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

[Walt G]

Despite the cost - this will be a very very good Christmas for all the Harwoods. SO very happy to read the good news my friend. The pleasure you will get back when you are cruising down the road, knowing the car is "sound"  and a piece of history is preserved is beyond description. I had that experience with two of my cars - the 31 Franklin and 41 Packard when I owned them and they drove faultlessly for decades.  Miles of smiles await you.

Walt

[EmTee]

Matt, I think you have finally turned the corner on this one - Merry Christmas!

[dalef62]

Merry Christmas to you Matt!  You deserve it!!!

[keiser31]

SWEEEEEEEET!

[TexRiv_63]

Great news, that is a work of art in a million pieces!

[Matt Harwood]

So we're back in the shop getting things ready to reassemble the engine. It really helps having a finish line within sight, but there's always so much to do. Today I wanted to prep parts for the powdercoater and finish the exhaust manifolds by blocking the carburetor crossover. Nothing challenging and all things you've seen me do here already. But having a good day in the shop was something I needed to lift my spirits, so it felt great to be back at work.

 

First, a big thank you to my friends at TP Tools, Fred and Bob. I bought my blast cabinet maybe 15 years ago and have used it mercilessly ever since. It stopped working a few weeks ago, which is partly why today's work isn't already done. I was pretty bummed. Melanie was going to buy me a new one for Xmas, but given that I'm getting a new engine and fresh cosmetics on my daily driver Buick TourX, another expensive gift isn't really in the cards. Instead, I called the guys at TP Tools and they stood behind a product they sold me 15 years ago. They diagnosed my problem, figured out what parts I needed (I paid for them, of course), and shipped them to me in a matter of days. Now it works as good as new. It was just incredible service, which is what you should expect from them. So that's my one and only shameless product plug--TP Tools rocks and they've earned my business.

 

Anyway, my spare engine came with a whole lot of useful parts that I decided to refinish even though I have most of the parts from my first engine already refinished on the shelf. One, spares never hurt. Two, the powdercoat on some of the other parts was damaged by the heat of the test runs and the constant coolant spillage. And three, I want to refinish a few parts differently. For instance, my original fan is simply all gloss black. This second fan I am going to polish the aluminum blades and powdercoat the hub gloss black and then I'll decide which one I prefer. I'm also thinking I'll get rid of the heater under the dash, which not only looks like crap but requires all kinds of hoses running through the engine bay. Someone modified one of my water necks for the heater hose return, but now that I have spares that aren't modified, I can install those for a cleaner look. And if I change my mind, it's easy enough to swap them out.

 

Never much cared for the crooked heater

box under the dash.

 

Or the heater hoses draped over the engine.

I have an alternative but I'm not sure a heater

is something I'm going to need or use.

 

So into the blast cabinet everything went. Most cleaned up easily, although the previously powdercoated parts like the water necks were SERIOUSLY tough to clean. That's actually good news--I want this stuff to last.

 

Clean parts ready to go to powdercoat. Manifolds

ready to be installed.

 

Next up was plugging the crossover holes on the exhaust manifolds. The intake manifold sits right on top of the exhaust and exhaust gasses cross right under the carburetor, adding a lot of heat to the intake tract. My friend and Lincoln expert Gary at the Canton Classic Car Museum said that they always tap and plug the crossover, so that's what I did. And this time, I only tapped the holes about 3/4 of the way so that the plug would fit snugly without going all the way through into the manifold. Instead, it fits tightly without any assistance. Add in the new Remflex gaskets I had made without a hole for the crossover, and that problem is SOLVED.

 

      

Manifold crossovers plugged and ready to be installed.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

There was another curious detail from the replacement engine. On my original engine, the external water manifolds are bronze, but on the replacement engine (which is a 1936) they appear to be cast iron. Bronze is obviously better for coolant so I'll stick with the 1935 pieces, but I wonder if that was an invisible cost-cutting measure by Lincoln as the Depression wore on?

