Recent content by just plain bill

The 4 banger forum is a thread found in the traditional hot rod forum on the HAMB. It is restarted each month but it always has the month mentioned in the title. You will find questions and comments starting with stock components to 5 main cranks with girdles, some run mechanical brakes, some...

I have a B crank in my A block and I use a bearing from a older Mini cooper. I would have to look for the part number. I had no problem finding replacement inserts but I think the crank was originally mistakenly turned down to A size main journal diameter so I think if I were to do it again I...

I use castillo's in La Mirada 714 523 0321 Talk to Joe if you can. There is also a shop in Escondido that does babbit and could probably hook you up with who ever does their grinding.

I have a set of model A REM Al rods and they are heavier than stock model A rods. Bob told me that he used the same blank for his rods and just bored the B's larger. When the A rods didn't sell he just bored them out to B size. I'm thinking of boring my set out to B.

This might help

If you carefully file the caps to where you have .001 to .0015 clearance and the babbit looks good go for it because if you find later you might have to replace the rods before a fresh babbit pouring there are plenty of good used connecting rods available. Besides removing .001 or .0005 from...

I use NGK bp 6 or 7

The .040 clearance is what JandE recommends. In a SBC the piston rod assembly can stretch as much as .035 when stressed. Solid copper head gaskets are usually used on high compression engines that ordinary head gaskets cannot seal the compression. Solid copper gaskets are prone to...

I agree with Jim, if it is probably a few tenths I would just polish it off. The emery cloth will just follow the surface and remove material evenly. This would be in a lathe or some other device to rotate the part. I would start with 180 and finish with 320 or finer. It sounds like some want...

Holes were drilled at the center of the timing gear between teeth through to just under the lip on an angle to the rear so that oil would carried to the teeth of the gear. The holes were drilled at 3 equal locations and were small .060 or something like that because some thought they needed more...

Back in the late 50/s I bought a pinball machine for $10 and found $13 in the coin box when i got it open. I then traded it to a buddy for a 30 ccpu which needed work.

Maybe this will help if your distributor has dual points

As A drill gets dull the margins wear, Margins being the outside edge. To properly sharpen the drill it must be cut or ground back far enough to give or have a full margin. As the margin wears the drill rubs more and just creates more heat and requires more pressure to cut through the material...

This may come as a surprise to some of the people that have posted replies on this thread. You do sharpen a drill for brass a little differently. While you need proper clearance at the cutting edge you also grind or stone a slight neutral flat on the face of the cutting edge. Notice I said...

I also have used .060 solid copper and asked a few years back about a .125 thick solid copper . It was very expensive. I googled copper head gasket once and found a shop in so ca that would custom fit a solid copper gasket to my head.