The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop So you think you got problems.

I had a rod let loose at the wrist pin at 60 MPH. The ole gal kept running when I pulled over, so I shut it off when I came to a full stop and discovered that the maniacal shaking was not four blown tires.
I got lucky since the machine shop was able to sleeve the cracked cylinder. I did have to have all of the cylinders bored to .060 over due to trash scoring some of the other cylinders.
Also needed all new bearings.
I assembled the engine myself and took my time on the internals. I put everything back together and went for a drive of gradually speeding up to 45 MPH, slow down, speed up to 45, wash, rinse, repeat to break in the rings.
When I pulled in the driveway, I heard an on odd high pitch, but not very loud sound coming from the front of the engine. The harmonic balancer had a bad wobble to it that I don't recall it having prior to this episode. I don't remember dropping it, and I did use a puller threaded into the center section of it. I removed the balancer and the noise went away.
I found a balancer off of a '57. It has a pulley which is 3/8'' bigger in diameter, so of course it interfered with the aftermarket oil shield on the motor mount. I removed the motor mount and and changed the shape of the shield to clear the pulley.
I started it up and had another odd noise from the timing cover! A metal slapping sound. I pulled the new balancer off and the seal came of with it, minus the skinny coil spring which is now inside of the timing cover.
Once I took a good look at the balancer, I saw a sizable chunk missing from the end of the balancer at the keyway, which was now also inside of the timing cover. I missed the key by 1/2 the width of the key way. While pushing the balancer on with the specialty tool design for the job,I broke off the chunk. The interesting thing is, while turning the nut on the tool, it was not all that difficult to turn. I guess that after the chunk broke off, the balancer shifted over and lined up with the key and went the rest of the way on without much effort.
I now had to remove the timing cover to retrieve the metal bits, but guess what, I had to remove the oil pan to remove the 2 timing cover bolts from the front main cap.
I destroyed the seal, the balancer and the timing cover without even noticing.
Oh, and I nicked my pristine Desert Cooler radiator with the heavy balancer while installing it, causing it to leak. Radiator shop fixed that for $75. No biggy.
So now I needed a timing cover, seal, and harmonic balancer.
I made some calls and found an old friend who had a complete '54 engine and said I could have it for free. Yippy! Who doesn't like free?
So now I have everything cleaned up ready for reassembly once I pick up the free '54 engine on Saturday.
During this expensive adventure and all of the crazy things happening again and again, I couldn't help wondering if I should consider a different hobby.
One thing that I still have going for me is that I am getting really good at taking stuff apart...
Oh, and I made the modification so that I won't have to take off the oil pan to get the timing cover off ever again.

I must say, this story had me on the edge of my seat haha. As someone who is still looking for the right truck to start restoring, this story certainly makes me rethink the hobby as well. One day I hope to rebuild my 261, but what if you throw a rod after all that work/expense?

How do you prevent such a thing from happening? I have heard this story on this forum too many times to count!

Here's hoping your new engine keeps you moving! Good luck.

Yea this addiction, has it's moments,but ive been doin it too long to quit now!,might as well ride it out,besides ive still more projects to go!

You used up all of your bad luck.

DANG... I suppose now you just need to take a step back and sit down with a cup of coffee and be proud of the work you have done, remember it's all about the adventure.

Look at the bright side , covid has restricted our ability to travel and hook up with friends so we are left with the time correct our mistakes .

Remember , if it's worth doing it's worth doing twice !!!!

Can't wait to hear form Jerry on this one. Go easy Jerry, he's just a kid. I would have put in a SBC a long time ago.

Thanks for all of the positive waves, even the latest post. He means well.

I sure hope that you are right!

I pretty much had just about everything which can go wrong, go wrong.
It was like reading the entire Stovebolt Engine Shop history and having all of those things go wrong. It was a huge exercise in troubleshooting as the problems unfolded.