 

  

[edinmass]

Everything looks great. I do NOT like those wrist pin clips. I have seen them come out of a V-12 Packard on two different occasions. (I didn’t build them, just cleaned up the mess.) I like the spiral lock clips. Looking forward to a ride soon. Was in town on Thursday but didn’t have any extra time to stop by the shop. I should be back out in early March, see you then. 👍

[Matt Harwood]

Apparently Frank and Greg decided to work through the holidays, because the engine is almost finished. Frank called yesterday and asked how I wanted the oil pan finished (gloss black) and whether I have cylinder heads and manifolds, which are about ready to be installed. OK, then, let's get moving.

 

The cylinder heads are at the polisher and there are still a few little parts being powdercoated, but I had manifolds, my new Remflex gaskets, and some hardware to deliver so I headed out to the machine shop this morning.

 

What I found was a mostly assembled engine, pretty much the way I had it a year and a half ago when I thought I could make it work. The oil pan was still off awaiting paint, so I was able to see the bottom end, and they were waiting for me to get them the right nuts to secure the front cover. Otherwise, it's ready for heads, manifolds, and accessories, and, ultimately, to run. They expect to have it ready to fire before February. Check it out:

 

 

Assembled reciprocating assembly just waiting for heads

and manifolds.

 

Waiting for the valves, lifters, and guides up top.

 

You will surely remember this shot and all the

headaches I had here. I verified with Frank that

they got the timing marks right and that they

didn't have any problems with the chain

moving around. I didn't insult them, but there's

obviously more going on here than just hanging

the chain on some pulleys.

 

Rear main waiting for some custom gaskets. It uses

two cork-like columns on either side where it's

straight, and those had compressed and gotten

brittle, so they fell out when they removed the

main cap. Greg will make new ones.

 

New pistons in their bores. Engine actually turns

over pretty easily, even fully assembled.

 

     

Bottom end all assembled. Just waiting for new cotter

pins on the rod bolts.

 

Rebuilt rebuilt oil pump. They did have to

install a heli-coil in that one hole where I was

having problems getting the bolt to grab. Fixed.

 

The only substantial bump in the road that Frank really hit was with the engine's oddball "harmonic balancer" on the front of the crank. The K V12 uses a pair of steel discs with some clutch material between them, a floating hub, and some springs to keep pressure on the whole assembly. I'm not sure how effective it really is, but it obviously needs to be healthy. The whole assembly is held together with studs and special nuts that act as washers and keepers for the springs, which are installed in their own little spring cups. Those studs are pressed into place and their ends are peened over and then ground flush to hold everything in place. It's an insanely complicated assembly once you really look at it. While assembling mine, they found that one of the studs was coming loose--it had obviously been vibrating for a long time and the peened area just wore away. As soon as they put some torque on it to compress the springs, the stud pulled through the housing. Craps.

 

Harmonic balancer assembly from my parts engine.

They already scavenged good parts from it, but

it wasn't usable as a replacement because...

 

...many of the studs were showing the same signs

of fatigure as the one in my engine. You can

see where Frank removed a stud to experiment. Also

note the drill mark that was to balance the assembly.

 

The solution was a custom-machined stud and a threaded hole along with a flush-fitting nut on the open end. Frank doesn't have any concerns and figures that his threaded stud will hold long after the peened studs give up in the future. But the material here is kind of thin, so he only had 7/32" thickness in which to cut threads, so he cut fine threads to give it plenty of grip. The final result is here:

 

New flush-mount nut on the left, original nut

and keeper on the right.

 

I will deliver the rest of the parts, including cylinder heads, carburetor, distributor, radiator, and all that other stuff. I will probably have to spend a day there myself putting everything together alongside them (if they'll let me) and then we'll fire it. I told Frank that he owns this engine as much as I do so we should both be there to fire it up. He said he doesn't expect any issues, but as we all know, old cars are unpredictable. I'm optimistic that we'll have it running by Valentine's day and then I can start figuring out how to stuff it back into the chassis (you might recall that we were struggling to get it out of the frame and our former mechanic, Dr. Francini, had a dream one night and decided to come in early one morning to pull the engine--none of us saw him do it or know how he did it).

