JV Puleo

Think about how it works and go from there. There isn't any reason why you're take on the problem will be any less viable than someone else. In fact, I think it might be better, if only because you've started attacking these problems from a machinist's perspective rather than an auto mechanic's.

Or...if you know what how it's done you could make it yourself. You are practically at the point where you could replicate most of the mechanical parts on that car. It's doubtful that whoever makes the modified part is any better equipped than you are.

I should add that if you are doing a through hole they can grind the cutter so that it will give you a hole as good as a reamer. The cutter will not be useful for regular milling but I keep all these special grinds together and save them just for putting in odd, threaded holes.

Nicholson Cutter 300 Ferris Avenue, Rumford, RI The owner is Paul Rego I would buy a 13/16 end mill of exactly the dimensions you want and mail it to them. They'll do it and mail it back. I suspect that if you say I recommended them they will just send an invoice with the cutter. You won't have to run up to RI to get it. I've been extremely pleased with their work. When I asked about making a special cutter to cut the radius needed for the ends of the main bearings Mr. Rego just said "no problem." Several of the odd threads I've been using to make threaded sleeves and other parts call for holes for which there is no conventional drill...and sometimes when you are opening up a hole that is already there the tapered end of a regular drill will cause drift. I've found that plunge milling solves the problems. It has also has allowed me to "move" a hole to compensate for the Mitchell companies "freehand" methods of drilling them.

I started the day by picking up another custom end mill to the crank case work and then went on to the Banjo bolts. The first step was cutting the relief in the center for oil passage. Then turned the chamfers on the hex so it looks more like a real bolt. After this was done I threaded them. And put a deep chamfer in the end. This is where the oil will flow. I don't know if it will help but it's worth the effort to try. I then drilled the cross holes - which I forgot to take a picture of. The area of the 4 holes has to exceed the area of the hole through the center of the bolt or it will provide a restriction. I have a chart of the areas of circles so I took the area of a 7/16 circle and divided by 4 – then chose a drill slightly bigger. It's a #2 with a diameter of .221. After the holes were drilled I put the bolts back in the lathe and reamed them again to get all the burrs from drilling out. Since this is an oil passage it's critical that there not be any tiny metal filings floating around. From the chips on the end of the reamer when I pulled it out it was clear this was the right thing to do. The last step was tapping the 1/4 NPT holes for the drain cocks and take a "de-burring cut" on the end of the hole. I then blew everything out to make certain the chips from the threading were gone. This entire job has gone smoothly - something I'm not all that accustomed to.

We called them Beach Wagons as well...but RI is not far from Springfield.

Mike...I wish I was there to give you a hand. One of my goals - back when I thought I might be successful - was to spend two or three months a year in the UK. I'd really like to camp out at Kew and spend two or three months in the archives but that has become an unreachable goal. I pressed on with the Banjo bolts today...starting by removing all the extra stock I'd cut to hold the bolt in the 3-jaw chuck. This was tedious but I'd rather deal with tedious than a mistake and this way I was certain to get exactly what I wanted. The three bolts trimmed to size... Then they were drilled and reamed to 7/16" I reamed them because they have to be pressed onto a mandrel in order to be threaded and that's the best way to hold them. 7/16" is slightly larger than the ID of the 1/2" copper tube that makes up the oil lines to the sump and it's important to not have any restriction in the flow of oil. I know the measurement works because of the oil pump tests but it's still important to keep checking. 7/16 is also the hole size for a 1/4 NPT fitting so I can put either a pipe plug or a drain cock in the hole. I'd prefer a drain cock but we'll have to see what the ground clearance is. (Having said that, it probably had drain cocks originally so it is unlikely ground clearance will be an issue, especially as it has 27" wheels and oversize tires.) Right near the end of the day I finished up...I even had a visitor today, an old friend who is going stir-crazy locked up at home. I questioned the wisdom of going anywhere but I'm not sick (thank G-d) and neither is he. The last thing before going home was to press one of the bolts onto a 7/16 mandrel. I hadn't though to check and see if I had one so I was relieved to find I did and that the fit was tight. I'm getting to really like Banjo fittings. They are a PIA to make but they do a great job of looking "period" especially as they aren't even available in the sizes I've been making.

This morning I set up the radius turner again. I was a little concerned that the holes might snag on the cutting tool...when I moved the handle I could feel the holes but apparently it's rigid enough so that it made no difference. I did take small cuts though. The dyechem stripe around the middle it to tell me when I've gone as far as I need to... And it did work reasonably well... So I started on the banjo bolts. Unfortunately I have no good way of holding this 1-1/2" hex stock except with the 3-jaw chuck so I was forced to cut the blanks about 3/4" long. I hate wasting the stock but considering how much time this takes it's really not a major expense. I got two of them turned ay about 5:30 and decided to finish the third one tomorrow. The bold diameter is .812 - 13/16 to match the threaded holes in the sump. Two will be for the sump and the third one attaches the well for the oil level indicator.

