Brian_Heil

Nice weather here today. Cleaned, lubed and sharpened the lawn tractor in record time. With 'chores' out of the way i started on the valve cage installation. All cages installed and rockers back on the pushrods. Used copper anti seize on the sealing rings. Set the lash by sight since I had all the pushrod adjustment run out to max to aid popping the pushrods back under the rockers. Will lash them tomorrow. Will go an extra 0.004 initially until things settle in then lash to spec.. Could be a ride on Sunday. :o) Need to do all the other annual greasing and cleaning first.

20w50 (and I don't drive/start it in the cold weather/season here). Have not been able to forgive Shell for their Fire n' Ice debacle of the early 1980s. I'm sure Rotella is fine, lots of diesel truck fleets use it, but I still shop with a grudge. I get Wolf's Head at a discount, use it in everything in the required viscosities and have for 20+ years.

Lots more for sale powertrain wise besides the above. Too many to list. Please send me an email. I bought this to share/help others, not to get rich. It arrived as a 1923 6 cylinder engine and transmission assembly on half a frame, sort of like a sawmill project that never got finished.

Have sorted through and disassembled my 1923 6 cylinder engine and transmission purchase. (Thank you Mark Shaw) Who needs what? Please send me an email to the address in my signature. Thx!

Here you go Terry.

Darn near mid April and the After Tour room block reduced group rate in De Forest (see above) expires May 1st so make those room reservations and either post here or send me and email if you have yet to do so regarding your PWD After Tour attendance. Same for the PWD Dinner, please either post on that thread or send me an email if you have yet to do so regarding your attendance for dinner. Thx! OK, someone asked about my bear pictures. I spent all my summer vacations as a youth in northern Wisconsin in the Springstead, WI area. A regular highlight was a trip to the local dump at sunset to see the bears show up and check out any new treats. Fish guts from our day's catch were a favorite. Everytime I think of Wisconsin, I'm 8 years old in our Pontiac station wagon watching those bears as my Dad would lower his window and my Mom would yell at him and my brothers and I would scream with delight, or my brother would reach up from the back seat and pull the lock knob on Mom's door as if the bears knew how to open her door and she would scream. Raising 3 boys, 4, if you count my Dad, my Mom deserved a medal. O.K., I will go out on a limb and guarantee that you will see bear on the 2017 PWD After Tour, or your Tour Director will give you $5. Can't get that at some lesser club! No sir! Come to Wisconsin and have some fun! With all that covered, we need a new picture.

Back from 10 days vacation in the Carolinas. Met with Tom Getz and Matt Hinson on the way down for lunch. Always nice to meet Forum Folks face-to-face! New valve springs were waiting when I got home. All measured 50# at 2.125 height. Good to go. Cage/valve assemblies cleaned, lubed with black moly assembly lube and springs installed. Had to borrow a valve spring compressor tool since these springs are not worn out and weak like the old ones and I needed help compressing the springs.

Talked to Wayne Funk today about his Model F since he sent me a short video of him driving around with the body not yet on, first fire and run. This car was a box of parts at Christmas. IMG_0818.3gp We got around to talking about my valve project and he said he had a real good valve spring source in the Utica, MI area. Short batches were not an issue. I just mention that in case anyone is having trouble finding springs. Plus chatting with Wayne is always a good thing.

Any story from Dandy Dave about me is purely hypothetical and conjecture (but we sure had fun!).

Back when the National Meet was in Rochester, MN, a nice guy with an early 4 cylinder asked me if I'd look at his car because it 'wouldn't start'. I assumed he drove to the meet or at least on to the show field. My first thought when I saw it was, 'I wonder how he got here and is that chicken poop (it was)?' He led me to a tired little Buick 4 cylinder. When he raised the hood it was just a dust bowl, rusted exposed valvetrain, not a lick of lube anywhere and half the pushrods were bent. Every valve was frozen, some open, some closed. He had towed the vehicle in gear to try and get it started which is how the push rods got bent, but at least now in his mind, it turned over, so he was making progress. I explained his problem and what he needed to do. He then asked if I wanted to buy it, as-is, as he did not want to have to push it across the show field and back on the trailer. I thanked him but declined to purchase but suggested he get some help and together we could push it over to the For Sale lot and that was the last I saw of him. Those were the last bent pushrods I have seen, but you are correct Don, they do bend. And I tackle half the World's problems in the shower and while riding the lawn tractor.

Rest assured that I will be checking spring load at open and closed heights as well as spring rate, diameter of wire and number of coils once I have some springs and compare to what I have. Back when I had a full head of hair, I designed a number of springs. My fear is not bending a push rod, but rather, taking out a lobe and/or lifter roller. I am fortunate to have access to the spring design specs.. And, if we really want to hold class, we can talk about the increase in mass of my new valves and the accelerations caused by the ramp profiles on the cam and the new load dynamics along with fresh spring loads Vs. my old tired spring loads. Is the roller and lobe up to the challenge of the increased valve mass and the fresh spring load and resulting contact stress? This is what mechanical engineers think about in the shower. Then I smile because we did it all by hand and understood the calculations and some guy back in the teens in Flint did too. Now someone plugs information into a program they did not write and they may not understand everything. Did they get an A in their second semester Dynamics class or a D? Wish I had a roller and cam drawing to know profile, material, case hardness and depth, finish . . . .then weigh all the parts, . . . . . what is the rocker ratio . . . .max. engine speed . . . . see, we never rest.

