When I initially put the radiator on, I went with the old one, even though the new Walker was there. I figured why not see if it was good before breaking out the new one. Well, I found out why a new one was purchased… the old one had 3 different leaks. It should be easily fixable, but I couldn’t think of a good reason not to use the new one. I have a plan! No big deal. So, after flushing out the block and old radiator, I went to start it and… nuthin. The starter won’t even engage. GRRR!! It just ran a couple hours ago when I pulled it out of the garage… well… it didn’t run very good, but it made it out under its own power. SIGH… no biggie, I’ll just push it back in the garage and start looking into what’s up. After messing with a few things, I decided just to pull the plugs to see if they were fouled. I reasoned that I hadn’t “rebuilt” the carb or anything, just pulled it apart, cleaned it and put it back together. The float could be off, the jets could be wrong, etc. Pulling each plug from front to back seemed good. They looked decent for plugs that are who-knows-how-old that I just cleaned, gapped and put back in. Until I got to #4. Hey… ummm… why is the plug wet… with WATER??!! I peered down into the hole and saw water. Not some water… JUST water. Crap! Head gasket maybe? Cracked head? Life just got interesting. Off comes the hood, headlights, shell and radiator. I look up how to pull a Model A head. Hmmm… It doesn’t seem like it’s any big deal. Remove the head nuts, apply plenty of Kroil to all studs, tap the sides of the head with a dead blow hammer and you’ll be able to wriggle it off. After many attempts and progressively harder “taps” with the hammer, it didn’t seem like this would be the method of extraction. But, I didn’t have much faith in that anyway... Sounded too easy. What else is there to do? Buy a head pulling tool plate from one of the parts suppliers. LOL Nope, not gonna spend cash on that. Here’s one makes sense… thread some rope down into the #1 and #4 cylinders and crank it over by hand. The head will just POP right off when the rope pushes against it. And since it’s soft, no damage. I love it! What a relief, this oughta be a quickie then. More Kroil was applied aaaaand, here we go. Except it didn’t budge. Ok, no problem. There are other methods that I read about. Put the sparkplugs back in and just crank the engine over with the starter. The compression will pop it off, but make sure you thread the nuts back on a few threads, so it doesn’t blow off. Still nothing. This is kind of turning into something here. Ok, ok… screw this! I’m just gonna leave the head nuts about ¼” loose from the top of the head and I’m gonna start it up! Surely the explosions from four cylinders totalling 200 c.i. will BLOW that puppy right off! Ha!!! I’m a genius! Why didn’t I think of this first? The voice: “You sure about this?” Me: “Of course. What could possibly go wrong?” The voice: “Ummm… geee, catastrophic failure, explosions, metal bits all over the floor.” Me: “Naw. You worry too much! Quit being a pussy! This'll get it.” So, I did what most of us would do, or at least I hope its what most of us would do… I fired that mother up! And… well, it didn’t sound any different than before. That’s weird. Shut it off, get out and look… WHAAAAAT? It still hasn’t moved!!! NO WAY!!!! I jump back in and fire it up again, and this time I rev it several times… more than I ever had (and it sounded pretty good too! LOL) In my mind, I see flames shooting out between the head and the block and the imaginary vision of a tach needle bouncing back and forth into the red every time I stabbed the gas. So, I shut it down, jump out… nuthin. This pic is for fun… something I did to lighten my mood at that moment. But I gotta admit, I absolutely considered giving it a shot! Instead, I broke out my air chisel with a 1” blunt copper sleeve attachment and turned the pressure down to about 40 psi. I rat-attat-attated it all around the head studs, in hopes of loosening the holding power that was kicking my ass. Until I got to the #1 plug hole… ratat-attat… CRAP, I just put a hole in the head!!! Evidently, my air pressure doesn’t know its own strength. Wait a minute… that looks pretty thin! Yep, the head is sooo corroded that it was super thin. I put a 6” scale in the hole for reference. What the hell, man???? Well, it is, what it is. No reason to try to save the head now. Time for some screwdriver taps at the gasket, surely a wedge will loose it up… just gotta be careful not to gig the block. LOL That oughta pop it off. Or not!! WHOOPS!!! Hmmm… Now that I’m many hours into what I thought should have been a 30-minute job, I’m thinkin this might very well take some extra thought… and research. Time to grab an adult beverage and settle in for some in-depth HAMB searching. To be cont…
I can't promise everything you listed, but hopefully you won't be disappointed either. Thanks for the compliments, sir!
