So yesterday I found the only set of 0.040" undersize rod bearings
in Santa Clara county. Still in an original BL box, no less. I
picked them up and inquired about rod bolts. Fortunately the
angle-end rods I'm using (from an 18G, um, F? motor) don't require
new rod bolts, but do require new tab washers, so I've got those too.
I spent a happy couple of hours (heh) pulling things off The
Green Car's engine. At one point, I mused that John Keats obviously
never owned an LBC (in spite of being British, and no doubt due to
the fact that he died in 1826 or thereabouts). If he had, his "Ode
to a Nightingale" would have begun, "My back aches, and a drowsy
numbness pains/My sense, as if of Castrol I had drunk." (On the
subject of champagne, brought up by Mark Lambert, that Ode has one
of my favorite lines, something I think of every time I open a
very old bottle of wine: "O for a draught of vintage that hath been/
Cooled a long age in the deep-delved earth.")
But I digress. The carbs came off easily, the nuts came off the manifold
studs easily, I didn't have a single one pull out of the head -- no doubt
because I'd installed the head only last year, and the carbs at the same
time. I got to the induction-side engine mounts next, and noticed a
couple of interesting things:
The head of one of the mounting bolts looks as though it had been
either eaten away by acid, or electocuted. There's a little pocket
of grey, comparatively shiny metal with a little slag in the middle,
right on one of the corners of the bolt head. There are similar little
divots in the forward branch of the exhaust manifold as well, the
branch that's closest to the motor mounts. It is a puzzlement...
Then I took off the alternator, removed the distributor, and made
another interesting and potentially expensive discovery.
If we recall, the reason why the EP motor quit on me was that the
distributor popped out of the block due to a crack in the mounting
boss on the distributor base. Well, the distributor in the green
car's motor (I'm gonna have to get into the habit of calling these
the 18V and the 18GK respectively, as I no longer have the black
car and soon both motors will have been in The Green Car) not only
has a crack, it actually has a 100-degree-plus section *missing*
from the mounting boss. So it sounds like the price of really
getting the car running reliably just went up a couple hundred
dollars. A shame, because the distributor shaft is very sound
in that car, as verified not only by hand and eye but also by
scope -- the pulses come out right square on time. Oh well,
this will give me an excuse to buy either a '65-spec distributor
or one of the Aldon recurved jobs from Seven Enterprises.
I stopped short of draining the fluids from the car, for a very
silly (though very good) reason: I have nowhere to put the oil that
we took out of the 18V a week ago, much less all the fluids that will
come out of the 18GK when I drain *it*. So I've got an offer for
Bay Area SOLs:
Scott's "We Must All Hang Together" 4th of July Weekend Car Party
My house (write if you need directions)
Requirements: Empty gallon containers suitable for holding a
couple gallons of used oil and coolant; hands willing to turn
wrenches and haul chains; hunger and thirst, to be satisfied
on site.
Offerings: Dittmer's bratwurst, in probably at least two of the
six varieties that they make fresh on the premises; Red Hook ESB
ale; IBC root beer; corn on the cob; *fresh* salad -- you can
watch me harvest the lettuce and wax beans while-you-wait!
When: Any time this weekend; call for details. My daytime number
is (408) 441-3141; evenings, call (408) 736-3124. ("Evenings"
actually start about 5:00 PM these days so that I can get the
garden cooled off before sworking on the car, and of course the
whole weekend, till 8 PM Monday when Kim and the girls return,
is a virtual evening.)
So it's the happening thing! As a Special Added Bonus, you'll get
to see Miq Millman's famous Car Zero autocross Sprite (which is for
sale, and please buy it so that I can get it out of my garage!)
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