Hot stuff?

One note...I hope you have a three "row" radiator. Didn't know three "cores" would fit in most cars!

Anyway, one place to check is the timing. If things are getting that hot, you might advance your timing a coupla degrees (or more).

The under hood pad will keep temps. up a bit...but overall..a very small amount. It's not using that part of the hood as a heat sink anymore. But the normal airflow "should" be suffecient to keep the wing nut from getting that hot.

Mike

If George burned through the stainless block off plates I cut for him he's in big trouble .. Jeff (He has such supple hands.......) Rice

"Big E" wrote: I'm not 100% sure you actually have a problem based on wing nut

Just got back from poking prodding checking testing cussing and also yakking with a couple people. Tomorrow it comes apart, period. I suspect there is a crack somewhere or some such "hard part" problem. BTW, meant to say three row. Have changed and checked everything twice. This time have everything crack tested... Studebaker George

I heard you were THE MAN to build a hot engine. Just use gloves when you remove the breather. Seriously I heard about a case where the intake was sucking part of the insulating pad down and resticting the airflow, which would account for the mixture problems. NT

I wish it was that easy...but running without a breather at all doesn't help. Something deep in my guy told me to grab a couple different heads when I went to the machine shop, but I didn't do it...I recon I will find out tomorrow or Tuesday. Studebaker George

How do the block off plates work? Are they part of the gasket? I tried thin steel plates recessed into the opening and they warped from the heat and one got sucked into a cylinder and ruined a piston. I had to but a whole set. Anyone need 7 pistons .080 over (:-)

Stainless steel sheet metal trimmed larger than the opening. Set onto the intake manifold, and then the 'good' paper intake gaskets are adhered to the intake manifold. After they set up overnight, the intake surface on the heads are greased and the intake is installed. I sent you a copy of the installation instructions for one of my intakes. It shows it pretty well. Jeff

I use the thin metal gaskets on my engine. The thick paper ones would throw the port matching off.

I always use the paper gaskets. Jeff

"Alex Magdaleno" wrote.

"Jeff Rice" wrote..

Funny, I had a longish chat on this subject yesterday with "Gentleman Jim" Young, a retired sprint car driver who stopped by to visit our 1946 midget. He was remembering some race-built Ch*v V8s popular in the late 60's, that specified a pair of thin steel head gaskets (yes, 2 per side). The motors were often over-ported, and developed hot spots that were mis-diagnosed as insufficient water pump capacity. Jim was a real believer in fatter composition gaskets because they were sure to seal, and walked away from a season as a team manager because an owner insisted on multiple tear-downs to compare the two arrangements. He felt justified later, as the car still ran seizing-hot on the metal gaskets. We couldn't remember who, but someone used plasma-accretion to put metal back in to intake tracts.

The best gaskets I ever used were over-thick soft copper, with steel rings around the bolt holes. You painted them with aluminum before installation, and re-annealed them in boiling water between uses. Never warped or blew, lasted the life of the engine--longer, on exhausts. Worked on seriously planed Nortons (12:1) and an Alfa (challenging head because iron wet liners are through-bolted in an alloy block), both after steel and composition failed. I wouldn't try copper for a blocking plate, though it ought to be useful for holding one in place. Wonder if anybody uses carbon fiber as a base in composition material?