The Car Which Shall Not Be Named III (1935 Lincoln K)

[Matt Harwood]

22 hours ago, John_Mereness said:

Nice Marmon hanging around back there !

 

Good eye! 1930 Marmon Model 79--one of two sport phaetons known to exist. It'll be available soon. We've been rehabbing that one as well since it's been sitting for about four years. It's getting a fresh gas tank and then it'll be good to go.

 

 

 

[Matt Harwood]

Drained the Evapo-Rust, flushed it with clean water, and it's now running a mild degreaser solution through the system (with heat). I'll let that run until tomorrow then drain it and use compressed air to dry it out. Quite a bit of trash in the bottom of the Evapo-Rust bucket (remember that this was the second bucket I used) which surprised me, but there it is. With the degreaser running through it now, I see little chunks of debris floating through the clear tubing so there's still trash in there that needs to come out. Of course, I'll install some kind of filter on the upper radiator hoses once the car is reassembled and run it that way for a season just to be sure all the junk is gone. Once it's clean, rinsed, and dry, I'll pull the heads and get some photos of what it looks like inside. I hope I'm not disappointed with the results, which is my usual state with old cars...

 

 

Flushing with clear water and then using a mild detergent (Dawn dishwashing liquid) to clean it out.

 

Leftover trash in the bottom of the Evapo-Rust bucket. It's not
insignificant and suggests that the cleaning system did a lot of
work even after I thought I'd gotten all the big stuff out.

[alsancle]

I did it 3 times with my car.  Each time there was less crud,  but stuff was till coming out.  I ran the motor a couple of hours each time.  It made a  big difference in the operating temperature.   I went from being able to run the engine for 20-30 minutes before it would get very hot to the point of blowing over when you turned it off,  to where it stopped blowing over and was running 10 - 15 degrees cooler.

Edited February 10, 2020 by alsancle (see edit history)

[64avanti]

Matt, when I tore down the original flathead V8 in my 51 Ford F1, my research revealed the necessity to spend as much time as possible poking, prodding, scraping, and power flushing the water jackets, as flatheads are notorious for large quantities of sand, casting wire, and other debris packed at the back end of the water jackets. No pictures, but I removed about 2 coffee cups of debris with about 4 hours of work. I used stiff wire, long screwdrivers, home made scrapers, a piece of steel cable that I unwound the end of and used in a drill, and my power washer, along with lots of compressed air. This was to the bare block before it went to the rebuild shop, where they did a shake and bake on it before any other work.

 

I didn't think to use the evaporust on it, although I doubt it would have come much cleaner.

 

The engine runs extremely well and stays well within the correct temp range.

 

Of course, I don't know if this applies to your situation, so take it for whatever it is worth to you.

 

John

[ericmac]

3 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

Good eye! 1930 Marmon Model 79--one of two sport phaetons known to exist. It'll be available soon. We've been rehabbing that one as well since it's been sitting for about four years. It's getting a fresh gas tank and then it'll be good to go.

 

 

 

It would be hard to see that one leave.  Beautiful car.

[Matt Harwood]

21 minutes ago, ericmac said:

It would be hard to see that one leave.  Beautiful car.

 

Oddly enough not a Full Classic, although I think it's much prettier than the Sixteen.

[dalef62]

Would it be possible to flip that behemoth engine upside down during the rinse to get anything that has settled to the bottom out?  Or maybe even on it side, then the other side?  Great job and glad to see the progress. 

[Matt Harwood]

1 hour ago, dalef62 said:

Would it be possible to flip that behemoth engine upside down during the rinse to get anything that has settled to the bottom out?  Or maybe even on it side, then the other side?  Great job and glad to see the progress. 

 

That's actually a really good idea. I think once I pull the heads this weekend, I'll hook up the water hose to the fittings on each side and blast it out one more time and just let it flow out the top. Great idea, thanks for the tip!

[edinmass]

If the junk in the bottom of the pail is magnetic then as they say when having the "OLD 96er" ........."YOU AIN'T FINISHED YET!" ...(John Candy YouTube).........You should place a magnet in the hose where you have the filter/screen. Personally I can't stand to see a screen/filter in line, and never use them. 

