neil morse

Great colorized photo from the latest AACA magazine that arrived today. That's my car on top!

Thank you, Matt. That sounds like good advice. And yes, I'm feeling quite satisfied for the moment! But you never know what's waiting around the next corner. (And, obviously, I could never have even embarked on these "big" projects without the help of my great friends who have given me excellent advice and hands-on assistance at every turn.)

Retorquing Question I went for another drive today -- just running errands around the neighborhood -- and I have to say I'm very pleased with my Super. Even without the final adjustments, it sounds and runs just like it did before. It starts as dependably as ever, and the idle is fine, no stalling at stop signs (which are pretty much at the end of every block in San Francisco). And the ten degree temperature decrease seems to be the real deal -- on a warmer day with a lot of idling in traffic, the needle just sat at 180 today. I have heard conflicting things about whether the head bolts need to be retorqued with "modern" gasket materials, and I wondered whether anyone has had experience with the particular brand of gasket I used. I have heard that gaskets that use plastics as a substitute for asbestos need to be retorqued as many as three or four times, which sounds unpleasant to say the least. The gasket set I got from Cars, Inc. in New Jersey is produced by a company called "Best Gasket," and they call the type of head gasket they supply "GraphTite." I don't know what it's made of, but on their website they say "always re-torque, no short cuts." Here's a photo of the gasket: And this is from the manufacturers website: https://bestgasket.com/about-our-products/ Next (related) question: Is it possible to retorque the head bolts on my engine without removing the rocker shaft? It sure looks like it isn't, but I found a thread here on the forum that talked about using a "crowfoot" socket to get to the bolts under the shaft. Has anyone had success doing this? Having to remove the rocker shaft for three or four retorquings sounds pretty bleak!

Thanks for posting that video, Gary. I'm looking forward to an interesting morning on Monday!

Hi Peter: Thanks. I will post a full report on the hot adjustment after we do it on Monday.

More good news. I spent some time trying to get things sorted out yesterday, and it was clear that the engine was not hitting on all eight cylinders. I called Don, and he thought that one or more valves were too tight and not closing. I took the plugs out and the valve cover off, and used a nifty "remote starter switch" that I borrowed from Don to spin the crank to allow me to again check the valve adjustment. (Konrad and I had set them at .016 cold after we had put the head back on.) Well, I guess actually running the engine tends to rearrange things a bit because, as Don suggested, several of the exhaust valves were too tight -- 2, 3, and 8 to be exact. I readjusted them, but did not have time to run the engine after I was done yesterday. This morning I put things back together and tried it again. Big difference! It's now hitting on all cylinders, idling well, and the valves actually sound pretty quiet. Konrad is coming over on Monday so we can do a hot adjustment of the valves and also reset the timing (since we ended up pulling the distributor out to get the push rod galley cover back on more easily). But I was confident enough to actually take it for a spin, and it performed pretty much as before. One added benefit (at least based on today's drive) is that it seems to be running slightly cooler. It had been running at about 190. Today the gauge stayed right at 180 during a twenty minute ride. (I have a 180 degree thermostat in it.) I'm hoping this is due to the amount of crud I was able to clear out of the water jacket. In addition to what I pulled out with the magnet, here's a pic of what I found in the drain pan under the car after I was finished with my flushing operation. I took the precaution of installing one of Grimy's suggested stocking filters in the upper radiator hose, so I will be checking in a few days to see what else may have been stirred up. Progress continues -- stay tuned!

Chapeau, Sebastien! There is so much plastic in this car compared to older cars (like my '41) -- I'm amazed at what you have been able to do to reconstruct it! Keep up the good work. Neil

That's okay. My wife says that I suffer from "correctile dysfunction." Unfortunately, she's right, but like you I'm trying to work on it. 😄

Progress continues. Today I was able to find TDC on my engine and find the timing mark on the flywheel, which I thought was pretty good for someone who didn't even know what "TDC" stood for until a few days ago!

Some assembly required ... 😄

Hint: I'm pretty sure it's the most modern car in the photo

Another Good Day This morning, with the help of my friend Tom, I put everything back together on my Buick and hit the starter. She's alive! As I was warned to expect by Konrad, the engine ran rough, but the point as far as I was concerned was that it ran. So I'm a happy camper knowing that all systems are functioning and it's just a matter of adjustment from here on out.

Sunday Break Yesterday was the 19th annual "Plaid Tour," a memorial benefit event in honor of Marshall Matthews, a great member of the Bay Area old car community who died from ALS. Here are some photos. My car obviously wasn't running, but I attended in a modern car and joined in the fun. A 1914 Harley Davidson that got a lot of attention. A very nice '49 Ford convertible. A spectacular 1914 Stutz Bearcat, in a very imposing black on black color scheme. George's @Grimy majestic '34 Pierce Silver Arrow, always a treat to see. And this '34 Morgan three-wheeler, that I found very intriguing. Note the moment in the second video when the Morgan crosses paths with a modern three-wheeler -- not arranged in advance, just serendipity!

That's certainly what I figured!

A few more photos. Konrad about to hit his thumb. I don't know much about gasket sealer, but I know how to pick the one with the best label!

A Good Day I will let the pictures tell the story.

