FC wagon

[Johns]

Thanks Alex, much appreciated. I assumed, based on the number of Stomberg twin carb manifolds that were around, that there was a standard set of linkages used, not so it appears.   

We painted the hinges Jamie, Nevs have been zinc plated, the painted ones actally look more correct to me - not as shiny.

Cheers
John

[Johns]

G'day everyone,

Well Thelma lives The new motor is complete and running and is fantastic, quiet and smooth and completely untemperamental and we haven't even dyno'd it yet. I will post the results after this occurs.

Since my last post we have rebuilt the gearbox (precautionary), the idler arm and installed a 3.36 diff. With 125,000 miles recorded, all of the linkages - indeed most moving parts- including gear and accelerator were worn so we've welded and redrilled them all back to new specs. The carby linkages are particularly neat. I've put seat belts in the front, installed oil pressure and temp gauges and we've learned a bit about early Holden cooling which will be the subject of another post. Toying with a bit of subtle lowering and some slightly wider steel rims.

I'll post some photos and specs of the motor shortly, its all too good for the rest of the car 

Cheers
John

[Johns]

Thelma went on the dyno yesterday. She made 88hp at the wheels My guess is that that's around 110 - 115 hp at the flywheel.

That doesn't seem too bad to me? given we are running standard EJ pistons and a very mild cam.

I'll post some more meaningful stuff shortly.

Cheers
John

[Johns]

I should clarify that this power reading was recorded at 4,400 rpm. The dyno operator said that it wanted to keep going but he was under instructions to be careful.

Can anyone tell me what a mildly modified grey with carbs and an exhaust is comfortable to?

[EffCee]

John,

The Critical Cranksaft speed of a Holden Grey was always noted as being 6300rpm. This came from years of "trying to reinvent the wheel" so to speak when I was an apprentice developing grey motors for speedway use. I spoke to alot of older mechanics, engine builders and those that also developed them in the era when they were new. They all pretty much said that beyond 6300 was a recipe for failure, without modification.

In developing the greys I pushed a couple beyond 6300rpm, and found that the real achilles heel of a grey is the crank, they break. Steel main bearing caps, or cap strengtheners assist and stop the centre two and three main bearings from stretching which lets you stretch the friendship that little bit more once again. Higher compression adds to the risk, increased valve overlap reduces it to an extent, but the power is developed higher in the rev range which again increases the risk.

Given metal fatigue, crystalisation etc, I would be reluctant to try and spin a grey these days harder than 5,000rpm maybe 5,500 if you have steel main bearing caps or strengtheners.

You already know that it goes to 4,400, how much harder do you want to push it, when the dyno was done had the torque and horsepower peaked. If so going beyond this point is merely thrashing it.

There may be others with a differing view to mine, up to you, it's your motor, and if it goes bang, you will be replacing it.

As Clint Eastwood says in the movie, Dirty Harry "Well do you feel lucky"

Keith

[Johns]

Thanks Keith, no I don't feel lucky and the motor was built around the spindly crank and rods.

Power hadn't peaked at 4,400 and had I been there I might have suggested we go a bit higher than this. Bear in mind though that its fully balanced and I thought that up to 5,000 would be fairly safe. You confirm what I thought. It became a bit of an academic exercise, it would have been nice to see 90 hp.

Given this must be an effective doubling of the power of a stock engine I'm very happy with the result.

John

[Gary C]

John , I cant wait to hear what you have learned on cooling gey motors, I just installed a modified grey and with stock fan and radiator and are worried about keeping it cool. You also mention that 90 rwhp is about double the standard, you must have your engine running pretty sweet to  achieve 88hp if standard was about 45. Gary C

[RET]

I thought standard was about 70hp 

[Stewy]

Yes Ret, my technical specifications say " Maximum Brake Horsepower (Gross) - -  -70 at 4000 R.P.M."
Cheers Stewy.

