Kerosene Heaters Kept Me Functional

I burned through quite a bit of kerosene this weekend. It was brutally cold in Baltimore, so all three heaters were pumping out the warmth to keep things comfortable in my un-insulated garage. I spent quite a bit of time out there, but only a relatively small portion was Corvair related. Friday evening was spent trying to get Ringo’s pistons separated from the crank. I started with the #3 since it was closest to being in the best spot to access the two rod nuts. With the nuts almost all the way off, I carefully tapped the ends to pop the cap loose. I got it about halfway off, but no more. I remember having this fun when I replaced Heidi’s pistons. Since I want to re-use all these parts, I’m going to have to be more careful with Ringo’s engine. After about thirty minutes of frustration, I gave up for the evening.

Yesterday evening was my next opportunity to service the fleet. Victoria had shared with me that Glinda was making a metal scraping noise when she drove her last. Given the extreme cold we’re seeing, I immediately assumed the fan bearing needed greasing. I gave Gary (Baltimore Corvair guru) a call to see if I could borrow his special tool that’s used to force grease into that bearing. He said I was welcome to it, so I made plans to stop by their later in the afternoon. Before making the drive I decided to see what else could be an issue. When starting up Glinda’s engine, I expected to hear the bearing noise, but instead exhaust noises assaulted my ears. I looked under the car and discovered the exhaust gasket had failed on the driver’s side. Easy fix, I have the gaskets, and no need to borrow a tool. After calling Gary and cancelling, I put Glinda into the garage and up on the ramps. After turning all the heaters up, I took an hour off to have dinner and let the garage heat back up. Once I was back out, I thanked God the bolts and nuts retaining the pipe ends came free without breaking – always a concern when working on old exhaust systems. With the pipe/muffler assy off the car, I chipped away at the old gasket residue and wire brushed the interface clean. Everything went back together cleanly, and firing up the engine, I verified that all the hardware was tight and the gaskets were doing the job properly.

CPotD #191 (To Each Their Own)

Maybe it’s the engineer in me that prefers not cover up functional items. I’m not a fan of the current fad of using a huge piece of molded plastic to cover up engines and their rat’s nest of hoses, pipes, and wires. I think the auto manufacturers are doing it to keep from confusing today’s car owner. Heaven forbid, we should have to hunt for a dipstick – about the only drivetrain items accessible anymore.

The real purpose of today’s CPotD is to highlight what one of Lucy’s previous owners thought was a cool feature to add to the engine compartment. They carefully cut and installed the red plastic covers over every wire, tube, and hose under her hood. What must have taken someone an hour or so, I had ripped off and discarded in about five minutes. One of the reasons I’m into old cars is because everything is so accessible. Covering it up with pieces of molded plastic just doesn’t work for me.

Not So Good News

Victoria filled Glinda’s gas tank last evening, so I was finally able to get an idea of the gas mileage she’s been achieving. Fifteen. Only fifteen. Not good. So this weekend I’ll bump up the timing and replace the carburetors. The former will bring it closer to factory spec since I’ve got it currently retarded to prevent pinging. Since it’s gotten colder, I feel okay about bumping it up a few degrees. The latter will reinstall her original carburetors in place of my racing carbs. These should be jetted smaller so the mileage should go up. We shall see.

CPotD #190 (And The Chrome Lives On)

It appears from today’s CPotD, that chromed bumpers will outlive every other part of a FC once it’s been parked in a junkyard. This came from Flickr poster forwardlookguy’s Chevrolet Trucks set. He’s uploaded a ton of junkyard photos. Fun to look through.

It’s Good News

While the photo above shows something ugly, last night activities all pointed to the positive. After marking each cylinder jug, I removed, cleaned, and measured each bore three places (top, middle, and bottom). All measurements were within spec – yeah! As I was pulling off the #3 cylinder, I discovered the outer compression ring had broken in half (see above photo). Fortunately, neither that cylinder nor any of the others showed any evidence of scratching, so since they’re not oversized, I’ll be able to re-use them and the current pistons. As mentioned before, however, they’ll need a re-hone to re-establish the cross-hatch that allows proper lubrication of the walls.

Ringo's Rank Cylinders

A couple of hours in the garage last and I could peer into each cylinder. What I saw, while rather unpleasant, was not as bad as it could have been. While there was oil and crispy burnt oil residue in at least four of the cylinders, I didn’t see any scratching on the cylinder walls. This evening’s task is to remove and mark each cylinder jug, measure the bore’s condition in each and determine if replacement is required or if a simple honing of each will get the job done properly.

To get to the point of removing the heads so I could see down in the cylinders, I had to remove the generator, fuel pump, all the sheetmetal, the fan, and the oil cooler before pulling off the valve covers, unbolting the rocker arms, removing and carefully storing the pushrods and rockers in a box with each rod poked through its position in the lid to ensure each went back into its original location. With the rockers off, the studs (which are the lower head nuts) came off followed by upper nuts. I had a couple of studs that wanted to come out with the nuts, but a well-placed vise-grips kept them from turning. By jiggling each head, it eventually slid off over the studs and the associated photos could be taken. Nasty, huh? More photos here.

CPotD #189 (Get Me To The Hospital ASAP)

Not surprisingly I couldn't find a posting where I've featured a Greenbrier converted for ambulance duty. Today’s CPotD, from a posting to the CorvairCenter forum entitled “Ambulance Corvai in Hungary,” has changed that.

Yes Hungary! First, I’m amazed there were Greenbrier’s there, and second, that some company chose to convert one into an ambulance. This one certainly has all the correct features.Much thanks to Lior Baruch for providing me with these photos and story. Visit his Back On Two website for some great photos of his cars and motorcycles.