Post Your Straight Six Pics!

[Dwyert4]

Bad part is, we live in Florida, so he could drive it year round. He has the suspension set up properly with adjustable coilovers on all 4 corners and the truck will respond in all conditions. For the amount of $ he has in It I'd be driving it everywhere and all the time. I'm working on a 70 c10 long bed and would never consider not being able to take it every time I leave the house. Granted, i don't have the money invested that he does yet. I give him he'll about it all the time.

[Don Quixote]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

#1 :

For those who don't know, 'Rocinante' was Don Quixote's horse when he was Tilting (means attacking with a long spear) at windmills ~ learning the ins and outs of older engines and their proper tuning is often analogous to tilting at windmills .

Anyway, back on point :

I had to open my spark plugs up to .070" on one old 292 (1976 GMC C2500) before the plugs would stop getting oil fouled, after that it "flew" (the test guy's actual amazed word) through the stringent California smog test .

It also ran *perfectly* although it consumed a quart of oil every 300 miles.....

Didn't hardly leak a drop after I finished with it, no visible smoke either . I didn't use Chinese ignition parts for obvious reasons .

If you take some time you'll find dist. caps and rotors with brass contacts, these out last the aluminum ones by far .

Remember : dielectric grease in the wire ends ! . any green on a plug wire end means it's kaput ~ don't waste time trying to clean it .

Each and every plug wire should be checked with a test light, it either passes 12 volts of current or it's bad .

InLine engines often have manifold to head sealing issues, the Dealer training taught us to loosely assemble the two manifolds then offer them up to the cylinder head and start all he bolts, studs and so on, begin tightening the manifold to head bolts from the _center_ then moving outwards, one left, one right and so on ~ the idea is to even draw the manifold assy. the head .

After they're all tight go back and tighten the intake to exhaust pinch bolts .

This should help .

Get rid of those end bolts ! .

I use grade 8 only, I find it too easy to strip or break the grade 5 ones .

I also use mostly old, original hardware I collect off "junk" engines at my local junk yards ~ turned in core engines often have very good stuff on them .

Clean and de rust then re use .

I wondered if someone would figure out the correlation between my truck's name and my screen name. It's quite the story of my life and this old horse has been through most of it with me.

What I may do is put in some studs on the ends and just not put the nuts on. Definitely some good advice. Now for the ignition, I have never heard of anything with a .070 gap, that's impressive. Outside of the obvious, what are the pros and cons of a large gap? My poor truck sees all of the extremes from highway speeds for days at a time to pulling some CDL qualifying loads.

[IRQVET]

Not eye candy by any means, but here is the 292 out of my 68 C-20 . . .

['68OrangeSunshine]

What Nate says may be true for stock cast iron exhaust manifolds, but threaded studs [3/8''-16 -- 3/8'' -24] with a nut and a support are necessary for steel tube headers. Otherwise they leak bad. I use a hardened steel rocker ball for a spacer. Works for me.

Cervantes was a Spanish Marine. He was captured by Barbary Pirates and held as a POW [slave] for 5 years until his folks and The Church paid his ransom. He started writing after he got back to Spain.

[VWNate1]

Whoops ! you're correct, tube headers often (not always) work better with fasteners on the ends .

It's still critical to tighten the whole mess from the center outwards, not any other way .

When the GM HEI was new they spec'd .065" on the spark plugs, we thought it was crazy but they started and ran so easily in the sub zero temps Down East....


The changed that after a few years but running .045" minimum is wise .

The only downside I've ever experienced is accelerated wear on the caps, rotors and wires......

The plugs proper wear a bit faster but no biggie .

I hope everyone here knows to never use platinum tipped spark plugs in older engines ! .

They run colder and cause fouling problems quite often .

I think that 1968 292 looks great ~ those who work and drive these old rigs daily (more common than most realize) know how sturdy they are and if you keep up on the routine HOT OIL & FILTER CHANGES the thinwall bores don't wear out much .

All through the 1960's and 1970's there were millions of GM products with thinwall (1963>) i6 engines that blew smoke and drank oil, this was caused by owner failure to properly maintain them .

The previous generations of GM i6 engines could be overhauled with massive (up to .016") taper in the cylinder yet run fine and not smoke .

@Dwyert : who knows ? maybe one day he'll tire of it and sell to you for an affordable price .

[Dwyert4]

I wish. Actually I think he's giving it to his son when he turns 16. That's one helluva present.

[IRQVET]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

I hope everyone here knows to never use platinum tipped spark plugs in older engines ! .

They run colder and cause fouling problems quite often .

No I did not know that, but you could write a book with everything I don't know. If only we could travel back in time back to when I was 18. Then and only then did I feel like I knew everything.



Thanks for the tip.

[Don Quixote]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

What Nate says may be true for stock cast iron exhaust manifolds, but threaded studs [3/8''-18 -- 3/8'' -24] with a nut and a support are necessary for steel tube headers. Otherwise they leak bad. I use a hardened steel rocker ball for a spacer. Works for me.

Cervantes was a Spanish Marine. He was captured by Barbary Pirates and held as a POW [slave] for 5 years until his folks and The Church paid his ransom. He started writing after he got back to Spain.

I like the rocker ball idea and my system is working well so I hesitate to make any changes. If it's not broken...

That said, I always thought Cervantes wrote don Quixote de la Mancha while he was in prison. Just the same, it was required reading in my Spanish class back in high school and it turned out to be one of my favorite books to this day.

[Don Quixote]

Originally Posted by VWNate1

Whoops ! you're correct, tube headers often (not always) work better with fasteners on the ends .

