Projects Track Roadster 16 yrs in the making

I'd make you an insulting offer....

Seriously Charlie, you shouldn't have any reason to pull the engine regardless. You know it's all new (well, 14 years old/new), so something broke. Looking at the pic you posted of the filters, I can't see any reason you wouldn't be able to get the left side head off with the engine in place. Even if it broke some rings (fouled plug?), you should be able to get the pan off. Let's assume it's NOT the cam....

 

exwestracer

I sure hope you're right....no cam problems would be welcome.

You are correct, removing a head would be very easy, it's almost like the engine is on a work stand. Removing the Hilborns, water crossover and header will take far more time than the head. Mostly I don't want to break the Hilborn gasket seals; but that's too bad now.

Thank for your concern.

charlie

 

I got a cold 12 pack of Hamms I will send down in trade!

 

Tman,

I'll give it some thought. At least I know that the Hamms would "work" OK.

I'd probably miss having something to bitch about though...

Have a Hamm for me.

charlie

 

BTW, how about those Chiefs so far? End of 1st qtr.............sorry to kick a guy when he is down!

 

The ball teams in the KC area are all schizoid... I'm not much of a ball fan (foot, basket, base....).

It is nice when the Chief's play because the streets are all clear for cruzin'.

charlie

 

wow shes a beauty

 

Thanks impala,

Kind words help lower my frustration level. I figure a few more days and I'll chill a bit and then begin planning how to get this hurdle behind me.

I realized this weekend that since I can see no obvious damage to the rockers, valve springs, retainers or push rods that I am going to have to pull the head on the bad cylinder bank.

I may try to leave the Hilborns on the head which will not only save time but if I'm "lucky" I won't have to remove the throttle assemblies at all.

At this point I hope that the problem is burned valves...we'll see.

Thanks for the morale boost.

charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

Good news.

On Sunday I finally got over my sulking and decided to take another looks at the compression problem with the Hemi. The valve cover was off and all eight plugs were removed; so I stood by the driver's side engine bank, reached around the windshield post, and cranked over the engine. Every thing looked and sounded OK. I was surprised to see how fast the pushrods were spinning on two of the cylinders including the #1 cylinder intake pushrod. I stopped cranking and decide to bring #! to top dead center on the power stroke. While I was fiddling around I notice that the locknut on the pushrod was not tight against the adjusting nut!!!!! It was completely free of the adjusting nut.

[I should stop and say that when the Hemi was built I was unsure of the exact pushrod length and decided to just order a set of Smith Bros aduj. push rods so the length could be dialed in...which was a mistake as you will soon learn].

The adjusting nut was completely free to spin on the threads and the visible thread count (gap) from the ball stud base to the top of the adjusting nut was about 0.2 in longer on #1 pushrod compared to #3 and the #5 intake push rods. WOW! could it be that easy....YES.

I measured the gap on the #3 and #5 pushrods and the values were within 0,001 in of each other. So I set up a bunch of ignition feeler gauge leaves to correspond to the "correct" gap. I then used the feeler gauge to set the length of the #1 pushrod adjusting stud. I then checked the same gap on cylinder #7 and it was off by about 0.1 in, so I adjusted it to match the other pushrod lengths. THEN I TIGHTENED THE SHIT OUT OF THE LOCK NUTS.

I reinstalled the plugs and went for a hour and a half ride. I drove the hell out of it, came home and immediately hanked the plugs — perfect light tan insulators on all four plugs!!! HOORAY!!

It ran fine but stumbled a bit on partial throttle; Brett agreed that we might have done our "final" tuning on the Hemi as the #1 cylinder was beginning to leak; so we are going to put his hi-tech wide-band O2 sensor on and "retune" just to be sure. In retrospect it is very likely that #1 was not closing at the end of our last session, but it was getting cold and dark and we were anxious to call it a day. I bet the #7 intake valve would have soon dropped almost all compression too.

What a relief. I was imagining the worst...remove the nose, yank the engine, wiped cam, total rebuild....etc, etc.

This weekend I'll remove the passenger side valve cover check the pushrods and tighten all the lock nuts.

Now I"m stoked to get the cloth top done during the next few months, so the TR will be ready for the early spring.

I'm sure all the positive HAMB vibes were with me on this. THANKS TO ALL....

COOL BEANS

trakrodstr
aka charlie

 

Great to hear it was something so minor.
Ted

 

There is some mechanical aptitude coming through not just visual.
THIS IS A GOOD THING!

 

You said it...I dodged a bullet. I keep thinking what if the pushrod had lengthened to the point it pushed the intake valve into the piston? GULP!

Regards,

Success through pain. I feel a whole bunch better than I did a few days ago. We’re getting ready for our first hard freeze here in KC, this will be a good time to check out the other cylinder bank in my heated garage. It’s too cold to drive in an open roadster, at least it is for me.

Cheers

charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

That's great news! I was worried it was something much worse, by the sounds of your initial diagnosis. Phew, what a relief!

 

Nick,

You said it. Relief is the operative word.

Thanks for the good karma and concern.

charlie

 

Charlie, Great news on TR. It is nice to have something turn out right for you.

Will be thinking about you and TR when I am the Walt James Classic this Sat. You will be missed there.

