The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Early 'Bolts (1916-1936 1st Half) 1927 Chevrolet Capitol 1-ton -- Full frame-off resto

"Couch time" ?? John does need a break. But, we don't have a couch. He's a man of "power nap" and then go. Too much good stuff to do! Getting stuff figured out - like the radiator - was a real boost. He used a lot of little gray cells trying to figure that one out. Joy comes when it's put to practice and it works!

Today, I got the engine on the stand and flipped over to inspect the bearings (mains and rods). Found some interesting things...

Three of the four rod caps had castellated nuts, but no cotter pins. Cylinder No. 1's rod caps didn't have castellated nuts, just plain ole machine nuts. No washers, even.

The rod caps were all tighter than 35 ft lbs and the mains were at least 70. None the less, per the conversations with Jerry and Dean, once I have my shims together, I will be headed back over to take all the rod caps off and then the mains to recheck everything.

I took the oil pan off my parts engine and robbed it of a couple of castellated rod cap nuts. That engine was missing it's oil pump intake screen ... Among other things ...

Hopefully, I can spend a full day back over there soon and go through it all. With shims ... one at a time ... At least it's only 7 bearings ...

In the meantime ...

While I am waiting for the fenders and running boards to get sand blasted ... and before I can work up enough courage to continue on messing up a perfectly good engine ... ....

The annual Mennonite consignment auction happened (where it always does ...) next to the former home of Stovebolt.com and the current home of this project (I rent back my two-bay detached garage from the folks who bought our farm). Whilst (as the Brits say) previewing the auction, I saw a Plain Community spring wagon body in the sale field. It was well used and mostly junk to them ... but it looked very similar to what Calvin was going to get (eventually ... if I live long enough ...) for a bed. So I whipped out my tape measure, got a few measurements and walked about 300 yards over to my shop where Calvin is (convenient, ja?? I always loved that sale!) and would you believe it, but it pretty much fits exactly!!

Hmmmmmmmm.

Multiple Hmmmmmmmmsss. One being that it could be a pattern for a new bed for Calvin. And provide some hardware like the tailgate latches. The other hmmmmmm being that it was even more evidence that this truck is not very far advanced from the horse-drawn technology that it replaced, and that was still in pretty widespread use when Calvin rolled off the assembly line.

So cool. I thought I might be able to pick it up.

On the day of the sale, the body was in the part of the sale that went at the very end of the day. I had finished early and my sciatica was telling me to go home. So I asked asked a friend who was there to bid on a (non-running) Farmall Super A if he would bid on it for me. He said "sure." I instructed him to go no higher than $10.

Later that evening, he called me to tell me that I owed him $2. And ... that one of my Mennonite friend had come up to him to say that if I wanted it, he had a second body at his place about to go on a burn pile but I could have it if I wanted it.

So the other day, I drove over and picked it up. The hardware on it alone was worth a bit more than the $1 I essentially paid for it.

And my friend loaded the one body I actually bought and dragged it home to his place. I got a break in my schedule to go collect the two bodies and put them over at the shop. The first shot below is part of that logistics day -- I had collected both bodies, and then headed to Walmart to grab Miss Margaret's latest purchases.

So now I have a couple of spring wagon bodies behind the shop where Calvin lives. When the time comes, I will use them as patterns to build a new body. I will use much of the hardware on them, as well.

Very Cool! Nice that you have a Mennonite community nearby that saves all that kind of stuff.

Major score!! Congrats!

;-) Dean

Calvin will wear that bed proud! Nice score!

Well considering the issues I'm running into with the engine bottom end, I'm tempted to drag the whole mess out of the shop and toss it in the dumpster.

NOOOOOO!

Hmmm, that sounds like an activity!

Big day in the ODSS "OR" today! Besides hosting the Mid-Winter Coffee and Donuts Meet and Greet (and meeting the newest ODSS member, Fannin!) ... We set the cab on the frame. We also did a trial fit with the Mennonite spring wagon body (it doesn't quite fit but close enough to look cool for now )

OK!! Over the weekend (The annual ODSS Wrenchfest), I got this project out of stallsville and back in business.

52Carl and Jethro in VA helped me get the engine (and stand and hoist) into the '49 for the trip over to Wrenchfest. Once there, Hotrod Lincoln supervised the removal of the main bearings and, ultimately, the removal of the crank shaft and connecting rods. He found so many issues with the mains and the rod bearings that he took the crank shaft, the main caps and the connecting rods with him back to Tennessee. So stay tuned for that. He may wander in here and tell us all what his plan is. It *may* have something to do with machining the rods to take insert bearings ...

The main hurdle we had to get over was getting the pulley off the crank shaft. Lucky for me, I had a top machinist on the job. And once again, Jerry freehanded a power drill to make holes in one of my engines ...



