I have a question regarding the rear spring for my A Coupe... PO had an extra rear spring set-up with the parts pile; 10 leaves and mic'd out to be a sedan spring. What's the best/most common solution to removing leaves and gaining the hot rod stance? I did the Bishop/Tardel frame step and b/c I'm using this 10 spring pack (instead of standard 8 for coupes), I'm not quite certain which/how many leaves to pull. Any one run into this before? Thanks in advance.
Just bought a 30 A Sedan 4 cyl. Engine supposed to have 60 K motor has been inspected. Not gone through in 1984 maybe 500 miles since. What kind of oil should a guy run in this car? Detergent? Non Detergent? High Zinc? Oil weight? First Time Banger owner
I rebuilt an engine in 04 and broke it in on dinosaur oil and have ran Mobil 1 , 10w40 since....but I wouldnt do that on a motor I knew nothing about. Use a good 30w standard oil and see how that goes. DONT be cute and put in additives....I put STP in a good running used A once and it smoked like a freight train afterwards...some additives make them turn into leakers too ( but most will leak a little) Realize , there's no filter...more frequent oil changes. Good Luck!
High Zinc is unnecessary. The cam and lifters are steel. Later(50's and up) cams are cast iron, and in conjunction with much higher spring loads, needed the zinc. Herb
i read where people are needing to know which leafs to remove . this is the chart i used to lower mine ................. steve
Steve, The owner opted for CrMo rods in the street car motor, I really don't disagree with him. IMO, reducing the piston wt is more important as this is the cause of the harmonics in the motor (asymetrical acceleration). J
yes i am using ross pistons . i tried to reduce all swinging weight also ......... nice motor .. steve
Steve, Thanks, It's all good. Who is making the alum rods? mat'l? 7075? and are the bolts threaded into the rod or uses nuts? John
So on a motor I know nothing about running a 20w50 DETERGENT Bradd Penn every 500 miles is what you guys would do? I would be interested in some period correct speed parts. Anyone have something to sell? Heres the pictures....
john , Who is making the alum rods? i forget who made them . sorry , but i can find out if needed . threaded rods , no nutz .
Nice looking car. I'd try to find out what oil the previous owner ran, and run that if I could. Sometimes switching brands/weights in those old engines will make them leak, or start to use oil. Dont go crazy with expensive oil, just keep an eye on the level and the change frequency. I've had good luck with store brand oil on stuff I wasnt really pounding on. As far as speed parts, your wallet is the limiting factor....heads, intakes, carbs, headers, cams cranks,pistons, inserts...all are available for a price. Just depends on the look and/or function you are after. Look over some of the old banger threads and you will get an idea of whats out there. Lots of gurus on this board ( no, I'm not one) Good Luck!
You guys might reconsider the use of aluminum rods. I used aluminums made by the late Bob McKinney. They were light but stout. But, they still stretched. I used them in a race engine that we buzzed up to four and five grand; but, I got tired of tearing the engine down after every race. I went with rods put out by Taylor engine; and have been running it for five seasons.
Crazzy, I finally found the picture of the "T" RPU which I think is a '25 but not positive. Picture was taken in front of the old barracks in Wendover in 1951, all cars pictured had V8 flathead for power. The RPU had a Pontiac grille. My brother rode to Bonneville in the rpu without the benefit of a hat & jacket, at 18 he must have used the excitement to keep him warm. Here's also a picture of the rod & piston I made for Max's Jenkins head engine. I use 7050 alloy which is stronger and less fatigue prone than 7075. Pat
Pat, great picture re: Wendover! Can you share any others? Ron p.s. the other pictures are good too ;-)
I'll do some digging for more pictures, but did anyone notice that the coupe & rdstr have a tow bar attached? Seems scary from our time frame, but they didn't know any different. Pat
Great pictures Pat. So many questions. I like all of the cars in that picture. Hard to say what year it is. If it has the door on top of the cowl, then it is '26 / '27. Tow bars weren't the problem they would be today because the highway speeds and the sense of security were much different. Did you drive 75 mph while towing a car with a tow bar? Probably not. The rod/piston assembly, is the center to center distance on your aluminum rod the same as stock? If not, did this go along with a shorter stroke crank? If so how much change? I noticed in the picture of the block that there seams to be tubing inserted into the oil passages that lead to the main bearings. If so, Did you leave the stock oil tubes in the block? Did you do this so that you could run higher pressure then the stock tubes will handle? How did you retain the new piece of tubing? Was this block set up for insert bearings? Thanks for answering any questions you can. .
I have a question regarding Taylor Engine connecting rods as made by Jay. I didn't write the insert information down, we think things will go on forever. So could one of you owners of these rods supply me with that info? They don't seem to know at Taylor Engine and I'm getting ready to pull my 2 port down. Thanks!
?'s answered: Crazy; the rods in the picture are 8.0 c-c, the piston is shorter than stock by 1/2 inch. I didn't build this particular short block and don't remember what the oil lines were, I couldn't find an inside picture. On blocks that I have replaced the lines to the mains I retain them with green loc-tite which will fill small gaps. The block has main inserts that I believe are clevite 77 MS-1329 P which required a lot of cutting & fitting. The last B block that I installed main inserts I used the ones that Snyders & others sell, much less work! Bill; I think your Jay Steel rods would use the same inserts that I use, Federal Mogul AEB4511 from a Triumph car. Do the rods take two inserts side by side? Pat
JPB, sorry no other pics. the copper follows around the inside and goes up into brass fittings tapped into the block, then soldered. John
Jenkins head that Dan Iandola modified the patterns and cast about 10. He sold the patterns and I don't know the current status of them. Here's pics of Max's engine taken at the Santa Maria "A" club all Ford show recently. The last picture was taken at Wendover.
That is an interesting head configuration. C/R? How large is the intake valve and how well does it flow compared to the Riley (two intake valve)? When assembled how close is the squish band (piston to head)? John
With the domed piston in the previous picture that's mounted on the rod makes 11:1, cranking compression is 185 lbs. Intake valve 2.02, port flows equal to a well developed 350 Chev port. Static clearance between piston & head is .055 Intake timing seat-seat 283 deg. Valve lift .56
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