Avanti R2, 1963, refresh

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, Dec 26th. The weather folks are now predicting up to a foot of snow starting this morning so got up real early, like 4 AM to move the truck down to the foot of the driveway. I really do not want to get stuck like like last year where we could not get out for almost a week due to three feet of snow.

We all had a nice Christmas, I hope that you all did too.

Greg send me some more Avanti racing documentation. Wow, it looks like racing parts from the Avanti Due Cento are now available for sale at a close out price. Wonder what Greg will do? Here is his Christmas day report.

"Had a good time with family and friends. And a very good meal.

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Meanwhile........

You'll remember our last episode when I had been offered what was essentially an R-3 engine with a second supercharger that fed two Carter AFB pressurized R-3 carburetors on an R-4 manifold. Not an R-5 with Bendix injection. At a price I couldn't consider. More than the cost of a creampuff low mileage Studebaker Avanti was going for. Could have bought a good Cobra roadster even.

Today's installment:

Nov 21 , 1969 This reply to my letter sent to Carl Thompson at SASCO. Note it came from "J. Grant, Sales Dept."

BINGO!

Not the whole system, but I borrowed some money from my roommate and sent off Money Orders.

The Bendix injection unit was an aircraft system developed for the Granatelli's NOVI supercharged Indy racers.

The boys perfected this 187 cu. in V8 to deliver 837 horsepower. I'd read that for the Studebaker 304.5 cu in. R-5 engine they had "borrowed" the NOVI Bendix injection. I assumed the injection system had been returned to the NOVI Indy effort.

Dec. 31, 1969

An offer from Vince to research the Bendix injection. And another neat tidbit, the compression ratio.

Being overseas while I was ordering , I'd been having parts shipped to my home and to friends to safeguard.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

John and Gregg, this is some GOOD reading. Thanks.

Ben

[Guest festanley]

John,

First let me thank you and Greg for this ongoing forum thread. It has been interesting and I am particularly enjoying the posts about the Matheson engine work.

You are probably wondering why I have posted a photo of a fire truck. Greg will know why. This is the Robinson “Jumbo” fire truck that he restored when he was working at White Post. That brings on the rest of the story. Around 1985 I was at the AACA Annual meeting in Philadelphia and attended one of the seminars. Greg was at the seminar and I recognized him from the series of articles about the restoration of Jumbo that had appeared in Cars and Parts. I introduced myself and we had a nice conversation that eventually wound up on the subject of Stanley’s. I own a 1917 Stanley and it turned out his buddy Temple who lived in San Diego at the time had a rough unrestored Stanley for sale. As it so happened I was to make a business trip to San Diego very soon after I got home so Grey told me how to contact Temple. When I got to San Diego I called Temple and he invited me to his home. That was an interesting visit and at the time he was working on Stoddard Dayton that was in pieces all over the garage. I think it is the same car that just recently sold at auction. At the time Temple was working for Bill Evans who was (and still is) a well-known car collector. He offered to take me to the Evans museum and give me a tour. This was late one evening and he was very gracious to take the time to do this for me. I am a brass car guy and seeing the Evans museum was a real treat. It is filled with all kinds of brass and classic cars. All this is to say thanks to Greg and Temple for making that visit possible. Other than seeing him drive his Stoddard Dayton on the field at Hershey a couple of years we have not crossed paths since that first meeting.

BTW Jumbo is owned by the Staunton, VA fire department and is on public display. It is worth seeing if you are ever in the neighborhood.

Happy New Year,

Alan Woolf

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, Dec 27th. The big snow storm missed us by 100 miles. Just got a dusting of snow yesterday, cold and windy today with gusts of wind up to 50 mph predicted.

Greg worked yesterday and here is report.

"Studebaker Abstinence Day

Today seemed like a good day to get started on another project, one that I expected to get done this year.

Rob Burchill's '28 Chrysler depot hack restoration requires some chassis parts renewal. Took the time today to machine two of the steering arm ball joints. Did pretty good. They are almost done. Made from ETD 150 steel. Tomorrow I need to shorten the threaded ends, part them off at the right places and drill the holes for the cotter pins.

Cold, windy, spitting snow. It was a good day to stand at the lathe.

[unimogjohn]

Still Monday, here is another quick report from Greg.

"Time for more Studebaker bedtime story.

I continued the search for information, any information. Tough to find anything even though it was fairly current in 1970.

The two photographs showing the R-5 engine were in magazines. They served only as clues because you know that when you enlarged them, all you got were dots.