It's still critical to tighten the whole mess from the center outwards, not any other way .

When the GM HEI was new they spec'd .065" on the spark plugs, we thought it was crazy but they started and ran so easily in the sub zero temps Down East....


The changed that after a few years but running .045" minimum is wise .

The only downside I've ever experienced is accelerated wear on the caps, rotors and wires......

The plugs proper wear a bit faster but no biggie .

I hope everyone here knows to never use platinum tipped spark plugs in older engines ! .

They run colder and cause fouling problems quite often .

I think that 1968 292 looks great ~ those who work and drive these old rigs daily (more common than most realize) know how sturdy they are and if you keep up on the routine HOT OIL & FILTER CHANGES the thinwall bores don't wear out much .

All through the 1960's and 1970's there were millions of GM products with thinwall (1963>) i6 engines that blew smoke and drank oil, this was caused by owner failure to properly maintain them .

The previous generations of GM i6 engines could be overhauled with massive (up to .016") taper in the cylinder yet run fine and not smoke .

@Dwyert : who knows ? maybe one day he'll tire of it and sell to you for an affordable price .

I couldn't agree with you more on the hot oil changes. I like to take mine up to 3000rpm for a few miles to clean it out some and most of the crap comes loose and out with the oil. I've blown up a few engines in my time but they were always clean when I tore into them.

There's a reason I love this site. The overall wealth of knowledge is astounding!

[Don Quixote]

Originally Posted by IRQVET

No I did not know that, but you could write a book with everything I don't know. If only we could travel back in time back to when I was 18. Then and only then did I feel like I knew everything.



Thanks for the tip.

I didn't either, good to know. I just regapped mine to .055. It ran well for the half mile I got to drive it today. Funny story though, I ordered my plugs when I ordered my headers from Tom Langdon. He sent me a set of Champions with the gasket but I pulled out some version of R44. XS or something like that. Mind you, I do think the head of this engine I just had built was from a later year as it has the holes for the AIR system which I plugged. What does he know that I don't?

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Don Quixote

I like the rocker ball idea and my system is working well so I hesitate to make any changes. If it's not broken...

That said, I always thought Cervantes wrote don Quixote de la Mancha while he was in prison. Just the same, it was required reading in my Spanish class back in high school and it turned out to be one of my favorite books to this day.

He may well have written Don Q in prison. He was later employed as a tax collector in Spain and discrepancies in his figures for 3 years back landed him in jail in 1597. I doubt if the Turks would have given him time or material to write as their prisoner.
I looked for a snap of that rocker ball in hole #1:
Looks like I can't find any pix. All I get are icons of little tan file folders.
EDIT: Here it is. First manifold hole in L6 head filled with a 3/8''-18 bolt and rocker arm half-ball as spreader securing a set of Clifford headers on my 292 L6. [Also a similar fastener at the end.]

[VWNate1]

Don't think I know much , the more I learn the more I realize how little I actually know .

Our Christmas present came early, on 12.19 we got dispossesed .

[Rwsmith66@yahoo.com]

Here is my Mercruiser marine motor fresh off,I mean out of the boat. My version of a IL6 conversion! And it's not for sail!!!

[Don Quixote]

Originally Posted by Rwsmith66@yahoo.com

Here is my Mercruiser marine motor fresh off,I mean out of the boat. My version of a IL6 conversion! And it's not for sail!!!

I was wondering if the big brake booster would clear the air cleaner. I'm assuming that is a 6". Where did you get the filter?

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by Rwsmith66@yahoo.com

Here is my Mercruiser marine motor fresh off,I mean out of the boat. My version of a IL6 conversion! And it's not for sail!!!

RW: Points or Pertronix?

[Grumpy old man]

Here's a factory L6 A/C Bracket on this 292

[Grumpy old man]

Here are a couple more 2-250's and another 292

[Rwsmith66@yahoo.com]

The filter is 6.5 inches diameter .picked it up at O'Reilly's.It misses the booster by about a quarter inch.The breather top was the factory one for the Merc motor.

[Rwsmith66@yahoo.com]

Pertronix

[Don Quixote]

Good to know. I have the little booster and i always thought it was strange on a 3/4 ton but it's not broken so i haven't fixed it. When it does break, I'd like to put on a big booster but it's been hard to find both 6" or the 9" I need. It's hard around here to find any round air filter for that matter.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by Rwsmith66@yahoo.com

Here is my Mercruiser marine motor fresh off,I mean out of the boat. My version of a IL6 conversion! And it's not for sail!!!

That is hella cool!

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by Don Quixote

Good to know. I have the little booster and i always thought it was strange on a 3/4 ton but it's not broken so i haven't fixed it. When it does break, I'd like to put on a big booster but it's been hard to find both 6" or the 9" I need. It's hard around here to find any round air filter for that matter.

My 3/4T truck had the 9" booster from the factory.

[sharpmark]

this is my fully rebuilt 292 which will be started and have the cam run -in with 2-barrel holley and then have the supercharger put on.
will be building my own inlet manifold and exhaust headers.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Originally Posted by sharpmark

this is my fully rebuilt 292 which will be started and have the cam run -in with 2-barrel holley and then have the supercharger put on.
will be building my own inlet manifold and exhaust headers.

Nice set up. Kind of a retro looking generator. Not the usual 67-72 Delcotron alternator. What year is your truck?

[sharpmark]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

Nice set up. Kind of a retro looking generator. Not the usual 67-72 Delcotron alternator. What year is your truck?

69 but this is a bitsa motor and generator may be from v8. pickumup came in with 250 mtr in an when it died I found this mtr (very difficult) and got it fully reco'd.