VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 Resurrecting a '28 4 banger

My attention then turned to the rocker assemblies. The bushings were worn enough so that the lifter body would 'lift' up when adjusting the valve clearance. Not good. With a rocker rebuild kit in hand, I proceeded to get the rockers back into specs.

The first photo shows one rocker assembly that is disassembled. The rocker bushing holes measured .006 inches larger in diameter than the rocker shaft. No wonder I could not adjust them properly!

To press out the old bushings, I cut off the stump of a 5/8 (.625) inch bolt and ground/sanded the shaft down to .578-ish. I had determined that the old bushings had an OD (outside diameter) of .582 and an ID (inside diameter) of .538-ish. To hold the rocker back and allow the old bushing to pop out, I used a short length of 1/2 galvanized water pipe.

With the parts mounted in my big old vice, the old bushings pressed out nicely.

Before evaluating what is necessary for pressing in the new bushings, I cleaned out the hole in the rockers. There was leftover scrapings from the old bushings in there. So, with an adjustable reamer clamped in my vice, I gently cleaned up the holes by hand. The rocker holes are .582 inches in diameter (important number).

Notice in this photo that the tip of the rocker has been ground clean. The tips had round marks dug into them by the top of the valves. This round mark would make it difficult for a feeler gauge to move smoothly between the rocker tip and the valve end to adjust the rocker/valve clearance.

I just used my belt sander to 'touch up' the tips of the rockers. Freestyle. I tried to keep the rocker tip at a 90 degree angle to the belt sander and gently ground just enough material away to get rid of the spot that was worn into the tip by the valve ends. I also put a very small curvature on the surface of the tip that I was grinding.

Cheers, Dean

The new bushings that came in the kit measured .595 inch in diameter. According to my research, for a press fit into a 1 inch diameter hole, the part going in should be .001-.0015 inch larger.

Hmmm. The new bushings are .013 larger in diameter than the rocker hole. The instructions in the kit just said to press them in. I'm not comfortable with this large of a difference, so I decided to turn the bushings down on my lathe to .585-ish.

What I need is a bushing-holding lathe jig for this operation. I dug into my scrap box and came up with a short length of an 13/16" bolt. I cut it down in my lathe so that it will hold the new bushings while I remove roughly .010 from their outer diameter.

See the pics below that illustrate the making of this bushing holder jig. The photo with the colored elipses show the finished product:

- The shaft in the red ellipse is .585 inches in diameter
- The shaft in the green ellipse is .521 inches in diameter
- The end of the shaft (in the blue ellipse) is thread 1/2-20

Cheers, Dean

Now I am ready to turn down the outside of the bushings. The first photo shows a new bushing in place on the jig. It is being held in place by an old rocker bushing and a 1/2-20 nut that is hand snug. The next photo shows the bushing after being turned down to .586" diameter.

After turning down the outside of the bushings, they pressed into the rockers nicely. Notice that I am using aluminum covers on the jaws of my vice so that the bushing ends do not get damaged.

Also notice that the oil hole in the bushing is lined so that it will align with the oil hole in the cast iron rocker. Some bushings in the kits do not have this hole, so remember to drill it before moving on to reaming the hole for the rocker shaft.

Cheers, Dean

I look at some of the things you come up with and do and I wonder what in the world I'm doing in this hobby. Sometimes I think I'm in way over my head. Thankfully, there are folks that can do the same things that you do and will gladly take my money to do them. I always enjoy your posts.

Next on the to do list is to ream the rocker bushings. The new rocker shafts are .531" diameter and the hole currently in the bushing is .521". I got a cheap set of adjustable reamers and I found that the blades on them are not parallel. Grrr.

So I worked a rocker onto the reamer by hand and when I got close to the size I wanted, I flipped the rocker over and then reamed it from the other side. In this way, I was able to open the hole so that a new rocker shaft would go into each side of the hole, but the middle of the hole was binding on the shaft.

