Great video
Thanks
Thanks
Aluminum 409 Build
- Thread starter jim_ss409
- Start date
Skip FIx
Well Known Member
That's what I saw on my TA. Bias stick even on poorly prepped tracks, radials stick as good on a good track and do not grow so you can run taller closer to bodywork.
Love it!!!!
Ok, so some of you are probably wondering, how is the car doing. Well although it was running very strong we have been chasing a water leak in #1 cylinder. First we pulled it apart thinking it was the heads leaking but they checked out ok.
We put it back together thinking it might have just been a head gasket.
Not so lucky. Still leaking.
Took apart again and after closer inspection found the liners had dropped as much as .004.
Stripped the whole thing down and sent the block back to the machine shop to be decked.
Got it back and put it all back together and back in the car.
Started it up and still leaking. Very disappointing
The strange thing is even after cooling down over night with the rad cap off, the next day I put the rad cap back on and the next day the system would pressure up and blow out a lot of water.
This had me scratching my head.
All I could figure was something was causing a gassing up in the system.
I took the half bottle of iron tight sealer I was running, dropped in a small chunk of steel and a small chunk of aluminum and sure enough an hr. later the plastic bottle had swollen up like a balloon.
That is when the water would leak into the cylinder.
Now my worst fear had to be checked.
Made up jigs and pressure tested block without heads.
Sure enough, leaking around liner on # 1 cylinder. Dry liners so not good.
Set block up on my mill and cut liner out of # 1 cylinder and there it was.
Machine shop went too deep cutting for liner and cut into water jacket.
Took out rest of liners to be sure. The rest were ok.
Bob was really good all the time and sent complete new set of liners and the block is in getting welded now.
Incase the engine will not be ready in time we have our guy building a 65 iron block we had at the same time. It cleaned up at a bore of 4.375,(same size as the aluminum engine) and we filled the block with hard block to give more rigidity. It will get a 4 1/4 stroke crank and 4 bolt mains as well.
So hopefully one of the two engines will be ready for Great Bend.
I guess if not there is always the old slow engine lol.
And the saga continues.
We put it back together thinking it might have just been a head gasket.
Not so lucky. Still leaking.
Took apart again and after closer inspection found the liners had dropped as much as .004.
Stripped the whole thing down and sent the block back to the machine shop to be decked.
Got it back and put it all back together and back in the car.
Started it up and still leaking. Very disappointing
The strange thing is even after cooling down over night with the rad cap off, the next day I put the rad cap back on and the next day the system would pressure up and blow out a lot of water.
This had me scratching my head.
All I could figure was something was causing a gassing up in the system.
I took the half bottle of iron tight sealer I was running, dropped in a small chunk of steel and a small chunk of aluminum and sure enough an hr. later the plastic bottle had swollen up like a balloon.
That is when the water would leak into the cylinder.
Now my worst fear had to be checked.
Made up jigs and pressure tested block without heads.
Sure enough, leaking around liner on # 1 cylinder. Dry liners so not good.
Set block up on my mill and cut liner out of # 1 cylinder and there it was.
Machine shop went too deep cutting for liner and cut into water jacket.
Took out rest of liners to be sure. The rest were ok.
Bob was really good all the time and sent complete new set of liners and the block is in getting welded now.
Incase the engine will not be ready in time we have our guy building a 65 iron block we had at the same time. It cleaned up at a bore of 4.375,(same size as the aluminum engine) and we filled the block with hard block to give more rigidity. It will get a 4 1/4 stroke crank and 4 bolt mains as well.
So hopefully one of the two engines will be ready for Great Bend.
I guess if not there is always the old slow engine lol.
And the saga continues.
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very disappointing 
I hate that this has happened Jim. I'm sure it's terrible for you, but I guess it is good that it happened to someone with the tools and knowledge to figure out what is going on without having to farm 100% of it out. It's also nice that ya'll can weld up that aluminum block much easier than an iron one.
When (not if) you get the aluminum block sorted out, what in the world are you going to do with the big cubic inch '65 engine? Gonna get inventive with the lathe and a set of heads for it too.....or maybe some of Bob & Nick's raised port CNC collaborations?
Since you have to buy pistons anyway: How about enlarge those new liners to 4.600" and use the 4.375" pistons in the '65 block??
Just kidding - and dreaming out loud - about that. We'll all be looking forward to good news in future updates!
When (not if) you get the aluminum block sorted out, what in the world are you going to do with the big cubic inch '65 engine? Gonna get inventive with the lathe and a set of heads for it too.....or maybe some of Bob & Nick's raised port CNC collaborations?
Since you have to buy pistons anyway: How about enlarge those new liners to 4.600" and use the 4.375" pistons in the '65 block??
Just kidding - and dreaming out loud - about that. We'll all be looking forward to good news in future updates!
Actually we are going to use the pistons and rods from the aluminum block in the 65 block and going to order new higher compression pistons for the aluminum engine. After the aluminum engine is ready the 65 engine will go into the 55 Chev. Probably get a set of Bobs high port heads and one of our intakes and upgrade the roll bar to a cage. Yikes that will be a winter project.
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I was joking about the 4.600" bore, but was kinda hoping you would go after some of the compression you ended up missing before. The '65 block may last slightly longer at under 12:1 anyway. Those sounds like good plans for both cars to me.
Jim and Jim:
Sorry to learn of your problems, hope you are able to resolve these issues in time.
All of a sudden my little projects seem so trivial. I never would have been able to investigate and diagnose the issues like you guys have
.
Looking forward to reconnecting in Great Bend. No matter what you bring we're gonna have a great time.
TomK
Sorry to learn of your problems, hope you are able to resolve these issues in time.
All of a sudden my little projects seem so trivial. I never would have been able to investigate and diagnose the issues like you guys have
.Looking forward to reconnecting in Great Bend. No matter what you bring we're gonna have a great time
.TomK
I know what your going through. I think for now I'm whipped! I'm sick of chasing this water. Any one having trouble with the Cometic gaskets? At least you found your problem. With mine it's strange I see water out of both pipes, two blown head gaskets?
Can still be one side leaking. Water can be pushed through intake to other bank. We had that problem before.
Ray,Remove the fan belts and thermostat.Make a divider for the thermostat opening from an oil filter box top,or something simular.Fill the engine until the engine is full,and start it up.There will be bubbles in the coolant to tell you which side the leak is on. If they show up on both sides,then both have problems.Good luck!
Thanks Don, that is a great tip! Could save me tons of work.