Tried to track down the original images to study. Enclosed is the result of that search. Those pictures had fallen into the black hole of R-5 information without a trace."

=

[unimogjohn]

Here is Greg's Monday work.

"Finally finished the assembly and rivetting of the Avanti seat tracks. And Rob's steering control arm balls are ready."

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, Dec 29th. Here is Greg's Matheson engine report. I hope now he is ready to start with the assembly.

"Good news for the Matheson camp. All pistons passed maganflux inspection. While I have the rings manufactured I will have time to hone the cylinder bores.

Tonight I modified the bore centering plug to fit the top of the cylinder. These cylinders are unusual for their time by having detachable heads. With the cylinder chucked in the lathe I was able to reface the headgasket surface. I'd like to do them all, but I don't know if I can remove the studs without doing damage. Not going to try tonight. Don't need any nightmares."

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, Dec 30th. Here is more documentation on Greg's search for Avanti performance parts.

"Ok, where were we in the Studebaker Avanti Due Cento saga?

January 21, 1970. Who is Airman Ricker?? My barracks roomy there at Wiesbaden. I must have been TDY or just anxious to get more information and hardware, so I had him pester Paxton too. As you can see by the reference initialling and signature, somebody was tired of me. (Or all of them.)

Feb. 5, 1970. Carl Thompson at SASCO must have misread my communication to him. Dick Bennett had already rescued the Due Cento, or what was left of it after it was butchered.

Feb. 11, 1970. After numerous letters to different Bendix divisions I finally found the right desk.

Good thing I wasn't stateside. I would have been camping out on doorsteps.

More to come."

[unimogjohn]

Still Thursday. Boy, was I surprised when I opened up my mail from this afternoon. It was correspondence from Dick Bennett, the owner of Due Cento to Greg's personal blog.

I emailed Dick and asked him if I could post it, he said sure. So here it is.

"Greg, Don't make it sound worse than it was. It was bad enough! They cut the firewall out, cut a hole in the hood to add another hood scoop and installed a CAE tubular front axle. Fortunately these are minor things to repair, which by the way have been done.

The saddest part was his paint job which resulted in the loss of the lettering.

Anyway, just as an update, the body work is done and back onto the chassis. Now comes the tedious task of all the sanding, prep and priming for the paint application. Unfortunately, my body man who is an absolute expert on fiberglass has a lot of family issues and it continues to slow the process. I will be going over there on a regular basis beginning next week to keep kicking and pestering him until he gets sick of me and finishes the job.

I plan on attending the AOA national meet at Gettysburg, 2011 and am thinking of taking the car in whatever state it is in just so people can see it after 48 years.

It will be at the 2012 South Bend meet, or I will be in jail for killing my body man."

[unimogjohn]

It is Friday, Dec 31st. Greg certainly has been busy, me, not so much.

Here is Greg's interesting report.

The last couple days have been alright. Yesterday on a day off, I travelled to the Garber Faciltiy where the Air and Space still retains their restoration facility and some storage. Didn't realize it, but the Smithsonian also has other artifacts stored there.

One of my day job projects is to finish and demonstrate a copy of Langlely's Balzer/Manly five cylinder radial engine. Part of my education is to learn what I can about the players involved. One of them, Stephen Balzer was an inventor and slilled machinist in New York in the century before last. He designed a three cylinder rotary engine and adapted to what he called a wagon. Pretty much two bicycles side by side with the engine between. This was in 1894. Professor Langley contracted with Balzer for two 12 horsepower engines to power his full scale Aerodrome. Everything is a long story, but yesterday's focus for me was to inspect the Balzer wagon, which he gave to the Smithsonian in 1899. I was joined by some of the NASM staff, who'd never seen it.

Also while there, I took time to document some of the Langley artifacts stored there. I'm working on the engine's flywheels, what amount to two cast aluminum bike rims. There are still remnants of the flywheels which failed in testing during January 1902.

That evening, to close a pleasant day, I stopped at a local steak house to celebrate things in general. I didn't see anyone there that I knew, so I sat alone and ate. After the meal, the server didn't bring me the check, She told me that it had already been taken care of. A couple at an adjacent table that she was also serving told my server that even though they didn't know me, they were covering mine too, then they left. I must have appeared forlorn or something. Random acts of kindness these days leave one speechless. And none to thank.