 

We still don't know how Dr. Francini got from here...

 

...to here.

 

Nevertheless, we are going to be driving this thing this spring. We are.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Walt G]

Great way for all of us to start the new year off "right" to see our friend Matt have some major progress to the final destination of having a great working car after so much grief. Warms my heart to see my friend in Ohio obviously happy and pleased to know he will have an amazing car to share with Melanie and his boys and all of us. Just wonderful. Sharing the joy.............

Walt

Edited January 6, 2023 by Walt G (see edit history)

[dalef62]

Congratulations Matt, it is looking good!!!  Will be a lovely Valentine's gift for both you and Melanie!

 

[TexRiv_63]

That is all good news, what a pretty sight.

[Matt Harwood]

Shiny stuff back from the polisher! Given what it cost to have the pros re-polish the heads, I should have just let them do it in the first place. I enjoyed the polishing process and learned a lot, but for $40/head, it was worth it to just let them make them shiny again. They also polished the aluminum fan blades and steel hub, although I'll be painting the hub black.

 

   

Heads look brilliant. I asked them not to remove any metal

because I don't know how thick it is. The flaws that

were there before remain, along with some waviness.

I doubt it will be noticeable with the engine fully assembled.

 

 

Fan looks awesome, too. Polished blades with black hub.

 

Once the rest of my parts are back from powdercoat, I'll take everything to the machine shop, including the radiator, carburetor, distributor, hoses, and other ancillary parts needed to make it run. We'll put it together and light the fires. Nobody is more curious than I to see what happens next...

[EmTee]

Now you have to maintain that shine! 

[ericmac]

10 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

Shiny stuff back from the polisher! Given what it cost to have the pros re-polish the heads, I should have just let them do it in the first place. I enjoyed the polishing process and learned a lot, but for $40/head, it was worth it to just let them make them shiny again. They also polished the aluminum fan blades and steel hub, although I'll be painting the hub black.

 

   

Heads look brilliant. I asked them not to remove any metal

because I don't know how thick it is. The flaws that

were there before remain, along with some waviness.

I doubt it will be noticeable with the engine fully assembled.

 

 

Fan looks awesome, too. Polished blades with black hub.

 

Once the rest of my parts are back from powdercoat, I'll take everything to the machine shop, including the radiator, carburetor, distributor, hoses, and other ancillary parts needed to make it run. We'll put it together and light the fires. Nobody is more curious than I to see what happens next...

Oh Matt, you have a lot of us out here in Forum Land curious about what will happen next. And a whole lot of us will applaud loudly when you have a successful outcome. 

[TexRiv_63]

23 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

Shiny stuff back from the polisher! Given what it cost to have the pros re-polish the heads, I should have just let them do it in the first place. I enjoyed the polishing process and learned a lot, but for $40/head, it was worth it to just let them make them shiny again. They also polished the aluminum fan blades and steel hub, although I'll be painting the hub black.

 

   

Heads look brilliant. I asked them not to remove any metal

because I don't know how thick it is. The flaws that

were there before remain, along with some waviness.

I doubt it will be noticeable with the engine fully assembled.

 

 

Fan looks awesome, too. Polished blades with black hub.

 

Once the rest of my parts are back from powdercoat, I'll take everything to the machine shop, including the radiator, carburetor, distributor, hoses, and other ancillary parts needed to make it run. We'll put it together and light the fires. Nobody is more curious than I to see what happens next...

That has to be the best deal going on labor!

[JV Puleo]

Were those parts polished when the car was new?

I can easily understand the desire to make them shine but we are folks that like mechanical things. I wonder how important it would have been in the 1930s...presuming that most buyers had only a passing interest in what the engine looked like.

[Matt Harwood]

6 minutes ago, JV Puleo said:

Were those parts polished when the car was new?

I can easily understand the desire to make them shine but we are folks that like mechanical things. I wonder how important it would have been in the 1930s...presuming that most buyers had only a passing interest in what the engine looked like.

