So I was going to give up. But I managed to clean up a motor I had sitting around the shop. It won’t be pretty or have a pile of power but it should run. So I’m still going to give Spencer a shot. We’ll see how this weekend goes. I plan on painting it if nothing else. I may end up with duct tape numbers and a few missing pieces and I may just miss it but I’ll be close. Anyone want to come lend a hand? I’ll be in the shop all weekend.
So I’m done, at least for the foreseeable future. It turns out the sleeve in #4 wasn’t put in right and dropped by .010 or so and the head gasket won’t seal properly. So I’m looking for a new block or another sleeve and set of gaskets and bearings. Since I was cutting it pretty close on budget already, I’m guessing it will be a while before I can get it back together. On the plus side I have more time to finish the chassis and make it something closer to pretty. If someone decides to throw me some cash I might make it to the 6/8 show at Spencer but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m trying to get the car to Spencer for practice Friday. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion the the racing gods are unhappy with me though. Part of the problem is the fact that I just plain waited too long. The time just went by without me noticing. But even so, I took a couple of days off and got right to it. Things seemed to be going OK for a while. The motor went together without too much trouble, all my parts showed up in time (and I could afford them), and the body work was going well. Then stuff started to go wrong. I dropped the motor in and the mounts didn’t line up. The headers didn’t fit. I filled it with water and the radiator, water pump, and intake all leaked. The lines and hoses were all the wrong length. The switch panel grew legs. Someone cut my shift linkage. The car slipped off the jack and trashed a rocker panel. The battery didn’t fit in the box. And I couldn’t get any oil pressure.
I finally worked through most of that and got the motor running. Oil pressure good, sounds nice, carb needs adjustment. Until I noticed water seeping out of the back of the intake. I figured I just needed to put some thread seal on one of the bolts so I pulled it out and water geysered out of the hole. Which wouldn’t have been too surprising if the motor was up to temp. So it turns out I’ve got a cylinder bleeding into the water jackets. Block? Head? Gaskets? I’ll find out tonight. If it turns out to be non-terminal I’ll keep trying for Friday but if the block is junk I’m done probably for the season.
Even if it’s just a head gasket I’ve still got a pile of work ahead of me. The street headers run straight into the x bracing and I can’t route around it. So I’ll be putting the crossovers back on. And the new radiator is bigger than the one I built the mounts for so I’ll need to cut that back off and rebuild it. And a new shroud to go with it. And a duct. And I need to add 200#.
If I can’t get it done for Friday I may try to find a third member for Evans Mills and run it there Saturday as a shakedown. Or I’ll try to get it to the 5/25 show at Spencer and see if they’ll let me run. Or both. If the motor’s not junk. If I have it done by then. If…