Here you go... Text begins at the bottom of page 69 and continues to page 70. The cooling area is dependent on the type of core used. Easily the most efficient is what the author of this book calls a "tubular" radiator although other authors refer to it as a honeycomb. It's the radiator made by soldering several hundred tubes with ends expanded...the type of radiator RR used as well as many other expensive cars. It is based on an 1898 or 99 patent by Wilhelm Maybach and was the original radiator core adopted with the famous Mercedes "60." The easiest thing to do would be to just take the dimensions from some other vehicle that used the same engine. Figuring radiator capacity and water pump output was far more complicated then than it is today because no method of regulating the water temperature had been devised. Now, if your radiator has excessive capacity, a thermostat will control the flow. Because these hadn't been developed, and the engine designer had no control over the ambient temperature, almost all pre-WWI cars were cooled.

Mike...try bookfinder.com or Abebooks. Both are much better for out of print books than ebay and usually cheaper as well.

That's a good idea...I may have an intake manifold around. A mild solution sounds good to. Did you heat it" I have a bucket heater I use, oddly enough with TSP, I use when I clean the shop floor. I'm waiting on some bits for the remaining crankcase machining. It's a bear to set up in the mill so I'd like to get all the jobs done at the same time. In the meantime I though I'd make the oil fittings that will attach to the underside of the sump. It's easy enough to draw something like this but making them presents some real problems, mostly because two of them need two connections and the technique I used to make the earlier ones won't work. I started by cutting three pieces, 1-1/2" long from this huge brass bar I bought on ebay. Not that I need so much, but it was an auction and I threw out a low bid...about 1/5 of what it would cost from a metal supplier. To my surprise, I got it. I evened them up and reamed a 3/4 hole in the center. The actual center hole will be 13/16. I'll put that in last, after the connections for the lines are inserted. I tried using the radius too to give them the barrel shape that Banjo fittings have but I realized I'd made them too long...I only did two Then stopped and put the holes in. These will be threaded 11/16-16. I then went back to the lathe and reduced the thickness by .200. They are now 1" thick and I think the proportions work out better for turning the radius. Tomorrow I'll go back to the radius tool and see if it works this time.

I used high strength Locktite. In period they would have "staked" them with a pin punch but I have a consistent fear of hitting old aluminum with a hammer. As to the the TSP, I did a google search on using it on aluminum and found all sorts of conflicting information...some say it's fine and other suggest it's too acidic. Ted, what were the meat hooks made of? If I had another piece of oil soaked aluminum I'd test it but for now I think I should pursue the vapor degreasing especially as the company also has a pressure impregnation process that seals porous castings. I've used it before on a PI Rolls Royce aluminum head. It wasn't cheap then – and that was a long time ago – but it worked. I do wonder about machinability after the impregnation but this old aluminum wasn't heat treated and isn't great to machine as it is. And Al...I found some answers to your radiator question in a 1909 book on automobile design. I'll try to remember to post the pages tonight.

Mike...while you are waiting for better weather you should see if you can find "Horsless Carriage Days" by Hiram Percy Maxim. Maxim was the son of Sir Hiram Maxim (inventor of the Maxim machine gun) and the first chief of Horseless Carriage development for the Pope Company in Hartford, Connecticut. His early adventures - most before the turn of the century - are very entertaining. Cheers, Joe P

Yes...that is the technique. The gentleman I bought the line boring rig from gave me his late father's fixtures so I have two setups similar to the ones David Greenlees uses. Terry, if you'd like to experiment with them you are more than welcome. It will be a long time before I need them. If you coat the mandrel with soot from an acetylene torch the Babbitt won't stick to it. Or you can use a polished aluminum mandrel because Babbitt won't stick to that either. I'll probably do both...make an aluminum mandrel and coat it with soot just to be sure.

Ironically enough, 20 hours is the exact number I had in mind. The oil pump was run for about 23 hours. I'll have to build an engine test stand to do it as it will be a long time before the chassis is usable for that purpose and even then I've no good place to do it if I use the chassis. I'm not thrilled abut building such a big testing platform but it probably can't be avoided.

That's pretty much the plan, especially as I haven't anywhere to go and the chassis will be done long before there is a body to put on it. I don't expect making the rods to be easy but I'm paying close attention to the period engineering data I have. Will it work? I don't know...the only way to find out is to finish. And, I'd love to find a dyno t test it on...

