Barn find.... today

Hell with the Men.... I am surrounded by women and there isnt one whits worth of difference.... and I AM the old guy, and reminded of that hourly! The only difference between us.... With age comes patience (Gabe told me this... he has first hand experience to speak from) and I can wait for the proper moment. One day the Worm WILL turn!

 

CAPITOLO DUE (Chapter Two)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


J is off on a well earned vacation for a short time, Joe is holding down his Mountain home in the midst of the worst fire season in Colorado history and we are now just entering into Colorado Wildfire Season. On J's last visit, as the Boulder Fire was just getting under control, J told me the were some 525 cloud to ground lightening strikes in the vicinity of his and Joes homes. The local volunteer fire dept was run ragged chasing and putting down the fires when they were still small. J's main concern was to make sure Joe understood he HAD to answer all phone calls in the event one was a reverse 911 call to get out. J was serious enough that all family treasures were already removed from his own house prior to his departure, he honestly didnt expect to return home to a 'home'.

As you can well imagine, Joe has lived through the wildfire seasons for a good many decades now. He wasnt very keen on starting to practice running from them at this point, he never has in the past. From his vantage point on top of a mountain, one can see some 30-40 miles in near every direction. He has watched and studied these fires from a far in the past BUT... never before has the fire season come about with nary a drop of rain in months. A near by mountain peak blocks Joe's view of the Colorado Springs fire, and with no TV I doubt he even knows the extent of the damage a few mountains away.

J tried his very best to get Joe to get an evacuation bag packed and loaded in his truck in the event he needed to get out quick. I have set aside some time this weekend to head up to visit Joe and make sure he followed through on J's suggestion.... fearing that I know otherwise. If suggesting and asking doesn't work, Im not against pleading for the same. Hoping for the best, I can help him sort out what should stay in the back of his truck for the next few months or until we get some rain in these parts.

Meanwhile, back at the Shop.........

The Boss was getting a bit antsy about the lack of progress towards getting the car ready for a reunion drive. The work load to accomplish this task is multiplying daily as we uncover more and more critical items needing attention on the engine.

I am struggling to put together a timeline of what I am looking at. The gaskets being the asbestos type, last seen back in the very early 70's, the fact there is only one color / type of silicone on the square cut front chain housing oring and the distributor housing oring, NO scrap marks on the cam cover gasket areas what so ever... dare I say virgin? Either way, its been a long time since daylight has seen this valve train. Just when I think it possible the timeline might lead back to the mid 60's...... one runs across evidence that even back then..... meatheads roamed the earth! Replaced with one too long? Not screwed all the way back into its threads in the head? Bahhaaa.... Only the Shadow Knows....
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Being as he sang and cavorted with Harry James and his then wife, Betty Grable..... your bet would be well placed!

Folks of this generation knew how to live it up! My own father was in a band as the trumpet player... these two share a good deal in common!

 

Strange isn't it.... they walk amongst us and it has me shaking my head wondering why, experts at everything I guess. I will make sure Joe listens, he trusts me and if I can support what a brave Fireman already told him..... I think we will make out OK. He is one tough old bird but this has already taken better than 650 local homes and 3 lives so far. As you stated Rik, this is unlike anything he has ever experienced in his lifetime.

This is turning into a CSI Boulder the moment Jenni and I got one head off during coffee time this AM. What we are now finding has me starting to do deep forensics, I just want to see if I can figure out what happened and connect Dots.

A quick review of what we think we know:
*Joe has owned the car from before 1973. He got that, a Kirby vacuum cleaner and a few other things in a divorce settlement in 1973 I found paperwork on in one of the trailers.
*Joe says the engine is virgin and has not been apart in his ownership
*The internal number of the engine is well out of sequence for a 1965 car, its a good bit earlier.

I now think it is possible that the findings we are making with one head removed just might lead back to the factory itself. I have long been trying to identify a cause of the internal V chassis number being out of whack. I have seen this situation arise on other road cars of that era a few times in the past. It was not uncommon for Ferrari to see a problem on the dyno and just rathole that lump in the corner until time was found to fix it for a later car in the assembly line. No surprise there, there was a line of engines outside the dyno cells that didn't meet min. std's and were set aside for further work when I was there for 360 training in 99. Here it comes again.... waiting...... No Big Deal, that is no problem and the car held together nicely for a very long time.

