Milwaukee Midget

[Peter Jack]

And I'm really enjoying be allowed to look in on the interaction between FB and MM. I think they're going to prove to be an awesome team. 

Pete

[fordboy628]

And contrary to local lore, in spite of the circumstances, the sun has risen this morning, south of the Cheddar Curtain............

Midget,

As promised photo of "non-lawn sprinkler" cams.  BOTH are steel cams.  Upper cam is a KC595 ground on a KC blank; lower cam is a stock "spyder" drive 1275 cam ground on a BLMC blank.  NO extra oiling holes on either camshaft.........

It continues to be my opinion that wear problems with steel cams are a result of improper cam/lifter "break-in" procedures and/or incompatible material specifications.  (Refer to my previous post, edit:[reply #1168 on page 78] ,in Midget's Build Diary regarding this subject.)  There is so much oil "raining" off the rotating masses inside the crankcase at typical racing speeds, the issue is not lack of lubrication (except at very low rpm's) the issue is one of controling the amount of oil in the crankcase.  This is why dry sumped engines typically pickup horsepower.  (er, ponypower, for BMC's)  You don't want your crank assembly to be a high rpm butter churn......    Leave a crankcase cover off or crankcase plug out and rev your engine to peak rpm if you don't believe this to be true.

Gotta go, lots to do this am AND it's time to change the bandages on my wrists.........
F/B

[Milwaukee Midget]

100 pages of posts

A couple of them even include discussion about the car . . .

Thanks for coming along for the ride - it's going to get real interesting in the next few weeks.

 

[Moxnix]

Racer build and beer thread, what's not to like?!

[Tman]

Dont let me forget I need to send you that beer sampler!

[Milwaukee Midget]

Woah – can we say productive day.

Took a half day at work, caught up with Fordboy at McBob’s for lunch, and we headed over to the Conrad Hilton to get at it.

In anticipation of getting the cam timed in, I spent a few hours last night cleaning out the engine building room, which used to be my control room for my studio.  Splayed out the tools, cleared out the stuff-n-junk I figured would be in the way, and figured we’d just dig in.

For the next few hours, the conversations went like this –

FB – “I need the nut for the cam.”

MM – “That should be . . . well, I’ll check the garage.”

FB – “Have you got a 1 5/16 socket?”

MM – “Let me go check in the garage.”

FB – “I can’t believe they made this cam sprocket without a timing mark.  Do you have a center punch?”

MM – “You bet, it’s in the toolbox with the taps and dies – let me run out to the garage and get it.”

FB – “Do you have a brush that we can use to apply lube to the lifters?”

MM – “Would a small paint brush do the trick?”

FB - “Yeah, that should work.”

MM – “I think I saw one out in the garage – let me go check.”

FB – “I went ahead and tapped the damper so you can use a steering wheel puller to get it off.  We’ll need three ¼ 20 bolts about 2” long”

MM – “Almost every other bolt on this car is ¼ fine”, I said, looking over at the coffee can full of ¼ -28’s I had brought down from the garage the night before, just in case we needed them.
 
A quick road trip to Advance Auto netted the only package they had.  This time, we got lucky – they come three to a package.
Of course, the best one was when the pushrod fell into the block, and I realized that I had forgotten to install the aforementioned lifters.

FB – “Do you have the old head gasket?”

MM – “I think that’s . . .”

There will be more, but at the moment, I’m having difficulty uploading Fordboy’s pictures to Photobucket.  I’m going to try my other computer – it’s got to be around here, somewhere – I was just using it the other night to program the A/F sending unit and ignition curve.  I think I know where it’s at . . . 

[Milwaukee Midget]

Just a reminder for those who are following along, MAX that can be tolerated:


 
Fordboy

We're in really good shape, considering we’ve got .0065 pop up on the pistons and that I shaved the head .060.  Additionally, the cam Dema built actually has more lift than the SPVP-5 it replaced.  Cam is dialed in at 105.25 degrees.

Piston clearances @ plotted points

Intake –
TDC   .091
5 ATDC   .071
8 ATDC   .064
10 ATDC   .061
12 ATDC   .060
15 ATDC   .063
20 ATDC   .076

Exhaust –
20 BTDC   .100
15 BTDC   .087
12 BTDC   .085
10 BTDC   .087
8 BTDC   .089
5 BTDC   .096
TDC   .115
5 ATDC   .144

I realize this would be much more difficult to calculate with canted valves, but it’s much more satisfying than trying to measure the thickness of a piece of squashed modeling clay.

