Milwaukee Midget

[Milwaukee Midget]

Did you ever see the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon where he’s playing hide and go seek with Egghead Jr., and the young chick with the glasses sits down and starts ciphering, plots out a map, digs a hole, and finds Foghorn Leghorn there – after we all saw him climb into the feedbox?
 
I’m thinking back on the time I put into getting the valve timing right last summer.  I just checked the diary – better than 2 weeks of evenings, bent over the engine.

And tonight, Fordboy took some very tedious measurements and proved to me that the cam was 10 degrees retarded.

 

Better now than in Wendover.   

[fordboy628]

Midget,

The following is extracted from the FAQ's page of Cometic Gasket and answers some of the questions I had about the gaskets:

Why does Cometic recommend MLS gaskets to be installed dry?
 
Cometic Multi-Layer Steel (MLS) head gaskets go on dry because they are coated with a sealant. Each MLS head gasket is coated with a .001" thick viton rubber that is bonded to the outer stainless steel layers. Adding an additional sealer can hinder the performance of an MLS head gasket.

 
Can MLS head gaskets be used with motors setup with o-rings or receiver grooves around the cylinder bores?
 
No. MLS head gaskets require smooth, flat and true head and deck surfaces to seal. Most of the time with o-ring setups the wire and groove fall where our gasket’s combustion seal is located; therefore, the wire will hold the gasket and not allow proper compression while the receiver grooves allow combustion gases to escape.
 
 
What surface finish is required to use an MLS head gasket?
 
A surface finish of 50 RA (roughness average) or finer, is recommended for a proper gasket seal. Anything rougher may conflict with the gasket design.



What is still unanswered is:  Ability of these gaskets to withstand between 13.0/1 and 14.5/1 C/R without o-rings.

Anybody out on the site have any experience with Cometic @ these compression ratios?

Thanks in advance,
Fordboy
 

[fordboy628]

Midget,

Advising that I have returned safely, and without incident, from "Cheddarslovakia".

Will post out the "chicken scratch" page of hand written notes if you wish to have a copy in the build diary.  Will need to scan in to P/B.  Let me know if this is OK.

Sorry the results are a disappointment, but the starting point is becoming more sharply focused.

AND, BTW, the crank snout thread of 5/8ths-18 (UNF) is a welcome gift.
PS, get an allen socket for crank bolt.

Thanks for the pizza & brew,

Egghead Jr.

[fordboy628]

Midget,

I have been wondering about the cause of the difficulty when you were degreeing the camshaft.  Is it possible that the cam follower is moving erratically & not following the cam lobe faithfully?  I'm thinking that your digital dial indicator may have a very light return spring?  If this is the case, it is possible that the spring rate of the indicator is insufficient to return the pushrod & follower to the cam lobe.   A slightly tight lifter bore, a small amount of grit, etc, would put a slight drag on the lifter's motion.   This would introduce all kinds of error & insanity into what should be a straight forward process.   I typically use a HEAVILY sprung indicator for checking, just to avoid the possibility of errors in the measurements.   I want to determine what the issue was here, so that cam degreeing can be the simple process it should be in the future.   Let me know what you find.

Fordboy

[38flattie]

You guys be carefull, or you're gonna mess around and make BIG HP numbers!

[Milwaukee Midget]

You guys be carefull, or you're gonna mess around and make BIG HP numbers!

And if I'm not more careful, I'll be making some big scrap!

I got lucky in that if the cam had been advanced, I'd probably be starting from scratch.

Fordboy put it quite succinctly, and not in a condescending way - "You've just got to get better at it."

He's a very patient mentor.

[wheelrdealer]

MM

That quote sums up just about everything in my life...I have to get better at it.

Don't feel alone.

Bill

[Tman]

MM, was thinking of you as I Drank a Game On from Wisco last night. Little brother and I attended a beer tasting with some of the most amazing cured meats and cheeses. I have to say that domestic kicked butt on all the other high falootin darks and stouts.

[Milwaukee Midget]

MM, was thinking of you as I Drank a Game On from Wisco last night. Little brother and I attended a beer tasting with some of the most amazing cured meats and cheeses. I have to say that domestic kicked butt on all the other high falootin darks and stouts.

You've got your protein, your carbohydrates and a nice calcium supplement there.  A balanced diet, fit for a racer.

    

To your good health.

[fordboy628]

Midget,

Post of "chicken scratch" note sheet from my 4/26/2012 foray to "Cheddarslovakia".

Note that there are some corrections, in red, to the original #'s.   I'm going to maintain my allegiance to sliderules & calculators.........



Note that the closest point for the exhaust valve/piston is @ 2 degrees BTDC  and for intake valve/piston @ 22 degrees ATDC.  If these are factored by the amount of cam retard in degrees (12.75), they become 14.75 BTDC/exhaust & 9.25 ATDC/intake.   This roughly corrects to 3 degrees camshaft advance, as opposed to the 4 degrees APT specifies for this cam.

Splitting the overlap period straight up (no advance/retard) becomes 12 degrees BTDC/exhaust & 12 degrees ATDC/intake.  This is definitely a function of build geometry, ie: rod length/stroke ratio of 2.45/1.    Closest point of valve to piston would normally be 8/10 degrees ATDC/BTDC for rod ratios of 1.6~1.7/1.

The resultant piston dwell, around TDC, of the long rod/short stroke geometry, is going to be a limiting factor for not only cam timing, but more importantly, how quickly the inlet valve can be accellerated to full open.........

The most disturbing issue here is that it is the end cylinders that are ground on 106 degree lobe centers & the centers are on 102 degree lobe centers.   This will REDUCE the valve to piston clearance on those (2/3) cylinders, IF, the lobe is the same for every cylinder. (unknown)

Need to put my slide rule in the freezer.........


Egghead Jr.
 

[Milwaukee Midget]

Should make a fun T-Shirt.

Huge thanks to Rob Pfeiffer, keyboardist and artist.

Does this car make my as$ look fat?

[Tman]

No but it makes you look REALLY tall!

[Dr Goggles]

Sure he looks tall, but I'm not sure the proportions are quite right, I think he's a bit taller again than that.....I mean, the guy has his own weather pattern at about chest height and his hair brushes the ozone layer. Lose the shoulder pads and I think it's perfect.

[Milwaukee Midget]

I'm sorry, guys, I didn't hear a word of that - my ears keep popping.  Something about altitude.

[fordboy628]

Cool graphics!!
 
F/B