If only it was that easy, it gets stranger but with pleasant surprises found as well. All the exotic over boring of the guide bores I thought was going to be required...... well..... at least on one head that isn't the case. WTH?!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I strongly agree with the above on the early/mid 80's 8 cylinder cars and beyond. The old man kept a pretty darn close eye on the 12 cylinder cars as they were his passion and meal ticket. I have heard and seen evidence suggesting the same could be found on offerings from Weber, Lamborghini and others of that era.

On the Ferrari's, same as your experience with the bikes..... a great deal of performance was left on the table with anything intended as a standard consumer product. Those that were intended for the track from the onset of production... a night and day difference.

The 348.... that was a wonderful car that was very near the end of Ferrari as we know it. With a few design exceptions, that engine is very nice with huge potential's. Rik, all you need is one of these here fellers... that will answer all your questions on the main bores. The problem comes in when you need to break out the lapping bar version of the same. Even pulling that out of the cabinet (if you dont blow a hernia while doing the same) starts the hurt process as you would be cranking that fool thing for the better part of a day and a half. You start with 400 grit paste and work to 2000 grit paste. When you want it perfect.... that is the ONLY way to do it, no machine shop can come close to duplicating the finished bore.... PERIOD.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

A twisted and convoluted path to follow but... here goes.

Cylinder #1 showed the guide to have pulled free of the head and had worked its way up to the spring retainer..... Wrong.

*The guide was broken off short where it protrudes into the intake runner?
*The guides installed are a 330 GTC type with valve stem seals
*The intake runner on #1 cylinder had obvious peen marks as would be found from peening shut a porous casting
*Combustion chamber #1 shows obvious signs of burning coolant at some time
*Piston #1 shows minor debris damage yet none is seen on that combustion chamber
*None of the valve seats have ever been re machined... there was only one cut done to these

OK... what happened and when? The missing portion of the broken off guide was not found and based on the carbon on the valve stem, it has run this way for a long time if not all its life. The difference between the debris scars on the piston and the coolant pitting on the corresponding combustion chamber (but no debris marks) leads on to believe these heads were not always on this block. We do know that at least back to 1973 they were a mated pair. We do know the gaskets were a very early type and there was only 1 type of silicone sealant on the square cut cover oring, distributor drive housing and the coolant port oring in the front of the head.

When one is looking for an explanation for an early internal number being in a mid production run car..... I go back to the possibility that this engine saw a problem on the dyno and was set aside.... until sometime in 65 perhaps? About the time the factory boys would have been testing stem seals for the GTC cars? Were these heads from a early GTC mule engine that had a porous casting on the intake runner, taking in antifreeze into the combustion chamber. Someone slipped with the peening punch and caught the end of the valve guide, breaking that off while in the process of peening the casting shut?

I dunno... I am just trying to figure out what line of BS sounds better. In the mean time we just gather every minute bit of data and plug it into the equation, looking for the best explanation possible with no service history on paper. Upside... my job got easier than expected, no McGyver machining needed. Downside.... I just removed a head that didn't need removing. Now that it is off.... now WTH do I do, pull the other? Rebuild the whole blasted engine seeing the sediment in the corners of the heads and knowing it is also in the sump? SURE.... its easy for you to say..... you dont have to deal with the Smurf that is managing this fool ass project! I know.... build the engine right away BEFORE it goes to the body and upholstery stage.... thus making Glenn and Rich take the brunt of the tongue lashing and budget bashing that is sure to come from a decision like this!!!!! Yah, that's the ticket!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

PS... those valves are not bent, it is just a high tech method of photography the DS author came up with.... and doesn't know how to duplicate!

The piston debris scars being soken of are those to the left of the piston, about the axis of the wrist pin. The piston was still heavily covered in carbon and the maid took the day off....
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

That 'another' is a helpful cuss... Belligerent, outspoken, over sexed and drive's a Yugo (could be an explanation for the prior) but... helpful none the less. You just skipped the fun of twisting the lapping bar, call if you feel like you were lacking in the experience and want a stab at that fulfilling task. Let me know if you want a set of Indy Car profile cams for this 10K RPM grocery getter project of yours... a set will be coming available when I get off my backside and get on that fool project.

 

Jenni is excited for the engine to come apart, she is hands dirty anytime we find a sliver of free time to work on it.