I better save a spot for Mr. Earl on the PWD After Tour. Ha! 8-in-a-row-is-the-way-to-go! Or a pre '31 next? Six-for-kicks.

Home of Camp Toccoa and the 101st Airborne back in WWII. If you liked Band of Brothers, this is the actual Camp site where they started out. Nice 101st museum in Toccoa and they can direct you out to the former site of the camp. Not much there, a nice monument and you can see one former barracks being used as a maintenance building for the current modern business on the Camp site. You can dive up the actual 'hill' (mountain) they ran up and down. Amazing view at the top and equally amazing how tough these men were to run up and down it. Suggest a 4WD truck with high ground clearance, the road was washed out in several places with good sized ruts when I drove up it and first gear the whole way. Not paved, large re-used fist size broken concrete material surface. Lots of cell phone towers now at the top.

Gary W, Keep up the good work! Great post and photos. In the time I spend looking for a missing socket, that rolled to that hidden corner all sockets roll to, you rebuild a section of your car. At the rate you are going, I expect to hear from you about attending the National Meet in Brookfield, WI and joining us on the PWD After Tour! I'll make sure to hold you a spot.

Leif is correct, your starter / generator is not motoring before you engage the starter pedal is the most likely issue. I lived with this issue for years until I got my S/G rebuilt. You may just need to clean up the small commutator or the three brushes on it, or replace the brushes to get the S/G to motor. With the S/G brush cover off and the ignition on, press lightly with an insulated tool on the small commutator brushes and see if the S/G begins to motor. If it does, this is your issue. The motoring is needed so the starter gears do not clash upon engagement, they are moving/motoring so they fall into mesh.

No that is one of the springs I have, just cleaned up on a wire wheel. I thought of the name of the guy working on making springs, Ray Brown. Not sure if he ever got anywhere with the project.

Also, you should contact Lee Wangerin in Lakewood, CA. He is not on the internet but in the Buick Roster. He has all sorts of parts for 1923's and amazes me with the parts he has or knows of.

Thx for the information Terry. I bought a tube of assembly moly at lunch today. I like how you built a galley. Here are some pix of my felt washers from McMaster Carr. The one on the stem got oiled and it swelled up some so looking like one per stem is all that will fit. I use gear oil with EP in my rocker shaft galleys and will fill the upper spring retainer cups with same to leak down and fill the felt when the engine is warm.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/272435974268?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

And there is somebody out there selling Stewart Warner tanks but I don't have his name or contact info. Anybody? Maybe Leif will be kind enough to tell us which model tank you need as S/W made many styles.

No rush as I mentioned in my email to you today. Thx!

John, I was going to ask the same thing. Is that felt down between the head and the cage on the lower stem as viewed thru the bird hole? I don't think the felt would last there especially in the exhaust gas stream. Here is what I went with so far: https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/123/3265/=16urtmc 3/4" O.D. x 1/4" I.D. by 1/4" thick. 955571A550 These are about as big as a life saver and stretch to fit over the stem, I might have room for two, I have not measured my lift yet to see if two will fit. I plan to install them on the stem on the top of the cage were I can get oil to them. I think this is where they should go. I'm open to suggestions if someone has a better idea. I believe the felt washers (to retain oil on the stem) were new for 1923. I have never seen a real set. It will be interesting to see how long these hold up.

Don't have any headlight rims but let me know what I can do to help otherwise.

Greg, Good to hear from you Brother! Ready to jump ship and buy a Buick? I edited my original post with a footnote to see this post since I did the on-line detective work with the box labels Denny gave me with the new valves and the dimensions match up so my error on the BB Chevy and Caterpillar info.. Believe that must have been early guess talking on the BB and Caterpillar from Denny on another project of his. I'm running Cummins and Case Diesel exhausts. They should last. LOL. The intakes are Engine Pro # 01-01847S Cummins Diesel Exhaust https://www.enginepro.com/downloads/EPG_OEM.ValveCatalog.pdf The exhaust valves used are SBI #02084 Case Diesel Exhaust http://www.sbi-e-catalog.com/PartDetail.aspx?PartNumber=02084&PartType=Valves Let's chat about the event this Spring at the Gilmore Museum. Maybe drive over together? Got a Pierce that will keep up with a Buick with a fresh valve job?

Heavens to Betsy, someone on eBay lied to me! I agree Terry, these are NORS. Real Buick valves have the trade mark Buick script stamped in the head too and these do not. Note to self, don't mess with Kansas.