1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)
Jim Ratto:
Autumn 1990, A Star is Born
All through September, efforts were made to get the engine together and in the car. The guy that built the engines at Buggy House, Rob, helped me a bunch. He sent my 044 Magnums next door to Hannan's Machine for Jimmy over there to port the exhausts and do a valve job. When they came back, the exhaust ports were opened way up and now 'D' shaped. Rob showed me how to use valve lapping compound to check the seat margin on the back side of the valves, and how to grind the valve keepers so they wouldn't meet in the middle. He had Jerry's friend, Tom Palmer, make me a set of spacers to go between 94 cylinders and the case, to make up for using A pistons with the 74 crank. He helped me set end-play. Once the heads were on, he took over setting up valvetrain geometry, which I was completely lost with. He also made a suggestion to ditch the Claude's "In n Out" oil pump (as seen in earlier picture), as he said the passageways in that cover were too small, especially by the time I had screwed Earl's adapter fittings into it to use AN-8 hose. I was horrified to think the engine was now going to have to come all the way apart so it could be drilled and tapped for full flow return fitting. But Rob said nope, we can do it with engine like it is. He rigged up compressed air into oil pressure switch hole and rags in oil pump cavity and drilled the galley and tapped it. The rear bypass was out too. He made a plug for a new Melling pump and I was in business. We used to stock these trick 90 deg AN-8 elbows to use with parker push-lok hose, but since I was running Earl's aircraft hose, we modified it for the AN fitting.
I also painted some good used OEM cylinder cover semi gloss black, and my 1641's 36hp style shroud was done in tool cabinet grey. Instead of running the 36DRLA's, Big Mark convinced me to buy a new set of Weber 44IDF's ($375 cost back then, new). I'd plan on selling the Dellortos later to make up the outlay on the Webers.
By mid October, a very hot Sunday, the engine was in the car. Around noon I had finished wiring it, plumbing it, and burping the oil system. It had new W6DC Bosch plugs in it, Kendall non detergent 30W poured in it and carbs were spraying fuel. By all accounts, it was ready to fire up. It did, with just a few cranks. I knew to bring the idle up to 2500 and wait. It never gets any easier, even 26 years later, to fire up a brand new motor and sit there while it roars away at 2500, all the while watching for oil leaks, watching oil pressure gauge/light, listening for loose parts, and praying it all goes well. On this day I was dumb, and thought it would be cool to break the cam in with an open stinger on the car. It did sound good though, very sharp, very angry. After the 20 minutes of cam break in, I shut it off and assessed things. No leaks. No smoke. I let it cool completely and while doing so, removed the stinger, bolted on the new quiet packs, and changed the oil. Then adjusted the valves. The oil came out looking new and nothing looked wrong in the rockers. Man I was ecstatic. By now it was late in the day. I still hadn't driven it!
Here are pics from that day. The black and white one is my neighbor (and also owner of BH's son) Chris, he had stopped by when he heard all the noise from up the street. The dog was my basset hound that always hung out with me. The pink shoes are my sister's.
Jim Ratto:
These are out of sequence, I'm sorry. I found a few more pics from the day I drove to VW Jamboree.
Jim Ratto:
Some pictures from this era at Buggy House. The guy in the shades is Frank. You can see all the stuff that time-stamps this picture in the background. Other guy on the phone was a kid our age that worked there part-time, Javier, a great guy that we had tons of fun with.
Bill Schwimmer:
Thanks for the memories Jim, 26 years ago, thats a long time. I had forgot where I bought the manifolds, but I now remember. They were nos, you could still buy the good stuff if you looked around. They are still on the car. Keep it coming, thanks again, Bill
Tony M:
Having been that guy in the 80's at BH, i truly relate to you story. My time line was a little more in the 70's but down the same road.
Thank's for sharing and i'm glad to be still part of it.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page