 

To be direct, yes, the heads were polished. As for the fan, I've seen it both ways painted and with natural aluminum blades. I doubt the blades would have been polished but they may have been fresh, natural aluminum that would have had a bit of a shine to it. So while it's a little more bling than original, it's not outrageously so. And as I said, I do have an all-black fan in case it's too much shiny stuff. But after $30,000+ can you blame me for wanting it to be a show piece? You'd better believe that hood is going to be open. Hell, you're lucky I didn't have the aluminum crankcase polished!

 

To the larger point of customers not caring about what's under the hood, I think that all changed with Cadillac's V16. It was designed to be pretty. It changed the game. Luxury customers suddenly wanted to see what their money was buying and perfunctory engineering wasn't enough. There was a reason manifolds were porcelainized, why aluminum was polished, and why wiring and plumbing was hidden. Until 1934, Lincoln's engines were functional-looking with iron heads and exposed chrome acorn nuts for dress-up, along with a few chrome bits. But when they switched to aluminum heads in 1934, they were undoubtedly polished to emphasize the car's mostly aluminum construction. Everything else under the hood was black, so the gleaming cylinder heads were a great contrast. Here's a factory photo, although it doesn't show just how glossy the heads were. But they definitely weren't just raw castings.

 

[ericmac]

And...clearly whitewalls,  double whitewalls at that. What a beautiful mechanical thing.

[charlespetty]

54 minutes ago, ericmac said:

And...clearly whitewalls,  double whitewalls at that. What a beautiful mechanical thing.

Double sided whitewalls are shown on all body styles of 1937 Lincoln K models in my collection of promotional material.  I believe that they were standard on all 1935-1939 model K Lincolns unless special ordered otherwise.  Firestones as seen in the photo above are the only tires shown typically.  

[JV Puleo]

7 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

To the larger point of customers not caring about what's under the hood, I think that all changed with Cadillac's V16. It was designed to be pretty. It changed the game. Luxury customers suddenly wanted to see what their money was buying and perfunctory engineering wasn't enough. There was a reason manifolds were porcelainized, why aluminum was polished, and why wiring and plumbing was hidden. Until 1934, Lincoln's engines were functional-looking with iron heads and exposed chrome acorn nuts for dress-up, along with a few chrome bits. But when they switched to aluminum heads in 1934, they were undoubtedly polished to emphasize the car's mostly aluminum construction. Everything else under the hood was black, so the gleaming cylinder heads were a great contrast. Here's a factory photo, although it doesn't show just how glossy the heads were. But they definitely weren't just raw castings.

That does make sense. I confess to having little knowledge of or interest in cars after about 1930 so I'm not familiar with the mid-30s. In a sense, it is reverting to pre-WWI practices when I suspect most brass was polished though not to the degree modern restorers like. Exhaust manifolds were porcelinized long before the mid-30s though and aluminum crankcases were most often painted with aluminum paint, usually because they were porous. RR certainly enclosed all of it's wiring earlier on but I don't think that was to impress the customer as much as to prevent damage (which it does admirably). A smart-looking engine compartment would have appealed to the chauffeur, if not the owner, and often enough he was the one selecting what his employer would purchase.

[prewarnut]

If you enlarge the plate up front it states "Price $2900."  No wonder Edsel was taking it on the chin for his dad as they say....

[TexRiv_63]

I think the idea of displaying beautiful engine details started with the Packard Twin six of the teens...

[Matt Harwood]

Here's my shiny fan. I masked the blades and used fine-line tape around the hub, then shot it with self-etching primer then gloss black paint. Turned out nicely enough. We'll see how it looks on the car when it's finished.

 

    

 

 

 

[Walt G]

This is not my car but seeing this gives me a deep sense of appreciation and satisfaction that something is going back to the way it was in 1935 long before I was born . Matt we are all here for you and thinking how great this is, both you and Joe Puleo with his Mitchell are my  friends and I value that so much and it is just grand to see both of you are going to have magnificent motor cars to give you miles and miles of pleasure. The Pride of Preservation.............

