Messages

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Lost cam dowel - what to do?

« on: March 03, 2020, 01:17:24 PM »

As a post-script, I was drilling a hole at the back of the block for oil drainage as I plan on fitting a wire mesh kit in the valley. Look what fell out of the block while I was drilling:

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Cause of fretting on main caps?

« on: February 23, 2020, 09:19:42 AM »

I would say we only did one run where it was lean. This took off the plug plating much further than any other run we've done, as I said, down to the top of the first thread. Maybe that's when it did the damage. The motor was much hotter than usual after the run. Previously we'd not done more than about half way round the face. I recall the 'timing' bar on the plug ground was usually near or just down from the corner. We didn't realise how bad the pump was til we put a new one on & it's been so rich we have not coloured a plug since. We went from having less & less fuel in the oil to having a shed-load. We won't be running again until April at the earliest.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Cause of fretting on main caps?

« on: February 08, 2020, 02:09:57 PM »

Tune has been all over the place as we started the season with a failing fuel pump. This got it down to the leanest it's ever been where the plating was off the plugs down to the first thread. Still, it ran 184mph on an 8.4 with an on/off/on/off launch. Then we got a new pump & it went crazy rich even though I changed the pill because I expected it to be rich.

Not had more than 34 degrees advance in it so far.

We have just had the block & caps machined, doweled & line bored by a very experienced machinist. Getting it back on Tuesday.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Cause of fretting on main caps?

« on: February 07, 2020, 01:11:46 PM »

We only put 13 passes on our blown methanol BBC last season. I was surprised to find serious fretting had occurred on caps 2,3 & 4. 4 was loose in it's register.
As far as I know this did not happen last season when we probably did 20 odd passes. Is there anything I should think about with the tune that may have caused this?

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 30, 2019, 02:08:27 PM »

Grease did not work, I guess its because the area under the front lip was not enough.
So I tapped 2 of the 3/8" holes to 7/16" UNF as I have good taper & bottom taps for that.
Then I fabbed a simple puller from some 1"x1" angle iron with a nut welded under the middle hole & it pulled off nicely.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 23, 2019, 03:47:29 PM »

Well the bolt did not push the spacer off because it ran out of thread before the flange reached the spacer. Two legged puller won't fit as not enough space between bolt head & spacer.
Looks like 7/16" tap will do holes ok so I may be able to fab a puller tool, but I may give the grease/dowel a try first.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 21, 2019, 02:00:16 PM »

Hope to get on to it tomorrow or over weekend. If I don't get it off I will post a pic from the front. I need to drain & remove the trans too so best do that first to enable holding the crank still while undoing the bolt.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 19, 2019, 12:45:49 PM »

Can you get a socket on the bolt?
If you can and the bolt is long enough would the flange on the bolt remove the spacer as you back the bolt out?

I think that is worth trying, socket does go on as I have turned motor over with it before.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Re: Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 18, 2019, 10:03:06 AM »

Both those ideas could work. I guess I will try the grease first if I can figure out what to use for a dowel, maybe a large socket backwards.

On the other hand, if the hub is threaded I can do the same every time easily.

But as I have a cold & seeing as its around freezing now I probably won't be going out to the garage tonight, my heaters are not great.

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Removing crank hub spacer

« on: November 18, 2019, 05:14:33 AM »

My BBC has a steel crank hub with a large-flanged bolt. In front of that there is an aluminum spacer for the blower pulley to sit on. The bolt will not go through the outer part of the spacer bore where it steps down. So in order to remove the hub I need to remove the spacer which seems to be a press or interference fit on the hub. I've been thinking of applying heat with an electric heat gun to expand the aluminum and also fabricating some kind of 2 legged puller that will fit. Anyone got some tips on removing the spacer?

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Altereds / Re: Wheelie bar length?

« on: November 03, 2019, 02:34:06 PM »

Dave, when talking about length, is that the bars from the chassis end or from the axle? You have an FED & we have an altered so things are in different places.

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Altereds / Wheelie bar length?

« on: November 03, 2019, 07:10:30 AM »

I will be replacing our wheelie bars over the winter. The ones we have currently are 52" (4' 4") and their main problem is that being quite short the tolerance on the setting is too small. I'm thinking of moving up to 72" (6'). Any longer & they will not fit in the current support vehicle & I'd have to fab some way of fixing them on our open trailer. I think it's sufficient length anyway, but what do you folks run on your cars?

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Spud Miller's Cave / Re: Hat nozzle type and starting issue

« on: October 10, 2019, 01:58:02 PM »

At the next meeting, even with the new pump, it was hard to fire a few times. Same symptoms, fired up quickly but then quit after a few seconds. Then last week we tried to test run it, would not start at all.
I have finally been able to determine the area of the problem, it's to do with the ignition system & probably related to battery voltage.
I tried firing it in my garage on just the bottle, same issue. Then I replaced the MSD 10-plus with an MSD 7 powered from a seperate battery. It fired right up & ran as long as I fed it. Result!
Of course, the driver starts jumping to conclusions, it's the 10-plus, we need a new one, we need a mag.
So I wired the 10 back in with seperate battery. Started & ran on the bottle easily.
So it's definitely either an issue with the wiring eg ignition switch intermittent or it's the battery voltage dipping disabling the ignition.
I can deal with it now I know what's going on, I have a background in electronics.

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Altereds / Re: Ran our first seven!

« on: September 25, 2019, 02:50:31 PM »

Most cars run BBCs. One or two Hemis & at least one SBC. I'd like to run a BBF to mess with people's heads but it's a chevy I've got.

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Altereds / Re: Ran our first seven!

« on: September 23, 2019, 12:51:58 PM »

Thanks folks.
Here's another view, about 40 secs in.