Projects The Build Without (Now With) a Body

The most annoying sound...

New, about to be round filed, fuel pump. Need to find a quiet pump that I can mount under the tank. Any suggestions?

 

Just wear earplugs or make the exhaust louder. Man that thing is loud!

 

A rotary one will be quiet. Impulse, like you have is loud.

 

The problem , is not the fuel pump , but is the engineering ! Those are designed to be mounted to the chassis, on rubber mounts with a flexible fuel hose in and out . The common place on a Model A is below the passengers floor , in the cavity at the bottom of the firewall and behind the front 1/4 panel. As it is, solid mounted by the fuel lines the tank is acting as a anchor point and the firewall as an amplifier. All three parts will crack with the vibrations after a short time. The pieces of flexible hose can be short , as long as they isolate the vibrations from the pump.

 

Agree with that ^^^, but also it should only do that until the float bowl is full, and then a few intermittent and perhaps quieter clicks while its running. have you driven it like this?

 

I've got a Mr Gasket 42S pump on mine, way quieter than that. Mounted pretty much them same, apart from the small sections of hose.

 

Welp, went from the motor running great to not so great. On a 20 mile trip, slightly uphill, the motor started to lose power so I pulled over. I was puffing white smoke out of the oil breather and billowing the bluish stuff out of the exhaust. The motor felt pretty warm but not overly hot so I sat there a bit and let things cool down so I could get home. The next day I did a compression and leak down test, everything passed. Took it out again today and experienced the same issue within 10 minutes. After some head scratching and a couple beers I decided to pull the head. Cyl 1 and 4 had evidence of oil (white smoke) while cyl 1 plug was certainly fouled. Cyl 1 and 3 have some rough spots on the cyl wall but no evidence of major failures. Pretty bummed at the moment considering it’s the start of the driving season here. Thinking that I need to get all cyl honed and new rings. While I’m in there, might as well grind the valve seats and install new valves. I’m more interested if finding the failure mode. This was supposed to be the end all bullet proof model A motor. Whisky night it is!!!!

thoughts?

 

I don't know what to tell you except DAMN!

 

White smoke is coolant and blue smoke is oil

 

Sorry to hear this. The cylinder that is clean in the head got "washed " with antifreeze

 

Got it all apart and found my issue. Piston scuffing on 1 and four with a little on 3 (all on one side of each piston). Didn’t think the motor got hot enough as my coolant never got to boiling but that may not be the case. I sure as hell wasn’t pushing too hard. On a side note, there weren’t any signs of a blown head gasket, bad water pump, excessive bearing wear, or debris. The valves look a bit crusty.

 

Is it all on the same sideline front or back? Could the crank be moving? Pulled to the rear or pushed to the front under load?

 

Front of one piston, back of another. End play on crank was .007”

 

.007" with just the crank , no pistons installed yet. Was the coolant low? Was there coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant? Could too much fuel have washed the oil from the rings & cylinder walls? Did the oil smell like gas? Just thinking and recalling past engine failures.

 

Dropped the motor off at a reputable engine shop today. Before I start guesstimating, I’m going to wait until I hear from them. At a minimum, I’m looking at re-boring, grinding valve seats, new pistons, new bearings all around, and a crank balance. Fingers crossed that’s all we need to do. On a positive note, got new wheels and tires. 32 18” wheels with new old rubber.

 

Current state of affairs…

getting ready for paint.

 

Never let a crisis go to waste.

 

This whole engine debacle sure is good for the rest of the car. After a year of a semi finished seat frame, finally got to fabbing the backrest hinges. Now you can take it both ways, front and back…….

 

Waging chemical warfare and a pneumatic assault!

Getting prepped for paint. What are you doing for those impossible to reach rust bits and what undercoating do you all recommend?

 

I have had good luck with Rust Mort. It is liquid so it gets into small cracks & hard to reach places. You can paint right over it.

 

https://www.totalboat.com/product/rust-primer/

 

^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^
Needs to be fully neutralized with water and dried quickly to prevent new rust formation.

 

Ordered some today, thanks!

 

Did I ever mention how much I hate painting?

 

I hate prepping for paint, but I love spraying paint and seeing it transform from not so pretty to shiny and beautiful!

 

Did you hear back from your engine shop? Any feedback on reason for the pistons scoring the bores?

Interested to know as I received my burtz block.

 

I am interested too... @4bangerbob just got mine together and have about 150 miles on it. It is a nasty casting and needs lots and of cleaning up prior to assembly. I probably have 30 hours in cleaning, checking tolerances and assembly. All clearances need to be checked and double checked.

 

I was running Snyders pistons and Hastings rings. All the numbers checked out when assembling but the engine guy said things were a little tighter than he’d like. Snyders pistons don’t give much room for expansion, so we think that was the issue. Egge pistons are designed to provide more expansion and have thinner rings for less friction/heat. Terry recommends Egge pistons for the engine but they were on back order for many many months when I needed them. I went with Snyders pistons because the tests engine built and ran here in Colorado used them and ran just fine. This time around, Egge .010 pistons are on back order until November so we’re going .020. The engine guy should be done boring, honing, installing new cam bearings, and grinding the valve seats in a week or two. He also recommended boring .001” over to give just that extra bit of room. He’s a well respected builder of flat heads in the Denver area so I’m going with his recommendation. I’ll let you know how it goes.