Today. Warm enough to work on the hill. Filled the Avanti power steering system, secured the radiator and shroud, adjusted the clutch, engaged a few fuses, tightened the alternator and power steering pump, reconnected the vacuum gage hose (but it isn't working), secured the power steering cylinder mounting bracket,installed the coolant reservoir overflow hose, added water and using the battery borrowed from the lawn mower , and since the brake pedal was still firm, I started it up.

Started fine, the tach and water temp gages now working. Then, sitting on the floor, I tested each gear and then under its own power , I pulled it out of the hangar. Running for a while at fast idle, it held at 180* by the thermostat.

Way behind schedule, but a positive note to end the year. I also am pleased that the other Avanti special project made my deadline and photos will be forthcoming. Likely next week.

So now it is the final hours of twenty and ten. It has been quite a year. I'm hoping for you that this past year has been a good one, the next even better.

GREG.

Photos of : Avanti outdoors

Casting pattern and corebox for the Langley flywheel rims.

PS editor: I have added a link to Stephen Balzer and his engines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly-Balzer_engine

Edited December 31, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[bhclark]

That's the first I've seen Greg's Avanti?

Please ask him what he was wearing to the steakhouse...I would like to duplicate his outfit.

[Guest stude8]

Since the Due Cento era was in 1962 and that is now 49 years ago! I thought I would post these 35mm slide images from Bonneville of the R5 engine equipped (Studebaker 304CID V8 with dual superchargers blowing a Bendix fuel injection system) Due Cento Avanti. The large man in drivers seat is Andy Granatelli of Indianapolis racing fame who at the time was director of Paxton Supercharger Division of Studebaker. Due Cento is Italian for TWO HUNDRED the speed they were shooting for, it did make 196 on one run but Studebaker pulled the plug on the project and went out of business unfortunately.

Stude8

[unimogjohn]

Stude8 thanks for the pics of the Due Cento. Glad that others are filling in the details. Keep them coming.

It is Saturday, Jan 1st, 2011. Here is Greg's report for today.

"First of the year and a slow news day here.

I'd hoped to get more done on the Avanti. I cleaned the lid for the carburetor enclosure in preparation for installation.

The R-3 pressure box always separated the supercharged Avantis, originally found on the Paxton R-3 engines. So sometimes they also found their way to the R-2 optioned cars. Like this one.

The R-2 engines were equipped with a sealed Carter AFB four barrel carburetor, sealed to accept the supercharger boost pressure directly. With the higher performance R-3 engines, the whole carb was enclosed in an aluminum chamber. With higher RPM redlines and overdriven supercharger pulleys, higher pressures were possible.

I don't care for the enclosure. It is always in the way. There isn't much you can do to the carburetor without removing retaining nuts and washers, loosening hose clamps, and replacing the lid is a frustrating wrestling match when trying to line up the four retaining studs and hose.

I would return this car to the original R-2 system, but I was advised that since I do have the high output pulleys in use, that a fuel leak and fire would not be a good thing. The enclosure would contain the fire if there was one. So I fought with replacing the lid. And now the choke needs adjustment.

It was cold in that tin barn, so that and other work as well will wait for a warmer day.

Not much else construcitive to report. I did start on more Chrysler steering joints for Rob, he needs four instead of the two.

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A couple more communications enclosed.

Feb, 27, 1970 Bill Dredge wasn't dredging up much information for me.

March 17, 1970 Paxton reply to my parts order.

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That's about all that's fit to print on a cold, damp and dreary January 1, 2011.

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, January 2nd. It is cold and windy here today, yesterday it was 60 degrees, today it barely made 40 degrees.

Greg has a good report and more documentation on the Due Cento.

"Spent some time today with the Avanti in the tin barn. Wasn't fun. I lose my sense of humor when working in the cold. I did get the right toeboard carpet installed, then fought with the heater assembly for a while, finally left it lying on the floor.

I also thought to power up the overhauled clock. Found some fuses at the parts store and with fuse installed I put the battery cables on. No clock, blown fuse. Tried it again and same results. Did I mention that this was the clock that I struggled to remove from the dash last February in that same tin barn with the same numb fingers? Anyway, it is now back out of the dash, in a box and ready to go to the UPS store tomorrow.

There isn't ANYTHING on this car that I didn't have to do twice. Except the blower, knock on wood.

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Tonight's Proverb is from Paxton.

November 5, 1970. Words from Joe Granatelli. As you see I was still hounding them for information , especially concerning the Bendix injection.

