As long as you are on the subject what the heck is the difference between a regular 318 and a poly 318?
Poly is short for Polyspherical head. Some say it was a forerunner to the Hemi (Hemispherical head). Basically it was based on a theory that you could get more combustion or volume by angling the intake and exhaust valves then if you had them parallel. From Hemmings Motor News book of Chrysler Performance Cars…”The ploy’s exhaust valve is located parallel to, but offset from, the cylinder axis.”
This increased the efficiency. The hemi was constructed to increase the efficiency with a more angled system. The shape that the valves make are semi-circular with the Poly being a little flatter than the Hemi. I did the below image in Paint.
Poly and Hemi
Thanks for the question Steve!!! More to come on the 318.
Here’s my story of using household items to fix cars. Kinda like a turkey baster tool. Ha Ha.
Finally solved the fuel boil over problem on the 82 Cougar wagon with an inline six and 1 bbl carb.
I live and drive mostly above 2,000 feet and with the fuel blending today the fuel in the carb bowl will boil over and come out the fuel vent in the carb throat, pooling in the intake manifold causing a flooded condition resulting in hard starting when the engine is hot with the huge plume of black smoke when it did start. I’ve tried all manner of fixes that included: lowering the float, retarding the timing, advancing the timing and investigating whether the manifold, catalytic converter or the exhaust was restricted in some way. I built a heat shield out of aluminum and tried that. Some people had suggested using a thicker carb base gasket or even doubling the gasket which would have required longer mounting studs for the carb. Since it hasn’t been a daily driver in the summer due to a broken a/c I’ve put off the fix. I tried to find a phenolic material to make a carb base spacer for the carb that would insulate it from the heat with no luck.
Finally my wife went to Wal-Mart and bought a plastic cutting board for me on my request. It’s made from a hard polyethylene material that’s just over 7/16″ thick. So, I did the obvious scientific test on the material. I got the car to operating temperature and held the cutting board to the exhaust manifold and it did not melt. So I cut the board, drilled the carb bore hole with a 1 and 7/8″ hole saw, drilled the stud holes, made a thin gasket for both sides of the material and sealed it with red high temp permatex gasket maker and installed my new base plate. To test I drove the car in 108 degree heat to full operating temperature for 10 miles with the now fixed a/c blowing hard and the boil over problem is gone. There is no longer any fuel smell or hard starting when hot due to fuel in the intake manifold. Finally after almost 8 years this annoying problem is fixed. I don’t know why this material insulates so well over the factory thick gasket but it does.
The material doesn’t seem to be affected by fuel either.
I’m sure others have been baffled by this problem since most fuels today contain ethanol and other materials that lower the boiling temperature of gasoline. Altitude certainly plays a part as my car never did this at sea level even in 100 degree weather.
WOT (decided to give her a name) is back in the driveway. Compression and heads all checked out. 3 cheers for American Iron!!!!
(OK..WOT is funny because it’s a crossfire with least HP in the C4 Generation.)
Took it for a spin after picking it up and everything seems to be fine.
New hoses, new thermostat, new coolant..yeah…all of the old stuff is back in town, new transmission fluid (maybe over kill but there is the a school of thought that a major overheating event can cause a failure…safe..not sorry) and oil change (I’m not sure what happens to engine oil at 300 degrees – but safe…not sorry).
Ok. I’m no Oprah but I just finished a book that race car people will love. If you love dogs, auto racing and a good story you are going to love reading “The Art of Racing in the Rain” By Garth Stein.
Go get it. (no I don’t get paid for this…I just like it.)
6/14/1832 – Nicolaus Otto was born in Germany…”Who?” He invented the gas motor engine. An engineer and experimenter, Nicolaus Otto invented the first practical alternative to the steam engine in 1876 — the first four-stroke internal combustion engine. He called it the “Otto Cycle Engine,” and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle.
The Otto Motor powered Cycle
6/16/1903 – The BIGGIE….Ford Motor Company was established. On the same day in 1953 Ford introduced the power steering. (Two for the price of one)
Also on 6/16/1896 Jean Peugeot was born in Paris. Founder of Peugeot the auto maker. The family began with coffee mills and bicycles and then cars.