Okay, that sounds a little different. In my case, the pedal would not come all the way up on its own, but after you pulled it up, it stayed there. In case it's helpful, here are a "before and after" of what the "hook" looked like on my car when I had the problem. Before: After:

Does the pedal come all the way up if you pull on it? I had a similar problem with my car. The pedal would not come all the way up, which left the throw-out bearing spinning which, in turn, made an annoying chirping sound when the car was in gear. I got pretty good at pulling the pedal the rest of the way up with my toe, but that obviously wasn't a solution. The problem turned out to be calcified old grease on the "hook" you can see in the diagram that connects the spring to the pedal. If the hook can no longer pivot freely on the post where it attaches to the pedal, it prevents the pedal from coming all the way up. It's a hard area to reach, but I was able to get access to it from under the car and clean it up. I used the "witch's brew" of half acetone and half ATF and soaked it for a couple of days. Then I was able to get a wire brush up there and get rid of the old grease and free it up. That solved the problem. (And I also, of course, replaced the throw-out bearing when I later did my transmission rebuild.) If you think this might be your problem, I have some photos which might help. Neil

Back on Track I spent the afternoon in the sunny back yard staying out of trouble and cleaning up various parts to prepare for putting the engine back together. I spent some time cleaning up the rocker assembly, which was a mess, and freeing up all the adjustment screws which obviously hadn't been moved in many years. I am curious about the process of readjusting the valve lash (in which I will be schooled by Konrad), and wonder whether he has lined up an octopus to help us! I am so relieved and happy to have that lifter problem behind me.

That would have been an elegant feature, but I think they decided to keep it as simple as possible. No spring. And, of course, if anyone should somehow end up with a stuck lifter (probably not likely), I will gladly lend out this tool!

Stuck Valve Lifter Some may have wondered why this thread went dark all of a sudden in mid-project. Well, here’s the story. It has an ugly beginning but fortunately a very happy ending due to the generosity and ingenuity of my friends. As I have mentioned previously, I am reasonably handy and have taken on a number of mostly cosmetic and some “light” mechanical tasks in working on my car. However, I have no experience or training with any heavy mechanical work. I have enjoyed learning more and more about how an engine works, but until we took the head off my engine, I had never seen a valve lifter or really understood what they did. It was recommended to me that I remove the lifters and clean them out since they were very grungy inside to the point that it might interfere with the proper contact of the push rods with the bottom of the lifters and make readjusting the valves difficult. They were easy to get out, but a bit harder to get back in. I figured out that you had to jiggle them slightly to get them seated in the bore, and then they easily slid back down in place. Unfortunately, before I figured this out, I got frustrated trying to get one back in, and in a “brain fart” moment, decided that all I had to do was “carefully” use a block of wood and a hammer to tap the lifter back down into the bore. Then, for good measure, I “carefully” used a piece of hollow plastic rod and hammer to tap the lifter down the rest of the way. Huge mistake, of course. After my brain began to function again, I realized what a mess I had created. The lifter would not budge. After a consultation with Don, I tried rotating the crank to see if the lifter would come up. It did. I tapped it down again the same way, and it did not take much force move it down. But I could not rotate it or push it down just with my hand. I cycled it a number of times to try to free up whatever I had managed to get stuck between the lifter and the bore that was making it so hard to move, but we could not come up with any way to get it out, despite a number of attempts. (A nipple extractor, for example.) I felt like an idiot and imagined all kinds of scenarios involving things like having to pull the engine, etc. I enlisted the help of my friend, Konrad, and he and Don brainstormed about ideas of a tool that they could build to do this job. Here’s a drawing by Don of the idea he came up with. This called for making a steel plug to fit inside the lifter and cross-drilling it to fit a retractable pin which would fit into the drain hole in the lifter. Then by tapping a vertical hole in the plug and modifying the base of a slide hammer, the tool could be inserted into the lifter, the pin extended to engage the drain hole in the lifter, and lifter could be pulled out using the slide hammer. Konrad and I went down to Don’s shop yesterday where Konrad used Don’s lathe and milling machine to make the tool. We, of course, had another lifter to use on the bench to make sure everything fit. Between Don’s idea and Konrad’s workmanship, the tool came out perfectly. Here’s what it looked like when he was done. And here’s a video of how it worked when Konrad came over to my place this morning. When we got it out, it was difficult to see exactly why it had become so jammed. It was very slightly out of round, but that was probably from all the efforts to pull it out, especially the nipple extractor which may have distorted it. But Konrad was able to true it up fairly easily with a stone and 400 grit sandpaper, and it’s now back where it should be and functioning normally. To say that I’m grateful and feel blessed by my friendship with these two kind and generous (and highly-skilled) individuals is an understatement! My bacon having been saved, we can now get back to fixing my core plug problem.

You know, now that I've looked at the list from the torque ball kit I got from Bob's, I don't think that seal was included. I think I separately purchased exactly the one you show above. I'm not sure why they don't list '41 50 series, but I'm pretty sure that's the one I used and that it will fit.

Hi Justin: I have to go back and look at my thread to refresh my memory. But I can tell you that all the seals we used on my car were purchased from Bob's Automobilia. I think the rear seal you're talking about was part of the torque ball gasket kit from Bob's.

Wow, seems to me like a lot of car for the asking price. Paint looks nice, and the wheels look extra nice. I would jump on this if I were in the market.