The crux of the problem Jeff is if I decide to do this RIGHT, that means pulling the engine and doing the whole shebang right now. With the engine/trans out one has no choice but to follow through putting the body on the rotisserie and start stripping it completely, thus putting the finished product years out..... and I don't think we have that much quality time left. Taking this approach will assure a proper finished product but will ignore a quest we set out to do. If I chose to put this head back on with some minor cleanup and machining just for the reunion drive it will amount to dozens of hours of work and many hundreds of dollars spent... going backwards for the sake of a few drives.

Given the broken lash adjuster was identified before it broke a rocker arm or a spring retainer, good has come from this effort none the less, catastrophic failures have surely been prevented. What I am seeing here is an old engine in remarkably good condition. It is in dire need of a shave and a haircut but everything found to date is in well above average condition. With zero ring wash out showing on the pistons, and the GTC stem seals in place... now I understand WHY there was no smoke when we ran it. It is this condition where one wants to move forward on a rebuild, not after the years of sludge and crap find their way throughout the entire lubricated system. Doing a complete restore of the carbs is comparatively simple. If the intake manifolds, linkage, fuel lines.... are all restored to as new condition for the drive, it amounts a minimal step backwards as they can be kept as a "unit" and removed with a few nuts to rebuild the engine after the drives.

It is at this point where I must make decisions on a direction. Is my quest to put Joe back in the drivers seat more important to me than it is to him? Can the same "feeling" be accomplished by borrowing a friends GTC I rebuilt a few years back and putting Joe behind the wheel in that? Doubtful in my mind, nothing can replace a car you owned for decades. I have to make mechanic decisions daily, I am used to that and have no problem doing so. I also have to factor in emotional feelings into those decisions.... If an owner Really loves a car, I have to find methods to accomplish an end goal within a budget even if it makes little sense to do so. The difference this time.... its MY money and time, neither of which I have any to spare just laying around. If I would have seen wide eyed enthusiasm from Joe when I suggested I wanted him back in the drivers seat... that would change the entire decision process. That stated, Joe, and his entire generation for that matter, are FAR more humble than that and don't even understand the concept of entitlement, one would never expect to see the emotions I suggested.

It is at this point where I must rely on my fathers wisdom. He was there for these special moments with Joe. He is not burdened by the problems imposed by going either direction at this stage. He has an in depth understanding of what lies ahead having restored a number of Vintage cars himself. He will have sage advise, guiding me on how I choose a direction at this point.

 

Remember that point where you finally came to the conclusion your parents actually were getting smarter? I remember that point when I was somewhere around the age of 14, maybe 15... "whoa, they are finally getting with the program". Last evenings conversation showed this learning curve is alive and well... Dad keeps getting smarter.

Bill's take on the situation is that it would be 60% for myself and 40% for Joe, but to short either of us out of the experience "would leave lasting regrets". "The costs related to following through on the original plan will fade away and soon be forgotten, but the Memories for both of you..... They will last a lifetime. My suggestion is to follow through with the plan you had, for the reasons you had, regardless of the costs". He was in full agreement, no other 330 would act as a substitute for this drive, it has to be Joe's car that Joe is driving.

Somewhere around the age of 10 or 11 Dad taught me to rebuild the carburetor on my GoKart, pointing out the importance of the needle valve I had thrown away in the process. He taught me how to use this new fangled two part glue he brought home, used on the Gemini and Apollo projects he was an engineer on, to glue my seat pan back in place on the Kart. Always kept behind the fold down door of the butter compartment in our fridge (Mom was very forgiving of this type of thing!) right next to the Eastman 910 that I had just discovered would work prefect for gluing my kid sister to her bedroom door. Showing promise of being smart in 'some' areas, he had no grasp what so ever on what was 'In' regarding shoulder length hair (if you can pinch it with your fingers, its time for a cut), dress fashions (tie dye and bell bottoms).... and many other early teen age social issues of utmost importance at the time. I think it was a few years after that he started getting smarter, and last evening he made the answers so clear for me it was a forehead slapper. My own kids remind me I have not yet started getting smarter... maybe later in life than my own dad... time will tell.

