276 stroker from 35 years of parts

[cas3]

All sounds good GB, thanks for the update.

[Mart]

A great result. Exactly as you wanted. It was fun to follow along,

[51504bat]

enlargement failed

[Mart]

[tubman]

With a 50 psi sending unit, your gauge should be pegged (except at idle). My old "Motors" manual specifies 57 psi at speed for an 8BA. It's the only place I have ever seen a figure for that.

Congratulations, it looks like you did a great job and everything turned out fine. I think I can understand what you mean about help from the guys on the forum. When I built my first real flathead (a 276" Merc) over thirty years ago I spent a lot of money and used what I thought were the right parts. The guy who did the machine work seemed to know what he was doing as well. I was never really satisfied with the way it performed, and looking back, I think I can say that it was because I just slapped a pair of Offenhauser heads and an MSD "Ready to Run" distributor on it with no specialized knowledge. The engine always had marginal over heating problems, which I now suspect was caused by the distributor having the wrong curve and lackluster performance which was caused by improper preparation of the cylinder heads. Things would have very different if I had had access to something like this forum. Sounds to me liked you have dodged that particular bullet.

[GB SISSON]

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Did a 2 day stint in the woodie on the mainland last week. It is certainly a joy and a pleasure to drive, both on island and 'over town'. I bought a 10.00 digital speedometer that I mount over the original speedometer with double stick tape. Yes it looks awful, but It's been interesting. I now have an estimated 1500 miles on this engine and have retorqued the heads at about 200 miles, but not since. Still no coolant loss, weeping headbolts or water in oil. I know it's due for third re-torque yet I'm a little gun shy. First of all, my chosen torque is at 67 ft/lbs, which was arrived at by suggestions here for between 65-70 ft/lbs. I'm using Best copper gaskets with copper coat spray. Head bolts sealed with #2 permatex (one headbolt had small weep for ten minutes at startup, then sealed). On the 200 mile retorque most bolts turned 1/8 of a turn, a few didn't turn, some a tad bit more than 1/8 turn. I have been considering leaving them as is with no further wrenching. With it doing so well, I don't want to disturb my permatex seal, or worse, snap off a headbolt. The headbolts are used, but in the end I had a lot to choose from and I picked out 48 beauties. I'm sitting on my couch pondering this and wondering 'Should I Stay or Should I Go?' (for the torque wrench)

[flatford8]

If it was me, I’d leave the torque wrench in the tool box and go for a ride !!!……nice job ‘Ol Boy!………Mark

[cadillac512]

Originally Posted by flatford8

If it was me, I’d leave the torque wrench in the tool box and go for a ride !!!……nice job ‘Ol Boy!………Mark

Me too. I'd leave it as-is.

[glennpm]

I'd leave it alone but I'm never good at doing that and sometimes making things worse.
If it is nagging at you, check them all but knock 5 ft-lb off say to 62 ft-lb.

[flatjack9]

I torque all my heads to 50 lb ft, so at 65 you should be more than good. I'd leave it alone.

[GB SISSON]

We are having a rare extended spell of clear dry weather in Western Washington. I have a couple things to do on the mainland so I decided to take the woodie. Catching first ferry off I gotta leave the house about 5:45 am and it will be about 28-30 degrees. Catching 6:00 pm home so about the same.I recently installed a great old aftermarket heater but had never gotten around to weatherstripping any of the doors. The front doors never met the old pickup door sills so the bottom gap tapered from about 1/4" to 7/8". Yikes. Over the weekend I made tapered hardwood strips, leaving room for the weatherstrip. Peel and stick epdm/silicone composite in dark brown. I bought 3 thicknesses. I used tinfoil balls to determine what to use where, and it went really well. HUGE difference, cozy and quite warm! Did a general lube job and adjusted idle mixture (it's a big deal going to the mainland). Was happy to see on my firewall vacuum gauge I have a beautiful and rock steady reading of 22 inches, up from the previous 21. (I'm at 600' elevation). Will be doing a bit on interstate 5 and she's running like a top. Timing gears still whirring and half tempted to pull that aftermarket aluminum gear off and put on a ford script fiber gear. Only gotta remove that one tall nut on the gen/fan mount and the one wire to the alternator and super easy access. I have about 3" from the fan to the radiator. I'll give it til the Springtime to quiet down. One more big thanks to all of you that helped make this build so successful!!

