What a great story! I can relate to part of it..... I have an
auto-cross car that I use for left over B'Ville engine parts.
At the last race I was in the pits listening to a
"tic-tic-tic" noise under the hood. One of the other racers
stuck his head under the hood and promptly diagnosed it as a
header gasket leak. OK with me..... Next run I am WFO down a
straight when all kinds of "bad" noise starts happening.....
Turns out the tic-tic was a loose rocker & I threw it taking
out the rocker,retainer,push rod, guide etc......... Got to
get in for that ear exam.....
---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 13:14:50 EST
>From: Nt788@aol.com
>Subject: Fwd: What I learned today...
>To: land-speed@autox.team.net, MICHAEL_BIVER@udlp.com,
JimMurphyMurf@aol.com, nfox4473@postoffice.pacbell.net,
pat350@hotmail.com, RPETTITinAPACHE@webtv.net,
NORM_RYAN@udlp.com, sera14@pacbell.net,
mikej@speedrecordclub.softnet.co.uk, Ugo Fadini
<ugo@ugofadini.com>, unclelouie@email.msn.com
>
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> 06 Feb 2002 22:11:03 PST
>Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 22:11:03 -0800 (PST)
>From: henry nakata jr <aspenten@yahoo.com>
>Subject: Fwd: What I learned today...
>To: nt788@aol.com
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>
>i felt hot rodders were pretty high on the food chain,
>but stuff like this is all to common for me.
>
>henry
>
>--- MikeLDrew@aol.com wrote:
>> From: MikeLDrew@aol.com
>> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 22:51:03 EST
>> Subject: What I learned today...
>> To: norcal-saac@norcal-saac.org
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> Last weekend I spent two days wrestling with my
>> GT-350 replica, which you may
>> recall is now running after a one-year period of
>> dormancy while the motor was
>> in pieces. While dealing with some subsequent
>> problems, I learned some
>> lessons that can all be directly applied to working
>> on our cars.
>>
>> * Upon startup of a new engine, if you hear a
>> distinctive tic-tic-tic sound
>> from your header-to-cylinder head junction, you will
>> be told by all your
>> friends that it is an exhaust leak caused by using
>> the cheap manifold gaskets
>> which come as part of the entire engine-overhaul
>> gasket set, and you should
>> have opted for high-quality $35 Fel-Pro header
>> gaskets instead. The only
>> solution is to remove and replace the lame gasket
>> with a quality unit.
>>
>> * The header bolts which didnt allow enough
>> clearance to get a wrench or
>> socket on them when you were installing them,
>> havent shrunk any, so removing
>> the eight bolts will take an hour.
>>
>> * Your hopes of simply backing the header away from
>> the head, slipping the
>> two-week-old, cheap gasket out and installing the
>> new, $35 gasket will be
>> dashed when you realize the existing gasket has
>> adhesed itself firmly to the
>> head. It will need to be scraped off.
>>
>> * Immediately after commencing the scraping
>> activities, you will be struck
>> with both a revelation and a recollection. The
>> revelation is that the
>> header-to-fenderwell interference wont allow you
>> enough clearance to scrape
>> the entire gasket, so the header will have to
>> completely come off the car.
>> The recollection will be that you were smart enough
>> to trash the cheap gasket
>> that came with the engine rebuilder kit, and the $35
>> Mr. Gasket like-new
>> gasket you forgot you had installed, and have now
>> just destroyed, is of
>> similar quality to the new $35 Fel-Pro gasket you
>> bought to replace it.
>>
>> * Spray-on gasket remover is highly effective
>> stuff, but it is also highly
>> democratic in its application. In this instance, it
>> will make no
>> differentiation whatsoever between the like-new $35
>> gasket youre trying to
>> remove, and the new Ford blue engine paint youre
>> not trying to remove--both
>> will fall away from the motor in equal amounts.
>>
>> * In order to remove the header so you can scrape
>> the gasket, you will have
>> to disconnect it from the collector. The collector
>> bolts which were too long
>> when you installed them have, like the header bolts,
>> failed to shrink any in
>> the ensuing two weeks, and the mechanical locking
>> nuts (stove nuts) have, if
>> anything, increased their tenacious grip upon the
>> too-long bolts.