Edited February 10, 2020 by edinmass (see edit history)

[Graham Man]

Matt,

   I took my Graham 8 down as far as I could cleaning the inside of the engine water passages.  It was spotless when I was done, had the radiator done, should have been good to go.  For fun I put an inexpensive water filter in the heater hose $20 at the home improvement store (clear plastic should be good to 230F), bought a clear one and started driving, I adapted to 5/8" heater hose barbs to the filter.  In about 20 miles the filter was plugged with junk (looked like sand), put in a new 5 micron filter and drove it again, filled it up about a 1/4 full I ran it for about 150 miles before removing it.  The car runs about 20% cooler now, and I thought the engine was clean.  My guess is the heat cycles loosen up more particles.  I wired it up the radiator support rod.  The entire time the antifreeze looked perfectly clean.  It has been running cool ever since.

 

   Beautiful Lincoln!

[John_Mereness]

16 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

 

Good eye! 1930 Marmon Model 79--one of two sport phaetons known to exist. It'll be available soon. We've been rehabbing that one as well since it's been sitting for about four years. It's getting a fresh gas tank and then it'll be good to go.

 

 

 

Lovely car !

[neil morse]

Matt, I'm a little late to the party, but I wanted to say how happy I am to see that you're back on this project!  I was reading a post in your Limited thread, and there was a reference to "the Lincoln."  I thought, "Wait, what?  The car that shall not be named?" 😄 Glad to see that it can again be mentioned, and I hope it stays that way!

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Glad to see your back at it on this one Matt.  I think its a grear looking car, and once back together you should expect a lot of compliments on the road.

[Matt Harwood]

I'm troubled that my Evapo-Rust experiment was inconclusive. I pulled the heads today and had a look around inside and to be honest, it doesn't look much better than it did when I started. 

 

 

  
Pulled the heads and had a look inside, but it's not much better than before. 
Above is how it looks today. Below is how it looked before I started:

 

This is before. Not notably different.

 

What's worse is that while I was blowing it out with compressed air,
A LOT of debris came out. Maybe a total of five times this much
when I was all done with both blocks.

 

So I spent more than a month soaking it continuously in more than $200 worth of Evapo-Rust but not much happened. Should I be worried? Should I try again? Should I simply fill up the block and let it soak for a few weeks without circulation? Or is that clean enough? Does it even matter? I don't know. This is par for the course whenever I tackle projects, which is why I always worry that even the easy stuff will end up stabbing me in the back. Nothing is ever simple.

[Terry Harper]

Matt,

 

I am going to go out on a limb on this one. Looking at the after photos I am inclined to say it looks like lime and mineral scale that remains.

If that's the case Evapo Rust won't be effective on it. There are solutions used to reduce or prevent lime and mineral scale in boilers.

Might be worth a try. We use a highly caustic water treatment for the boiler of the steam Lombard at the museum.

 

I would expect some sediment to remain even with excellent circulation like you have. Its sort of like how placer gold is deposited

in a river bottom. As the sediment laden current flows over obstructions or around corners there is a reduction in the flow rate

and the heavier material drops out.

 

It also might be good enough especially with the new radiator.

 

Best regards,

 

Terry

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

I think you will get better results with the block full and the engine running when you get it up and going.  I think the heat and cool cycles help,  but it's the soaking that really seems to work.  So with the system up and going everything will be submersed as the air is worked out and when not running it will actually be working better as it's stagnant.  The only way to really test that otherwise would be to set up two small tubs and circulate the evaporust in one and let it sit in the other.   Hang in there.  You will get it done and be happy in the end.

[edinmass]

I’m quite sure it’s better than before..........and, if it were my car, I would fill it with evapo rust on start up and run it for the summer.......one last treatment. It looks like it’s clean, and my car after running it for a few months going down the road looked a a shot blasted casting out of the foundry. I called your shop on Monday.....found out you are not open. Will give you a buzz later this week with a few other ideas...........Ed

[John_Mereness]

I would be tempted to scrape it using whatever tools you can find that fit through the holes.  I am also wondering if the movement of the fluid through has some sort of aeration  factor. that slows down the process.  

