V-12 Repair...NOT!

Funny thing is, that looks like a very recently made Pepsi can. Probably no more than 2-3 years old.

VERY weird. Thanks for sharing!

 

That was'nt a diet was it?

 

That's just crazy. I've seen some hillbilly engineering but that is one of the strangest.


Darrell.

 

Too much end float hey

 

Could'a been worse. A shop in MA messed up the (multi-piece) head gaskets on my GTV-6, and rather than fixing the misplaced gasket rings, they kept torquing the head bolts until they pulled three studs out of the engine block.

I wondered if maybe the same MA shop did that to the VT car -- but the MA shop was only Alfa and Maser, and has been out of business since the '80s or early '90s.

 

That's incredible...but s**t happens as we know. Makes me glad I do most of my own servicing. At least the mistakes are mine and I know how things have been done.

 

Not surprised, If you take enough of them apart you'll see everything. I rebuilt a Healey gearbox. Someone had substituted finishing nails for needle bearings.

I guess it was better than toothpicks.

 

Necessity is the mother of invention. For non-concours "driver" examples, sometimes it's better to innovate and be on the road, than to sit waiting for the "correct" part.

Alfa shops used to stock $400 (in '70s dollars) spacer kits for adjusting the plungers on Spica injection pumps. On mine, at one point, I found that a dutch 10FL coin was a perfect sized substitute on the cold idle plunger -- and a lot cheaper than $400.

But innovative parts substitution is different from just plain messing up. Leaving your soda sitting on the block while installing the heads is just plain attention deficit syndrome.

And similar to leaving something in the way while trying to close the trunk --- and we've all been there, at one point.

 

The can wasn't used as a fix, but as a tool. When you install a head on a V12, you must use a piece of shim stock to hold the large square cut seal ring in place on the timing cover. As the head is slid down, you pull the shim stock out. The head tends to pull the shim down, and for some reason whoever used the Pepsi can let it get pulled down and did not remove the head and start over again.

 

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I didn't know that, but i was going to say it looked to be intentional use as the top and bottom of the can had been cut off. no excuse for not doing right though.

 

He's right, It's part of that brilliant engineering. Only the Italians and British would have sealing surfaces meet at right angles. It is part of the reason there is always a little (if you're lucky) oil on your floor.

Pretty careless not to pull the "shim" back out. I'll bet the phone rang.