As I reflect on the date, I must relay that shortly after this message was written, our family suffered a catastrophic accident to my Dad. An on site accident at work left him paralyzed. I found myself on emergency leave, then shortly thereafter I was given an early discharge.

My attention to the R-5 project remained, but my focus was of course centered on family matters. What parts I'd accumulated were still boxed and in storage, even after the loss of my father. Life just got in the way.

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, Jan. 5th. Here is another Greg report that I received this morning.

"Well, not only had I been scoring from Paxton's back room, I had also located some R4 parts.

A James J. Wallace in Detroit wrote and offered me a blown up R-4 less the block. Even though I was in Europe and he had no way to crate and ship the stuff, it somehow made it to my 'ol Virginia home. (I would like to locate him.)

After being mustered out of the Air Force, I stayed close to home, worked on and enjoyed my '64 R-2 automatic, eventually enrolled in a local community college. Their new automtive course seemed like the right thing to do. Except for the family loss, life was good.

March 11, 1971. BINGO! Look what found it's way from my APO address from Paxton. Refer back to Paxoton's Dec 31, 1969 when they said they'd try to duplicate the fuel injection.

Also enclosed was a then current offering of their Studebaker related products. Sure wish I'd have bought more.

This will bring the correspondence up to date until December 2009."

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday PM, Jan. 6th. Snow coming tonight, hopefully only an inch or so, and not they foot they are expecting further north of us.

Here is Greg's report. Finally, some Due Cento engine parts coming to the light of day.

"So my life went by. We fast forward to my lying in bed one night in December 2009 and wondering about a New Year's resolution for 2010.

Something worthwhile and yet doable. Having returned to the Studebaker phase of my life, it had occurred to me that should I one day clutch my chest and then fall face first into the Varsol tank....that stored and scattered R-5 from the Due Cento Avanti would become nothing more than yard sale fodder, or maybe just land fill.

So I resolved to reopen the project, and if nothing more, get the parts assembled into a "thing". A recognizeable thing. Enclosed are a couple pics of the debris as I was (and am still) finding it.

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Otherwise, currently I have been cursing the cold and making feeble attempts in the Avanti freezer aka the aircraft storage hanger.

Other enclosed pictures show that I've gotten the heater assembly hanging under the dash, the underhood heater hoses have been trimmed and forward ends installed. I want to retain the old style spring hose clamps and I'd found five of the six required, went to the hardware store where I bought six new ones (largest they had but too small). During there restoration of the old clamps, I found another and lost one. So I still need one more.

And there's been news this week from Ohio. They are asking questions about the seat job, so perhaps they might be done soon

Pictures of R-5 engine components as removed from storage 12/26/09.

[unimogjohn]

It is Friday, January 7th. Just finished "The Pacific". What a film series. One of the best films I have seen in a very long time.

And it did not snow a flake last night, so much for the predicted inch. But it is still cold, a bit below freezing. Decided I would go wake up the green Avanti. She started right up and pulled her out of the garage into the sunshine.

I found a rubber bumper button in the can full of parts that came with the car. So decided to put it on the radiator support and adjust it so that it just supported the hood. I hope that this would make a better alignment of the hood to the body. On there now was a short bolt with no rubber protection.

You might remember a few months ago I said that the car had obviously been in an accident. You can see in the pic where the inside of the hood support bumper is, directly in the middle of the hood, there is a six inch layer of new glass. I think that this was put there to replace a piece that was broken or cracked during the crash. In the paint you can see the lines where they replaced the front clip, from the middle of the wheel wells forward. Who ever did it did not do a great repair, but it is what it is.

Anyway, the little rubber bumper helped align the hood and it is no longer sitting a 1/4 inch below the body. I also used 1/4 of shims to try to lift up the front corners. This was successful also. Here are a couple of pics.

And I finally have all the pieces of the speedo cable for the 1923 McLaughlin Buick, took three years to finally find the chain and sleeve. Here is a pic of the assembled unit. Installation will be in a few days.

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, January 10th. Getting ready for another snow event tomorrow. The last two really missed us, this time?

Here is Greg's report from yesterday. Too cold for him now too.

"Jeeze, It's cold! Didn't take me long to snap this picture.

Studebaker advances this weekend, but not much. Dave Coco (trimacar on this forum) scored a NOS horn for me on Ebay. Picked it up and got it ready to mount. It's the left one, and it was too cold for me to figure out how it mounts. Bolt through the frame I recall.

Hastily stuck the right one on the fender apron, but not sure of any special hardware involved. Study that on a warmer day too.

