The Plymford

oh!  que le suspense!

sleepyhead said:

oh!  que le suspense!

What he said....

Hey, look at that!  I cut to the break with the teaser, and it pooped me out onto a new page.  Perfect!

volvoclearinghouse said:

Hey, look at that!  I cut to the break with the teaser, and it pooped me out onto a new page.  Perfect!

Not anymore....

Hint, hint.

September 1, 2018

T minus 14 days to the race.

The 460 ran beautifully.  The carb was freshened, the fuel system had been cleaned up, and the battery still held a charge.  The Plymford still needed some bodyworked finished, the windshield put in, and whatever other bullE36 M3 the spreadsheet showed still open, but it was time to back her out of the garage for the first time since, well, since before it was a Plymford.

I got in, sat down, shut up, and flicked on the ignition.

Then I kicked the starter in the ass.

The Big Block cranked over with that distinctive Ford starter sound.  Ahhhh-gugita gugita gugita gugita.....RRRRRAAAAAWWWWNNNN!

After the idling lump of power had warmed up, I reached down and pulled the shifter back into 'R'.  

And took my foot off the brake.

And the Plymford, ever so slowly, creeped. forward.

....

.......

!!!!!!!!!

Before it could crash into the workbench, I slammed on the brake.  Befuddled, I tried to move the shifter back to park, thinking maybe I'd miscounted my clicks, or something.  

The shifter wouldn't budge.  I eased my foot off the brake, and the Plymford edged forward.  And I stabbed the brake, again.  The shifter wouldn't budge.  

berkeley.

I did the only thing I could do, and cut the engine off.  After an hour or so of crawling under the car and fiddling with the shifter lever on the transmission, shifting into various positions, starting the car, and the car either creeping forward or doing nothing, I knew the sinking feeling in my stomach wasn't dinner.  The transmission was boned.  We had 2 weeks to the race, and I had no spare transmissions.  The team and I had been casually perusing Craigslist for a few months now looking for a good spare, but they were always a bit more than we wanted to pay, or a bit too far away (Big block Ford C6 transmissions for the LTD are somewhat application-specific).  But now, we were paid up for the race, the rest of the car wasn't even done, and we needed a transmission to boot.  

Oh, but it gets better.

In the process of me crawling all over the car with the engine running, scratching my head and wondering what the Berk was going on, I'd noticed something dripping from between the engine and transmission.  Something wet, and not particularly oily.  I hypothesized it was water, and thinking there may have been a freeze plug back there, I figured when the transmission came off I'd seal that up while I was at it.  

With no spare transmission yet in hand, I yanked the offending unit.  

By myself, one night after the kids were in bed.  In less than an hour I had it out.  We've changed a few transmissions in this car.

All right, time to find and fix this water leak.  *crawls under the car*  Hmmm.

What the....

...FUDGE.  ARE YOU BERKING KIDDING ME???

CRACKED BLOCK!  The 460 has a Cracked.  Effing.  Block.  

Ugh.  Btdt, have the lighter wallet to prove it.  

I once had a slightly cracked engine block leaking coolant out of one of the engine mount threaded bosses.

Liberal application of green loctite (the self-wicking stuff - supposedly you can apply it after the bolt is installed) at least sealed up the cooling system...

But damn.

Oof. Didn't see that coming. Engine and transmission.

Now how will I sleep tonight, wondering what next? 

JB weld and send it.

In reply to RedGT :

Worked for the previous owner of my truck.

Hmm did you guys leave 100% water in it after a race? I’ve lost an engine to that. Or did you not run it enough after adding antifreeze? Or maybe you just got boned by low quality 70s castings. 

 +1 for the JB Weld

New motor.....nothing like spending thousands of $$ AND hours to get to a race only to pack it all up early because of a mechanical - especially one that you knew about!

curious....  does the new body prevent engine removal??

In reply to dculberson :  Maybe.....

In reply to jfryjfry :  The Plymford body actually makes engine swapping easier, as everything unbolts, including the new radiator support.