During my search, a thread on the HAMB came to my attention. It was from 2007 and authored by a gentleman that goes by “Elrod”. He was nice enough to explain how he solved his similar problem and it looked like it would be the answer to mine also. He made a plate and used a several jacking bolts against the head studs to pull his head off. GENIUS! THANKS Elrod, there’s ice cold beer waiting for you in Houston!!! After studying his solution, I found a piece of ½” thick steel plate that I figured would be perfect. In hindsight though, I should’ve gone with a thicker plate. (You’ll see why later) I grabbed a head gasket to use as a template for the head stud holes and laid them out. Then, I laid out the hole locations for the spark plugs. After that, the drill press and some Tap Magic cutting fluid helped me make a mess with a bunch of metal chips. Here’s the plate I made. I figured I would use ALL the head studs to apply pressure… and I’m sure glad I did! After the plate was made, I took the spark plugs and knocked all the porcelain out of them. Sounds like no big deal, right? Sure, cracking the porcelain on a spark plug is easy (and it usually happens when you don’t want it to)… but actually getting it all out… THAT’S a whole nother story, man! And look out when those sharp, porcelain chips fly, cuz they hit about mach 3.7 when they let loose! Yippie… hypersonic explosions filled with super tiny daggers of death!!! Gloves and glasses (or better yet, a face shield) are a MUST! Safety meeting over, back to it… About 30 minutes later, I had just the threaded, metal portions of the sparkplugs laying on the bench and was cleaning up the remnants and tiny shards of deadly flying porcelain that lay within a 30 mile radius. I then ground down four ½”-13 nuts, so they were just barely smaller than the threads in the head, and could be inserted before the bases of the plugs were screwed in. In theory, they would press against each plug base when force was applied and pull the head up. I threaded those onto ½”-13 rod and dropped the spark plug bases down on top of them, then threaded them into the head. I repeated the process with the jacking bolts that were positioned to press against each of the head studs. TIP: Keep the length of threaded rod that come in contact with the head studs to a minimum. If they are too long, they could defect or bend once the tightening sequence commences. (shown in profile picture) Here’s what the plate looked like installed and ready to show the stubborn-ass head who’s boss. Time to start cinching it down, baby! To be cont…
And awaaaay we go! I started by tightening all the nuts down in the same order of the head torqueing sequence is. With each half turn, I wondered what in the hell could be holding it on? The process of going around to each nut wasn’t exactly breaking speed records, but I didn’t want to use the impact on them for fear of REALLY screwing something up. (the voice won out on this one, but we will battle again soon) Suddenly, the head started to lift on the passenger’s side! It was working, and my excitement grew exponentially! I kept cranking down and it rose a bit more and a bit more… but the driver’s side wasn’t coming up in unison. That's not good! What the hell? The extreme force being exerted proved to be a bit much for the plate as it started to bow. Imagine the force that was I was applying on it to make a ½” thick steel plate look like that across a 10”-ish wide section!!! Yikes! I knew the head would bind on the studs (and I’m sure it was binding on them) if it didn’t come up relatively straight, so I abandoned the torque-sequence-tighten-idea and just pretty much worked on the driver’s side until… POP!!! Holy crap that scared the shit outa me!!!!! I’ll admit I jumped back when it let loose. DAY-UUUM!!! The force was so strong that it ripped the side of the head horizontally!!! After it let go, I had the head off in a few minutes and flipped it over to take a look at what I had just done. It turns out that two of the studs were rusted to the head so badly, that they were ripped away along with a bunch of the head surface. To me, it is just awesome that the fixture had enough force to destroy it like that! But hey, it gave up a good fight... just not good enough. HA!!! Success! The head is off! Time for some Sailor Jerry's to celebrate, while I inspect the carnage and clean up this disaster. Oh… and that little matter of getting another head too. I should probably look into that also. To be cont…
Amazing. You'd never believe it if you didn't see the pictures. Just shows you how strong the plug threads are.
I put a Snyder 5.5 head on my stock '31 Roadster pickup with just an ordinary used engine. It was the single best thing I have ever done for it! Improved low end, upper end, mileage, driveability, everything! It relaxed the engine. I used new studs and nuts, a step above stock studs. They now sell a 6.0 to 1 compression as well. Dave
I didn't throw it out just for that reason I'm with ya! While I was doing it, I could barely believe what was happening I was strongly contemplating a higher compression head after this, but I didn't want to spend the money when the engine condition was still unknown.