I got the paint for the Matheson engine. The cast iron goes gray. To get ready for color, I sanded and reprimed the flywheel casting. I found myself reminded that even though the paint room is warmed, the subject remains cold and paint sags.

Not much to show."

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, Jan. 11th. Going to get snow today and tonight, no one is guessing how much. We are suppose to be catching an airplane tomorrow morning. As such this report may be infrequent next week as I will not have my computer with me. But will try.

Here is Greg's report from Monday. I tried to help him with the horn placement and sent him pics of the right side, but I have no left side horn so could not help him there. Just something else to try to find at the next Studebaker swap meet.

"Life lesson #7

When woring in the bitter cold garage. Make that when working in the dark bitter cold garage... Don't hold the metal flashlight in your mouth.

Pics of : 1. Left horn installed courtesy of Phil Ritter's GPS (Good Phil Supposition) and cell phone instructions.

2. Matheson flywheel in color now.

=

[Roger Zimmermann]

LH horn placement: I dit it right on my model! I had to look at numerous pictures and the sole position which was possible was the one pictured by Phil Ritter.

[unimogjohn]

Quick little story from Greg.

"Ok, more early history just found it's way back to me. Phil Ritter and I go way back. Schoolmates, Studebaker enthusiasts. Mountain Dew and CrackerJacks, etc.

One Sunday morning we (Bob Metz, a Chrysler devotee and Phil's little cousin Rusty) piled into his car and drove to some nowhere place, Beaver Springs I think , Pa. Our mission: to see and buy some Studebaker high performance parts for Avantis.

We lived to tell about it, but here is a picture taken along the way. It looks like Phil is finishing that cigar before his parents find out.

Steve, Johnnie....were you too smart to come along?

That's tonight's progress report."

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, Jan 17th. Sill on a short vacation in Seattle. Does it ever stop raining!

Here is Greg's report from the past couple of days.

You think I've been slacking off. Well I have. Nothing fit to print until this weekend when old man winter let up a little.

With the temperature in the forties and winds on the decrease, I did get back to 'Ol Seabiscuit over the weekend.

I was able to locate all the hoseclamps to finish plumbing the heater. The clock found it's way back from the rerepaiman. A defective coil link or something like that. The clock is now in the dash and the car now has it's heartbeat returned. I really like the personality of a tick tock clock.

I had noticed that the dash manifold pressure gauge wasn't registering vacuum, so while working under there, I removed the gauge. Even though I'm the purist, I thought that now would be a good time to install my accessory gauge. Paxton Products who manufactured the supercharger also offered a line of gauges to monitor what was happening when you stepped on that pedal on the right. So I put the new gauge in the hole, old gauge in a ziplock.

No dashpanels were harmed in the preparation of tonight's photos.

=

Edited January 17, 2011 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, Jan 20th. Back from our week long trip to Seattle. Rained hard 6 out of the 7 days. Now back in VA, snow tonight.

Greg did send me a report last night. Here it is.

"Update on recent 1908 Matheson engine activity.

The repaired cylinder was returned to the lathe. The exterior of the cylinder bore needed a few more thousandths removed to allow it to fit into the crankcase.

With that done, I had run out of excuses. One of the head stud holes had at some time been broken out. Sent to Jim Snyder for weld repair, now it was my turn.

Using the detachable cylinder head, I located the hole center. Setup in the milling machine, carefully drilled and tapped the new hole. Anytime drilling a hole through another hole is a good time to hold your breath. Doing this through cast iron, and welded cast at that.....let's just say I got away with it this time. A nice shade of bright blue, I can resume breathing. It is a nice weld, no holes or pits found.

A curious way to do things. I see that on the other cylinders the head studs were run in as far as possible (there ain't much meat there) and then the ends of the studs have received threads from the horizontal drilling/tapping."

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday evening, waiting for snow. Greg continues to press ahead on all fronts. Here is his report.

"Next step on the Matheson is to lightly hone the cylinder bores prior to measurement. Then to measure the pistons to see where we stand.

And it sounds like the upholsterer is working on the Avanti seats. If I had them installed, I could begin shaking the bugs out of the car, weather permitting."

[bhclark]

I don't see much "weather permitting" anytime in the near future....snow, snow and more snow.

[unimogjohn]

Brian, thankfully the snow in our part of VA is either going north or south. We have had only about an inch of snow so far. But I am sure that our time is coming. It is just bitterly cold for us.

