Hi all,
In August 2003 our C motor's oil pump swallowed a chip from a valve
spring and seized at 6,800 RPM in High gear. This resulted in 8 junk
Carrillo's, one junk billet Velasco and a dented sleeve. Scavenge inlet
screen are a separate issue but I digress. Since we did not have the parts
to rebuild it we partnered with Nick Arias to run his unblown gas motor at
World finals.
In the meantime I sent our wounded pan and a new core to Stan Shiroma
so he could build us a new one. Jan 2004 the pan is done and I ship it up
to Ken in Salem. We decide to continue to run Nicks motor in 2004 so the C
motor rebuild goes on the back burner (see where this is going).
This winter was a disassemble to the last nut and bolt, sandblast and
repaint the frame ground up rebuild of the chassis. It was completed last
month. With a new crank and rods we are ready to put the blown C motor
together. This month Ken gets the block back from the machine shop having
had its line bore checked and a new sleeve bored and honed. Lo and behold
when Ken goes to put the pan on, the bolt holes on one side are half a hole
off. Thursday the 21st. Ken calls me and priority mails the pan to me, it
gets here last Saturday. I call Stan and leave him a message. Busily
thinking of how I'm going to fix this thing if Stan is out of town, I
resurrect an old rusty big block pan from my junk pile and clean it up in
preparation for using its rails and the new pan in a Frankenstein type
transplant operation.
Luckily Stan calls and I meet him at his place in Seal Beach on Monday
morning. As I know Stan builds the pan while it is bolted to a Iron block
lower half I speculate that UPS has had two try's to beat it up,( Ken said
the box was in pretty bad shape when it got to him). Stan said that the
problem was that he probably didn't check it after it came back from the cad
plate shop. He puts it on his fixture and sure enough it's not flat and the
holes don't line up. Stan clamps one end to a big flat steel plate and
twists the whole pan with a big pry bar. Now the rail surface is almost
flat. He then stands it on one corner and deftly applies a dead blow hammer
to a selected spot inside the corner of the pan. No change. He hits the
selected spot a little harder. No change. He then brings our a large hammer
( somewhere shy of a 5 pounder). Wham! the selected spot gets another
adjustment. Back it goes on the fixture and now not only is it dead flat but
the holes all line up perfectly.
When I explain why I am holding a donor pan Stan says I must have hung
around with all those engineers at Lockheed to much, a bigger hammer
sometimes IS the best solution. I remark that if I knew where to hit it I
could have done that, Stan just smiled.
Jim in Palmdale
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