To ream out the center of the hole without taking more material off the side ends of the hole required another tool. Using one of the old rocker shafts, I cut some cutting flukes on the end and used this 'reamer' to take just enough off the inside of the bushing so the new shaft would slide inside the bushing.

Then, I polished the inside of the bushing using my patent-pending ID polisher: a piece of 3/8" copper tube (mounted in a drill) with a slot in the end for a short piece of used emery cloth.

Cheers, Dean

The refurbished rocker assembly sure is purty sittin' on top of the engine!

Now to adjust the valve clearance (according to Ray Holland's 'School is in Session') to .006" to begin with. After they warm up I'll adjust them to the .006" for the intake and .008" for the exhaust.

I have a tool that is very handy for the valve adjusting operation. It is a 5/8" hex socket and screwdriver-with-mushroom-head combination. The notch in the mushroom head indicates the orientation of the screwdriver blade. Things are moving smoothly. ;-)

Cheers, Dean

Well, I spoke too soon.

Three of the eight rocker adjusting bolts are not adjusting smoothly: something is binding.

I took out all the adjusting bolts and found that some had broken threads. After cleaning up the bolts and replacing three of the locking nuts (due to damaged threads), the valves are adjusted and I'm ready for the next stage in the resurrection!

Cheers, Dean

Howdy all,

I realize that I skipped over a few things that I did before dropping the engine back into Lurch, so let me document those items now.

First, I put the flywheel cover on. Notice that on there is a small wedge-shaped cover plate bolted to the block that butts up against the flywheel cover (circled in red). There is one on each side of the block. These little cover plates cover up holes in the block and help prevent oil and other junk from getting into the clutch area.

Next is the front engine mount bracket. One of the bolt holes is open to the oil splash zone in the block, so that bolt needs some sealer on the threads. Permatex #3 to the rescue!

Cheers, Dean

Next on the build docket is installing the distributor. I'll say up front that positioning the distributor correctly as you slide it into the hole will test your patience!!

I started with rotating the crankshaft so that cylinder number one is at the end of the compression stroke and is at top dead center (upper center mark on the flywheel - U | C). This is anticipating wanting to get the points to be just opening for cylinder one when the spark lever is in the fully retarded position (when starting the engine).

Before dropping the distributor into the distributor hole in the block, I put the distributor body bearing/spacer on top of the oil pump shaft. This washer/bearing prevents the distributor body from dropping down too far and, therefore, spaces the point mounting plate above the centrifugal advance mechanism.

On top of the distributor hole goes the advance/retard clamp plate. This plate clamps around the distributor body and is connected to rod that ultimately is connected to the spark advance/retard lever on the steering column.

Cheers, Dean

As I mentioned in the previous post, positioning the distributor correctly is a bear!

Consider the following items in order to achieve a successful distributor installation:

- As the driving gear meshes with the teeth in the cam shaft, the distributor shaft rotates a little as the distributor goes into the hole.
- The pin inside the distributor driving gear has to line up with the slot at the top of the oil pump so that the distributor will go all the way down in the hole.
- When the distributor does go all the way into the hole, you want the distributor body to be positioned with the cap clips at a convenient place when you are done with the timing.

It took me well over one hour of in-and-out to get the distributor in properly. Whew!

When I hooked up the advance/retard actuating rod, I noticed the hole in the distributor body clamp plate was quite worn. To take up some of that slack, I put a sheet brass shim around the rod.

March 2022 update: Evidently, the distributor was NOT fully seated when I installed it in 2017. The result was that 5 years down the road, the distributor disengaged from the oil pump! Here's that story and the fix: No oil pressure in Lurch's engine and the fixes

Cheers, Dean

What a great suggestion with the rod wrapped in brass to take up some slack.

I sit here thinking...I should have thought of that...And then the little light bulb came on. And I said to self...Not in a million years...YOU are a wonder. Happy New Year

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

BTW, the red goop is RedLine Assembly Lube. I've been smearing it on all moving parts as I assemble them.

All my best always, Dean

Hi. When viewing the head pic I noticed the intake port has a fluted insert. Is that common to all these 4 cyl? I a 27 superior v and I am just wondering if it has these and what purpose they serve?
Thanks in advance.