Greg just sent me a note and a couple of pics. He left this afternoon for Salem, Ohio to pick up his rebuilt seats. It has taken over a year to get them done. No way is he going to risk them shipping to VA, so off he has gone for the weekend. Here is his very short report. The boy is in a hurry.

"Seats done, outta here. Need to pick them up by noon tomorrow. Later."

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday morning, Jan 23rd. Still cold for us 15, degrees. Expect snow on Monday/Tuesday.

While in Seattle, my friend Joe, gave me a wheel lock from the teens. A pretty neat little device. I had only seen pictures. It has a key, but does not open. I think that it is the wrong key versus lock swelling. The lock itself is brass. It does not fit the tires on my cars, too small. Probably fits a teens car. Here are a couple of pics.

Greg sent me this note about his latest trip. Here it is.

"Just got in from Ohio.

Good trip. Made it to just beyond Wheeling to stop for Friday night. On to Salem by noon on Saturday. Seats look very nice. Left the door panels for the next installment.

On the return we found our way (I left hurriedly Friday without maps) to visit Dick Bennett (owner of the speed record setting Avanti) in Irwin, Pa. Pleasant visit and followed his suggestion to Rt 40 which I really enjoyed. The old National Highway that dates back to General Braddock's day when his redcoat troops hacked a road through wooded Pennsylvania.

Late at night, the whole road to ourselves, flurrying snow. Single digit temps. It dumped us on Rt. 68 not far above Cumberland and then down the mountain to home. A really nice drive."

[Larry Schramm]

Probably for a Model T

[unimogjohn]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, its Monday, Jan 24th. It is 6 degrees, very cold for us, but I see from other forum posts it is -23 in Maine.

Greg is doing some research on the Avanti engine tuning done during its speed runs. He actually has some equipment used at that time. Look closely and you can see two meters on the dash picture. Really interesting.

Here is Greg's report.

"Photos of the Elliott Carbumeter as used by Paxton for tuning their Bonneville cars and who knows what else.

I will need to find instructions, any information out there?"

[unimogjohn]

I found this meter on Ebay for Greg. Not exactly his meter, but it does have some set up instructions. It mentions sample tubes that connect to the exhaust. Will have to figure what they look like and how they function. I can see that they hook up to the side of the meter. Here is a pic of the one on Ebay.

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, Jan 25th. A bit warmer this morning 28 degrees. Snow and rain expected over the next couple of days.

Here is an update from Greg.

"Due to popular request: Pictures of the seats. Trusted to Phantom Auto Works in Salem, Ohio. I rate them an A, maybe A+ job. Although they had a problem supplying them when promised, they tried very hard to follow my instructions. No wrinkles or puckers, not overstuffed. The seats were not only recovered, but with the tendancy of the foam structure to decompose and turn to dust, new foam was cut and shaped to suit. I can't wait to try them out.

Otherwise, tonight was spent with micrometer and Matheson engine cylinders in hand. Numerous measurements taken , tomorrow night I'll mike the pistons and do the math."

Edited January 25, 2011 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

Still Tuesday PM, now they are saying 9 to 12 inches of snow on Wed/Thur. I really do not think that they even have a clue. We will see.

Asked Greg if he is going to have the rear seat recovered. Here is what he said.

"No, not recovering the back seats. They aren't that bad, I might have to dye them to match the new vinyl which is a little darker.

Also, what I'm paying Phantom for the front seats, doors, quarters and trim is about what I was paying for running Avantis when I was buying them.

Remember, it's just a driver."

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday PM, Jan 26th. Well snow was predicted, and this time it came in. It started snowing hard about 3 PM and has not let up. I think that we have about 6 inches or so; and it is a very heavy snow. And as usual, the power went out about 6 PM. Thankfully, we have the new whole house generator, and it started right up. So for the first time we have lights, heat, and water. We are happy. Reports are coming in with freeways closed, thousands without power, etc. Glad that we are home.

On the car side, I got a package today. I finally found a set of kick plates for the 23 McLaughlin Buick. They were standard for the car. Only took me three years to find them. They are held in place with just a couple of screws into the running board. Here is a pic.

Edited January 27, 2011 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, Jan 27th. A winter wonderland outside. It quit snowing last night around midnight. Looks like close to 9 inches on the ground. Looks like a lot of digging out this morning. After I dig out a truck we have to go check on a couple down the road, Alice called this morning and found out their generator did not come on. They are in their late 80s so will head over there to see what is up. If I cannot get it running we will try to drag them over to our place, I am sure they will protest loudly.