>> Furthermore, the inadequate clearance to swing a
>> wrench hasnt grown any
>> either, meaning that you will be able to turn the
>> nut about 1/32nd of a
>> revolution before the wrench strikes something
>> solid, and needs to be removed
>> and flipped around for another swing. The upshot is
>> that it will take about
>> 15-20 minutes to remove each bolt.
>>
>> * After the header is finally removed, while lying
>> underneath the car and
>> scraping the gasket, when a piece of
>> gasket-remover-laden gasket falls onto
>> your forehead, you will instantly determine that the
>> democratic nature of the
>> gasket remover extends to human flesh as well, and
>> the forehead is
>> particularly sensitive to extremely caustic
>> chemicals.
>>
>> * When extremely caustic chemicals are suddenly
>> applied to a large section
>> of your forehead, the result is an instant and
>> involuntary muscle contraction
>> in the torso, causing you to suddenly sit up,
>> normally about 24 inches or so.
>>
>> * The average Mustang chassis, when raised on
>> jackstands, is approximately
>> 22 inches off the garage floor.
>>
>> * The sudden and violent application of 2900 pounds
>> of steel to a burning
>> forehead does not, surprisingly, lessen the effect
>> of the extremely caustic
>> chemical reaction taking place, but instead augments
>> the pain with a deep
>> pounding inside the skull as your brain takes a good
>> shellacking from the
>> inside.
>>
>> * When it comes time to open the exhaust gasket
>> package, the expeditious way
>> is to use a screwdriver to make a small tear in the
>> plastic, then run your
>> finger along the underside of the gasket, neatly
>> opening up the package from
>> one end to the other.
>>
>> * Exhaust gaskets are made of various layers of
>> fibers and steel, and as
>> youre opening the package, an exposed and sharp
>> steel wire will neatly open
>> up your finger from one end to the other.
>>
>> * 1966 Mustang Red and Human Blood Red are
>> remarkably alike when the blood
>> is wet and liberally sprayed across the top of the
>> fender. However, when it
>> dries it darkens considerably and thus cant be used
>> as touch-up paint as you
>> had perhaps hoped.
>>
>> * Gasket remover is remarkably resilient stuff, and
>> although you took great
>> pains to wipe down the cylinder head with lacquer
>> thinner before installing
>> your new gasket, the forgotten gasket remover still
>> coating the flange of the
>> header will immediately go to work the minute the
>> header is placed against
>> the gasket. Fortunately the gasket makers are
>> thoughtful enough to include a
>> pair of gaskets in each package for just such
>> contingencies.
>>
>> * As you are holding the gasket-remover-soaked
>> header in your hand and
>> removing your now-ruined new gasket, you will feel
>> that the skin on your
>> fingers isnt nearly as sensitive to the effects of
>> extremely caustic
>> chemicals as the skin on your forehead. However,
>> when you have sliced your
>> finger open and the gasket remover gets in the open
>> wound, the effect is much
>> the same.
>>
>> * Once the second new gasket is in place, the
>> header bolts and
>> header-to-collector bolts will be just as difficult
>> to install as they were
>> to remove, as they were to install the first time,
>> as they were to remove the
>> first time.
>>
>> But the final, and undoubtedly the most important
>> lesson learned from this
>> two-day exercise is this:
>>
>> * A clever engine-building trick is to loosely
>> install the spark plugs on a
>> new motor; if the head gasket leaks into the
>> cylinders, this will allow the
>> water to leak and spray past the threads on startup
>> instead of potentially
>> blowing up the motor with hydrostatic lock.
>> However, if the engine builder
>> then forgets to tighten the plugs once the engine
>> has successfully started,
>> then exhaust gasses may leak past the threads,
>> making a distinctive
>> tic-tic-tic sound from the neighborhood of your
>> header-to-cylinder head
>> junction. You will be told by all your friends that
>> it is an exhaust leak
>> caused by using the cheap manifold gaskets which
>> come as part of the entire
>> engine-overhaul gasket set, and you should have
>> opted for high-quality $35
>> Fel-Pro header gaskets instead, and you will spend
>> the next two days removing
>> and replacing a perfectly good exhaust gasket when
>> all you had to do was
>> simply tighten the spark plugs!
>>
>> Sigh.....
>>
>> Mike
>>
Ed Van Scoy
Land Speed 1985 Corvette #128
C/GT, B/GT Record Holder
No Nitrous, No Turbo, No Blower, No Problem
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