Ongoing Progress

Senior moment cover-up.... LOL

 

Today we (I) completed the emergency engine repair. The oil pump drive shaft retainer has now been installed - in fact it is a whole new shaft that I picked up yesterday. For those who may not know or remember what happened - the senior moment was, I forgot to install a retainer that keep the oil pump shaft in place. Without it, there was/is a very strong possibility of the shaft falling into the bottom of the oil pan and a TOTAL lack of oil pressure and then a very quick blowing up of the engine. Now I can semi relax and not worry about that aspect of the engine life cycle.

 

The ignition coil has been installed on to the rear (for the boat, front) engine mount.

 

You can see the oil draining from the oil pan, when it finally finished draining, I removed the oil pan, installed the new oil pump drive shaft'/retainer and then re-installed the oil pan and re-filled the oil pan with 7 qts of Valvoline Racing Oil.

 

Also you can see yesterday work, minus the thermostat plate that I still need to make. But yesterday I bought and installed all the water, vacuum holes in the manifold. We (I) also installed the water in and water out fittings to cool the engine with FRESH water from the rudder pickup.

 

After finishing up this "senior moment" emergency repair, Kathy, Mokie and I took Josephine (our '55 Chevy) out for a spin to enjoy the late arriving "SUN" and a little relaxing cruise.

After all the ballots were counted, it as nearly unanimous for me to keep polishing - as many old saying about polishing say, "if you can't go fast - chrome it" or "if you can't go - show".

 

Both engine rails are now polished and both engine mount plates are polished. The two new engine stringers are cut, trimmed and ready for installation.

 

Some of the pictures are after the boat came home to show the before and the nearly complete center section. The new wood still needs to be glued in, but that won't happen until I get off my duff and finish sanding the center section - then two coats of sealer to the whole inside of the hull.

 

I have a question for you to help me ponder what direction to go - but after spending 2.5 hours polishing the aluminum piece being pondered, I may have already answered the question.... seeing how it cleaned up after polishing.

 

When we received the boat back, the previous owner installed some aluminum supports where the engine bolts to the hull. He was running a FORD and it weighs 175+ LBS more then the allowed Buick and 75+ LBS more the Chevy V6.

 

It has been suggested by a racer friend that it is a good idea to leave the aluminum there and since they are already cut to the correct shape. I just thought it might look cleaner with just the new wood showing, but now that I have polished it, hmmm.

 

The picture of the aluminum sitting next to the new engine stringer is before I polished that side piece, BTW, that is the NEW second engine doorskin piece, the first one became a template. This one fits almost perfectly and will look very good. The other sides piece has been scarf'ed and the seam has been glued and drying.

 

I will go ahead and polish the other side piece. I can always decide to install or not. It did look pretty sad before I polished it and looks acceptable afterwards. Since I'm so heck bent on polishing aluminum, I might as well go ahead and do the aluminum engine rails, because they will be installed shortly.

 

All the other aluminum you see still in the boat, will also be polished (if I can get it out without breaking something), if not, I will steelwool it by hand.

 

What do you think?

 

Today wasn't our worst day, but it wasn't our best either. Yesterday I added $35 worth of racing oil to the engine to pre-prime the oil system. That went pretty well, except the oil primer couldn't reach the oil pump, then a light bulb went on, I forgot to install the drive shaft that goes between the oil pump and distributor. That was no big deal, except I also forgot to install the drive shaft retainer (see attached picture). Sometime before the engine is actually fired for the first time, I get to take the oil pan off, remove the oil pump, install the retainer and put everything back together - I'm beginning to think the senior moments are backing up and getting ready to do a massive core dump.... Oh well better to find that little mistake now, rather then out on the race course. 

 

Also enclosed are pictures of the before engine rail and the paper template. Yesterday I scarf'ed some pieces of doorskin together to make the new engine rails. I used one of the scarf'ed pieces to make then make a wood template to verify fit. The wood template fits both sides, but has to many extra adjustment cuts. I will now use that one to make a more precise NEW engine stringer. Once properly fit, glue and nail them in place.

 

Today I also varnished the rest of the trailer wood. I still need to find some carpeting in order to actually call the trailer finished. All the remnants stores want full price for pieces that should be thrown away, but I'm still on the hunt and we are pretty sure some will be found in the near future.

 

I have just started sanding the center section, once that is done to our satisfaction (there are many scares that just won't be able to be sanded out, so I will have to be satisfied that it looks better), we will West System Epoxy seal the whole inside of the boat, along with the new engine stinger. Re-install the engine rails and move onto the next thing.

Today I had some industrial strength oil lines made for the remote oil filter. If these babies come off, it will because of unknown reasons.

 

Years ago, Scott Harger was wearing his brand new drivers suit and the oil adapter came off the engine and filled the boat with HOT oil. He, his drivers suit and life jackets were coated with a thick green coat of oil

 

This time I'm trying to make sure that doesn't happen again (it's my driving suit he will be wearing this time.... LOL) and I spent 3 hours cleaning his life jacket - so NO repeats.

 

Pending Scooter's approval, I think that part is done. The oil that we will be using costs $5 a qt and I don't want to waste a single drop (Valvoline 10/30 Racing Oil ("not for street us" it says - because contains lots of ZINC)). It has almost the best viscosity of the more expensive oil and I have confidence in Valvoline - I have used it almost exclusively for yrs and yrs.

 

When the ordered oil gets here, maybe next Friday - we can oil prime the engine. Other then the first firing, the engine is done.

There is a new movie posted out on the SIRA website. It was the awards for Lake Sammamish. Bruce and I were co-chairmen. You can see us calling out the winners.

 

It takes a while to download, but I thought it was cool to see, never even knew it existed.

 

There are now two videos of our boat and we are the homepage cover boat. Pretty neat if you ask me.

 

http://www.apbanw.com/Clubs/remember%20when.htm

 

Today I finished assembling the engine (clayed the piston to valve clearance) and bolted the rest of it together.

 

The motor is essentially finished, the trailer is essentially finished and the boat is about 3/4 finished. As Darrel Waltrip says - "Boys let's go racin".