 

I have used evapo-rust for the fun of it and my impression is that if something has some scale rust, then I am doing a second 24 hour day matched to often a third; and unless I do a little grinding or at least wire brushing between days then it pretty much does not attack 

Edited February 16, 2020 by John_Mereness (see edit history)

[alsancle]

I'm with Ed on running it hot for some time with the evaporust.   Also,  I would not be disheartened,  especially if you pulled a lot of crap out the of the block.  I wouldn't expect it to look like a new casting, and you should feel you have made progress.

[Matt Harwood]

14 hours ago, edinmass said:

I’m quite sure it’s better than before..........and, if it were my car, I would fill it with evapo rust on start up and run it for the summer.......one last treatment. It looks like it’s clean, and my car after running it for a few months going down the road looked a a shot blasted casting out of the foundry. I called your shop on Monday.....found out you are not open. Will give you a buzz later this week with a few other ideas...........Ed

 

We're actually there on Mondays but we don't advertise it. That cuts down on the walk-ins while we're digging out of the weekend--I'll have maybe 80 E-mails and 10 or 15 voicemails to return by Monday morning. So if you call and nobody answers, that just means the three of us who answer the phones are on another call. Leave a message and I'll always call back. No worries.

[alsancle]

Don’t feel bad Matt,  I block Ed’s calls too.  I tell him I’m on a plane.

[JV Puleo]

I would not be particularly worried. I think it is clearly better. If it is limescale, as Terry suggests, there are commercial solutions to address this. You could also use lemon juice or vinegar. This will have no effect on the cast iron so it cannot hurt anything. This is actually the problem I face with my own car as the ground water where I live is very hard and I'm worried about it eventually clogging the radiator if I'm not careful. I doubt it needs a treatment like you'd use on a locomotive boiler.

[edinmass]

17 minutes ago, alsancle said:

Don’t feel bad Matt,  I block Ed’s calls too.  I tell him I’m on a plane.

 

Interesting that when you need advice from the Sensei, you call and talk for hours..........and the best four moves you made in the last 18 months?????? Sensei is wise beyond his years............🤔

[Taylormade]

I would be curious what would happen if you got a pressure washer nozzle in there and gave that area a good blast.  It might not do a darn thing, but I used that method with my 48 Plymouth flathead and it worked wonders.  I had to do some poking and scraping with a metal rod, but once the surface broke up a bit, the water pressure began blowing the scale off.

[Graham Man]

We use CLR to remove the scale build up in water cooled electrical equipment at work, same exact system you had hooked up to your engine.  The metal pieces (that came out) broke free when you removed them from the scale they were stuck in, sometimes we get balls of scale and rust (they look like little marbles).  It is all about time, the more aggressive the acid the faster it will be gone, trick is to not eat the metal.  A thin layer of scale is good in most applications it protects the metal from corroding. 

 

[Matt Harwood]

A fellow member sent me a PM the other day cautiously asking about some of the information from a previous thread about this car, especially the details about metal stitching. I realized that I had a lot of details there but they're all wiped and while we've talked vaguely about metal stitching elsewhere, it's still kind of like black magic to a lot of people--myself included before I saw how it worked.

 

Shortly after the car arrived in July 2018, my son Riley and I were doing some tinkering at the shop. While the Lincoln was idling in the parking lot, Riley pointed at the side of the engine and asked, "Where's that water coming from?" With a flashlight, I was quickly able to ascertain that it was not the water pump, not a head gasket, not a hose, but a hole in the side of the cylinder block weeping coolant. Oh boy…

 

Just a little drip on the side of the block...

 

  
...which required this much material to be removed. Also note
the crack extending up to the deck surface as well as the sleeved

cylinder and .030 pistons--someone in the past knew about the

damage and just covered it up and ignored it.

 

With some investigation, we found that the block had cracked sometime in the not-too-distant past and that whomever had discovered the damage had hastily covered up the hole with some epoxy and painted the engine block to hide it. Obviously that is neither a correct nor a permanent repair, and it caused me no small amount of consternation in the days that followed. A few phone calls revealed that rebuilding a Lincoln K V12 costs roughly 70% of this particular car's total value, and that's provided I could find a replacement block.

 

The solution? I would remove the engine from the car and send it to Frank Casey in Massachusetts who is reportedly the world's finest practitioner of the arcane art of metal stitching. Yes, metal stitching. Knitting cast iron together without the use of heat. Skeptical? So was I.