[cas3]

enjoy the trip, but I would stay with the aluminum gear. Never had it myself, but too many stories of fiber gears nos, or new failing. Carry on

[GB SISSON]

Ok Skip, fine I'm about 3/4 deaf anyhow and Terry says his mix of new and old gears finally found happiness around 6000 miles. Speedometer quit, but I guess I'm maybe half way there...I will indeed carry on. Stay warm.

[Tim Ayers]

This is all great news. Enjoy it and keep us posted along the way

[51504bat]

Originally Posted by GB SISSON

Ok Skip, fine I'm about 3/4 deaf anyhow and Terry says his mix of new and old gears finally found happiness around 6000 miles. Speedometer quit, but I guess I'm maybe half way there...I will indeed carry on. Stay warm.

Gary,
You probably have an assortment of speedometers in your stash but on the off chance you don't and depending on the manufacturer of your unit, Rusty at Speedometer Service in Colorado can fix you right up. He repaired the Stewart Warner unit in my '39 p/u. Quality work, fast turn around, and reasonable cost and shipping. JMO
Tim
Speedometer, Generator And Alternator Repair In Colorado Springs

[slowforty]

If you had an open space where you could do 60 for ten miles ,I bet the gear noise would go away ,
or move to a noisy neighborhood.
Make any sling shots from the red rubber tube.
I am glad it went to a good home as i owened it for 40 years

[Bored&Stroked]

Sounds like a fun trip and I love the fact that your new engine is running so well. Keep us posted!

[GB SISSON]

Had a really great trip. The all important heater and headlights were all-stars and the engine ran flawlessly and started instantly. Did about 20 miles on the interstate at an easy 65. Don't know how my timing gears are meshing because the fan in the heater is so loud, who would know? First off I went to the shop in the Skagit Valley where fellow islander John Norman, recently completed the most authentic flying replica of the Spirit of St Louis ever built. He was given 24 hours to photograph, borascope, pattern and measure the actual plane which was lowered to the floor for the third time since 1928. His finished replica is currently hangared at the Arlington airport about 20 miles South of his shop. John has many other projects going currently such as 5 airplane projects for customers and his own cars and motorcycles. Next I hopped on the freeway to meet a guy selling a 1950 T9 4 speed with a PTO for an upcoming tonner wrecker I'm dreaming up. Then back to Anacortes for lunch meeting about an ongoing project in the wood shop. I then picked up an 83 year old mechanic friend in the woodie and we drove to a boat shop to see a 28' Monterey style fishboat built in 1920 with a single cyl make and break engine with a huge flywheel that they run at 60 rpms. He was anxious to show my wagon to his boat restorer pals at the boatyard. Then home in the cold and dark the way I arrived. I packed a lot in, but what a great day!
Here's a link to a documentary about John Norman and his amazing project. There is a lot online/youtube etc about his replica.

https://vimeo.com/854541359/6146d4d72f?share=copy

[cas3]

Jeez, some guys get to have all the fun! Thats sounds like a really good day to me. The Lindberg plane is incredible. I've read before, the pilot can barely see out the front due to fuel tank size IIRC. Quite a trip. Did you get a 2 way PTO for running a winch?

[GB SISSON]

Looking like it's a one way. Tranny has the 1/2 ton rear mount, which I think is a plus as it'd be hard to wear out a T-9 in a half ton pickup. Looks really clean and goes through the motions. I have some of the big truck mounts hanging on a nail. Guess I'll have to free spool the cable out. I have enough tonner parts to build two more trucks, One fairly nice and the other would be a bit rough around the edges. Oh, and Lindberg had a periscope out the side but it never worked very well. Same goes for the replica. He says it is not a very fun plane to fly, but he's planning to fly it over to Friday Harbor, our county seat on Aug 8th. John was born and raised on Lopez island, one of the closest neighbors to Orcas.