Da Nailhead adventures by whatever

By diyauto
( 2 )

5 minute(s) of a 57 minute read

8-6-2013

Sorry, I was away from the internet for a few days.


Thanks for the hearty welcome!


bhambulldog, the engine would go into '65 Wildcat, out of which it came 


 




 




Sorry about pic quality. Guess, the seller didn't know how to flip the camera on the phone, so the car would fit in, lol.

My friend bought the car in February 2013, from California.


And the owner claimed:

"OVERHAULED ENGINE NEW LIFTERS, NEW VALVES, AND PUSHRODSRUNS GREAT SHIFTS SMOOTHLY"


Well, you know that eBay stuff. We can now see how well overhauled it was. :P


Thanks for the link on Doc's dual plane mod! The gasket under carb remains stock (uncut), right?


gsgtx,

yeah, I've read that Tom was really cool back in the days and so is now!


64 wildcat conv,

well, the owner claimed it had 68 000 miles. But since there is no OEM pistons, I think it might be 168 000 or whatever. That engine was built to last for sure!


John Codman, 

limited access - yes, a will to fix&sell - more than likely yes. I guess they changed the pistons and con-rod bearings, but I'm pretty sure that the main bearings were never taken out! That blue is from the external painting. The "painter" didn't mask the parts so it's all over the engine, AND on the "new pushrods" as well. So it was serviced when it was painted blue. I'm willing to paint it gray, slightly darker than mid-gray maybe with a goldish accent, but I guess, due to limited time, I'm gonna end up with some Dupli-Color anodize paint.


p.s. Oh, great! Actually, it seems like lots of people from the US have visited the St. Petersburg, DualQuadDave from FL (a Nailhead guy, seen at the H.A.M.B.) have also been here! A lot of stuff was kinda refinished after 1917, more than most of the people expect. And the bascule bridges were built after 1917. But anyway it's all about the architecture and aesthetics here. The heart is in the city center, out-lying city areas are just like usual cities, nothing special. Comparing to St.Petersburg, the architecture of old Moscow is kinda like "I want it to be like that", so buildings often look strange next to other, sometimes tasteless, but I like some of the 1930-1950 style, known here as Stalin's Empire / Neo-renaissance style. 


Regarding 425, I want to drop in a performance cam and freshen up the heads so it'd pull like 425 or even better. 


Babeola,

That's right! I gotta refresh it, so it'd run fine for the next 50 years. 


flynbuick,

Thanks! I thought it might be interesting to have a full rebuild thread, get some tips and discuss all the stuff which comes during engine overhaul.


66gsconv,

I'm looking for the best combination of performance and street service. So the best "stock" parts, a cam and some headwork should get me there! Hopefully 



Meanwhile:


Has any one converted stock-type pistons (press-fit wrist pin) to full-floating wrist pins on the forums? I'm little afraid of the press-fit pins in the colder climates, since it may score the pin bores when the piston had shrunk down under low temp. I doubt it'd be used in winter, but who knows. I like to do the best I can each time I got a chance to. I've got few ideas, so just curious now. Just to mention, russian engines always had full-floating pins since like 1940s. There are 2 ways - machine grooves for wire locks and grind some off the side of the wrist pin or (which I like more) machine pin bushings from Teflon/polyamid, like they did in the racing engines of the 80s. No mods to the piston, none to the wrist pin, durability-wise it should last pretty long because it's Teflon in an oily atmosphere.




Comments