I was forced to cut my conversation with Dad short due to a flash flood level gully washer storm we had overhead. RAIN... we had it for the first time since February, along with the lightening and at this altitude you are pretty darn close to the storm clouds... that is a good time to hang the phone up quickly. His well reasoned guidance allowed me to start developing a new game plan in my mind, a plan that, as fate would have it, actually is pretty easy and cost effective. This winters Vintage Ferrari inventory purchase happened to have (1) 330 head gasket in it... right after hanging up with Dad I went out to the garage and found it... fate? An old OEM type gasket I no longer use on rebuilds, it will serve the purpose just fine for a few hours run time. The 70's vintage cam cover gasket was removed cleanly and is reuseable as well. This last week I had boxed up a nice big stash of 500 TRC and 860 Monza Weber parts from this purchase, and sent them all to Mike Pierce knowing he could put them to better use than myself. Mike and I have been swapping favors for decades with neither of us keep track of who is 'up'... dont care as he is a good friend whom I have the utmost respect for, it always works out in the end. I bet I could get a set of throttle shafts for these DCZ's, and maybe even semi fresh gasket kits at a sale price from him.

I was right, my father DID have the answers and was able to clear my head enough to see a direction once again. The hard costs are dropping very quickly if for no other reason, Fate, having just purchased a huge inventory I thought would gather dust for decades to come. Instead some of it will be put to good use right away and the sting of spending That money has already subsided. Time.... that will be the main investment at this point..... we will have to find a way to make time. A quick shower and I will make the trek up the mountain to check and make sure Joe weathered last nights storms OK, reinforce J's directive to be packed up and to return the tools I borrowed from him on my last outing there. Having put up a half a barn load of Hay in our own barn yesterday.... I am not feeling like today is the day to Trailer Dive.... every year they make those Hay bails smaller but somehow heavier! Back on track now...... THANKS Dad!

 

So... it went like this....

"Hey Kris, want to head up to Joe's with me for a visit? No parts searching, just visiting to check up on him."

The reply... "That Look"... the one that says I dont believe a word coming from you. Follwed by "I promised Jen we would go shopping......". Its easy to tell when someone handing out a line of horseshlt by how much detail goes into what is being spewed. Being the wiser, I just agreed that was a great idea and set about getting ready to head out on my own.

Gather the camera, a bag of Cheetos and three Diet Cokes, figuring that would be enough to survive in the mountains for a week if need be, all the essential food groups. Jump in the Jeep after making sure the winch control and jerk strap were still stowed in the back in the event the roads were as ugly as the news said they were.... and I'm off to see Joe. Turn the radio up to find Garrison Keillor's live broadcast from Lake Wobegon, complete with dueling Banjo's in the background...... what could go wrong, this is starting to feel normal!

For the first time in a long time the clouds covering the mountains were from rain, not smoke from fires, a welcome change. Gauging by the rock piles roadside, the parade of graders and front end loaders heading down the highway in the mountains... yes, the roads Were that bad but the crews had been out early and pushed all the big pieces out of the traffic lanes. The worst being some VW sized rocks, already cleared but having left craters in the road surface. "No Big Deal"... there it is again, I was in no hurry and could take my time getting there. This time I chose to take the mountain route to Joe's house, a mistake only because I found the future yard mates for Joe's D4 photo'ed earlier..... a new Must Have. For Bruce, Mike and Tex I felt the need to pull over and take a few photo's. The same masochist who made the seat for my Ferguson Tractor must have been hired to build them for these fine works of art, I am now feeling fortunate Kris was not along to see the lust....

I turned off onto Joe's dirt road which goes into tight switchbacks within 30 feet of the pavement. Sure enough, it was washed out pretty bad but still navigable via 4WD, of which anyone living in these parts has a variety of shapes models and colors to chose from sitting in the driveway, back yard and behind the tool sheds. Making it all the way up I rang the bell and no answer. Looking in the garage where the 330 sat for decades, Joe's truck was gone and there were no tire tracks in the gravel, he had made it out before the rains started.... all was well knowing that. I unloaded the borrowed chain hoist and found myself drawn back to the D4 for a closer look....
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Bruce had asked if old Joe ever done any Moon Shining up on that mountain top, obviously a passion of his. Well Bruce... either the answer is Yes or Joe had invested in Maple Syrup futures and was planning on planting a grove of maple trees at 9500 feet altitude... your call. And the Still's they make out this way.... they double by powering heavy equipment.

I couldn't help but take a photo of this little rail hotrod. We think we are cool when we build a race car with a triple disc clutch? This old bugger... they used a 9 disc clutch... and still they stuck the driver with that steel seat... sick!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login