 

It works and seems like nothing short of a miracle. There's sound science behind it and metal stitching can save ancient metal parts once thought irreparably damaged and do it without the fear of future issues. Forget what you know about repairing cast iron.

 

The following photos are from a variety of sources (including my own block) showing how the process works. I could describe it, but the process seems so much like black magic that you really have to see it with your own eyes to understand. Have a look:

 

A fresh chunk of cast iron was stitched into place creating a 

permanent repair that will be invisible once the block is painted.

 

The crack on the deck was also stitched and machined smooth.

 

Pressure testing held 40 PSI for three days. Repair is good.

 

How metal stitching works.

 

    
Overlapping threaded studs called "laces" replace the damaged metal and lock into place using
reverse-tapered threads. They can be ground, machined, painted, and finished to be completely invisible.

 

Think this block is toast? Guess again.

 

   

Amazing repairs can be achieved with metal stitching.

 

Metal stitching can save ancient metal parts once thought irreparably damaged and do it without the fear of future issues. There are those who claim to be able to weld cast iron, but they are few and cannot guarantee success. Specialized materials and techniques, including preheating the castings in an oven and cooling them at a controlled pace are keys to success, but it is impossible to know how an ancient casting will react to the stress of welding decades after it was made. Add in oil contamination, porosity, the typically low quality of the materials used in the past, and the unpredictable nature of shattered metal, and you have a process that is far from a sure thing. Many of you have seen hackneyed work-arounds when replacement castings cannot be found, and in many cases, valuable, irreplaceable parts are scrapped simply because there are no alternatives.

The stitching process is very much what it implies, a literal knitting together of metal parts using tiny holes with specialized metal fittings called locks and laces. They not only reinforce the repair, but fill the cracks permanently, rendering an air- and water-tight surface that can be machined, drilled, tapped, and stressed just as if the damage had never existed.

 

It is as much art as science and is probably not for the do-it-yourself hobbyist without significant practice. But as you can see, the process can salvage parts that most of us would have considered scrap. I was able to keep my engine largely assembled, eliminating the expense of a full rebuild, something that would not have been possible with any of the welding processes. Once the engine is reassembled and painted, the repair will be invisible and should last another 80 years without issue.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[alsancle]

Frank is awesome.  When he is gone we are screwed.

 

Although there was a younger guy who posted who also has learned to stitch.

[John_Mereness]

Metal stitching works fine - I have done it a couple times (small stuff though) and it has worked fine with no complaints by my critical eye.

 

I did have an estate with a J Duesenberg in it that had it's head metal stitch - we drove the car a few times and the paint on the block looked a little funny so I inquired about it to the restorer - he said it was painted with epoxy paint for the very reason  and suggested selling car as fast as possible as said it was a pretty extensive repair and while he thought it would be fine he said the car was not the best shape prior to restoration and rest of it was not going to get any better with time, but that said the car is still going just fine other than the paint over the repair looks a little more shaky 20 plus years later - as do a few other parts on car though the restorer was correct. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by John_Mereness (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

I checked into repairing my original engine. Talked to frank and sent him some pictures of the cracks. He quoted about $500 and would take about a week or so. That was pennies of the rebuild price of 10-12K. I didn’t have done, but would have if the rebuild price would have been less. There are several companies hat can do metal stitching and most of them warranty their work. It amazes me they they can fix it crack or hole and it be water/oil tight

[edinmass]

I have known Frank 40 years..............he’s the best. His prices are reasonable. He makes his own pins, screws, bow ties, ect. Fascinating to watch........if he will let you, which he almost never does. He sets up twenty air drills, all with drill bits specially ground to cut at the rate he wants, and then power taps the hole...........try that a few thousand times a week.............it’s basic physics but it sure looks like Voo-Doo when finished. The stories I could tell about him are endless........a true craftsman. Ed

[alsancle]

58 minutes ago, edinmass said:

I have known Frank 40 years..............he’s the best. His prices are reasonable. He makes his own pins, screws, bow ties, ect. Fascinating to watch........if he will let you, which he almost never does. He sets up twenty air drills, all with drill bits specially ground to cut at the rate he wants, and then power taps the hole...........try that a few thousand times a week.............it’s basic physics but it sure looks like Voo-Doo when finished. The stories I could tell about him are endless........a true craftsman. Ed

 

Agreed.   When Frank does it you can't even see the repair most of the time. 