Edited January 15, 2023 by Walt G (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

OK, one last trip to the machine shop to drop off all the missing parts: cylinder heads, radiator, fuel pump, carburetor, distributor, and all the little stuff needed to make it run. We should be ready to fire it in the next two weeks.

Two weeks to go. I can't believe it's been more than a year. But here we are.

 

Engine is beautiful and basically about where it was when I was working on it. Accessories are installed, valves are in, and it's just waiting for the parts I gave them today. I told Frank and Greg that it's easier to install the manifolds first, then the heads, but they'll find out for themselves next week. Greg doesn't expect any problems, he says he has a "good feeling" about it, which I can understand--do something often enough and you start to know when things went well and when there are question marks. I told them the few details that I know about final assembly, things that I only learned by taking it apart a dozen times, but at this point I doubt there's anything I know that they don't.

 

We're still waiting on water necks for the heads, which all went to powdercoat last week, but otherwise they should be able to get it ready to run. They're going to put it back on my wooden test stand and then we'll see what happens. In the meantime, check out some mechanical art:

 

    

Fully assembled and ready for heads/manifolds.

 

   

All-new valvetrain.

 

Flywheel with safety wire and grease seal.

 

Accessories and oil lines back in place. Greg

learned the hard way that the starter has to

go in first. I could've told him that!

 

I suppose my next entry will likely be when we try to fire it. Let's see what happens...

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[keiser31]

BEAUTIFUL!

[Matt Harwood]

At least I'll have a road map to follow when it's time to put the engine back in the chassis. Went and picked this one up personally today. Very excited to have it in the shop!

 

      

[charlespetty]

20 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

At least I'll have a road map to follow when it's time to put the engine back in the chassis. Went and picked this one up personally today. Very excited to have it in the shop!

 

      

Very nice!  Looks like the 1933 KA convertible coupe I recently saw for sale.

Edited January 28, 2023 by charlespetty (see edit history)

[kar3516]

24 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

At least I'll have a road map to follow when it's time to put the engine back in the chassis. Went and picked this one up personally today. Very excited to have it in the shop!

 

      

Beautiful car.  I want one

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

33 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

At least I'll have a road map to follow when it's time to put the engine back in the chassis. Went and picked this one up personally today. Very excited to have it in the shop!

 

      

 

 Dang, Matt, you have too much fun!

 

  Ben

[Matt Harwood]

The last few parts are finally ready at the powdercoater. Greg at the machine shop called to ask about some wiring for start-up, which I presume means everything else is hooked up and ready to run. I'll pick up parts on Monday and get them to the machine shop Tuesday. And then I guess we start the thing and see what happens...

 

  

[95Cardinal]

Jewelry!

Good luck next week, Matt!

[Matt Harwood]

So close, yet the Lincoln continues to fight us. I was assured that the carburetor was freshly rebuilt when I bought the car but obviously it was either not rebuilt or rebuilt poorly--I probably shouldn't be surprised at this point. But--BUT--it did start and run. I wasn't there, so Frank wasn't going to do much more than see if it would fire, but when the carburetor started puking he shut it down. 

Fortunately, I have a brand new Carb King rebuild kit so Frank is going to take it apart and see what it needs. May as well do it right and have it all done before it goes back into the car. Frustrating but we're getting close.

 

 

Poop.

[K8096]

I think the float or needle valve is stuck is why gas is pouring out the vent on top.   That could have happened by the carburetor being jostled during transport.   

[Gary W]

The float and needle can get stuck just having the carburetor sitting around for a while.  The fuel gums up and can "glue" the float to the bowl.

Congratulations Matt...  you'll have her dialed in soon!

[edinmass]

 

Rule number one when doing an engine job.........DO EVERYTHING!

[DonMicheletti]

I had the same thing happen with my '38 Buick Special on start up after a total rebuild.

A whack with the handle of a screwdriver "fixed" it.

[TexRiv_63]

Sounded great!

[Zimm63]

Well, the fuel pump works.  One thing off the list.