Hi, all:
Well, the engine is out, the head is off, and the problem has become
readily apparent.
To recap, during my 800 mile drive home over Thanksgiving, I had the
engine of my '72 B (it's an 18GB engine, though) freeze while trying to
start it at a gas station at about the 400 mile mark. My parents were kind
enough to drive up with a tow dolley (I still say disconnect the drive
shaft! :) ) and get me and the car home. I did manage to get it to break
free and start, but the engine made this horrible tapping noise and was
running very poorly.
Of course, when originally telling the story, I omitted the critical
clue
that would have allowed the many engine sleuths on the list to guess the
problem. During the drive, about a 100 miles before I ran into my trouble,
I stopped to get gas, check the oil, etc. I found the rear air filter had
fallen off but had hung onto the ledge that along the sides of the engine
bay. Now, these filters are the thin, chrome ones Moss sells (223-100 on
pg A16 in the back of my B catalog). A bracket bolts onto the carbs where
the stock fileters attach, and the filter and chrome cover bolts to the
bracket with a piece of threaded rod about an inch long, with a cap nut on
the outside end (look at the picture). When I went to put the filter on
again, I couldn't find the nut or the threaded rod. Of course it vibrated
free and fell on the road somewhere, right?
No chance in hell. If vibrated loose and got sucked into my no 2
cylinder
where it cracked the piston and imprinted itself several times on the head.
About the only thing good I can say is that somehow it didn't even scratch
the side of the bore. I'm guessing it stayed in the manifold for a while
and only made it into the cylinder when I stopped for gas the final time.
The irony of course is that if I hadn't freed my "frozen block" and started
it, I probably wouldn't have done any damage.
Now the questions: the damage done to the head is in flat part coplanar
to surface (i.e. not in the valve recession). Might it be possible to
salvage this head? Based only on some brief observation, it looks like all
it did was dent this part of the head, which I'm hoping will only reduce my
compression a little and not necessitate a new head. Any chance, or is it
a goner?
In an unrelated not, I've got a big hole in my exaust valve in no 3
also,
which caused my bad compression in that cylinder, so that problem (which I
mentioned back in October) is also solved, in case anyone was still
wondering. :)
I guess the only thing left to do is start the discussion on whether a
new
head should be steel or aluminum. Let 'er rip boys... :)
-Matt Gaetke
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