[edinmass]

12 hours ago, alsancle said:

 

Agreed.   When Frank does it you can't even see the repair most of the time. 

IF frank wants to hide the repair, you will not see it. Many of the people who have work done don’t mind the look of the repair, as it just shows a well used and serviced machine.  The hit and miss engine guys show them off like a scar earned in battle. I am of the opinion that a block or head stitched by Frank is as good as new or “not repaired”. When Frank does it, I consider it maintenance. He is that good. I have brought him the most obscure engine or head with a crack and an old incorrect repair. He fixed every one. I handed him a head off a 1909 car, and he said “haven’t seen one of those in fifteen years, they are a pain in the ass, and I need to cut a window in from the inside to make the repair” yes, they cut holes in other spots to gain access, then stitch the access hole closed. One other thing about Frank.............he is probably the most learned and educated man on the planet on how casting was done from the 1880’s to the 1990’s. He knows what a water jacket or passage looks like from the outside.........a lifetime of opening and closing things up. I recently asked him how long it takes full time to become “gifted” at stitching.........he said ten to fifteen years......full time exclusively only stitching. A trip to his shop is always entertaining...........there are some of the rarest and unusual engines in the world that are in pieces, and people want them quietly put back together without anyone knowing about the repair. I routinely see engines from eight figure cars at his shop. Ed

[Terry Harper]

Thank you so much! Great info! I had heard about metal stitching years ago in relation to some work being done

over in England but had not heard much about it over here.

 

Its wonderful to hear about people like Frank who are true craftsman and artisans who quietly go about their

business preforming amazing work. Much to our determent, they are becoming a rare breed. 

[Matt Harwood]

I don't have much more to do to the engine beyond cosmetics and reassembly. I'm going to send the heads up the street to the machine shop just to have them milled flat, then I can polish them before installation. I also have to paint the blocks and decide whether I'm going to simply clean and texture the aluminum crankcase or paint it. It was natural aluminum when it was new, but I see a great many show cars with painted crankcases (silver). I suppose that reduces maintenance and helps keep things clean, but eventually it'll peel and look crummy. I haven't decided yet. Blocks will simply get painted high-gloss black. All those parts I've been blasting are at the powdercoater and will be ready to reinstall when the time comes. I also sent the spark plug conduits and mounting brackets to the chrome shop so hopefully it all comes together at about the same time.

 

Today I pulled out the intake and exhaust manifolds to decide how to finish those. They were originally porcelainized gloss black, which looks fantastic and I do like the way Lincoln engineers worked to make the engine attractive--simple, but attractive. Most of it's gloss black with a few shiny accents. This is the result I'm hoping to achieve:

 

This is what I'm aiming for. Note that this car doesn't have
porcelainized manifolds, either. I'm OK with that.
(Note the silver painted crankcase.)

 

You'll note the manifolds on that engine above are satin black and presumably painted. My manifolds have discolored to a kind of dirty tan, and while the porcelain itself is in pretty good shape, it's ugly. There's some rust on the mounting ears, but it's otherwise intact and not cracking or crumbling. Both exhaust manifolds, the crossover for the carburetor, and the collector are all porcelainized and aside from some spalling and some light rust near the mounting ears, there aren't any major chips or missing chunks. 

 

All the various manifolds for the Lincoln K 414 cubic inch V12.

 

   

Porcelain is in decent condition, just badly discolored.

 

My plan is to simply paint the porcelain using a high-temperature semi-gloss Rustoleum recommended by a fellow board member. It's rated to 1200 degrees, the glossiest high-temperature paint I could find. My thought is that with the porcelain acting as an insulator, 1200 degrees should be sufficient even on the manifolds. It's not high-gloss black like original, but there's no high-gloss paint or powdercoat that can withstand the heat. I could have them reporcelainized, but one, that's outrageously expensive, and two, it's not particularly durable. Eventually, the heat/cool/heat/cool cycle cracks the brittle porcelain and it comes apart. It's inevitable, and today's process is inferior to what they used in the '30s anyway, presumably because the original stuff was full of awful chemicals so it was more durable. Anyway, I'm not going to bother since I plan to drive this car A LOT. Painting what's already there seems like a smarter choice so we'll see what happens.

