poor bay-B

pat in Santa Cruz

pat in Santa Cruz

Well-known member
the aforementioned B /Miller engine. It had been assembled by an unknown builder with the rocker arms oil line blocked. It was a fresh rebuild with a very worn out original Miller head bolted on top. The new owners kid took it out with only a few miles on it and ran it hard at 65 mph ( no overdrive). It got noisier and noisier, but the kid, being a newbie, thought all old engines sounded that way.

The valve guides were more worn than I have ever seen. The rockers seized after hammering a stuck valve or two until the rocker faces were indented about .100. Then the valves that were bent and stuck open from the seized rockers slammed into the pistons. One piston broke into pieces. A skirt slid down the cylinder and hit the counterweight as it passed the crankcase, pushing the skirt out through the case. The block was destroyed. The rods were all bent. The crank was salvageable.

We found a new block, sent it to Rich Fallucca. Steve Serr rebuilt the rocker assembly. Our machinist installed new seats, guides and valves. Jim Brierly ground the cam. All of these guys did excellent work. We should have the engine running tomorrow. A hard lesson to learn for a newbie. Hopefully he learned something.

one thing I am curious about...see the boss on the lower left crankcase in the first pic?? what is that?? I have never seen a B engine with that boss.

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GEDC0445 by tiopato2000, on Flickr

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GEDC0460 by tiopato2000, on Flickr

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GEDC0455 by tiopato2000, on Flickr
 
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Somewhere on the V-8 board and on the HAMB I posted the patent material on that Vac assist. There are several features sometimes found on early '32's relating to it... a huge vacuum bung on early B manifolds and clutch levers with an extral linkage hole come to mind. Apparently it came very close to production.
 
If your gonna scrap that "destroyed" block I'll come-up and take it off your hands. I see a repairable block.
 
Bruce, Isn't there a firewall feature that allowed some part of this system to attach there? Bob
Bruce Lancaster said:
Somewhere on the V-8 board and on the HAMB I posted the patent material on that Vac assist. There are several features sometimes found on early '32's relating to it... a huge vacuum bung on early B manifolds and clutch levers with an extral linkage hole come to mind. Apparently it came very close to production.
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columbiA said:
If that hole on the side is the only damage to the block,then it is very repairable.
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I'm sure it can be repaired. But the cylinders will have to be sleeved, as they are scored, deeply scored in two and already at .125 over. We found a good block for less than the cost of sleeving and repairing the old one. The customer wants it back.
 
Mike V. Florida said:
JB Weld and duct tape!:p
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back in the early 70's, my buddy had a '35 International pickup with a similar hole under #2. It had been patched with a hand hammered piece of 1/8th inch aluminum with a hand cut gasket and a ring of machine screws to hold it. Ran like a dream, with no oil leaks.

OTOH, I tore into a 32 Packard with a new but stuck engine last year. It looked great from the outside, but when the pan came off we found a huge hole under #2 that had been JB welded, bondo'd and painted. The main bearing boss had been bent out of alignment so badly when that rod punched through the crankcase, that when the caps were tightened, the crankshaft bound.
 
Yes, the block is an early '32, like the one I am running in my Bonneville engine. The block is definitely savable, I'm running one in my tudor that had more damage than yours. Many '32 owners don't even know that there is a difference in early firewalls, for the clutch vacuum assist that never went into production.
 
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