Out with the old .......

Well, Hap and I are still hanging on to the lofty goal of having my new engine ready for the Roebling event. :eyepop:

So it was time to extract the old engine from the bay....a first for me. It went fairly smoothly....once I had removed the shifter :spinning:

Mind you I know nothing about my old engine, except that it was bit tired after almost three race seasons. Come to find out it does sport an aluminum flywheel and a CR gearbox. I was not sure about it being a close ratio since this has been the only Bee I have ever owned and driven.

one more

You are a brave man dude. I wish you all the luck in the world as you get it dialed in. I'll be bringing a ton of spares with me, so hopefully should you encounter any issues and need help, we can help.

The big issues for me were around my rocker arm assembly, oil pressure regulator spring and timing. The spring was blocking some of the oil delivery, the #4 rocker arm kept coming loose and then just broke and the timing was erradic.

We replaced the spring, the rocker arm assembly and got the timing straight and things have been smooth so far.

Am I the only guy out there still running a junkyard gearbox? Hurry up and get that car finished, I want to see what you've done to it.

Nope Im still running a junk yard gear box... at least I think I am

Now, let's not start knocking junkyard boxes.

That's the only kind I can afford!:bouncing:

Just curious how did you figure out if it was a close ratio?

Well, I ran into a show stopper, and it has to do with the ARP main studs that were already installed in this block to begin with, it's a 18V main bolt block, and now I know you can't put the ARP MGB stud kit in the 18V main bolt blocks. Here's the deal, this block came with Bubba's car and it had alot of nice machine work already done to it, I'm sure the guy he got it form probably already new this. One of the things that always struck me odd about this fully machine block was that it had been bored and honed, but there were no pistons for it, luckily for me, it was about .0015" too tight on the bore for the JE flat tops I had so a bit more honing fixed that. Something else odd, I tried to take the main studs out it when I got the block decked and cleaned, and they would not budge, I fiquire damn what th hell did they do locktite the SOBs in there, but since the block's mains were nicely line honed,and the main housing bores where on the numbers, I just left them in there. I'm sure someone other than me, has ran into this before, I just talked to David Anton he confirmed what I already knew, studs are wrong for this 18V block. Bubba is here, and we were planning on installing the engine tommorow, but now, we'll probably tear it back down and address this instead, unless a miracle happens, he won't be making the Roebling Raod race with the new engine anyway.

Ironicly enough I searched the forum and found a old post where another guy had ran into this, and I even commented on it, but I had just installed studs into a 18GB block, where he was trying to put studs in a 18V block. Look at the MGB forum and read the ARP main stud thread I dug back up and posted about this, its a good read and somehting I hope after reading this none of you run into in the future. Ok, I think I'll go home and a have stiff drink :hot:

Slap the old engine back in so we can have some fun. I keep a warmed up street motor on hand just for occasions such as yours. I ran it for 2 seasons while I learned to drive, then put it back in after I spun a bearing at Hallett (8000 RPM with stock rods won't work). I'm replacing the head gasket on the better motor tomorrow because it was leaking between 3 and 4, but I'll be there with a grin on my face.

Good luck guys!

John

If I were still in Winston, I'd be there in a minute to help. You still have time! Torsten, don't let this set back get you too down. Hell yeah, be disappointed, but rag that old girl out one more time if you have too. Besides, pulling and installing that motor is good practice :eyeroll:

In '07, I did it four times. Not too mention the rear end twice, etc. etc.

:( we shall see.

Heading over to the shop in a short while, taking it one step at a time. The time I have remaining is very, very tight .... considering that I also have a day job that is not of 8-hours nature. ....again, let's see what it'll look like in 12 hours from now.


Cheers

Well Bubba just left here, we stripped the block completely down to bare. It took both us with all our might to double nut the studs and gethem out, but we got them out undmged, they had been locktited in place (OK that pisses off a little bit :X, goos thing we don't know exactly who did this originaly, we might get in trouble:devil:. Here's another bit of info, if you llok at the main caps in a 18V main bolt block and earlier main stud block the caps themself are totally different, and what happen is that if the stud is screwed in all the way, there's not enough length for the washer and the nut to be fully thread engaged, but still enough to foul the oil pan. So now we got got the ARP studs out undamaged, I'm going to get a set of the ARP main bolts and horse trade the studs with Bubba for my personal 18GB block. Another goofy ass thing we found when we removed the stud was tey has taken 3/8' dial pins cut them off to size and dropped them down in the holes so the stud would not screw down too much, like I say it's a damn good thing we can't find this fella.

All in all, theres a bit of disappointment on both our parts that this happen, in hindsight, maybe I should have never used a block someone else had messed with, my buddy David Anton told me he won't touch anything anyone else has messed with, with a ten foot pole, oh well lesson learned. it not going to be that big a deal to get it back together, but needless to say we ran out of time due to something neither one of us could control, and looking on the good side of this, it actually give me some time to do some furhter development to the engine that we had not initially planned.

My long time racing buddy Fred Thomas came for a visit to day as Bubbas and I were wworking on the engine and he as always seem to have just the right thing to say, "one thing about this stuff is you never quit learning, maybe thats why we do it", that pretty much sums it for me. One good thing that came form this since we had to punt, this gave Bubba opportunity to help disassemble a motor for the first time, i did the Same thing with fred McConnell one time, and it good for a racer to get a general knowledge of this stuff, even if someone lese is building the motors, the education always continues with stuff, you will never learn it all, and as my buddy says I guess thats why we all do it.

I too encourage Bubba to stick the old motor back in, he's thinking about, but has tough week at work next week, either way we'll both there to help you guys.

some pictures in support of what Hap wrote

one more

All of this points out the reason why the 18V blocks are preferred for racing as the main caps are far more robust. Also the factory bolts provide all the clamping you could want W/O the danger of distorting the caps and crank bearing bores when you use ARP studs and higher torques.