pre-62 A series engines all have the same bellhousing bolt pattern. It is unfortunate that when the machine work was being done that the profile was not cut to match either the bell or the block. As it is, it just makes extra work for the conscientious builder, like Mr Bill. .
My understanding as well. All the extra flange area has some purpose I expect, but not important for me to understand at this time in my life. And yes, it would be a shame to trim the adapter to discover voids between the two parts. Not planning to do that. Sooooo,....today, I'm making patterns of the two surfaces bolt patterns to guide in the molesting of my very expensive adapter plate. I'll document.
The 3:00 am committee had trouble figuring out how to get the foot print of the Hemi bell housing transferred onto the backside of the adapter. Perseverance prevailed and today I attached some poster board to the bellhousing surface and traced the outline. Cut out that outline and transferred it to the adapter and then traced the trans outline over that. The red line denotes the engine outline. The black line denotes the transmission. Everything outside of those two boundaries gets whacked off. I'm a little nervous about making these dramatic cuts so I've decided to procrastinate until tomorrow and have a glass of wine,....or two
Or like the song goes; "My wine bottle has a hole in its' bottom..." . Liquid courage n skill? Marcus...
Hey, could you please measure the thickness of the adapter and post the measurement? It would help me greatly. Thanks!
Bit the bullet and took the bandsaw to the adapter. The areas of the adapter that are "proud" of the bellhousing match the back of the block. Still gotta figger how to finish the edge. It's bandsaw "course" now. Trendz,....the adapter measures .745" thick.
The Jalopy Journal