Now that the head was off, with little chance of ever restoring it back to its former glory… I would like to let you in on a most fortuitous friendship that, not only helped me get a replacement head, but also abetted me to make this car what it is today. It was right around this time, that I thought it’d be a good idea to join the local Model A club. People with experience, know-how and hopefully extra parts would be a welcomed addition after the great beheading of the Sport Coupe. A quick web search revealed the Houston Model A Restorers Club (MARC). I called the number and left a message on an answering machine (not voicemail), requesting info. A few hours later I received a call from what sounded like, a nice older gentleman. We spoke briefly, and he invited me to their next meeting that just happened to be a few days away. Excellent! Upon arriving at the meeting, which was held in a restaurant conference-type room, my lady and I were warmly greeted by many of the 50 or so club members in attendance. It was fantastic how nice they were and seemed genuinely interested in talking with us. However, I can’t help but think that most likely a bit of curiosity was laced in there also, as we were easily the youngest people in the room by at the very least 20-ish years. The meeting began shortly after and I enjoyed the organization of the club and how they went about conducting their business. My lady and I were introduced during the meeting and invited to say a few words about ourselves and our cars. After the meeting was adjourned, we were asked if we would like to join, which we gladly did. I inquired to a small group of guys, who I could speak to about parts and hopefully garner some info. They all agreed that the same guy would be my best bet. I was escorted over to a group of about seven or eight older men, with one obviously holding court, as everyone was listening intently to what he had to say. He appeared to be about late 60’s-ish… wearing a tan baseball cap that had some experience to it and his short, white hair poking out around it. He was slightly taller than myself and carried a few extra pounds, as his healthy age deserved, yet fit his stature well. About 20 seconds after we walked up, he stopped his sermon, looked at me though his thin wire rimmed glasses with a big grin stretched across his kind face and quizzically asked “So are you in?” I stuck my hand out and replied “Yes, sir!” He immediately grabbed it with a strong grip, that felt like it has surely done its fair share of hard work and replied “Great! What can I help you with?”… and that’s how I met Bryan Perkins. I asked about a possible contact for a head and he asked several questions in return. I tried not to sound too dumb and kept my mouth shut when he spoke. After a couple of minutes, he supplied me with the contact info for a gentleman that might sell me a head and offered his own phone number, should I need any help. I accepted and graciously thanked him for his time. We shook hands again and he went back to the other class that was in sessions, prior to me being ushered over to him. Little did I know that over the following months, he would take me under his wing and teach me so very much about Model A’s. He was a charter member of the club from back in 1968 and has helped countless folks with their car issues and even still today, is the club “go-to guy”. He is that one guy that you either know, or you hope to know, and for me… someone I strive to someday be a fraction as knowledgeable and as helpful as he is! He has always welcomed my questions and offered to work with me to get the tasks completed. A better mentor would be tremendously difficult to find! Here is the scene of a typical gathering when Bryan is sharing his wisdom. He’s the “hands on” gentleman with the newsboy flat cap.
OK, so now that you know how I acquired a nice, stock head… we can rejoin our regularly scheduled program. It didn’t take a whole lota sleuthin to discover the reason a retention pond developed in #4… (thankfully!), as the head gasket was mostly demolished during the head extraction and wouldn’t be tellin no tales. Maybe someone already caught it in one of the previous pics, as it was clearly visible... yet tiny. Remember how my air chisel broke through earlier around the #1 sparkplug hole and how thin the head was from corrosion? The arrow in the pic below, shows a hole RUSTED THROUGH on #4 that allowed it to fill like a red Solo cup at a college kegger. How lucky am I that it didn’t start after I filled it with water?? AND… How lucky am I that the radiator was pulled off, so it didn’t sit for all those years with water in it??? During clean up, I took extra care not to scratch the cylinder walls and they all appeared to be REALLY nice. So nice in fact, that none of them have any ridge that I could feel on the cylinder walls! NONE! Kinda makes me wonder if it had been rebuilt and possibly not run very much. Of course, after the close visual inspection of the cylinders, I had to measure the bores... and HEY, HEY lookie here!… They came out to 3.955! Its been bored out .080”!!! NICE! I began to seriously wonder what chain of events took place for the engine, much less the entire car, to be in this condition. Talk to me car!!!! TALK, I SAY!!! Nuthin. Oh well, it was worth a try. All I can do is wonder. And don’t be making that face after reading that, like YOU’VE never asked an old car any questions?! I’m not gonna sugarcoat this… I am NOT a fan of broken bolt removal… ever! Just the thought of a snapped-off-flush-with-the-part EZ Out makes me cringe like when you see some hapless dude take a shot to the ol’ coin purse. But I knew where to start… I called into the game my newest and bestest player… Kroil! But even with that, the head stud eradication was not a pleasurable operation, to say the least. And so, it began… Several squirts of Kroil at the base of each of the studs, (now would be the time that if this was a TV show, they would speed the film up and most likely Benny Hill music would be playing in the background… you’d see me running around the front of the car, from side to side, picking up stuff and putting it down really quick… except my drink, that would stay in one of my hands for long periods of time) a few light taps with a bronze hammer on top of each stud, let it sit. Repeat, heat, repeat, Kroil, repeat, vise grips, heat, wiggle, repeat… patience, lots of patience, a fair dose of choice words from the King’s english, then apologizing (cuz you KNOW its listening and probably doesn’t appreciate being spoken to like that), grunting, sweating, pleading. Success! Not one broken stud! A few made my butt pucker, but none snapped. And full disclosure on this one… I let the voice completely dictate my actions for this mission… maybe next time it’ll let me have some fun. To be cont…
nailheadroadster, Considering how much of a bear it was to get the head off, I am absolutely flummoxed that none of the studs broke off! Good work.