 

This Rustoleum BBQ paint is semi-gloss black
and is rated to 1200 degrees. Will it survive? We'll see.

 

I decided to start with the collector, which is a big, heavy casting that connects the two exhaust manifolds to the exhaust pipe. It, too, is porcelainized but since it's not highly visible once it's in the car, I figured that would be a good part on which to experiment. I started by cleaning up the rust on the mounting flanges with a wire wheel, but it wasn't doing a very good job so I threw it in the blast cabinet. I didn't want to hit the porcelain (obviously) but the flanges didn't have any left anyway and were pretty rusty. So I cleaned them up. And when I did, well, I guess I should get used to surprises with this car. Check it out:

 

Collector looked OK with paint on it. Porcelain (tan areas) is
still in good shape.

 

      

But once the paint was blasted off, ancient repair (and impending break) were plainly visible.

 

Someone obviously over-torqued the exhaust pipe and broke off the mounting ear. The repair is adequate, but you can see inside the casting that the crack has not been fully mended. What's worse, one of the other mounting ears is about to break off as well. This was all hidden by paint until I put it in the sandblast cabinet--I wonder what other hidden surprises this car has for me? Some inadequate mechanics have been patching it together for many years, it seems. The good news is that replacements are reasonably easy to find and I've already sourced a good one. Not cheap, but I'd rather work with something that isn't already in failure mode. Nevertheless, I figured this collector would be good to experiment on and see if the paint sticks to it, so I wiped it down with lacquer thinner and gave it a few coats of the Rustoleum. It actually looks pretty good. 

 

  
This is just one coat and the instructions call for two or three after 48 hours, so we'll see how it 
looks with a few more coats on it. If it looks this good on the car, I'd be happy.

 

Looking closely at the intake manifolds, I noted that they were painted, not porcelain. They're these lovely little lightweight aluminum castings which weigh a fraction as much as the exhaust manifolds. It's rather remarkable how much aluminum they used in this car: crankcase, transmission case, body, heads, intake manifolds, and more. Lord knows how much this sucker would weigh if it was all steel--even with all the lightweight parts it still weighs in at more than 5000 pounds! At any rate, the intake manifolds are located under the exhaust manifolds on the engine and I guess they stay cool enough with the air/fuel mix being pulled through them that regular black paint doesn't burn off. I threw one of those in the blast cabinet and blew off all the old paint, which vanished with just the lightest touch so it wasn't particularly tough stuff. The castings themselves are in great shape. I removed the two crossover mounting studs and then gave it a shot of the Rustoleum. The sandblasted surface is ideal for paint adhesion and i didn't see any evidence of primer under the original(?) paint so I didn't use any here, either. It looks pretty darned good, if I do say so myself.

 

  

Again, if it looks this good on the car, I'll be thrilled. Sorry no photos of the

bare casting, I forgot to take a picture.

 

The final piece I wanted to test was what I call the "crossover." That's the piece to which the carburetor mounts and it bolts not only to the intake manifolds, but also to the exhaust manifolds so exhaust gasses can heat the carburetor. It has good porcelain but again, discolored and ugly. I cleaned up the rust in the mounting holes as well as I could but didn't touch the porcelain other than wiping it down with some lacquer thinner. It looks pretty good with paint, too.

 

  
Before and after on the crossover. I tried to gently remove the
studs, but they fought me and I'm not interested in removing any
more broken studs from this engine. I'll work around them.

 

I don't like that the crossover circulates exhaust heat directly to the carburetor--that's a recipe for vapor-lock with today's fuels. I haven't driven this car enough to know whether it's prone to problems, but other K owners I've spoken with suggest that they run hot and anything I can do to help keep things cool is a good idea. One fellow owner said that he tapped the holes in the exhaust manifolds for 1/2-NPT pipe and screwed plugs into the openings. Invisible and permanent. Nice! I checked with my 23/32 drill bit and 1/2-NPT tap and sure enough it's almost a perfect match. Tapping cast iron will take some care, but obviously it's been done before. Combined with a fresh set of Remflex gaskets for all the mounting points, it should help keep the carburetor cool. Yes, I know, carburetor icing might happen on cool wet days, but given the low boiling point of today's fuels, keeping it cool is important. 