Hey DMD,
I knew I had just seen this somewhere, not sure if all the 4's had them or not, but here is some further explanation as to why they are there....

inlet passages

I believe the air diffusers were only used on the '28 engines. After all, the '28 boasted 35hp, whereas the '27 only had 21hp.

Here's another quote from Chipper on the subject:
Cheers, Dean

Thanks. I am looking for some extra power so I think I will pull the intake manifold and see if there are any in there. Ours is rally a 1927 model titled in 1926 so Dad always called it a 26.

Is there a reason you are not cleaning the parts as you reinstall them. Example the clutch housing?

Yes, glad you noticed the grime.

I am cleaning the inside of the parts to ensure good mechanical operation, but not the outside of the parts to preserve Lurch's history and patina.

When I drive him around or take him to a car show, it is important for every part tell the story of his past.

I know, you'll say that I'm smoking the wrong kind of stuff out here in California. Nope. Just giving respect to my babies.

Cheers, Dean

I wholeheartedly agree with your procedure. Retaining the "patina" is important in an attempt to give observers as accurate an impression of the vehicle as possible. Restoration destroys history.

Patina versus restoration..... would make a open ended conversation with no agreement from both sides.

From my perspective, not a fan of patina.

Regards

Ray

I understand the position of not maintaining patina. You have the right to your opinion and what you do to your car. I have two survivor Chevrolets that I feel that maintaining them as best I can even though they have their defects is important to show what happens to Chevrolets that are 50+ years old even with reasonable care. Once restored they are no longer representative of older maintained vehicles.

Time for the oil filter and coil assembly to go back onto the block.

This is a setup that I put together over 20 years ago when I first built Lurch. I didn't want to pay the high price of a correct oil filter, so I found a 1950s era oil filter canister and used that. I can still buy a filter element for this canister at Napa for $18 USD. BTW, The last filter element I bought was a Napa 1006.

Before going into details of the mount, let me point out that the two 5/16-18 holes in the block go through the block and into the oil splash zone. Therefore, the bolts that go into these holes need to have sealer schmeared on the threads. See these holes in the first photo below.

Now, on to the goofy mount. ;-)

The 1950s canister originally clamped onto the car's intake manifold, using U shaped clamp bolts. Sooooooooooo, to simulate the intake manifold, I used a short piece of 1" galvanized water pipe as the clamping mount foundation. I nestled the pipe onto a piece of angle iron so the weight of the canister would not put undue rotational stress on the mounting bolts. The backside of the angle iron is large enough to reach the raised, flat areas that are in the engine block. The pipe is bolted to the angle iron from the bottom and the two 5/16" bolts that go into the engine block go through both the pipe and the upright part of the angle iron. See the second pic below.

This photo needs a little explanation.

1. You'll see that I cut a retangular access hole in the top of the pipe so that I could get to and tighten the 5/16" bolts that go into the engine block. I cut the hole with my 4" angle grinder.

2. The green arrow points to the top of the angle iron upright leg. The green ellipses show the top of the two bolts that hold the pipe to the bottom of the angle iron.

3. On the left side of the photo, you'll see that I mounted a flat plate for the coil, using the extended U bolts from the oil canister. The coil is mounted to this plate on the left side of the oil filter canister.

4. Keeping in mind that the coil mounting bracket needs to make a good ground connection to the block for the spark system, I connected the coil mounting plate with a wire (see red arrow) to the pipe/simulated-intake-manifold to ensure electrical continuity. In addition to the wire, I used star washers all along the way which dig into the metal parts and help keep the electrical connection viable. The red ellipses illustrate the star washers.

The third photo shows the whole assembly mounted to the block.

Cheers, Dean

Hi Dean,

Excellent idea with the oil filter. I have a similar one, but mounted on the fire wall, as I have an expansion tank for the coolant recovery position mounted where the original oil filter was.

You are making great progress and very interesting reading.

Regards

Ray

Ray