Chapter 5: The Beast is a Fickle Mistress
29 July 1999 I was starting a very seriously big work order from two contractees at once, and I had already mentally written off half the weekend for work.I get this email from Lazlo late in the evening.
[NB: Edited, like pretty much all reproduced correspondence, for clarity, content, length, and adult language]
Hey we go Skot ol' Boy... Heads off... Oil pan, manifolds, carb all the other good stuff, (90% came off using two screwdrivers and three combo wrenches....) Good news is.... I was correct on the piston ring alignment thang... Top two rings had the gap in almost the same spot....
Now....
Here it comes.....
Brrrrrrrace yourself.
Rod bearings were scored.
Checked the crank. Crank is what caused it.
My guess it was never machined the last time it was rebuilt. Chances are we could just slap it all back together and it wouldn't be the best job but she'd, (is the Beast a she???), run. You'd get miles outa it too, but.... It wouldn't be a "good job".
Here's the scoop, I can look at some of the other rod ends... see what's going on... BUT I'm guessing it'd be a real good idea to rebuild here. I've got it pretty much 3/4's apart already, starting to clean her up, and hell... I've gotta pull the tranny anyway.... 'Nuther afternoon to get it out. It will take the help of a machine shop. I'm hop'n a polish will do the crank along with some oversize bearings, can't really see much of the cam yet and what I can see... well looks ok but I wouldn't want to judge at this juncture. Pistons look good
Oh, the block and the head could use a "boil out". Saw some really scary crap in there.
If you decide to go the inexpensive I can clean allot of it out. Ummmmmm. Guess that's it fer now. It's not as much work as it sounds, but I have no control over machine shop prices. In yer court Lad.... L.H. (P.S. I'm copying they lovely and darling Pen. She should know. This might "suck" some time. If I were you Laddy-Buck I'd "kiss-up" a little. Know I'm gonna!!! Love ya Pen!!!)
To amplify for for the automotive layperson: The rod bearings are what keeps the pistons smoothly turning the crankshaft. they fit between the piston rod and the crankshaft, and are designed to work oil deep into the working faces. This mechanism is even deeper into an engine than the rings (see previous installement), and a rod bearing failure is usually an extremely awful event. The broken metal jams the piston, stopping crankshaft rotation and causing the engine to sieze. The piston rod bends or breaks, the cylinder faces are damaged, and any number of other interrelated systems are trashed. The engine is then thrown out.
The fine folks at Power-Pak Rebuild (may they rot) did not finish the crankshaft properly-- the surface of the metal where the rods attach has to be perfectly round and mirror-smooth. This level of finish wasn't achieved, and the rough irregular surface wore grooves into the bearing. I'm guessing they "boiled out" a used crankshaft-- that is, immersed it in a bath of phosphoric acid solution to remove goop-- and slapped it into the motor, not bothering to re-polish the bearing faces, roughened by the acid bath. The damage is bad enough to eventually cause a failure-- next month, next year, or even later, but a matter of time nonetheless.
The same incompetent boob who did this is the probably the same person who installed the rings in #3 so the gaps were right on top of each other, causing the bad compression.
The short version: the engine work is going from an intermediate repair and partial rebuild to a major, engine-out, complete rebuild.
30 July 1999: Just a few short hours later I respond (cc'ing Pen as well):
Lazlo:
STUPID F-----G BEAST! G-D F-----G DAMN IT! Worn-Out PEESAHS--T!
*Whew!* Alright. I feel better.
I get the feeling the real culprit here is Super Auto, the defunct parts store where the rebuilt engine was bought back in 1983. Sounds like they kept their profit margins high by selling engines that were rebuilt in name only. So if I got it right, the rod bearings are scored because the crankshaft wasn't properly machined and the burrs tore 'em up. To do the job correctly, we can go several ways: have the crankshaft machined and reinstall with oversize bearings, get a new crankshaft (which would be cheaper/faster?), or ignore it and wait for the rod bearings to break and the engine to sieze up. The Big Picture: The engine's gotta come out, in pieces, so the crankshaft can be worked on.
Well, the way I see it, I'm striking a balance between doing the job quickly, doing the job right, and doing the job cheaply. Of course, something's gotta give, and it's usually the ol' wallet. So get it machined. I see no reason not to do the job right. Now I'm sure it's going to run like a Swiss watch after you're done, good for 100,000 miles at least. Just give me a heads-up on the cost as soon as you find out.
Well, I'm taking you at your word: If you say having the crank machined won't take up more of your time than not doing it or trying to do it yourself, I can live with the expense. Same goes for having the block and head boiled out: If it'll save you time, have them do it; if not, more for you. So far, this has not been too expensive a venture.
HOWEVER: (and Pen should take note at this point) I have decided that your job should begin and end under the hood. Once it's back together and running*, you're done. I can't say I had no idea you'd have to rebuild the engine-- I just hoped not! You don't have to spend the whole summer under a hood, Pen gets to see you in a non-greasy state sooner and more often, and I get to drive around in a truck that runs great but looks like hell (for the time being).
And yet again, it's what The Old Man would have wanted.
And although we're at the mercy of the machine shop's schedule, but at least you can kick back while they pick thier noses. God knows I'm not trying to make more work for you. But, when faced with these hairy "Do it right the first time" decisions, I gotta... well, have it done right the first time. We're still not behind schedule!
--Skot
* Including the steering gear: I get the feeling I'd screw that job up if I tried to do it. Tranny seal too.
Later Pen added her two cents. Much to our relief, there was understanding.
Hi Guys, I appreciate the concern over me, but I am a big girl and understand that sometimes these beastly things take time. I know this latest development threw you guys for a loop. No kissing up required, BUT you both owe me a heated game of miniature golf. Luv, P.
Last time we played Miniature Golf at Neptune's Kingdom at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (a fine course, but not what it used to be before the remodeling) some vandal removed the bottom from the 17th hole. Our balls fell in, never to be seen again. Really screwed our scores up.
1 August 1999:An absolutely perfect Summer day in Santa Cruz: 82°, I'll bet there are an average of 150 of these a year down here. Add another 150 days of 55° winter weather and there's 65 days left over for rain or fog or what have you. Green Bay, Wisconsin it's not.
Came to check on the work, give Laz some encouragement, that sort of thing. I took a look at the Beast, and true enough Laz had it pretty much in small pieces. The only thing left under the hood is the block (the bottom half of the engine, housing the crankshaft and pistons), and that's coming out as soon as the services of a machine shop can be arranged. There's room under there for Lazlo's Geo Metro, I'll bet!
I'm filled with a number of semi-powerful emotions about the full rebuild the engine is getting. I'm exasperated that the engine needs to have this much work done, yet thrilled about how great it's going to look and run. There's a wierd directionless anger at the people who rebuilt the engine my dear old broken-down daddy bought back in '83: In effect, I'm paying for thier shoddy workmanship, correcting the mistakes they made. There's an abject lesson here: Lazlo, although he's been around engines and is expert in thier function and repair, is by definition a hobbyist-mechanic, with a real day job doing something else (something involving radiation, I'm not sure). The professional mechanics who rebuilt the engine are far less mechanically competent than he, and it shows in their work, sixteen years after the fact.
3 August 1999:Finally secured a set of 1956 California Commercial plates for the Beast, from a nice guy in Vacaville, CA who advertises in Hemmings Motor News. The Panel Delivery Van's period authenticity shall be further enhanced. Now all I need is an "I Like Ike" metal bumper plate and a Civil Defense sticker for the window and I'll be a regular Daddy-O.
