Series V Cylinder Head Questions

[DanR]

Seems a bit of trouble to manufacture something that is still available at times even diffuclt to find.

I've done the same thing on some Hard Top Parts (They are available also but rare finds).

Saw some the screws on E-bay a few months ago. I believe they were NOS.

A recent POST by some of our members had a discussion about some New engines available from an outfit ( Greenwood Auto ?) in the UK some too!.

I bought several NOS items from them alittle more than a year ago. Such as a SV Cam and some Head Bolts, Fuel pumps etc.

Perhaps they (the UK outfit) might have some.

Check with Delta Cams! I just had a cam grind with the rocker assy re-worked by them and they might have some.... Just a thought.

BTW, They (Delta) did a great job too!

 

[Stick]

Big thank you to Tom H for stepping up to the plate and parting with a few of his spare adjustment screws. Completed the cold lash tonight, and then the hot lash... Yes, that means I GOT TO DRIVE MY CAR!

I had to tighten up the adjuster screws more than I expected between the cold and hot lashes, but I guess as long as there is SOME play left when the engine cools back down everything should be just fine there.

Engine runs well! Seems much more responsive off idle which is great. I figure next steps are as follows: 1. Check compression to get a baseline 2. Re-time the car since I have no idea what it was set at or how my changes may have effected it, and 3. Adjust the carbs which needed doing pretty badly before the rest of this mess.

Anything else I should be looking at or keeping an eye out for at this stage?



PS, here is a shot of the completed head work:

 

[Greggers]

Funny, when I put my new head on, I did a cold lash and then when I went to do the hot lash, I didn't have to adjust anything. Just for good measure, If I were you, I might check that hot lash again. After all, too tight is worse than too loose.

At the last Invasion, Tiger Tom suggested that both intake and exhaust be set at .012.

 

[RootesRooter]

Greggers - you tell the guy that "too tight is worse than too loose," then suggest going from the factory .014 spec down to .012 on exhaust? Yikes!

'Tiger Tom' might be right but I'd like to see his reasoning first. Just as an FYI: the factory specs for the Holbay head are .013 for both exhaust and intake.

 

[George Coleman]

12 intake and 14 on exhaust thats factory I have always set mine at 13 across the board, Toms advice is also good with all the wear on the valves rockers and springs there is a lot of slop on these old heads it will not hurt.

 

[65beam]

questions

one thing TT does different when adjusting valves on his cars is that he doesn't use a flat feeler guage. he uses drill stock of the appropriate size. he talked me into this probably 25 years ago. his reasoning is that there is wear on the valves and the rockers and the use of a flat feeler guage gives you a clearance based on the highest points of the two worn surfaces , not the points that are actually controlling everything. look at a rocker and you will see the worn area from front to back where the rocker contacts the valve. by doing it this way you're setting the gap in the groove where the wear is. this is how I set mine. I have fairly quiet engines and my engines seem to run pretty good doing it this way. since 99.9% of the owners use a flat feeler it makes sense that 13 would be a good point for setting the valves if using the flat guage.

 

[Stick]

Sorry it has taken so long for me to report back... We've been busy enjoying the car! Compression wasn't as good as I had hoped it might be, 130 120 138 128. Cylinder #2 is down more than it should be relative to the others, this is the same cylinder that had the damage to the head. From what I understand, 170-180 is a more normal figure for a healthy motor, so I suppose at some point some work on the lower end will be in order. One thing is, I did do the check cold, reading the manual the other day I noticed it says to check it hot, I'll get that done sometime and see if it is much different.


We've been enjoying the car very much. I've put upwards of 2,000 miles on the car since getting it back together just over a month ago. Re-torqued the head twice, at ~300 and 800 miles if I remember correctly. Started by taking it around town for a few days, then went up to the grandparents ~150 miles round trip, finally took it on a 400 mile trip up to the Football game a couple weeks ago and nothing but good news to report. This past weekend we participated in the Midcoast Road Rally, and took the Sunbeam. The route itself was around 300 miles plus another 400 miles getting to the rally and back home. We had a great time, despite the persistent rain!

Thank you everyone so very much for your help. You guys made this possible for us.

A couple shots: Launching at the Rally, and my wife pulling in to the start.

A couple other shots of the car:

 

[alpine_64]

Very cool pics.. and the car has LAT 9 pie cutter wheels.. you need to get some red stripe tyres to set those off in full period glory!

Whats the spoiler/air damn that appears to be on the rear of the car under the bumper in one of the pics?

 

[Stick]

Very cool pics.. and the car has LAT 9 pie cutter wheels.. you need to get some red stripe tyres to set those off in full period glory!


Whats the spoiler/air damn that appears to be on the rear of the car under the bumper in one of the pics?

I like the look of those tires quite a bit actually. Are they still available from anywhere? I don't anticipate needing new tires any time soon, but you never know!

The spoiler/air damn is something the previous owner made because he thought that area and being able to see the muffler was ugly. He also thought the additional area and reflective strips would help with viability. The picture you see it in was taken shortly after we bought the car. I never liked it much, makes the back end look strange to me, so I removed it a while ago.

 

[alpine_64]

The tyres are available still.. places like coker and vredestein stock them.. not cheap.. but look coll.. and cheap is comparative.. the tyres on our cars are still cheap compared to a 16-18" tyre you have to put on a modern car.

http://www.cokertire.com/
http://www.vredestein.com/car-tyres/classic

 

[Jay Laifman]

Very cool pics.. and the car has LAT 9 pie cutter wheels.. you need to get some red stripe tyres to set those off in full period glory!

Whats the spoiler/air damn that appears to be on the rear of the car under the bumper in one of the pics?

Where I have I seen this before?????? Oh yeah, that's a Hot Wheels!!!! Very cool.