 

  

Crossover bolts to the exhaust manifold and channels exhaust gasses directly
under and around the carburetor mount and intake.

 

Looks like I should be able to tap the manifolds for 1/2-NPT threads

and use a threaded plug to close it off. Gotta get those studs out...

 

I'll wait and see how these parts look when the paint is dry before I work on any of the others, but I'm optimistic that the results will be better than the flat black exhaust paint that most guys use. It felt good to make some forward progress for a change.

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Gary W]

Hi Matt;

If you are "experimenting" with the broken collector, maybe a High Heat Gloss Clear Coat to give you the gloss look?

Just an idea...

 

Keep up the great work, love following along!

Gary

 

 

 

[JV Puleo]

You can get 1/2" NPT plugs with a socket - either square or hex - rather than the old-fashioned square projection. They will go in flush and you won't have to remove the studs.

[8E45E]

On 2/20/2020 at 7:21 PM, Matt Harwood said:

A fellow member sent me a PM the other day cautiously asking about some of the information from a previous thread about this car, especially the details about metal stitching. I realized that I had a lot of details there but they're all wiped and while we've talked vaguely about metal stitching elsewhere, it's still kind of like black magic to a lot of people--myself included before I saw how it worked.

 

Shortly after the car arrived in July 2018, my son Riley and I were doing some tinkering at the shop. While the Lincoln was idling in the parking lot, Riley pointed at the side of the engine and asked, "Where's that water coming from?" With a flashlight, I was quickly able to ascertain that it was not the water pump, not a head gasket, not a hose, but a hole in the side of the cylinder block weeping coolant. Oh boy…

 

Just a little drip on the side of the block...

 

  
...which required this much material to be removed. Also note
the crack extending up to the deck surface as well as the sleeved

cylinder and .030 pistons--someone in the past knew about the

damage and just covered it up and ignored it.

 

With some investigation, we found that the block had cracked sometime in the not-too-distant past and that whomever had discovered the damage had hastily covered up the hole with some epoxy and painted the engine block to hide it. Obviously that is neither a correct nor a permanent repair, and it caused me no small amount of consternation in the days that followed. A few phone calls revealed that rebuilding a Lincoln K V12 costs roughly 70% of this particular car's total value, and that's provided I could find a replacement block.

 

The solution? I would remove the engine from the car and send it to Frank Casey in Massachusetts who is reportedly the world's finest practitioner of the arcane art of metal stitching. Yes, metal stitching. Knitting cast iron together without the use of heat. Skeptical? So was I.

 

It works and seems like nothing short of a miracle. There's sound science behind it and metal stitching can save ancient metal parts once thought irreparably damaged and do it without the fear of future issues. Forget what you know about repairing cast iron.

 

The following photos are from a variety of sources (including my own block) showing how the process works. I could describe it, but the process seems so much like black magic that you really have to see it with your own eyes to understand. Have a look:

 

 

A fresh chunk of cast iron was stitched into place creating a 

permanent repair that will be invisible once the block is painted.

 

 

The crack on the deck was also stitched and machined smooth.

 

 

Pressure testing held 40 PSI for three days. Repair is good.

 

How metal stitching works.

 

    
Overlapping threaded studs called "laces" replace the damaged metal and lock into place using
reverse-tapered threads. They can be ground, machined, painted, and finished to be completely invisible.

 

Think this block is toast? Guess again.

 

   

Amazing repairs can be achieved with metal stitching.

 

Metal stitching can save ancient metal parts once thought irreparably damaged and do it without the fear of future issues. There are those who claim to be able to weld cast iron, but they are few and cannot guarantee success. Specialized materials and techniques, including preheating the castings in an oven and cooling them at a controlled pace are keys to success, but it is impossible to know how an ancient casting will react to the stress of welding decades after it was made. Add in oil contamination, porosity, the typically low quality of the materials used in the past, and the unpredictable nature of shattered metal, and you have a process that is far from a sure thing. Many of you have seen hackneyed work-arounds when replacement castings cannot be found, and in many cases, valuable, irreplaceable parts are scrapped simply because there are no alternatives.