6/18/1943 Tom Gale was born in Michigan, Flint to be more exact. His Dad was a designer for Buick and his grandfather worked the assembly for Buick. Guess where he went to work when he finished school….nope….Chrysler.. Gale became head of design in 1985. He previously worked on the some of the iconic cars such as the E-bodies-Barracuda and Challenger and was a major contributor to the Chrysler Portofino concept car.
1987-Chrysler-Portofinow Concept Car
6/19/1947 the Tucker shows up in Chicago.
The Tucker-Torpedo - I love these cars!!!!
And on the same day, 1969 GM produced the 4 millionth Cadillac.
This isn't actually "THE" 4 Millionth Caddy..but you get the idea.
Steve Sears is one of the readers of this blog and owner of a 1982 Mercury Cougar Station Wagon (again..I love this car).
But that’s not all, Steve does a lot of his own work, including this unique paint job on his 1992 Ranger.
Here is his recent project.
The before:
1992 Ford Ranger XLT
Tim,
I completed my project last week and thought you’d like to see it.I painted my Ranger with a roller.I only did six coats of each color, usually 8 – 10 coats are required.I like to call the color Haze gray underway and white.I spent 26 years in the Navy so I thought the gray was appropriate for me. Ha Ha.It’s painted with rustoleum mixed with mineral spirits in a 1:1 ratio thus the many coats required.The body prep is the same as any other type paint job except that a primer is not used over the whole truck.I only spot primed the bare metal and over the bondo used to fix parking lot dings.It took a full 8 days to complete the project including the paint on the topper.I have to wait a few weeks before buffing out for a full gloss.For that I’ll just remove the mirrors and the bug shield on the front.The process is well documented on the web over the last 10 years or so so I won’t repeat the process.
I thought your readers would be interested. Finally I have the truck looking like new again.It’s a 1992 Ranger XLT that I had bought new on April 24, 1992.It has the 2.3 liter four and a five speed tranny.The picture labeled 019.JPG is the before shot is attached.
And the after photos:
After Pic 1
After Pic 2
After Pic 3
Thanks very much for sharing it Steve. (A roller? Wow!!!!)
Brooklyn bridge opened for traffic on 5/24 1883 and the Golden opened 5/27 in 1937.
Race car driver Mauri Rose was born 5/26/1906 currently in the racing hall of fame, placed second in the 1927 Indy 500. Actually won the Indy in 1941, but that was a tough victory, spanning two Maserati-powered Elgin Piston Pin Specials cars, after the first one had mechanical issues. He tossed a fit and the car owners pulled one of the other drivers on the time from the race and give Rose that car.
The Pin
Elgin Pin
What powered that thing?
Power Plant
The first Kaiser-Frazer was produced 5/28/1946 – cars weren’t sold until 1947.
I was about to start the pillar moldings mini project when I ran into a couple mechanical issues.
About a week ago the Mustang began squealing when pushed to high revs. That normally indicates one of several problems.
1. It could be a water pump
2. It could be the power steering pump
3. It could be a pulley
4. It could be a bolt that was holding the alternator bracket to the engine worked itself out and was in contact with the fan belt.
5. It could be a combination of the any of these.
Now the Mustang did, every once in a while, drip some fluid from the power steering control value but it wasn’t a huge deal.
Well, Saturday I went to start her and the battery was dead. It’s over 3 years old and I had left the lights on the day before and had to have it jump started. So off to the auto parts store I went and pick up a new 3 year battery and stuck it. When I started the engine up, it made the squeal and I decided I needed to fix this, before the pillar molding.
So with a neighbor revving the engine I noticed the bolt protruding from the water pump/block ( it passes through left side water pump housing in to the block). With the revs the fan belt would flex and briefly hit the bolt. This bolt was “custom” made when we were fitting everything up to reman’ed long block and was about 7 or 8 inches long.
