BritishV8 Forum

More pics of winter meeting 2012

Could be the rear of the intake, but the distributor o-ring is not going to be the problem on a Buick, as the distributor is up front. What I noticed was that there was oil inside the bell housing but not on the outside except at the very bottom edges. Could we be over filling the pan? Anyone check the calibration of the dipstick when we build the engine? Didn't think of that while I was there this weekend. Not a common thing to have to do, but since I usually modify the dipsticks on my cars and add oil coolers and accusump systems it's something that I do every time I change the oil system.

Bill, I know the Buick distributor is in front. Just mentioned the S-10 distributor because I thought it was the rear seal or intake in that case.

Personally, I don't think the bottom of the car is wet enough for all that oil to be running out.  Wanna see what that looks like, crawl under mine.  

1 Qt every 100 miles?   Ouch!  

You actually can hook up a pressure gauge (like a low pressure fuel gauge) to a PCV system to gauge how much blowby pressure is registering.  (Don't laugh-- I've seen 7 psi!)   I'm not experienced enough to tell you what readings would mean,  but I should think <1 would be good news.    (There is always a little blowby past the rings, that's how they seat.   But tight motors only read 2% leakdown, so right there you can't read more than 2psi on the pressure gauge, and that's assume it all went out the gauge!  Covers, seals, and sheer crankcase volume reduce the ability to hold pressure in the crankcase.)  


Thanks for the pics, Mike!      Must've been cold... cuz there was too much to do on the car for you all to be standing around with your hands in your pockets otherwise!    :-)

Jim:  what all did you get done?   (READ:  did we get an antennae hooked up, finally?   :-)   )

Cheers,

M

Max, there wasn't room for too many to work on it at a time and besides this was't supposed to be a Roadmaster work weekend, just sort of turned into one. We only addressed the problems that Dan had noticed with the suspension leaking down and a coolant leak. The front bag inspection was because Steve had one of his bags rub through and knew that we should check the Roadmaster for similar problems. Normal procedure for the testing period on a new product. Good idea about checking crankcase pressure, we could be forcing the oil out similar to what we found on Phillips RV8 race car. It was a bit chilly in the shop, around the low 50s down on the lower level, but quite comfortable up on top the office. That's where we all eventually settled for the last of the beer that day.
I hope we can get the oil useage figured out before the Power Tour, no one will want to follow us if we're spewing out oil like the Exxon Valdize.

Bill/Steve/Jim:

Is Bill now officially in charge?  

How are we doing for Money?

Was there any "passing of the hat" at the Gathering?

Either way, is it worth doing an 'all call" to all us lurkers on the List here to generate the last bit of funds to get the car finished?
[I'm sure we'd do the same in Palestine, but wondering if we should wait that long?]

I happily throw in the first $20 and challenge everyone else here to do the same!  

Where am I sending the cheque?   :-)

Max

I'm good for $20.

No Max, I'm not in charge of anything except trying to facilitate the movement of the car to all the people who were part of the effort. There wasn't a passing of the hat this weekend. Don't know what the treasury balance is,. Steve can tell us that, but we didn't spend any money this weekend, I ponied up the cash for the battery and other parts myself. As I told Jim some weeks back, I wasn't able to give much support in the first few years, but now am a little better off with more disposable income so I'm glad to pitch in when needed. At this point it appears that the car is basically finished and the only expense we should have is just fuel and oil, althoug the later might get expensive if we can't find the cause of it's high consumption. Carl and Dan did figure out the cause of the speedometer being off and are working on getting the correct wiring to set it up. Still no antenna that I know of. At this point I'd say send any contributions to Steve DeGroat until we have a meeting in Palestine and elect a new treasurer.
Thanks to you and Rick, all donations will definitely go to the car and it's maintenance needs.

No antenna, but I did get a patch cord to hook an auxiliary device into that port.  I was able use my new iPhone to access SiriusXM for the drive to and from Florence.  Carl, you might want to bring an iPod or something.  The CD player works well too.

No response from the list on the SW Speedo calibration plug/wires?

Stewart Warner is sending me the calibration button via UPS

Good work Dan. It may be rather difficult to get the bracket out of the way enough to install it. Worst case though the dashboard isn't really all that hard to unbolt.

Jim

Glad you found one.  I looked all over the internet...no luck.

MG Roadmaster is alive & well in East Tennessee!  Made the trip from South Charleston WV without incident. Didn't even run out of gas, even though I drove it for 10 miles with the fuel gauge on E.  Took 13.2 gallons to fill it up.  Only averaged 15.5 mpg cruising between 55 & 75mph. I'll check it again in the morning, but it looks like it is down a smidge over one quart for 225 miles.  Hopefully, oil consumption is improving.

Carl and Mitchell picking the car up in West Virginia on Saturday 3-3-2012

That is indeed good news, the mileage is reasonable for that engine and might improve a bit as the engine breakes in better and the oil consumption is really good news. We'll know more when Carl gets through with it. The next few months are going to be a blast for you guys I'm sure and we're also getting great PR for the project. Thanks to all who have volunteered their time to make this all happen.

We wondered if they came to your house. That's a good looking boy Carl's got there, isn't he?

Jim

He was quite impressed with the car too!

QuoteThat's a good looking boy Carl's got there, isn't he?

Yep, tho' he needs to grow the trademark Floyd 'stache.

Gets his looks from his momma...drives like his daddy.  

QuoteWe'll know more when Carl gets through with it.

Doubtful.  I'm just trying not to break it. The car's got a busy schedule.

>Gets his looks from his momma...drives like his daddy.

Pretty good combination I'd say. Probably better than the other way around anyway

It ain't all THAT delicate. Have fun.

Jim

Guess I'll break the news and save Carl the trouble. Our first component broke today. Nothing major, no injuries and only minimal damage, the worst of which may have been to Carl's psyche. Anyway, the allthread holding the air cleaner broke. This should not come as a surprise, we had been really cranking that big nut down tight in order to keep things from moving around and the weight of that big casting got the best of it and broke it off right under the nut at the carb air horn. I think Carl should be able to get the end out without too much trouble as it was just finger tight before the nut was tightened. We talked about using either stainless or grade 8 allthread to replace it, and maybe finding some way to put a hairpin in the top of the post that keeps the air cleaner from turning for a safety. That would mean an access hole of some sort but I'm thinking it would be a good idea.

The big nut is gone of course. Maybe I can make another one from memory.

Jim

Jim you might consider finding a stud that would fit instead of all thread, even grade 8. I never thought about it before but one of my racing buddies described all thread as just a stack of stress points linked together and wouldn't consider using even grade 8 on any part of a race car. (I was going to bolt down the ballest weights with it)  If we can't find a 1/4" stud then we could use a grade 8 bolt with the right length shank and cut the head off and thread the top part as needed.

+1  Few things are as cheesy as allthread. How about an Allen head bolt from the top?

Does the Roadmaster carry its own tool box? Seems like it should have one, because even very simple issues like this one require tools to remedy. I'll volunteer the first tool... an American made four-way (blade/Phillips) screwdriver with a British Racing Green handle.