Last Indian

Been a real bad month, wife’s been sick for the past 4 weeks. Lots to take care of, not complaining, just glad she has finally improved & slowly getting back to normal. 
So the past two days I got some time to get a good share of the engine back together.

This has been touched upon in varying degrees, but never to my knowledge from the whole absolute fact based chemical reaction, Universe workings.

There is a topic that has resonated for far to long & seems without question to generate strong feelings on both sides. Yet those feelings come from where? Knowledge? Perception? Or sources we believe in or trust, so a little emissions 101/atmospheric gas/AKA pollution! Believe it or don’t, but even better research it for yourselves & prove it beyond any doubt! But don’t read documents that have been written by the groups that have been lying to you. Than understand how long & how much you have been fooled & lied to!

Carbon Monoxide is a poisonous gas emitted by combustion engines & those vehicles are responsible for that pollution. That is a true statement! One that the very organizations, agencies & dare I say governing bodies that many people trust & believe, have in turn used to promote their narrative to their benefit. Yet have you ever heard them tell you that the very earth you live on produces more CO than all the human generated CO? No! Have you ever heard them tell you that the earths atmosphere is bombarded by more CO from space than all earth generated CO? No! Again have you ever heard them tell you that this horrible carbon monoxide, CO, is converted in the atmosphere to oxygen & hydrogen by bacteria? No! 

I will cover other gases little by little.

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

Design for manufacturing is DEFINITELY not the same thing as design for serviceability. Guess which one GM chose?

Manufacturing as we know, but the real # 1 goal is always the almighty dollar! Bingo! If they can save 10 cents; that trumps everything! What a shame! The automotive industry was once one of only 3 industries where new & important developments in mechanics & electromechanics happened. That was important!   In those days those designs focused on the KISS principle! They focused as well on serviceability & much more! This all went to hell with the governmental agency EPA! I could say a lot more about who & what they are, but it would be to no avail in this current world!

Let me just say this them! They are responsible indirectly for the V6 direct injection car I drive. This design is all wrapped around fuel economy & emissions. When comparing this car/drivetrain to a 1967 Impala V8 car/drivetrain using the same driver (me) the MPG hasn’t changed! And neither has the emissions! Really! The fools who think the emissions have changed; are the reason we are all where we are today! Sorry, but it’s true!

1 hour ago, SteveGP65 said:

That's what has me so confused. I have owned this car since 2001. I found it in a garage in Joplin, MO.  Woman sold it to me, it used to be her father's and he bought it brand new in 1965. He barely drove it except on Sunday sort of thing. He got sick and parked car. It was parked for years. I have done nothing engine wise except tune up, and filter changes. Car runs perfectly, loves rolling down highway at 75 - 80 mph with out an issue. I would have never found this hole unless I had to take carb off. 

While the picture makes that area look odd it is a normal configuration. The picture makes it look, as you say chopped up, but I would need to see a better picture to determine that. Still that area is just an open area. Unless there is a breakthrough into one of the plenum runners it’s not an issue. I seriously doubt that there is or the car wouldn’t run. This is a better picture of what that area looks like.

Started putting everything back together piece by piece. You talk about 20 pounds of s- - t in a 1 pound bag. Man have you ever seen this much crap stuffed on top of a motor. 

clearly these guys never heard of the KISS principle!

Found a little more time to get closer to finishing the valve covers. Once there done I need to make the T handle valve cover bolts for the new back cover.

I also obtained one of the last pieces I wanted, so I could finish the drivetrain aesthetics. A finned aluminum transmission pan. Unfortunately it’s just a sand casted pan, not polished. So there will be a lot of elbow grease I’ll need to put into it.

Reasoning though, that since these new polished aluminum covers will more than likely not bond as well to the finned aluminum tops, as they did to the fiber ones, I’ve made some improvements. There is a structural vein that runs across the top of the cover in two places. So, while risky, I drilled & taped the valve covers for two 4-40 screws with matching through holes in the finned upper plates. Those screws in the upper plates will be covered by the copper inlayed strips. The veins are only 3/16” wide, by about 1/2” tall. Any miscue, & I break through into the vapor space of the head, & there is no way you are going to keep that constant pressure from weeping past the screw threads long term. 

A little more done.

On 3/12/2024 at 10:09 AM, Ringo64 said:

Awarded:

Wouldn’t that be Old & Slow!?

WAIT A MINUTE! It just hit me; JACK! SERIOUSLY! Frosty now has a grandson who, wait for it, is JACK FROST! Who woulda thunk! Only in Pontiacville! 

2 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Is there one for Grampa??  Frosty has joined the club last Thurs.  Congrat's on the new LIL snowball.  ☃️   I'll let Frosty brag on all the particulars.

That is so cool! Congrats Frosty! Just don’t get the new snowball mixed up with your snow cone.

1 hour ago, Green Machine said:

Thank you for your very helpful feedback! On the hunt for a knowledgeable mechanic. Definitely out of my league. 

Dawn, I don’t wish to discourage you, but I have worked on a many high pressure injection system & they can get complicated as well as expensive & involved. This was one of GM’s first production direct injection attempts in a car.  5 years after your car the systems got much less involved. I just think if you don’t understand how these systems work you could spend a lot of money needlessly & still not resolve the issue. 
let us know how you make out.

As I continue with Last Indian winters projects, which will undoubtedly continue into late spring, maybe even summer. While building the back valve cover setup I decided to change the overall concept. Just getting started.

I gotta admit; who really cares?! I know I don’t! NASCAR is not NASCAR anymore! Period! In my day we called it IROC! That’s were you control the rules so tightly the all the cars are built exactly the same no difference! That’s what NASCAR is today. NASCAR was supposed to be about individual ingenuity & engineering, set within a loose framework of rules to see not only who was the best driver, but the best innovative engineer. Which meant sometimes the best engineered car with a fairly good driver could beat the best drive. Today, the only drivers who win are the ones lucky enough to still have a car that rolls at the end of the race. Sad! Really sad! Woke takes you nowhere, but loserville! 

On 3/3/2024 at 3:13 AM, 64 kiwi boni said:

Last Indian 

how do you keep your aluminium bright ?….

i have these valve covers and air cleaner on my 72 

Kiwi, depends on the condition of the aluminum. If it’s still bright, looks fully polished, but has a bit of a haze, you know like aluminum gets after sitting in the weather for a bit. I use simichrome! Good sh- - ! Wear gloves though as the chemistry can bother some folks.

If it’s worse than that you need to rebuff it with a buffing motor & pad & buffing compound. If it’s really bad you may need to wet sand with very fine grit. The courses grit should be no more than 1000 & from there move to 1200 than 2500. Than start buffing. If the valve covers look like the air cleaner  I think the simichrome would work fine.

20 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

are they salt and vinegar chips ? 

No, but they will be crunchy & I guarantee they will have some bite!