We are still without power, but the generator is just humming along. I will see how much propane it is using. Will be interesting to see what the consumption is.

Just before the storm hit, Greg sent off this report. And he started on another project. How can he have so many?

"It's snowing pretty heavily, and the power has been flickering. Before it goes out entirely I'll get this sent.

A long overdue project, I've had some Peerless throwout bearings to babbitt and machine to size. I'm running out of excuses, so I'm getting started on that project.

They get the cast babbitt lining on both sides of the casting. And the inside of the bore. All at the same time. Then some fancy oil grooving.

They've been lying under the bench, out of sight. I'm still not sure how to do this. It will take some dedicated fixturing. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it."

Edited January 27, 2011 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Friday, Jan 28th. Snowing, but only a couple of inches expected. Spent the entire day digging out and pushing snow. A neighbor (they are both in their 90s) down the road was without power as the generator had quit. So off we went in the tractor. Got their road cleared with a path so we were able to walk in. I took a look at the generator, and it had oil everywhere. Cleaned it up, put more oil in it, and it started. The problem was obvious, a rubber hose to the oil cooler was loose. So tightened all the hoses as all were loose, added oil and she fired right up with no leaks. Of course, five minutes after we had done all this, the power came back on. But we had a good time visiting.

Our generator hummed along all night and never missed a beat. Power came on about 2 PM. So we were out about 20 hours. In that time we used about 4% of our 500 gallon capacity propane tank, which a fill is about 84%. So I estimate that we used about five gallons of propane. I figure that this is not too bad. Most folks have 1,000 gallon tank out in farm country. We are currently at 38% filled so I think that I will ask for a refill when the snow melts and a truck can get into the farm.

Enough of my adventures, here is Greg's automotive report. He has been busy as usual, and spending time in the warm shop. A very interesting tale.

"More time in on the Peerless bearings. Often the tooing required is not only determined by the job to accomplish, but also by the materials at hand to make the tooling. The tooling is so far undecided because there isn't any material at hand. I think I know how I want to go about forming the babblitt, but Plan A is to locate some alumimum bar stock to machine.

Which reminds me, did I ever tell you about the time I had to do the bearings for an early four cylinder Premier? I came up with a quick and dirty pland to form the rod bearing babbltts. I would pour the molten metal around aluminum arbors machined to a taper. These would be positiioned in aluminum cans of the right size so I could just cut them away in the machining of the babbitt inserts. Then I searched the grocery store for cans of the right size to minimize the amount of babbitt used. Found cans just the right size. Vienna sausages! Bought enough to do the job plus a couple extra.

Ate the sausages then poured the bearings. The good news is the bearings turned out terriffic. The bad news is that I found myself in the hospital getting my gall bladder cut out. I'm sure glad I didn't try that trick when I did that huge Robinson fire truck motor. I can see the epitath:

"Here he lies, not too well,

Pouring babbitt killed him deader'n Hell."

As for the Peerless bearings, I will try to visit a local machinist friend to see what he's got on the shelf. Also, I'm going to take a sample bearing with me. Peerless used a unique method of oil grooving and I like it. Spreads the lubricant across both faces with little loss of bearing material. No way I can freehand it and have it look acceptable. I'll see if he can't follow it with a program and cut the grooves for me on his CNC milling machine."

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, Jan 31st. Waiting for another big storm to roll in tonight. Looks like it is going to be a ice event rather than snow. With all the trees an ice event is much worse than snow. If we get much everyone will lose power for sure. It is suppose to last almost three days!

Here is Greg's report for your morning coffee.

"The weekend is over. I did get to spend time on some of the various projects. Made the trek to Rob's place in MD to spend some time with the Stoddard Dayton car and also the project engine.

The Stoddard needs an oil pressure regulator. Mine is plumbed unlike any other SD in captivity. The only part of the regulator that came with the car is the empty holes where the oil goes. Even the 1913 manual doesn't describe it, so I'm on my own.

I've got a plan, now to make up the components and then see if it works. My dash gage registers to 12#. Without a regulator, when cold my test gage can register 85#. I need to dump some pressure before I hook up the original gage.

I also spent some time with the Studebaker Avanti engine. One thing I didn't get with the pile was the oil pan. The Paxton engines came with pans that varied from a six quart to ten quart capacity. I've been trying to determine what this engine had so that I can duplicate it.

