Ladies and Gentlemen:
Within a minute or so the car jerked foreword about 3 inches. I think the slack in the parking pawl was being taken up but it dawned on me that I should put some 4x6s in front of the rear wheels. The brake peddle is right there in case it slipped out of park but I was doing a mini-look about with the camcorder trying to see if everything was OK. Some smoke started to roll but it was oil or something burning off the heads and soon went away. The oil pressure on the gage was showing 40psi. At the same time the pressure on the instrument cluster oil gage was showing 45 or so.
I started off without the radiator cap on and when I saw coolant running through the radiator I knew the thermostat had opened. I checked the temperature gage in the cluster and it read nothing. I had forgotten to hook the wires up so quickly hooked the hot wire and the sending unit wire to the gage and it was at the start of the normal range. I had tested the gage and sending unit in the house with a pan of water and a candy thermometer to see how they worked. The start of the normal range is about 175 degrees and since the thermostat was a 170 degree this was checking out OK.
Then I saw an oil drip that was coming out of the valley cover area on the right rear of the engine. Camcorder in hand I traced it down to the partial flow oil filter. It was a pretty steady drip. I checked the clock and it had been running about 8 minutes. At the twelve minute mark I bumped the engine on up to 2,500 to 3,000 rpm. The temperature gage was showing about 185 and oil was still at 40psi. I put the radiator cap on to allow it to build some pressure. I was cam cording quite a bit so that I could go back and re-watch everything later.
The next day I called Don Holt, owner of H&H Radiator here in Tulsa, and he told me it sounded like my radiator cap was not holding at least 14-15psi. I went out and found that the radiator cap was a 7 pound cap. I ordered up a 13 pound cap which hopefully will take care of that situation.
Next, I got on the SDC forum and researched the partial flow oil filter. The conclusion on it as well as in the December, 2011 Turning Wheels magazine was that there needs to be a restrictor someplace in the line between the head and the filter. Thank you, Bob Palma and Gary Ash for the excellent articles and responses to the forum. I went out and took the filter and the lines off and there was no restriction. The general consensus was that the restrictor should be about .045 in diameter which would allow about one quart per minute to flow through the filter at 40psi. The 1/8 NPT 90 degree fitting had a hole that was about .110 in diameter. I jury-rigged a plug in the fitting and drilled it with a 3/64 (.047) drill bit. I then secured it in the fitting with J-B Weld. After it set up I re-drilled the hole out. The area of this smaller hole is about 1/6 of the larger one and I am hoping that this restriction will raise the oil pressure at idle as well as not overwhelming the filter.
I drained the oil and changed the filter. The oil that came out of it was darker than I had expected. I took the valve covers off and could tell that all the rocker arms were getting oiled. I decided to re-torque the head bolts. I am glad that I did. I hope I was doing it right. I took the break over bar and loosened each a quarter to half a turn and then re-torqued to 65 ft lbs. About half of them re-torqued to about where they were initially. The others took at least another quarter of a turn beyond where they had been to get to the 65 ft lbs. While I had the valve covers off I set the valve lash again. All were within a couple thousandths of what I had shot for. That was a cold .026 on the intakes and .027 on the exhaust.
I do not have a 6 volt dwell and tachometer meter so the engine speeds I stated are best guesses. I read online where a 12 volt dwell can be hooked up using my riding mower 12 volt battery and work on the 6 volt engine. I am hoping that is the case so that the next time the engine is started I can set the idle and check the dwell. I am feeling pretty good about everything right now. I think the boiling over and low oil pressure can be corrected with the steps that I have taken.
Charlie D.
Within a minute or so the car jerked foreword about 3 inches. I think the slack in the parking pawl was being taken up but it dawned on me that I should put some 4x6s in front of the rear wheels. The brake peddle is right there in case it slipped out of park but I was doing a mini-look about with the camcorder trying to see if everything was OK. Some smoke started to roll but it was oil or something burning off the heads and soon went away. The oil pressure on the gage was showing 40psi. At the same time the pressure on the instrument cluster oil gage was showing 45 or so.
I started off without the radiator cap on and when I saw coolant running through the radiator I knew the thermostat had opened. I checked the temperature gage in the cluster and it read nothing. I had forgotten to hook the wires up so quickly hooked the hot wire and the sending unit wire to the gage and it was at the start of the normal range. I had tested the gage and sending unit in the house with a pan of water and a candy thermometer to see how they worked. The start of the normal range is about 175 degrees and since the thermostat was a 170 degree this was checking out OK.
Then I saw an oil drip that was coming out of the valley cover area on the right rear of the engine. Camcorder in hand I traced it down to the partial flow oil filter. It was a pretty steady drip. I checked the clock and it had been running about 8 minutes. At the twelve minute mark I bumped the engine on up to 2,500 to 3,000 rpm. The temperature gage was showing about 185 and oil was still at 40psi. I put the radiator cap on to allow it to build some pressure. I was cam cording quite a bit so that I could go back and re-watch everything later.
The next day I called Don Holt, owner of H&H Radiator here in Tulsa, and he told me it sounded like my radiator cap was not holding at least 14-15psi. I went out and found that the radiator cap was a 7 pound cap. I ordered up a 13 pound cap which hopefully will take care of that situation.
Next, I got on the SDC forum and researched the partial flow oil filter. The conclusion on it as well as in the December, 2011 Turning Wheels magazine was that there needs to be a restrictor someplace in the line between the head and the filter. Thank you, Bob Palma and Gary Ash for the excellent articles and responses to the forum. I went out and took the filter and the lines off and there was no restriction. The general consensus was that the restrictor should be about .045 in diameter which would allow about one quart per minute to flow through the filter at 40psi. The 1/8 NPT 90 degree fitting had a hole that was about .110 in diameter. I jury-rigged a plug in the fitting and drilled it with a 3/64 (.047) drill bit. I then secured it in the fitting with J-B Weld. After it set up I re-drilled the hole out. The area of this smaller hole is about 1/6 of the larger one and I am hoping that this restriction will raise the oil pressure at idle as well as not overwhelming the filter.
I drained the oil and changed the filter. The oil that came out of it was darker than I had expected. I took the valve covers off and could tell that all the rocker arms were getting oiled. I decided to re-torque the head bolts. I am glad that I did. I hope I was doing it right. I took the break over bar and loosened each a quarter to half a turn and then re-torqued to 65 ft lbs. About half of them re-torqued to about where they were initially. The others took at least another quarter of a turn beyond where they had been to get to the 65 ft lbs. While I had the valve covers off I set the valve lash again. All were within a couple thousandths of what I had shot for. That was a cold .026 on the intakes and .027 on the exhaust.
I do not have a 6 volt dwell and tachometer meter so the engine speeds I stated are best guesses. I read online where a 12 volt dwell can be hooked up using my riding mower 12 volt battery and work on the 6 volt engine. I am hoping that is the case so that the next time the engine is started I can set the idle and check the dwell. I am feeling pretty good about everything right now. I think the boiling over and low oil pressure can be corrected with the steps that I have taken.
Charlie D.
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