I was too! And I was dreading each one as I did em! Absolutely! LOL, thank you sir! Thanks so much! Glad you're enjoying it. Thanks you! I appreciate the kind words. Thanks! I have been intently watching your roadster build, as well. You do some great work sir! Get it outa the shed and start messing with it! Thank you for the compliments Opps! Thank you! Info added to post #26
With a new-to-me-yet-original head in my possession, I tasked myself with finding out if there might be some info online about milling a factory head. My hopes of coaxing a few more galloping ponies outa that banger led me to find quite an immense debate, with the general consensus seemingly to be a moot point. A few argue that hefty milling does benefit, but the majority contend that it does not raise compression enough to realize any performance gain. With the uncertainty of my engine’s condition and the majority voting there would not be an improvement to extract, I chose to just mill it to 100% cleanup. Also, I reasoned with myself, since I haven’t driven it yet to standardize my highly calibrated butt dyno, I wouldn’t have any way to confirm an increase from before to after. Around this same time frame, I contacted Bryan on a chilly and drizzling Sunday to talk to him about the attention that I felt the stock Zenith carb should receive. He stated that I could bring it over to his place and drop it off whenever I wanted. Ummm… that’s tremendously gracious, but would it be ok if I could help, so I could get an idea of how it is done correctly? I professed that I would attempt to stay out of his way and grab tools between asking dumb questions. He laughed and just replied “C’mon then.” Well alright! I picked up a twelve pack as a “thank you gesture” and wheeled into his driveway about an hour later. I immediately noticed his 2-car garage door was up. He walked out from between two Model A’s and motioned for me to move that way. Stepping inside, the fluorescent lights offered me a good view of his cars. One gorgeous 30 Roadster and another equally nice 31 Sport Coupe. It was an enjoyable space that was packed with parts, not overly organized nor messy. I got the feeling that he knew exactly where everything was taking up space. To the left was a sliding 48” window with a well-used, 44”-ish tall, wooden bench with a plethora of different parts in several states of assembly and a vise that had a fine, used personality to it. Shallow wooden shelves, all packed to the edges, were prevalent around the entire structure that actually turned out to be a deep four car space. What really peaked my interest however, was located directly behind his A’s. And old 6’, faux wood grained folding table had several tall, clear tubes standing it. Some had PVC bases, some didn’t. Some I would guess, were about 16” tall and others were probably closer to 26” tall. They varied in diameter and they all had a clear hose connected to them. What the hell is goin on here? Bryan noticed the subject of my attention, and I’d be willing to bet it’s not the first time he answered the question before it was asked. He informed me that those were his testing stations for different carb jets to measure the flow. WOW! I’m probably in good hands here! We cracked our first cold ones and started disassembling my Zenith carb. He informed that it was the correct mixer for my A, as I had previously found a stamping on the gas tank dated August of 29. Certain pieces of it were brass… not steel, which were used later that year. We removed the jets and he showed me how his flow tests worked. All of the jets were slightly big… bummer. But, no worries, he assured me. He got out his soldering iron and proceeded to heat the first jet. After they were all filled with solder, he juggled the warm little brass nuggets from hand-to-hand while walking towards his drill press. It was then that I noticed a fixture in the holding vice, that I presumed he had fabricated, to hold them different individual jets. He then selected a tiny bit and drilled the precise size hole through the solder. Impressive! Final flow testing confirmed that they were now correct. Assembly went quick and he provided pointers as to how to set it up and tune it for my engine. After that he showed me his cars and explained all the work he has put in them over his many years of ownership. I was more than a little surprised when he told me that his stock-appearing roadster had been bored out, stuffed with a “touring” cam, higher compression head, lightened flywheel, V8 clutch, converted to 12 volts, etc. He also beamed with pride when he told that it could do 70 mph! Damn, this guy REALLY knows his stuff! And… with all the go-fast parts… He’s a hot rodder! He didn’t say that, but I was thinking it. A hot rodder disguised as a restorer, HA! We talked for a bit, while he showed me some other stuff and he inquired as to my plans for the Sport Coupe. I explained my strategy, he threw a few ideas on top of my hopes and then offered to come over to help me. I jumped at the opportunity to learn the correct way, so we set up a date that he would make it over. Shortly after, I thanked him again and was promptly refused when I offered him some cash for his time and hospitality. I drove home with my mind swimming of ideas and recalling my good fortune in meeting someone so willing to share his knowledge.