It took a bit to get that back in place, had to loosen up the alternator’s other two supports and toss a little loctite on the threads and she was good to go…..almost…..
Yeah….option #5 above was the correct answer BTW.
Started it up and there was still a squeal – not the same squeal but clearly an ‘accompaning’ squeal. Shortly after that a power steering hose let go and well liquid does what gravity make it do and I spent the afternoon cleaning the driveway. So there went my allotted time for Saturday. So replacing both hoses seem the best way to go and they’ll be in today. Right now it’s at the shop down the street, I had no time to undertake this task at the moment, will be traveling the next couple weeks.
One of my travels takes me to the National Corvette Museum. I’ll spend an entire day there which include the assembly plant tour.
I grab every book I think is useful in any of my hobbies. I happened to be at the mall the other day and had some time kill and wonder down to Borders books store. Pick up a book entitled “Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book” 2 Edition by Peter Sessler, published MotorBooks.
This book has engine identification codes, component casting codes, internal dimensions and specs, and power and torque ratings.
It goes back as far as 1952 and covers Fords, GM, Mopar, and AMC, Packard and Studebaker. It includes big blocks and small blocks. There is a lot of information.
I learned from this book that all of the engines possible for the Corvette in 1984 were rated @ 205 hp. The CFI was the main power supplier, but it also had listed a couple TPI’s (engine suffix code ZFC), TBI (engine suffix code ZFJ – supposedly for export only) and a 4v for California (engine suffix code ZFF).
They also inform you of the transmissions that go with the engines.
There are listings for cylinder heads parts or casting # as well as intake and exhaust manifolds as well.
I think this one is worth the $30.00.
This is a great transition to introduce an up and coming feature for this blog.
I love engines…(duh). To me the history of development, what was used when and where and maybe even why can be fascinating. I’ll be tossing out specs and the like and hopefully some, ” I would have never guessed that” information. Now, I don’t have this all in my head, it will be researched stuff or some experiences. (My 1974 Torino was a good case study..tell you the story soon).
So let’s get to my runs. As I mentioned, there were 2 sets of runs, one for time and points and one for just time. Each was five trips on the course.
One thing they have you do is of course walk the track which is to get you someone familiar with the corners. I walked it twice. Once on my own and once with the novice “coach”.
This is my second auto cross. If you’ve been a constant reader you might recall that was on Jan 25 2010 and it was mainly corvettes. We rented the area and set up our course. I did fairly well there for my first time. But this course was different. A lot tighter corners in a row and two sets of very tight slalom. Nothing a vette couldn’t handle with the proper speed and a good surface..this was not a good surface, however.
My first run was a darn right awful. I look like some crazed speed demon with a severe hatred for orange cones. I over drove every tight corner. My second run wasn’t much better, I didn’t even hit the first corner and then a took a cone for a ride under the vette.
So now I feeling like a knucklehead. I had the oldest car there and maybe the one with the most torque, but certainly not the most horse power. My third run was better and I took along one of the novice coaches but I still had a CD (course deviation) on the backside by missing the second slalom set of cones. I dropped off the novice coach and my 4th and fifth runs were clean as far as CD’s go but I still got a cone on each run.
So here is how it end up in the first set of 5 runs.
My next runs were much better. I did have on CD and I did get a cone, but the times were getting better. The 5th run below I took a cone and spun on the back side of the course.
1. 51.643
2. 53.146
3. 52.622
4. 51.645
5. 54.188
So I ended the day with the following times and points.
PAX Time Points
46.260 753
43.575 796
PAX time is like a handicap in golf, it takes the class of your car and the skill level reduces your time to keep you somewhat competitive.
Not bad for my first real “formal” event.
By the end of the I was worn out. That is a lot of driving, in the heat (ok..only 88 degree..little hotter on the course).
The vette performed perfectly, no over heating issues (one of my biggest fears) and nothing broken, did have to rub out a few cone marks….but I showed them whose boss!!!!
You’ll notice a lack of pic or vids on this one, didn’t have my son along as a camera man, and when I wasn’t running they put you to work resetting cones.