So Calvin is back in business!!!

Plus, over the winter, John Lucas and 27 Capital hooked me up with some parts, including a carburetor!

Here are the pics!

Fun and games with power tools- - - - -John was sweating bullets while I whittled on his new toy! It turns out there are a couple of candidates to replace the Babbit bearings in the rods with steel backed insert bearings- - - -one for a small Yanmar Diesel, and another for a Suzuki motorcycle. I also just happened to find another crankshaft on Ebay and practically stole it. It's in somewhat better shape than the one we removed from the "good" engine. John's "spare" short block also followed me home, and there's a good possibility it can be salvaged to serve as a backup. There's also two 1928 2-port cylinder heads on Ebay at the moment- - - - -one "new old stock" item that's never been on an engine, but the sellers of both of them are pretty fond of them, price-wise. Both of them are on my "watch list" to see if the prices get a little more reasonable. Fun stuff!

"New in the crate"- - - - - -only 96 years old!

www.ebay.com/itm/116079217892?

And another one- - - - -

www.ebay.com/itm/276395132354?

Jerry

Are replacement babbit rods for these 4 bangers unobtainoum? Assuming so?

John….I’m sure Jerry will get you all fixed up. Might have a stroker kit next time you see that rotating assembly.

JW -- Replacement rods are hard to come by, but at least one vendor offers a rebuild service -- you them your rods and they will get them reconditioned and rebabbited to your specs. The one price I saw was $160 per rod.

About Jerry ... yeah, with what we were discussing, I'm thinking I'll end up with an engine that looks original but will out run an LS-6

A fuel injected LS6, right? 🤣

Boy- - - -Jesse James had to use a GUN to rob people! With the correct lead/tin/antimony alloy, that bullet casting pot we tinkered with a while back can be used to re-pour a set of Babbit rods- - - -for about 15 bucks each. All it takes is a few decades of experience, and some pretty sophisticated molds to get it configured into the right shape!
Jerry

Update on the Rods.... From Jerry (In a another forum post)

"During Wrenchfest we discovered that the connecting rods on John's engine left a lot to be desired, both in the condition of the Babbit bearings, and the fit on the crankshaft. The crank isn't exactly round, either. I've been doing some number crunching in the shop specification catalogs, and it's looking like insert type rod bearings for a Farmall Cub tractor can be adapted to the rods, and the crank can be ground to fit the bearings for the proper clearance. The next time the engine needs to be rebuilt, if ever, it will be a simple matter to just replace rod bearings- - - -not fight with shims and Plastigauge and hope the oil clearance will be right. It also looks like the connecting rod oiling system might be able to be upgraded to resemble the spray tube and dipper system similar to what's on a 216 or a spray oiler 235 without making any modifications that would be visible from the outside."

More from Jerry:

"It looks like two of the Cub rod bearings will fit side by side in the Chevy rod, with a groove left between them for oil flow from the dipper hole in the rod cap as it goes through the trough in the oil pan at the bottom of each stroke. I'll add permanently-mounted brass thrust washers to both sides of the rod caps to keep the rods centered on the crank journals. "Standard" Cub rod bearings are the same diameter as the original 4 cylinder Chevy crankshaft, with 10 , 20, and 30 undersizes available. The two sets of Farmall Cub rod bearings needed to do the job will cost just under $100.00. Compare that to the cost of getting somebody to re-pour the rods, if anybody will even attempt to do that anymore!

"Now on to the next project- - - -main bearings!"

As happens from time to time, Life presents a fork in the road. In Peggy's and my case, the road came to an abrupt end. But there was another road just a little ways over there. (a nice road with great views...) With the help of some really great friends, we were able to get *most* of our life back on the new path.

One of the things that did not make it onto the new road was the '27 project. A new project manager has taken it on and someday, that truck will hit the road again. Jerry still has the engine parts project in progress and I still have the rest of the engine, so we're not completely cut off ... yet.

So .... not the end of Calvin's story. Just the end of my part in telling it.

Roll on, Calvin!

This very old truck was a lot of fun! But in our serious downsizing, Calvin had far to many parts and pieces to bring 700 miles to the new headquarters. It took us awhile to actually place a "for sale" notice in several websites. I guess we just *hoped* we could bring him.

Well, John posted it. And we were quite stunned how quickly we got a response. Actually two back to back. One fella was bananas about the '27 and was wanting to make the deal quickly. We were happy to see it go to such an enthusiastic guy. We gave him lots of stuff that wasn't in the sale flyer. And we gave him the contacts that we had been working in the resto, including the Mennonite's who do carriage/box construction/repair.

So, we hope the new owner will show up here to tell the next chapter on .... the 27!