[Terry Burtz, Calif]

Very nice.
A few questions - and my apologies if I missed this in the messages -
1. I was surprised that the oil pressure was not higher.. like in the 30psi range. Was the low pressure expected and is there any reason why it isn't higher ?
2. Is the oil pan baffle / dipper tray still part of the pan assembly, or eliminated in the new build?
3. Without the connecting rod dippers creating an oil torrent, how do the cylinder walls get adequate lubrication.
Thank You George





Good questions. And great to see the progress that has been made during these unpresented times. This project is challenging enough without all this additional issues related to the pandemic...........

I see several types of oil pumps laying on the assembly table, but appears to be stock looking pump (externally) on the one mounted to the motor. According to Terry's posting it says stock pump was used in initial test, so appears oil would be able to pass into valve chamber past the two slots in the upper end of the oil pump. second test had modified pump according to the post with enlarged oil inlet and reduced pump shaft? diameter, and maybe still had the two open slots to allow full passage of oil into valve chamber?

In saying that, I see the opening on the return pipe from the valve chamber has one opening rather then the normal three openings and the single hole is reduced in size from the original. So if they had dipper tray installed it appear maybe expectation for less oil returning from valve chamber and majority of the oil returning through the main and rod bearings directly into the pan and centrifugal force throwing oil onto the piston bores and camshaft lobes?

I would have imagined after the testing they have disassembled and re-inspected major and minor wear surfaces to determine any unusual wear points.

I like the provision for dowel pins on all the main bearing mounting of the caps.

Are the bearing caps steel or Cast iron?

I see that front and centre mains are using bolts and nuts per original design. and appears #2 #4 and rear main bearings are using studs, so minor deviation on the rear main.

I would be curious to know how well the new rear main seal performed during the testing?

This initial flywheel appears to be cast iron, is this correct? and clutch mounting is for 9" clutch? Did the initial flywheel come in close to the anticipated 22 pound weight?

Looking forward to being able to place my order in the near future.. 4bangerbob



I was also disappointed with the low oil pressure. We had 3 people verifying tolerances, measuring clearances, and assembling the engine simultaneously. The third party assembly and evaluation time allocation was very short and there were only so many things that we could try.

There was no oil pressure with a stock pump, so we changed to a modified stock oil pump and got minimal oil pressure. We had a Stipe pump on hand, but didn't use it because the outlet would need modification by an outside machine shop for use in a stock appearing engine.

On a stock engine with a drilled crankshaft and modified for oil pressure, there are 7 (3 crankshaft and 4 connecting) bearings that leak oil on both sides for a total of 14 leakage paths. The new engine with 14 pressurized bearings has 28 leakage paths, and the factory in China said that the replaceable cam bearings were slightly oversize.

Based on the above, I made the decision to proceed with minimal oil pressure and all testing was completed.

Yesterday during engine teardown, I discovered a missing 3/8-16 UNC setscrew that should have plugged a blind oil passage to the main oil galley. This missing setscrew was not in the oil pan, so it was never installed. The attached picture shows a 5/16 inch drill sticking out of the hole where pressure was lost.

The side return pipe is for decoration only and the dipper tray was in place to minimize oil slosh that would starve the oil pump.

All main caps are malleable iron.

Main bearings 1 and 3 use long studs with castellated nuts to appear original. All other main caps are secured with coarse studs in the cylinder block and fine threads for the nuts.

The rear seal is an off the shelf item made by National and similar to the seal in a rear hub. The seal did not leak.

The flywheel used was a prototype and machined from steel. Weight was 30 pounds without ring gear. 9 inch clutch is correct and production flywheels will be grey cast iron. The 22 pound flywheel had a bell made from 356 aluminum and is expensive to manufacture. The flywheel is not a part of the new engine but will be available separately.