The stitching process is very much what it implies, a literal knitting together of metal parts using tiny holes with specialized metal fittings called locks and laces. They not only reinforce the repair, but fill the cracks permanently, rendering an air- and water-tight surface that can be machined, drilled, tapped, and stressed just as if the damage had never existed.

 

It is as much art as science and is probably not for the do-it-yourself hobbyist without significant practice. But as you can see, the process can salvage parts that most of us would have considered scrap. I was able to keep my engine largely assembled, eliminating the expense of a full rebuild, something that would not have been possible with any of the welding processes. Once the engine is reassembled and painted, the repair will be invisible and should last another 80 years without issue.

That Maxwell engine thread comes to mind reading this:  

I'm almost convince that no engine has to be 'scrapped'  just because it has a crack, or even a hole in the block.

 

My engine has a crack in the block, and A.C. Castings in California says they can repair it.

 

Craig

Edited February 25, 2020 by 8E45E (see edit history)

[edinmass]

Matt.......on manifolds, that require porcelain and you intend to drive, I use Jet-Hot......my 36 Pierce twelve has 24k miles on it, and the aluminum/silver still looks new thirty years later.....I can’t believe I’m that old. They have a satin and semi gloss black. I have a suggestion for you, that I don’t want to share publicly and would like to talk to you about it over the phone. I’m getting ready for Amelia this week, and don’t have time during the day. Give me a buzz at night if you think of it. I’m looking forward to seeing you enjoy this machine. You hammered away and your almost there. Best, Ed

[JV Puleo]

I also used Jet-Hot on the manifold I made albeit in the flat black. I don't know if they do a gloss back and, of course, I haven't had a chance to get it hot yet but the finish is very good.

[Matt Harwood]

I have used Jet-Hot in the past and have been pleased with it. Unfortunately, the best they offer is a flat black and I'm not sure that's what I want on this particular car. They would also have to remove the porcelain and I'm not sure how the raw cast iron will look without it. With the porcelain intact but discolored, I'm hoping that the high-temp paint will be sufficient. Perhaps between the 1200-degree semi-gloss black I'm applying now and the 2000-degree gloss clear, it'll look good and survive. The exhaust on this car shouldn't see more than about 800 degrees at worst, which is well below the paint's "rating" (although I've learned that temperature ratings are often very optimistic). The manifolds are easy enough to remove so if the paint fails once I start driving it, I'll pull them off and do something different next winter. Hopefully this paint survives.

 

It was with all that in mind that I did some additional manifold painting today. First I tapped the exhaust crossover passages, which was easy enough. The cast iron is a little "gritty" but I was able to cut clean threads nonetheless. They aren't super deep, so I hope a plug will hold securely--perhaps a little bit of brazing to hold it in place would be a good idea. Is there a high-temperature Lok-Tite? I'll have to look and see. 

 

Crossover passage tapped for 1/2-NPT threads and sandblasted.

 

Once the holes were tapped, I simply did the same thing that I did the other day--clean up the rusty mounting ears in the blast cabinet and paint the primary exhaust manifolds. The porcelain is spalling a bit but I don't know how visible it'll be once the paint is dry and the manifolds are mounted. The photo below shows the passenger's side manifold in roughly the position it'll be on the engine--that surface facing the camera is the important one since it'll be most visible above the cylinder heads. In that area, the porcelain is in pretty good shape. It sure looks good when the paint is wet.

 

Passenger side exhaust manifold with first coat of paint.

 

The directions on the paint says to either-coat within one hour or after 48 hours, so I added a second coat on pieces I painted two days ago. I still have the other intake manifold to blast and paint but with good results like this, I'm confident in the process. Besides, the intakes seem to run a lot cooler so the paint should survive without issues. I ordered some of the high-gloss clear so that will be the final coat. It air-dries within about two hours and can be handled in six hours, but it needs heat to fully cure. I won't really know anything about the final finish until everything is reassembled and back in the car and the car is running.

 

    
Second coat on the parts looks pretty good.

 

So far, so good...