 

Thanks Dave, and also thanks again for the nice photos. I will miss attending the Walt James, so check out the old dirt cars for me. I love the little quarter midget with the Daimler Hemi.

I hope the weather is nice and warm.

Have fun,

charlie

 

Charlie, I also hope it it is warm - or that the wind is not blowing off of the scale . . . . .
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and a great holiday season.

 

Wow, Charlie. I missed the last few posts and thought the Hemi was down for the count. Glad to find out it was an easy fix. Stay strong, my brother!

 

Rick,

Yeah, I'm still enjoying the feeling of relief. Brett and I are methodically adjusting the lash of each pushrod. As you may know in a Mopar Hemi the head bolts also secure the rocker arm shaft towers; which means it is a big deal to release the rocker arms. With everything in place there is very, very little room to adjust the intake push rod. After one hour on the first intake push rod we called it a day and I ordered a 1/4" drive, 3/8" crow's foot wrench, which will help. I need a monkey trained to adjust valve lash, with hands/feet about the side of a postage stamp.

Once that job is done, I'll reset/center the throttle plates in the Hilborns using an old cigarette paper method (ultra thin paper thickness gauge) and then Brett and I will try one more time to tune the Hemi for the road. Who knows maybe the EFI settings will last for more that a couple of weeks.

How's the Ford in a Healey doin' have you had it on the street yet?

Charlie

 

Not on the road yet. I need to get to the exhaust shop to have a system fabbed and it will be ready for some test drives. Don't know if it will happen until spring as it's getting too cold to work in an unheated garage here in New England. I didn't like it much when I was 18 and had to do it on my DD, and I hate it a lot more now. If the test drives work out ok (and after reading of your travails, I'm pretty sure they won't) I need to replace the interior and I should be "done".

 

Charlie, The motor sounded REAL good yesterday when you drove by our house. I was taking my son for a quick walk and he heard your roadster first and pointed @ it (he is 16 months old).

If your looking to stay warm on the cold evenings, just tie a bandanna around your neck (bank robber style) and put it up over your nose and tuck the bottom part in your jacket/shirt. You will be very surprised how warm it will keep you.

Chris

 

Will do Chris, first I have to buy a bandanna. I was getting a little chilly but diggin’ the TR. Now that we have the compression back to normal Brett will have to do his on-the-road-tweeking once more. I noticed a bit of hesitation at partial throttle tip-in.

I really need to stop by your place; the drive up and back on Ward Parkway is convenient for me and the road is pretty smooth. I’m not too keen on driving on the freeways. I also need to get the wind wings back on and to find a place to have a cloth top sown for next spring.

I’m glad another HAMBer agrees that the little Dodge Hemi sounds really stout. The best part of the ride is the lightening fast throttle response with the Hilborns. I’ve never driven an old 60s Altered drag race car but I imagine that the TR feels similar. The steering sucks, the motor is brilliant and the traction is terrible....great fun! I feel like I’m hauling ass but a well maintained Toyota Camry would kick my butt as the rear grip is non-existent...but loads of fun as I skate around the blacktop.

Thanks for the post and cheers to your little hot rodder.

charlie

 

Charlie, Glad to see you are making progress with TR ! You were missed last Sat. The show had better weather than last year. There were less cars though. Your favorite Midget was there and the driver was having a ball. His son - "Sloppy Seconds" started a thread about the fun his dad had. I remember one picture was of his dad getting out of shape. He and the car survived. Check out my Walt James thread to see the fun.

 

Did you ever get the heater working?
Some were I saw a cig lighter powered
heater.

 

How is it that I live on the HAMB but never saw this build? I'll be going back to read it. Have the '30 roadster body and 354 HEMI, will be buying new '32 rails so there are lots of details I'll be studying on this car. Thanks for all the photos and posts! Bob

 

Amazing build, but I really struggle with the color.......

 

LB+1

Not the “water” based heater; but my electrical seat heater work excellent...warm ass, warm heart or ??

I had one very fun chilly cruise where I was all bundled up and my butt was warm...great fun. Honest.

 

Kid,

Please, please feel free to pick my brain. Boy I wish the HAMB had existed when I was starting with my build, especially buying the various major components.

I encourage you to contact me anytime.

Good luck
charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

howco,

Thanks for the kind words. As to the color...you ain’t alone by any means. As I said in the project thread, Jack also was very skeptical about the color.

I do think that if you saw the car in 3D you would agree that the various colors and tints all work well together. Also the puke green doesn’t show dirt like some colors do.

What color would you have used?

Thanks again and let me know if you have other “reservations” about the Maserodi, it‘s fun to learn what other rodders feel an given hot rod should look like.

My pet peeve is modern low profile tires (wheels); I’m sorry but they just look silly to me.

Charlie
aka trakrodstr

 

About the green

I have a old Uncle, who is hiding down in the Keys.
He could talk you into investing in special hay for
chickens to lay there eggs in.

I had just got my drivers license in 1961, he had a
brand new big GREEN 4 door Cadie - I asked him
right before Mom about passed out - Uncle John
why did you buy this ugly green car, He tells me
L B - son you will under stand when you are older!
(GREEN is the color of MONEY)