The hidden washer

Chris Nelson

Chris Nelson

Senior Member
I had a very wierd experiance with a washer getting into my engine. This engine has been together for 3,500 miles, some of which was at freeway speeds. I was at a friends home for an afternoon and when I left, the engine was running fine. After about a block into my 5 mile trip home, the engine started to make loud clacking sounds. It was at the same tempo as the RPMs. I had no choice but to continue on home. As I got closer to home, the noise started to get quieter. By the time I got home, 5 miles, the sound had almost gone away.
I pulled the engine out of the car the next day, or should I say the next couple of days. Wow, that 36 is sure hard to get an engine out of. I built the car around the engine, never thinking how hard it would be to get it back out. When it goes back in, I will have the front sheetmetal off. I checked everything but in the cylinders. Last look was to remove the heads and there it was. 2 small pieces of 3/8 lockwasher. I think the piston is salvagable as the deepest divot is .020 deep. I can grind that smooth. I weighed the piston and rod in grams and will compare to see if I have changed the weight at all. What a freak thing to have occured. It waited 3,500 miles to show up. I can only assume that I dropped one of the intake washers when I was putting it together.
 
Harder to nail down is the question of where the extra nuts and bolts go that are left over after a rebuild!
 
Hi Chris my last name is also Nelson, small world. I had a situation with my 1929 Model A. It would drive great for a while and all of a sudden the trans would lock up. I pulled the shift lever and found nothing, drove me nuts. Finally I pulled the trans and found a 3/8" x1" bolt in the bottom of the case. Sometimes the bolt would lodge between the teeth and lock it up solid, where it came from I don't know.
 
Hi Chris. I had something similar with the German motor in my 40. Drove for quite a while with no problem, then a sudden noise. Pulled one head and there was a lot of 3/8 spring washer shaped dents in the piston. I think it may have been there from quite early on, but got indented into the piston and stuck there. I think the noise suddenly came on after it became unlodged and started hitting end on. Unfortunately it hit at the edge of the piston and damaged the piston and ring lands.

I managed to get one German piston to replace it, buttoned it back up and it was fine from then on.

I've been very careful to check parts when putting them together since.

Mart.
 
The more I looked at the damage, I came to the conclusion that I would have to replace the piston. The broken lock washer had hit the top of the piston in one spot so hard that it has pinched the ring in the land. I managed to work it out without breaking the ring. I contacted "Patricks" in Casa Grande, AZ and talked to him about it. He was the supplier of the engine parts when it was built about 10 years ago. We came to the conclusion that the piston had to be changed out. The pinched land made it a poor candidate for good performance and long life. Since Patrick sells Egge pistons, he is confident that we can match the piston. The original piston came from Patrick and we are sure it is easily matched. I will compare the weight of the new versus the old piston in grams to be sure.
 
About 10 years ago a friend of mines son bought a 35 coupe. The end of one of the plugs broke off and punched a small hole in the top of one of the pistons. He brought it to my place and we found the problem. I took a tap and cut a fine thread in the piston not running the tap deep so the threads would be tapered and used an aluminum screw that screwed tight into the threads, cut it off and peened the end good and it's still running.
G.M.
 
I had a similar experience with a flathead Chrysler 6 about 25 years ago. When changing a set of points, I had all 6 spark plugs out as well. The little lockwasher on the points hold down screw was missing when I went to put it back together. Looking at those 6 funnels on the top of the horizontal cylinder head and knowing all of Murphy's laws, I knew where it had to have gone. I fashioned a home made borescope/periscope with a tiny mirror and sure enough it was sitting on top of the number 2 piston, which happened to be near TDC. A piece of masking tape on the end of a wire got it out and all was well. I got out of Chryslers shortly after that.
 
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