[FC427]

I think Johns is talking RWHP not flywheel HP ......FC427.....

[EffCee]

I put a standard FC on the dyno when I was an apprentice, it developed 45 RWHP, which at the time I thought was appalling. One of the guys in class at TAFE had a standard Datsun 1600, that developed 48RWHP

It certainly gave me something to work on, and by making changes from that standard engine I could see how the power improved with modifications made.

Keith

[Johns]

Thelma's engine is now finished. She was running lean in the transition from the idle circuit and we took her to a guy who is expert on these engines and he went to adjustable main jets, which I know some of you guys have done. After another dyno session she runs beautifully, we ran her in on the dyno and have now retensioned the head and reset the clearances.

I had her out on the freeway today and she runs effortlessly to 75 mph (checked on GPS) with plenty more to come. The biggest difference between this car and Nev which has a new, but stock, engine is that this one breathes and is eager to rev. I haven't fitted a tacho yet but at 60 mph you can feel the cam come in.

It was 35 degrees today and at 65 mph she was running at 90C. The radiator is stock, as you can see from the photos all we have done is used the heater plugs in the water pump to instal a bypass hose. This means that when the thermostat is closed the water keeps circulating. I understand that what happens without this is that the water in the head gets very hot when the thermostat is closed and steam pockets form which then pressurises the system resulting in the car spitting water out the overflow. Nev, which doesn't yet have this hose installed spits out coolant all over my clean engine bay .

Engine specs are, rebore to accept EJ pistons, balanced, head and block shaved significantly, head ported, mild cam, carbs and headers. Its totally untemperamental. Here are some photos


Note the bypass hose, I couldn't help myself we made a stainless breather to match the exhaust. The masters will be replaced. All of the vacuum lines were remade in stainless.

Its a Lanspeed manifold, the headers are new Aussie Speed which have been Jet Hot coated, I have a Nasco rocker cover which was cleaned for use, however when we put it on it didn't look too good and fouled the vacuum lines. the entire exhaust is polished stainless. We spent a lot of time engineering the carby linkages so that they would be neat. I didn't get a chance to photograph the head before it was assembled, here it is on the engine.

And finally here she is. Lots of work to do yet. I have some 1958 NSW numberplates to put on, so she will go to full rego, some 6" painted rims, EH front brakes - the existing ones are woeful - electric wipers and a little lowering and some new rubbers......


Cheers
John

[customFC]

Hey John
The wagon looks great with the new trick motor.
Those headers compliment that twin carb manifold nicely.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
Regards
Alex

[zulu]

Looking very smart John, I've heard of a bypass hose on some BMC cars, infact I recall changing one a Mini once, fiddley, I suppose the benefit would be the same as having a heater fitted, assuming it was turned on?

[crossply]

Hi John,
I like what you've done with the wagon, i'm planing some similar mods to mine shortly.
The new headers look good, i haven't seen anyone else use these ones before. What is the fit and quality of them like?
Also, what sort of cam are you running?
Cheers,
Paul

[Mark_B]

Nice looking wagon. I am restoring one the same, two tone grey seems to be popular. Mark_B

[graham_fuller]

Sounds like its a real goer John. How does the sunvisor fair at 75miles an hour? Do the twin carbs make a big difference in the pulling power? What fuel did you run?
Cheers,
Graham

[Johns]

Graham,

The sunvisor is no problem as its not a factory one, it has a humungous centre mount  Compression despite shaving both the block and deck severely is only about 8:1  , so 95 is fine.

Cheers
John

[vmx-mxr]

I've just bought a 62 EK ute that was originally sold new through Shelleys - is the company still in existence?

That wagon is beeeeuuuuuudifulllllll !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a tidy well looked after old girl. Thelma was blessed.

Dave Mac 

[EffCee]

John,

That motor looks a treat, Don't the old Greys get along so much better when you let them "breathe" a bit!

I like what you have done so far, I look forward to seeing Thelma after her minor mods

Keith