Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Lessons learned this week

Many have read my post RE: Bloody oil leak. As I have been trying to get my rebuilt 250 ready for a 1400 miles week long trip with friends, I've run into some issues that have been interesting.

1, no matter how closely I paid attention to the cleaning and adjusting of one of the simplest carbs in the world, my Rochester BV wouldn't run right afterwords. WRONG manifold to carb gasket....you must have the one with the little cutouts.

2, excessive fuel pressure will cause what you believe to be a carb problem and you spend hours pulling pieces of the float system apart without resolve. My NEW carter pump pegged my 7 PSI fuel pressure gauge at idle.

3, Upon 1st drive with the new 250, I heard what I perceived to be a dry speedo cable. That night I pulled the cable and lubed it. The next drive the speedo quit. Months ago I had replaced my Saginaw 3sp with one with BW overdrive. I pulled the speedo gear from my old trans and in installed it in the OD, thinking that it should be right with my rear gear. Well, Guys, it appears that a very simple look at the two gears side by side would have shown me that the BW gear was nearly a 1/16th" larger in diameter, and the Chevy gear rode on the tops until that day it quit.

4, "One half of all carburator problems are in the ignition system." During my bout with the carb, an intermidant miss and surging would show at about 45mph in OD. I played with float level without resolve. Tired of playing with the carb I decided to put on the new plug wires I bought. Guess what went away?

5. The alternator also took a dump during this last two weeks. Replaced it and the new one went 2 days. Long story short, the regulater had a short that wouldn't show until the engine was revved up.

Am looking forward to my trip. Still leaking oil but it looks worse than it is, a pint in 400 miles, lord a pint will go a long way on well finished concrete. I want to thank everyone for the comments on the oil leak.

Mike Mantle

mike, sounds like you are doing a good job of polishing paint on the fenders. keep it up and you'll have no paint left.

doesn't he trans use gm saginaw gears? if so you should be able to get more from GM or a local trans shop.

just put a HEI and it will eliminate problems in the future.

you could drive over for the convention, i'd like to meet ya. tom

I especially like #4 sort of like when I found that much of my cam lope was a blown head gasket! I'm glad there is this place for us to share our expertise with others who understand. Mike, enjoy you trip!

The paint on the fenders is getting a little thin. First, I did an L99 V8 conversion, but I didn't like how it interacted with the OD the way I had it set-up, so I yanked the 8 out and bought a re-man 250, detailed the engine compartment, and installed it. It leaked oil pretty good on cam break-in but I kept it running while watching how much oil cam out. Yanked the 6 and re did the pan gaskets. So, I guess it's had almost as much attention in the engine compartment as your Elco. Fun, huh?

I have a handful of speedo gears from various muncie and saginaws and all of them are about 1/16" smaller in diameter as the BW one. If you've a BW OD unit left, check it out and let me know what you think.

I've got a Pertronics in the distributor, and it seems to work OK. I have a HEI on the shelf, but I'd want to check it's curve before I put it in.

I'd love to come to the convention, and I'd just narrowly have the time when I get back from my trip, however, my wife has a weeks "horsie" thing going on and I need to stay and watch the ranch. I'll probably be in touch this winter when I start on my '37 in earnest. I'd like to keep a floor shift, OD box, in it. I don't foresee needing a 5 speed considering the torque range of a 6cyl. I leaning toward a 250 for it as well. I'm putting next year on my calender. Hope to see you then.

I got back yesterday after putting just over 1500 miles running back and forth through the Rockies. Elevation changes from 600ft to 6800.
I'd decided to go despite the oil leak. The first 650 miles was at relatively low speeds as over 80 cars wove their way through the mountains. The dipstick still read full the 4th morning. The speeds that day were in the 65-75mph range, and I found the oil level down a full quart, and the bottom of my Elco pretty well rust-proofed at days end. Ran two more days at 45-55mph and no oil used. Yesterday my wife drove that last leg, and she was hoofing it. Down one quart, and the undercarriage dripping with oil again. It seems that windage has a great deal to do with the oil leak.
Total trip mileage hasn't been computed yet as I've still got to fill the tank after yesterday's run, but it's been in the 22 range all week. The 250 has no trouble pulling the 3.36 gear + overdrive, having found only 3 passes that needed direct.

I was really pleased with the result and the plans for a 250 in my '37 2dr are underway. Tom (tlowe) had freshened up a Saginaw/Borgwarner OD for me, and he thought the 250 would be quite happy with the 3.36 rear gear and OD(normally the OD came with 3.73s), and he was right. Pulling all but the steepest grades was easy, the reduced rpm made it much quieter, and the mileage was great. A big thankyou, Tom.

I've got some chores to catch up on, and then I'll pull the engine on the Valdez as it is now known, and attempt to stem the leak.

glad to hear all went well with the trip. with the undercoating, the Elky should be good to drive in the winter, better get the choke working good.

i hope you want no more of those 3 speed o/d converted to a 4 sp o/d. i have none.

be sure to let us know what the oil leak is. what rpm are you running at 60 in o/d? tom

I'll be sure to post when I find what the oil leak is. It seems to be minimal @ 1500 and ramps up a ton at 2grand plus.

At 60mph I'm turning about 1800, and it seems to like it there. I did a final calculation of mileage tonite. 22.85mpg. Stock 250/single Rochester/Langdon's headers, and a tlowe' "stick N over.