66 122 - The car I shouldnt keep but like too much

[Jack]

Muffler looks great

finally you noticed

with how well things went with my 220 yesterday I got motivated enough to try and fix this car....
I been having weird detonation issues between 40-100%throttle. The car would just fall on its face and engine ran like shit. In all other conditions it ran fine, like really well. Idle, power etc all were fine

I initially thought it might be my Mallory distributor so I got a 123 one. Installed 123, adjusted valves, tuned carbs, I even washed it.... Nothing helped. During valve adjustment Jimmy saw #3 exhaust valve lifter not going up and down much. Well I have a K cam so I got nothing to lose by swapping that in...

Jimmy and I pulled the head... what we found was SHOCKING

#3 cylinder head gasket was slightly out of shape, looks to have been like that for a while

Lobe for #3 cylinder cam was almost flat (this is where a lobe should be)

but the craziest of all was #4 exhaust valve was smoked!!

One head bolts broke in the block. Block looks to be a recent rebuild, engine inside is super clean and pistons are all +.40
I tried to weld out the broken piece but no bueno... the block has to come out and it will go to a machine shop

but this is a good time to swap in a B20 with an efi head that came with my 220

(that's my 1890s copper clad bathtub. Someone did a poor restoration on, I got it for a steal and are in the process of stripping paint, and fixing the copper. This one came out of a Pullman rail car back in the day. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-copper-lined-bathtub-bath-tub-404920113)

B18 on the ground, B20 turned over to put in a K cam and clean things up. Best of all this too looks like a really recent rebuild. New mains, new fiber timing, really clean inside. But Im going to swap in the steel penta gears out of the B18

 

[James M]

I would like to echo the insanity that is how well this car ran outside of under higher load. Idle, tuning the carbs, light load and revving it responded perfectly. Then you'd floor it and I thought sometime was gonna come through the floorboards and take out my toes

 

[Jack]

Started to prep for paint. Whoever repainted this engine did a crappy job, paint is cracking everywhere but my go-to method of using oven cleaner only cleaned grease off.

did some scraping

then I remembered I have some Stormy Daniels grade aircraft stripper

cleaned that off, used a wire wheel, sprayed the other side and called it a day

thinking about running an 8 bladed fan

 

[James M]

thinking about running an 8 bladed fan

90% More cooling = 10% coolant capacity requirement

Might have to burn the oil out of the block with some map gas so the paint stays better this time. I'd bet the last guy used spraypaint

 

[Jack]

waiting on parts and then doing other house projects really set me back but I got some things done today. New isky lifter and pushrods with a K cam
jimmy and my gf came over to help
stripped

started to dress it up with powder coated parts. Used all restored hardware too

it's in

 

[R32RennSport]

Looking really good there. Looking forward to see this on the move again.

 

[James M]

I too am looking forward to seeing this car on the road (being left in my dust at table mountain)

 

[Jack]

Looking really good there. Looking forward to see this on the move again.

thanks, would have been much sooner but I had my hands in my house projects, Gf's house projects, land rover and other volvos

I too am looking forward to seeing this car on the road (being left in my dust at table mountain)

*left in a could of blowby smoke

I rebuilt the worst M41 I have a while ago and it's just been sitting on the shelf. Today I finished rebuilding the worst overdrive I have and got them mounted together.

 

[Jack]

yesterday I installed the transmission the hard way, on my back and bench-pressed it into place... I should have just raised the car higher and got my trans jack to help ... (no not me in woman's clothing)

today I got some parts on the engine

 

[James M]

It coming down for Davis 2023?

 

[evolvo67]

OK, so I'm an ass hat. Engine looks fantastic, but couldn't you have at least wiped down the hole it's sitting in? What are you going to do about that single circuit brake master?

 

[James M]

OK, so I'm an ass hat. Engine looks fantastic, but couldn't you have at least wiped down the hole it's sitting in? What are you going to do about that single circuit brake master?

Don't bring that up, it's a touchy subject.

Tldr it will happen eventually but this car has to work again before other projects can get done.

 

[Jack]

It coming down for Davis 2023?

No, I wont have time to finish it. dont care to enter the show but would be fun on the drive

OK, so I'm an ass hat. Engine looks fantastic, but couldn't you have at least wiped down the hole it's sitting in? What are you going to do about that single circuit brake master?

thank you, engine bay is clean but stained from all the years of neglect, I even wax it sometimes.
repainting the engine bay is way down the list, I have lots of parts just waiting to be installed (ie fully rebuilt and powdercated front suspension, heater box etc) but other projects (cars, house, work) come first

I don't have a problem with a single circuit master, maybe Im foolish...

Don't bring that up, it's a touchy subject.

Tldr it will happen eventually but this car has to work again before other projects can get done.

SHUT THE HELL UP JIMMY

but yeah it's easy to go down the rabbit hole...Im good at starting 200 projects at once

 

[Jack]

I was trying to get it to start yesterday but after blowing out a plug I realized my distributor gear was 180 off. Im going to make some plug covers at work using the cnc plasma table we got

today after fixing the distributor gear it started right up on the first try

https://imgur.com/DQYqJ6d

set the timing, tuned the carbs (rejetted for b20) and took it for a drive. runs so smooth now! The B18 must have had a valve issue for a long time, I always had a hard time adjusting the rear carburetor but it was easy today.


One small oil leak from the valve cover but the screws were loose. I got a long list of what needs to be done next but im going to start with a wash tomorrow

 

[James M]

He's lying, I did all the work as he sat back and watched.

Can confirm, feels like a different car to ride in now.

 

[hiperfauto]

Installing the distributor drive gear 180° out is a common mistake. When the dots on the timing gears are lined up the engine is at TDC #4, not #1.

Use 7/8" welch plugs on the injector ports. When installed properly they won't pop out very easily. It's still a good idea to put a cover over them though.

Expansion plug 7/8\

...

vp-autoparts.com

 

[1968 volvo]

Beautiful!

 

[Jack]

Installing the distributor drive gear 180° out is a common mistake. When the dots on the timing gears are lined up the engine is at TDC #4, not #1.

Use 7/8" welch plugs on the injector ports. When installed properly they won't pop out very easily. It's still a good idea to put a cover over them though.

Expansion plug 7/8\

...

vp-autoparts.com

Now you tell me! Desiged some plug covers at work and I should get them cut out tomorrow

Beautiful!

Thank you

did about 200 miles this weekend. I now need to tidy up the interior and hook up the overdrive

anyone know how to hook up the hazard switch ? The one that came in the car is similar and has four blue wires coming out of it. I cant remeber where it attached to

 

[Jack]

today
powdercoated my horn button. This was a proof of concept, I have to mask off everything before blasting and then again everything before applying powder

cleaned the contacts and replaced the sponge

replaced hardware and installed it (it's been off for over a year)

The wheel was another prototype in seeing how to restore it with epoxy powder. The first two wheels I fixed the cracks, sanded smooth and then applied powder. They both bubbled up in the oven and got trashed. This wheel I didnt fix the cracks but I got the curing time and temp right. It's been about 2 years and the wheel looks and feels like new. Nice thing about powder is I can layer it hiding the various imperfections.

(I used this process to restore my 1958 land rover wheel that was basically trash)

 

[Jack]

Today I made my injector hole covers, these will go on after I get my plugs from vp. Seems like everyone like amazon only had the deep ones and not the flush style.
1/4 steel, cnc plasma makes the holes a little weird as the material thickness goes up. Im going to make some extras if anyone is interested.