LeMons rules do require 100% water...no antifreeze.  What I think happened now, in retrospect, was this.  Remember way back in the beginning when I first pulled the engine out?  It was sitting on my garage floor through the frigid winter of 2017-18.  I'd drained it (obviously, it was out of the car) but I suspect some residual water was still in the block- and that froze.  The immediate result was popping the freeze plugs, but it may very well have done the block damage then, too- I hadn't separated the engine from the trans when it was pulled.  There simply wasn't a need to.  

The other thing I learned, after reading some forum posts at places like "460 Ford Trucks Rule" (I made that up, but there are ford big block specific forums, of course) is that 460's do have a thin spot in the casting right in the back there, basically right where this one cracked.  So if they're gonna crack- that's often where it happens.  The good news is, there were a whole lot of people who had satisfactorily patched said leaks.  This gave me some hope that the engine could be salvaged.  We have a spare 460- its the engine we raced on for a few races- but it's down on compression, has one particularly weak cylinder, leaks and smokes, and....well, you get the idea.

I've had some luck in the past with welding cast iron.  Since this was not a particularly highly stressed portion of the block, I figured I'd give it a go.  Mustering up all of my experience and engineering brains, I drilled the crack until I found the ends.  Then I used a die grinder to chase it down about 75% of the way through the block.

I preheated it with the torch for a good 30 minutes or so.  The 460 weighs about 700 pounds, and I wanted to force as much heat into that block as I could before welding it.  Propane's also not the hottest thing around, but at least that means it won't overheat the iron.

After it was good and hot, I started welding with my flux-core lincoln welder, cranked up as hot as it would go.  I would make a pass, grind out the impurities, heat it up some, wire brush, then make another pass.  I worked at it slowly until I had built up a nice mound of weld.

I didn't have to grind it smooth, since the mating surface for the transmission was about the only thing it needed to sit below.  So I left the final weld "ugly", spackled over it with some High Heat JB Weld 2-part epoxy (the stuff that come in the two tubes that you mix up like bondo) and pronounced it "fixed".  I filled the engine with water and let it sit.  It did not leak.  So, there was hope.

With the second problem dealt with as well as practicable, I moved back to the original problem.  

September 4th:

"The C6 is now out of the car, and I have leads on 2 used ones from Craigslist and 3 junkyards that have 'em.  So by the time I get home today, the back of my brand new Mazda 3 hatch will be christened with Dex-Merc III.  I hate that new car smell anyway."

I'd made full use of the website "car-parts.com" and tracked down some junkyards that had compatible slushboxes.  This cost a bit more, but they'd be already pulled, possibly work, and I wouldn't have to deal with flakey sellers from the internet.  

"C6 will be picked up tonight.  $400 with a 30 day warranty, includes the converter.  Fresh out of an '86 E350 van.  

30 days, so if we blow it up at the race, they ought to give us another one.  :-D"

That afternoon, after work, I ended up at Chaz's Auto Parts in Taneytown (pronounced "TAW-nee-town"), Maryland, and exchanged $371 and a C6 from an old Lincoln that was useless to us (and had been sitting in the weeds behind my barn for years) for an allegedly "good" C6 out of an E350-based RV (I checked and it had the correct tailshaft).  Stopped at the Advance Auto on the way home to grab new seals and filters and fluid, and by 10:30 last night, the 'new' C6 was in its home behind the patched-up 460 in the Plymford.  

And in a stroke of luck, that night, one of my Craigslist feelers un-flaked on me and we arranged to meet this morning at 6:25AM for me to come see his assortment of C6's.  He had another useless Lincoln C6, but he also had a very nice, 61,000 mile C6 out of (another) E350-based RV.  He told me the RV converters are more robust (which is what we got with the C6 from Chaz's, too) so that should be a plus for our race-y car.  For $250, I snatched that C6 up for insurance, and I was back on my commute in by 6:38.

