60's style Gasser Willys build

[langy]

just starting a willys build with a scimitar chassis so need to bookmark this tread,
cheers,
neil

You may not know that the scimitar comes in 2 wheelbases, you need the shorter of the 2, Hope it helps you

 

[langy]

Well very little to do now, just scratching around looking for stuff really, Got an email on monday saying my heads have finally been shipped, with a bit of luck i will have them saturday morning. Was hoping to make the Hotrod drags with a bit of luck.

Treated myself to a couple of Stewart Warner mechanical gauges, Fuel pressure on the left & Boost gauge on the right.



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Had to fit a fuel gauge isolater as fuel not allowed inside car in drag rules, the isolator can't be fitted on the firewall as that not allowed either, Mounted it to the firewall tube, plumbed them in with stainless hoses.

 

[langy]

Woo Hoo my heads arrived today exactly on time, not bad at all when you consider they were still in SoCal on monday afternoon !!! now the first race begins !!! it will be tight timewise but hope to get it to HRD's

They are really nice and I had hoped to get them painted this afternoon but as usual its pi$$ing down with rain !!!

 

[squazy84]

nice to get a few prezzies...even if you did have to buy them yourself! those heads and axle do indeed look nice,you wont be warping cast iron or breaking that axle that's for sure,its nice to see craftsmanship

 

[langy]

nice to get a few prezzies...even if you did have to buy them yourself! those heads and axle do indeed look nice,you wont be warping cast iron or breaking that axle that's for sure,its nice to see craftsmanship

Cheers, the axle is for a customer, mine is already on the car.

 

[langy]

Put the bank holiday monday to good use and got my heads painted, my Titan head gaskets should arrive tomorrow so hopefully will get them bolted in place.
2K clear, Gold flake over a black epoxy primer base.

 

[langy]

Somebody asked why don't I just nail it together quick !!! Well everything needs to be put together and clearances checked, Last night this was typified by a clearance problem on my roller rockers, 3 of them are scraping the valve spring retainer, I think I have the problem solved by installing a spacer under the rocker shaft supports and use a slightly longer pushrod or buzzing a bit off the rockers, I've emailed the supplier to see what they suggest.










Had a slight accident last night with one of the roller lifters, It won't hold me up though as there is already a replacement due here on saturday.








I assembled the motor with stock gaskets to check piston to valve clearances and everything was fine and will put it all back together tomorrow night for the last time.
Here is how its looking put together, still not made my mind up what to do with the valve covers but they can stay natural until I do.

 

[Shox Dr]

If you use a washer won't you in effect change the angle of contact between the rocker and valve, not that it matters as you are using rollers, but it will move the point of contact as well, and if they are high lift, as I imagine they are, you'll lose movement= lift

Are you sure that won't cause problems?

 

[octo0072000]

i would go with a trim with a dremel shims under rocker pillers will lose you a bit of lift ?

 

[the snooper]

might be stating the obvious here but

with only odd rockers catching the valve spring have you checked that the valves in question havn't been bent when the heads were assembled, obviously something isn't right you would assume that all rockers were uniformly made, so where does the problem lie, bad rockers, bad casting on the head, valve stem sleeves in at an angle must be a reason you can have rectified

 

[langy]

If you use a washer won't you in effect change the angle of contact between the rocker and valve, not that it matters as you are using rollers, but it will move the point of contact as well, and if they are high lift, as I imagine they are.

Are you sure that won't cause problems?

No Dave it will be fine, it wouldn't be a washer anyway it will be a full length strip of steel, Its quite common to shim them, Its not much more than 1/16"

 

[langy]

might be stating the obvious here but

with only odd rockers catching the valve spring have you checked that the valves in question havn't been bent when the heads were assembled, obviously something isn't right you would assume that all rockers were uniformly made, so where does the problem lie, bad rockers, bad casting on the head, valve stem sleeves in at an angle must be a reason you can have rectified

They were made in america, say no more

 

[Shox Dr]

They were made in america, say no more

No

 

[the snooper]

but America, its the home of the shuttle, great engineers well until the shuttle blew up mid flight, maybe the dodgy seal came from the same place as your heads

 

[RichardM]

I'm of the same opinion as Snooper.

Why are some of the rocker arms marked and not others?
What are the rocker arm axle to spring retainer clearances?
Unless quality control is poor with the parts then all rocker arms should be the same size, as should spring retainers, and valve angles. It seems strange to me that some are marked and some not.

Are the valve angles different from std on the heads?

Is the rocker support unequal, ie if you turn it 180 deg will the rockers be a little further from the valve?

I would take it to bits, start measuring and swapping parts to see if something like a valve is bent, valve angles not all the same etc

As a last resort relieve the rocker arms for clearance and them have them re-anodised.

 

[langy]

I'm of the same opinion as Snooper.

Why are some of the rocker arms marked and not others?
What are the rocker arm axle to spring retainer clearances?
Unless quality control is poor with the parts then all rocker arms should be the same size, as should spring retainers, and valve angles. It seems strange to me that some are marked and some not.

Are the valve angles different from std on the heads?

Is the rocker support unequal, ie if you turn it 180 deg will the rockers be a little further from the valve?

I would take it to bits, start measuring and swapping parts to see if something like a valve is bent, valve angles not all the same etc

As a last resort relieve the rocker arms for clearance and them have them re-anodised.

Done that last night Richard, the heads are all in spec, some of the rockers are slightly thicker than the others for some reason, this is not uncommon to be honest and its common to have to clearance things.
These are Harland Sharp rollers rockers which are generally regarded as one of the best, I have emailed the makers and asked some questions.

 

[langy]

Got all the rockers off and checked sizes, the ones that are just touching the retainers are 60 thou bigger on the inside edge only, strange !!!
Anyway I have made a jig for the mill and will remove the offending material.
Got an email from the Cadillac specialist I'm dealing with and he said its rare but it's happened before but rare, just my luck I guess !!!

 

[Robotstar5]

Cracking paint job on the motor does the heat of running it affect the paint finish?

 

[langy]

Cracking paint job on the motor does the heat of running it affect the paint finish?

Not really, it's all 2k and 2k is pretty heat resistant to a degree, sometimes the shade changes slightly on open port heads around the ports but its unusual .
Blocks and heads don't get as hot as you might think.

 

[langy]

Well my Head gaskets turned up bang on time so the top end was stripped off for final assembly, all clearances were fine and everything worked like it should so it can now go back together for the last time

I thought i would post a pic of the SCE Titan copper gaskets, they are really clever bits of kit as they are fitted with O rings which save a lot of expensive machine work on the block.