The cam bearings are bronze. The front and rear ones are just bronze bushings. The center bearing is split because of the cam lobes. The two halves are held together with four 10-24 socket head cap screws. The main bearings will be bronze shells with a Babbitt lining. It will stick to bronze just fine and the pinch in the crankcase should hold them secure but I may add a pin in the cap to make certain they cannot revolve. I'm still a bit undecided about the rods as I've yet to make them. They will probably get bronze shells as well but it was suggested that I use modern insert bearings. I'm not convinced that is safe as modern inserts usually have a Babbitt lining that is only micron's thick. A crankshaft like this one is "whippy"' ... it isn't as rigid as a modern crank. Add to that that the rod bearings have to be splash lubricated and I wonder if modern bearings might wear out very fast. Here is the illustration from Held showing an oil level indicator attached to a sump. An my design for a simplified version. I'm not sure it needs the glass at the top as the rod is 1/4" in diameter and will run through a reamed hole about 2" long. The two "nut" shaped things at the top re a pair of super banjo fittings that will go on the bottom of the sump. One will be a return for oil from the timing case and the other will supply the oil pump. They are connected by another line which will, in turn, be connected to the level indicator. The major drawback with all this is that all of the oil lines are external and there are a lot of connections, each with the capacity to leak. I have to be very careful to make good connections everywhere but I still expect the engine to weep a little oil.

I'm not terribly concerned about the strength but yes, some of the bottom edge is corroded. The longer brass liner I made will be doing exactly what you suggest in making direct contact with sub-frame rail. The material I'll use is Devcon aluminum epoxy. It is available in relatively small quantities but it is still very expensive. I think the container I have cost close to $70 but it is well worth it. Like you say, it's an industrial product, not available at the local hardware or big box store. There is a hollow in the underside of each arm so in this case I'll fill that and finish the underside flat. The spacer will give me the correct metal to metal fit and the filler will just be that although it does have more than enough compression strength to do the job by itself. The real question is do I have the case cleaned now or wait until all the machining is done. If the vapor degreasing does not dissolve Babbitt metal I'll have it done now so I can repair the arm. If it does, I will have to do the preliminary boring first because I want to center the boring bar on the bearings as they are. They aren't badly worn but I suspect that the Mitchell company did not bore the rough case very accurately and just used the Babbitt (which is close to 1/4" thick) to make up the differences. If that is the case, then removing the Babbitt before the bar is set up could be a disaster. The Devcon has a grey color so it will not match the case. By rights I should paint the case with aluminum paint - there are extensive traces of it still there. If I do that the repair should be invisible.

Since threading is a slow operation, it gives me plenty of time to think about other problems, one of which is the corroded front engine mount. This morning I came in an made a longer insert. This will screw into the arm of the crankcase from the top. I purposely made the threads about .003 smaller so it will go in easily. I will screw it down until the bottom surface touches the sub-frame and it will be held in place with Locktite. In that manner I'll get a metal to metal contact without relying on the aluminum epoxy filler I'll use to mask the corrosion. Nothing will show after the engine is in place. The other inserts are about .100 to .150 short (depending on which arm they go in) This is fine because the machined surfaces on the arms are good. What concerns me is tightening down the corroded arm and putting twisting stress on the case so I will tighten up the three good arms before setting the repair piece in the corroded one.

Well, since I live in RI and I intend this to be my every day truck, I don't have much choice there.

Godfrey & Wing owns IMPCO. I looked up G&W...same address as IMPCO so apparently they have just reorganized what different parts of the company do under what names. That's a relief. [EDIT] The IMPCO division of this company offers this brush-on sealant for aluminum. http://impco-inc.com/product/alumiseal/ It looks to be a useful product for anyone who isn't local to their facility. I've also been re-thinking the oil level indicator. Something Ed said earlier rang a bell. If I put the float for the indicator inside the crankcase I will have to shield it from the oil thrashing around and I'm reminded that Ed cautioned against doing anything that might upset oil flow around the inside of the case...not that it would cause a problem but that it COULD cause a problem. Rather than take that chance I've come up with a preliminary design for an oil well adjacent to the sump. It's more complicated to make but it mirrors what many of the period makers did so I'm sure it will work - where the other solution may work – and may cause problems too. On the plus side, it will put the oil level indicator adjacent to the breather/filler tube where in the earlier design they were on opposite sides of the engine.

Thanks. I'm going to email them next week and ask. From the look of things I get the impression they are reworking their web site so perhaps there isn't a problem but another source would certainly be welcome. That is clearly the way to go.

The company is IMPCO in East Providence. They used to be on Valley Street almost across the street from my office. I found their web site but all the pages go to a 404 error - no longer available. That might just be an internet glitch...I'll try again but at the moment it looks as if they are either out of business or no longer doing that. That was my first choice...the business of doing it myself is only if they are unavailable. Frank Cooke put me on to them many years ago to seal a PI head.

I will certainly paint the inside of the crankcase and probably the outside as well. Like most cases in period, it was painted with aluminum paint and there are still considerable traces of it left. I see that ZEP markets a product specifically for aluminum and other soft metals. It's intended to be used in a heated bath too...the only drawback is the price. The smallest quantity you can buy is 40 lbs. and it costs about $150. I'd live with that if I could find some independent confirmation that it works.

That sounds about as promising as anything. I have no problem letting it soak for a month if necessary but I'm very leery of acidic or caustic solutions. How abut heating it? I could put it in a big plastic container with a bucket heater.