Within 16 hours, my poor 3, still with under 1000 miles on the odometer, had transported two old, filthy, fluid-seeping big block Ford transmissions back to my house- plus the core unit to the junkyard.  I'm sure it was rethinking some of it's life choices that night, while I was buttoning up the rest of the install on the Plymford- driveshaft, shift linkage, vacuum line, etc.  I had a new filter for the trans, but I figured I'd try firing the car up and seeing if it moves before dropping the pan.

While we were dealing with the transmission crisis, a fellow, local LeMons team captain and his girlfriend, came over to help over Labor Day weekend.  We finished up the radiator & electric fan mounting & switch, hood pins, firewall gap sealing, and a few other odds and ends.  In return we fed and watered them, and I told them if we're running well on Sunday of the race he could have part of my stint.  He told me that wasn't necessary, he was glad to help, and might even come back this Saturday if we're still behind.  We definitely at least should bring them both many beers and meats at the race.  

I managed to get 3 of the 4 wheel flares done and the rear bumper mounted.  It was almost ready to drive onto a trailer.  I fabbed up new front brake ducts too.  Which of course I don't have any pictures of.  

Now we just had to see if this thing would drive.  

Monday, September 10th.  T minus 5 days until race day.

The Plymford has escaped the garage under it's own power!

With a junkyard-fresh transmission plucked from a defunct RV, the Plymford finally moved under it's own power.  I pulled it out of the garage to turn it around and finish up the back.

From the logbook: "When and if it ever stops raining here, I'm going to stick the hood and trunklid on and take it for a spin up the road to check it out.  As for now, we know that PARK, REVERSE, NEUTRAL, and some sort of forward gear all work, and nothing appears to be leaking *knock on wood*"

Mrs. VCH happened to be inside while I was firing up and turning around the beast, and when I took it out on the private drive that runs along the border of our property, she came out and took pictures of my dumb butt seeing if the transmission would shift into all 3 forward gears.  (It did)

I was pumped.  We still had a list a mile long of fiddly crap that needed to be finished on the Plymford in order to race it, but at least I could drive the dern thing up onto a trailer.  And with the other three guys helping once we got to the track, surely we'd have it ready to go by the time the green flag flew that Saturday morning.

At that very moment, however, forces beyond anyone's control were conspiring to toss an even bigger wrench into the plans for the upcoming weekend...

Congrats on getting Plymford moving under it's own power....

I guess I have to wait to find out the "even bigger wrench".

I'm enjoying following along.....

More. Please.

HEll yeah, awesome progress.  I know this is catch up for you, but for us readers it feels like some kind of altered real time adventure.  

Adrian_Thompson said:

HEll yeah, awesome progress.  I know this is catch up for you, but for us readers it feels like some kind of altered real time adventure.  

My sentiments, exactly.

That thing looks seriously badass.

This thread was not intended to be as soap-operatic as it has become.  Really, it was just a simple build.  But as time passed and I kept juggling work, being a non-absentee parent, (and a good husband), picking away at the honey-do list on the house and yard...AND building the Plymford...

These last few months were a whirlwind.  When I think back on them now, in my head, it makes me tired.  It was like I was the star of one of those reality TV shows where they thrash a car together for some deadline, which they always seem to meet.  Except, I wasn't an actor.  And there was only my crappy cell phone camera.  And I wasn't getting paid for any of this.  

Alas...the drama continues...

The "even bigger wrench" actually started forming around the end of August.  It amassed a huge pile of energy and started, slowly at first, and then with increasing speed and intensity, to spin.  Wind.  Rain.  Thunder.  

Hurricane Florence.

Around the end of the previous week (this would be the September 7th timeframe) I had heard about this little Category 4 storm, and suddenly we were scrambling to get the Plymford ready with the possibility that the race might be called off.  No one knew what was going on.  Communications from LeMons HQ were slow in coming, probably because, frankly, _they_ didn't know what was going on.  My teammates live all down the East coast, so not only was there a threat of Florence scuttling the race plans, but they were concerned for their own safety and security.  