Forgot

I've experienced too many epic disasters of my own to ever give anybody else a hard time. One of the more memorable ones was a sudden intake manifold gasket failure on a MOPAR 440 pull truck engine during a 6K+ RPM dyno run at over 700 HP. It caused the mixture to go very lean on one cylinder. Even with earmuffs and earplugs, the noise level was noticeable. Good thing, as I heard a little bit of a rattle that didn't sound exactly right. Before I could get off the throttle and back off the load, the engine had blown a half-dollar size hole in one piston! That was an expensive dyno pull, about a thousand dollars' worth of repairs before we could make another engine run! That engine ended up running for nine seasons with only the occasional freshen-up before the truck owner finally hand-grenaded it during a pull, though!
Jerry

Here is a story I sure you can relate to. My wife and I live in a fairly remote area in upstate NY. We lose our electricity numerous times a year that we have a whole house generator. I also own a 4,000 watt portable generator as a backup. I had not run thIs generator in a few years, so a month or so ago, I pulled the carb to clean it out, reinstalled and when I started it the engine went right to full throttle with no governor to control it. Fortunately, I was right there to shut it down before any damage occurred. I’m not sure what happened but figured that I installed the carb to governor linkage wrong. I pulled it off and reinstalled it, not really finding out what I had done wrong. This time I tested it with a drill and it ran perfect.

It wasn’t a week later that our electricity went out about an hour before I usually get up and my auto start generator did not start. I thought to myself the noise would probably have kept me up anyway so I might as well go back to sleep and I would deal with it when I got up, knowing I had my back up generator to make my pot of coffee. I didn’t sleep because my mind was thinking about all of the possible reasons why the generator did not start.

When I got up, I pulled out my portable generator, 100’ extension cord, removed a screen so I could run it thru the window and ran the cord next to the coffee pot. I added the water and coffee and went out to start the generator. It started on one pull and sounded great. As soon as I plugged in the coffee pot the generator rev’ed up and immediately went to full throttle with no governor control. Now, realizing what was about to happen, I started racing out of the house to shut it down, but This time I was not so lucky. A few moments later it died. I pulled the pull starter to see if I could tell what had happened and it had no compression. Well I wasn’t going to get any electricity out of that generator so I turned my attention to the whole house generator. I tried starting it on manual and it didn’t make any noises whatsoever. I tested the battery with a multimeter for voltage and it read just under 13 volts. I checked the control fuses and they were all good. I gave up and went inside to look for percolator coffee pot to heat on our gas stove. I got it all set to go and the electricity came back on.

After having my coffee I went back outside, wound up the 100’ extension cord, put the screen back on and looked at the portable generator again to diagnose the issue. After pulling the valve cover, I found one of the valve keepers had cracked in half which released the spring. That design did not have the top washer and the two keeper half's like we have in our Stovebolts, but instead a single washer that was slotted like a keyhole. I wasn’t able to buy that single washer because they changed the design to the conventional washer with two keepers. I had to buy a whole kit that replaced everything.

I called a service company that specializes in whole house generators, to come out and repair the generator, figuring it was a control board circuit issue. He was there for fifteen minutes. The battery was bad. It showed 13 volts until you placed a load on it. Boy did I feel stupid. I felt even worse when he handed me the bill for over 200 dollars for the service call. And I still needed to buy the battery!

52Carl, these things have a way of happening. Jerry always has good advice and his willingness to help is commendable. I have had unbelievable trouble with a Model B. The ones I rebuild for others have all worked but not mine. Three times apart and some type of problem (s). I could not believe yesterday, all buckled up and gas coming out of pump rod. Managed to take off just the top, float level perfect and then......I took out floats. microscopic hole in soldered seam. This simple but overlooked problem has cost me hours of frustration not to mention money spent on gaskets. But with it goes the satisfaction of FINALLY getting it right. I can vision Jerry shaking his head. Ed

So you are using the parts from the free engine to fix the existing. Sounds like a good plan. This event is the same as 5 years of mechanics training in one day. So it's a good thing, although may not seem so right now. The cost was very low for the amount of knowledge gained.
So as my Mom would say about everything I did, "be careful, that could poke your eye out"

The free engine surprisingly has a significant amount of original paint left on the block. Unfortunately the harmonic balancer is horribly pitted right at the seal contact area. We chucked it in a lathe and it wobbles as bad as the first one I removed. The HB that I broke ran very true on the engine for the brief time that I ran it, so I am fairly certain the the crank is fine.
I have a buddy who has a yard art truck in the flower bed of his front yard, The engine is still in it. I may have to trim his bushes to get to the balancer.

Carl, what size balancer are you using- - - -the small 216 type with the hand crank lugs, or the larger one that came on the 235/261 engines with the large diameter fan belt groove? I might be able to help out. I'm fabricating all-new custom balancers for some of the upgraded engines I'm building, and I have a few originals on hand that might not get re-used. Drop me a PM.
Jerry

panic is right!