Fordboy, thank you again for the help!     

[fordboy628]

Midget & Mrs. Midget,

Thank you again for being such gracious hosts!!   I was wined (beered?) and dined to more than contentment.

Alternating between engine building, dining & thirst quenching, (and running back & forth to the garage) a good amount of engine assembly progress was made by the elves.   Consisted mostly of the checking/adjusting/verifying cam timing and valve to piston clearances which Chris has described in the earlier post.  What do you think of bent wire cam timing pointers now buddy???  How cool is it to send a cam grinder your max specs AND have him get within .010"/.020" of the maximum your jewel can fit???   Kudos to Elgin for a job well done.

I also wanted to add some photos and I am also unable to upload to Photobucket.   Will try again later.

Thanks for the lunch, beer, comraderie, beer, pizza, beer........         (uh oh, I sense a trend developing.............)
 
Fordboy

[Milwaukee Midget]

Today’s agenda – Bolt this donk together and see if I can’t sucker some poor neighbor kid into helping me get it out to the garage.

[fordboy628]

WE DON'T GOT TO SHOW YOU NO STINKIN' BENT WIRE CAM TIMING POINTER!!!

Midget, et all,

Since a picture is still worth well over a thousand words, cogitate on these:



Next time you suspect you bent the flimsy bent wire pointer you have been using to time your cam(s), whip up a set-up based on this idea.  This sturdy setup will preserve (not if you are a racer already) your sanity...............
 
Fordboy

[fordboy628]

FROM DEEP IN THE BOWELS OF THE LAIR OF THE MILWAUKEE MIDGET..........

               Cam timing setup in situ:                                                            Engine elf busily tinkering away.........


               Engine elf continues to tinker............                            Engine elf finds myriad of uses for precision measuring devices


Note the obligatory ration of PBR......Some elves simply cannot be enticed to perform labor without rations, go figure.......

Good afternoon & evening, bunches accomplished my friend.  Hope you learned a few new things.  (Like 1/4 - coarse thread bolts can be handy sometimes........................., even on a veddy Briddish car.)
 
Fordboy

[Tman]

PBR, drinking one right now while working on the lakester!

[Milwaukee Midget]

PBR, drinking one right now while working on the lakester!

Assembly lube, my friend.  It gives one something to do when they stand back and ponder . . .

I’m not familiar with the whole Gilmer drive set-up, so clue me in.  Click on the pic and it takes you to the movie –



Is this too much slack?

[Milwaukee Midget]

Gone about as far as I can until my buddy, lead singer, all-around good guy, Aaron, stops by tomorrow morning to help me fish this lump out of the basement.

So I took on another issue.

Fordboy had been thinking about building up a SAAB slave cylinder for the Midget, but time is running out, so I’m making do with the old system.  It was a little clunky, the shifts, requiring almost complete travel of the pedal to the floor before disengagement.

When he stopped up yesterday, he brought me back my clutch fork for the mock-up he has been doing.  He suggested I change it out.

I was nothing short of shocked as to how much tighter this set-up is compared to what I had been running.  The fulcrum bearing on the old one was shot, the yoke was oval, and the clevis pin – well, look for yourself –



I’ll pick up a new pin at the hardware store tomorrow, but again, it’s those stupid little details . . .

[Geo]

When he stopped up yesterday, he brought me back my clutch fork for the mock-up he has been doing.  He suggested I change it out.

I was nothing short of shocked as to how much tighter this set-up is compared to what I had been running.  The fulcrum bearing on the old one was shot, the yoke was oval, and the clevis pin – well, look for yourself [quote/]

Those are made from weareasyium an alloy used in all cars of your vintage. Many a linkage part have I replaced. I seem to have developed a 7th sense for noticing this type of wear without actually looking at the part. Thanks for reminding me of this... 

MM & FB, I'm here lurking and enjoying. Thanks for sharing.

I had been trying New Belgium 1554 this past week while working on the Jag. Things seemed to take longer an felt slightly off, like the gravitational field had shifted. Had to stop at the store on the way to the pig party and pick up my old standby Newcastle!

It was the year of the Lotus at the pig party. A gathering of racers, auto trade people, gearheads and special invites we hope to convert. Sports cars mostly with a few bikes.  This year an old 65cc DKW and a new 1600cc BMW. However, the Loti were awe inspiring. I do not remember ever seeing so many in one place.  An air burning Espri in black with all the creature comforts to spartain 7s in all colors.

Geo