We had an RV rental we'd paid a deposit on, the $1400 worth of entry fees for the race (which, we were told, was still going to happen), and a rental truck to tow the race car down with reserved.  

After a few days of machine-gun emails, updating the National Hurricane Center website on my phone hourly, and biting every nail on my fingers (so that I was about to move to my toes, if I were so flexible), I made the call.  

The following email was sent to LeMons HQ 12:30PM Tuesday, September 11:

"I know you all have a lot on your plate trying to figure out what's going on with Florence and the CMP race.  Although we are registered for the race, due to the forecasted nature of the storm, our team is not going to be there.  We have been looking forward to this race all year and worked really hard to be ready for it, so this is a huge disappointment for us.  But we would be leaving homes and loved ones in the middle of what looks to be a significant natural disaster and putting our own lives at unnecessary risk traveling through it.  

Wish you all the best in dealing with this hurricane situation."

We canceled the RV and truck rental (neither place charged a cancellation fee, and the deposit was refunded- I think they were grateful to us for not driving their equipment into a Cat 4 Storm!) and decided we'd split the LeMons fee 4 ways, assuming it wouldn't be refunded. 

Luckily, this ended up not being an issue.  At 7:13PM that same night, we got the following email from LeMons HQ:

"CMP RESCHEDULED: NEW WEEKEND 3-4 NOVEMBER

Emeryville CA--Last night Hurricane Florence started a swing to the north, and for a few hours it looked like it might miss the East Coast completely. Sadly, that trend fell apart early today; it's now even possible that Florence will turn south and move down the coast after landfall on Friday.

We think that grim potential is sufficient to answer any lingering questions about travel in the region this weekend. So, we're officially rescheduling Lemons South Fall at CMP for the weekend of November 3-4. 

If you were signed up to race, you'll have gotten a separate email with detailed instructions. If you planned to come watch, ARE YOU CRAZY? STAY HOME!

Thanks much, stay safe, and hope to see you in early November."

Not only was the race canceled, it was postponed!  We had another month to get ready.  Everyone was relieved- in more than one way.  We hunkered down to weather out the hurricane and started making our plans for November.  

The suspense! 

This is so great. I realize lemons isn't necessarily like... the most honorable thing for a car to go to, but the part of my brain that assigns human-esq emotions to lumps of iron tells me that these two cast off cars are pleased to be driving again. That Plymouth seemed real gone, awesome to see some use come out of it. 

Plus, it's green. So much recycling! 

That thing has STANCE. Loving this story.

volvoclearinghouse said:

 

Now we just had to see if this thing would drive.  

something about this picture makes me think this car deserves some kind of "moonshine" theme at some point

volvoclearinghouse said:

Within 16 hours, my poor 3, still with under 1000 miles on the odometer, had transported two old, filthy, fluid-seeping big block Ford transmissions back to my house- plus the core unit to the junkyard.  I'm sure it was rethinking some of it's life choices that night, while I was buttoning up the rest of the install on the Plymford- driveshaft, shift linkage, vacuum line, etc.  I had a new filter for the trans, but I figured I'd try firing the car up and seeing if it moves before dropping the pan.

It probably was wondering that when it pulled into the yard are saw all the car parts strewn around it.  This just raised the bar a little higher.

And then, he heard about Cherry.  They'd been built next to each other on the line.  She was resplendent in her red color, and it was a cinch she'd be bought quickly with her automatic transmission.  Your 3, figured maybe there'd be a chance some day, that they'd be able to share the pavement together... enjoy a short drive, say high.  Some father bought it for his offspring, as a 16th birthday gift.  Word got around the 3's... Cherry was gone, off to the scrapper.  Her driver was doing 15 over, and looking at their cellphone, and ran smack into a telephone pole.  The driver had some minor injuries, but Cherry sacrificed all her structure to absorb the impact of her drivers' bad decisions.

That night, tucked in, around various cars that were several generations older... your 3, recounted their blessings.