Incredibly, I've been directed to a guy who worked for Paxton, the oil pan department. He's offered to replicate one for me. Although the search for pan information leads me to believe the pan department was freesyle and random. The modification of the pans could have one weld, two welds, a fittng for a temperature probe, etc. I think I'll leave it up to him to decide.

I may also be influenced by Dave Coco's findings. He will be in California this week and may be able to inspect the pan on the #9 Bonneville Avanti.

And today I started cutting out the babbitt mold for those Peerless throwout bearings. Photo enclosed.

Oh yes, today I trudged through the snow to visit 'Ol Seabiscuit (the Avanti). Started without much coaxing and ran up to temperature.

Throw in a little Tango on Saturday night and this weekend is gone.

=

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, Feb. 3rd. The monster storm missed us, we got some freezing rain during the night, but that was it. Yesterday, it got up to 55 degrees (almost felt like spring), but today it will be hard pressed to make 30 degrees (20 degrees this morning).

Here is Greg's report. He is working in the shop and not venturing out. If he goes up to the hanger he has to walk through snow and ice. And it is a fare piece especially if you are carrying something.

"Today I picked up some aluminum for the Peerless engine bearing caper. It needs to be blast cleaned before I begin and the air compressor is down with a broken pipe. Maybe tomorrow.

Spent some time on the Stoddard Dayton engine oil pressure deal. I have it laid out, some of the fittings don't mate, so I have to resolve that problem.

Also I have a Plan A and Plan B. The zig zag pipe will fit up ok. The sales catalog shows a loop in a similar line for the 1911 model. I don't know what it's for, so after I get Plan A working, I'll try Plan B.

It took two tries to get a pipe bent with the rollercoaster to come out."

[unimogjohn]

It is Friday, Feb. 4th. Here is Greg's report from last night. He is stuck inside too.

"Well, the air compressor is still down, parts arriving Monday. Good enough excuse to tweak the Stoddard Dayton engine oil line.

Pics of the bending operation and a dress rehearsal. It will need to be tested on the car and then lines adjusted, shortened and ends flared. That intermediate fitting is for the pressure gage line.

The Matheson engine progress? Thanks for asking. The rocker shafts are still out, the rocker arm rollers too. They're being reground, and then we're talking about a quick trip to the platers for industrial chroming. I'm trying to treat the external components for rust prevention. I know the owner likes to polish his fleet, but I'm trying to save him a little effort."

[Roger Zimmermann]

Why is the loop needed? for dilatation or for the good look? I may be wrong, but it seems that the fabricated line is copper. I would not use copper for that application. On my '57 Brougham, there was a copper line, full oil pressure (not original) for the lubrication of the air compressor. It broke when I was at 380 miles from home, in France, Saturday evening!

Fortunately, I had some tools and I did a repair like they do in Africa. I could get back home without trouble. Never again copper!

[Guest stude8]

The purpose of Greg's restoration is to make everything as original to this very old 1911? vehicle. In that time period the "loop" detail was present for a number of reasons. When the two ends were not attached to the same fixed object (engine to instrument panel or other component) the flexing caused by vibration between the two objects was equalized by the loop and was not applied directly to the flare ends of the tubing which could fracture over long periods of use.

Another reason for the loop could be where oil was traveling from a higher source to a lower use that could allow oil to drain from the line when engine was unused over long periods (oil pump internal leakage when static) and during the starting operation when next used the lack of a small quantity of oil at the pump inlet could allow it not to self prime on its own and thus you would have an engine running without adequate oil pressure to supply the bearings. The loop acts as a "Sump" of sorts retaining a quantity of oil rather than allowing it all to drain away during the period of nonoperation if it were a straight unimpeded path.

On race cars all Copper lines, oil, vacuum, temperature sending unit fluid ETC were fabricated with 360 degrees loops between two locations due to the excess vibrations present in competition use. In the attached photo of the 1933 Studebaker Indianapolis car #34 engine you can see at the upper right end the oil pressure copper line has the 360 degree equalizer loop between the engine and instrument panel (through fire wall into cockpit). The other lines did not because they were from frame mounted un-pressurized accessories to the body which were assembled as one "Object".

Last thing to remember is Copper has the propensity to "work harden" when formed and shaped so always use "Annealed Copper" (soft) tubing and not "Rigid" tube that is already hardened from manufacturing processes. Note that "Flare Nuts" used on copper line ends come in "Long Neck" form to reduce stress of vibration on the "Flare End" of the copper tube. If the correct radius of bending and attachment hardware is not adhered to yes, you may experience a sudden failure under way of a stressed copper joint.

Stude8