Great thread! It sure would be nice to have some of those "human" resources around my parts! Mr. Bryan is THE MAN!!!!
Thank so much! You are 100% correct! Ahhhh... yer makin me salivate man!!! I greatly appreciate your compliment sir! Thank you!
After the new head gasket and studs arrived, I didn’t waste a whole lota time getting them installed. I still hadn’t driven the 29 and I was kinda getting antsy to see if it even would move under its own power. Also, since the head was still off, it was a great time to set TDC with a mag base and indicator… then check timing since I knew #1 was in the right spot now. My Dad wisely advised that I apply a nice, medium-thick coat of Permatex copper 80697 spray on both sides of the gasket, let it tack up, then repeated the process. It didn’t interest me in the least to look into pulling the head in the near future because of a leak, so two coats seemed like a decent idea. The install went without a hitch and I did use a three-step torque procedure, ending at 55 ft/lbs. Here it is looking all multi-colored, yet purty to me… aaaand hopefully ready to make some noise. Also, the carb has now been properly rebuilt and restored, as revealed in my last post. I recalled what Bryan said to do for initial setting and jumped in to see if it would work. The Bendix kicked in as I stomped on the starter button and with a rrrreerrrrrreerrrr, she fired right off! How about that?! After a few swift adjustments with the GAV knob, I jumped out to fiddle with the carb, and soon I had a me a runnin Model A again! Good times and a great feeling of satisfaction had me feeling good once more! The idle on it compared to the other brief times it fired up, was much smoother and it reved MUCH better now. I let it warm up just a bit before I hopped in and settled down behind the steering wheel, listening to it tick-tick-tickita tick-tick-tickita. I slowly eased the clutch pedal down, listening for anything that didn't sound quite right... not that I would know what that would be, but ya still gotta listen for goofy stuff. I guided the shifter into reverse and felt it click in. That’s a good sign! I slowly brought the clutch pedal up, gave it a bit of the GO button and I was rewarded with movement! Alright! I reversed about half way down my driveway, happy as could be, before the voice brought me back… The voice: Hey ahhh… don’t wanna ruin the fun, but… dontchya think you oughta give the brakes a try? Me: I can do that when I get to the street. The voice: And what’ll you do when they aren’t anywhere to found and you run over the street sign, then navigate your dumbass up into the neighbor’s front lawn? Me: Fine! As I moved the brake pedal closer to the floorboard, it became apparent to me that I wasn’t decreasing my speed at an ideal rate. Additional pressure was the answer and that presented me with more satisfaction, yet not what I would consider to be exemplary stopping performance. But hey, I reasoned with the voice, they worked… just like I knew they would! It’s not too often that I get away with lying to myself, but this particular time it must've worked... cuz I didn’t catch another peep. All seems good, so let’s try first gear! First gear went without a hitch, so forward and backward in the driveway is what I did. All the while, listening for peculiar noises AND to an engine that seemed very happy to be doin what it’s supposed to be doin. I thoroughly doubt the beaming grin left my mug the whole time. After several back and forth runs, I pulled into the garage and slowly idled it down by retarding the spark. I got a bit of Cadillacin out of it, but not enough to be pleased with. Gonna have to adjust the carb some more and probably take a look at the points setting again. Tomorrow it’ll be cooled down, so I can torque the head down again. Oh yeah… gotta inspect those tires closer too! They leave quite a bit to be suspect of in the “looks” department. There’s stuff to mark off that list tho now… and a couple other things to add also. To be cont…
The Jalopy Journal
