1955 CC Hurricane Restoration

Dang Alan. Hope they knock it out of the park.

Your instincts have served you well in the past. Good luck with the build.

It's good to get the little findings like the oil pump shaft without destroying the whole thing. Getting a Mopar expert to go through the whole thing will provide peace of mind lacking when you put the mystery engine into the Hurricane the first time. You're into the home stretch of the refinement process and soon you'll be in the Honeymoon phase when all you do is start it and drive it.

In sure glad I got a ride last Summer at Quinner's. By the way--you're going to balance it at the same time right?

Alan, I have a friend at the former Fel Pro gasket company who
Is a product manager. He could make gaskets for you from their deep data bank or from tracings. He's a Mopar fanatic who built a 340 TA challenger he autocrossed during my racing heyday from 85-88. Let me know if you need help there. He's been working there for almost 40 years (started young, right out of high school).

tryathlete wrote: Alan, I have a friend at the former Fel Pro gasket company who Is a product manager. He could make gaskets for you from their deep data bank or from tracings. He's a Mopar fanatic who built a 340 TA challenger he autocrossed during my racing heyday from 85-88. Let me know if you need help there. He's been working there for almost 40 years (started young, right out of high school).

thanks Pete, Van Ness has all the templates so he said he will just cut whatever is not available. The oil pan and the gearcase gaskets are oddballs so they need to be cut. Some of the water passage gaskets as well, I cut them by hand when I tore the motor down to detail it couple years ago not knowing he could provide all of them.

We do plan to be at Green Lake unless something family comes up.

Well I guess you guys are due a hemi update.   Delay after delay sourcing parts and working with a "Specialty" engine builder made me give up on getting the boat back in the water before the end of the season last fall.   In the end that was the best thing to do because if you know me even just a little bit you probably know my brain is already working on next week so to be perpetually stuck in someone else's reality and their time frame the best thing I could do was walk away and tell them to call me when it's ready.   it was still a long wait but the long block arrived back home mid December.

Anyway the motor needed a lot of work.   We ended up turning down the crank and then sent it out for nitriding. We had custom forged pistons made at .060 over by Arias pistons. The pistons that came out were from a 331 poly motor, that was an attempt to up the compression ratio to about 8.5:1. Problem is the bore was so tight it was a matter of time before the motor seized, There was a lot of skirt scuffing. So we opened it up correctly to accept some new pistons and we went with a 10:1 compression ratio.

Next we sent the cam out to have it reground. We went with the cam specs from the 1956 275 hp version of this motor which was a drastically different cam with higher lift and slightly more overlap so we hope it will have a slight lump to the idle.

Dave Van Ness then took to the heads which we thought should be in good shape since the motor work was really only done about 100 hours ago but once again we discovered the work was dismal at best. After removing the valves from the heads most of the guides just fell out.   Looks like the guide bores were knurled and then new guides were pressed in but it was a hack job at best. That forced Dave to rebore all the guides and actually machine new guides to fit. Custom work that took forever and of course added to the bill but absolutely had to be done.

Rocker shafts and arms were reconditioned and ground as well so everything is new. He spent extra time with the oil pump issue making sure the shafts line up even machining a new intermediate shaft bushing that was line bored in place for perfect alignment. That nasty issue should be gone forever.

So here was my Christmas present

Sort of looks like it's from a Ratfink T-shirt all wrapped up

All I've done so far was get it home and put some primer to it. I've been working on another special project over the winter ( more on that maybe tomorrow) so the Hemi has taken a back seat but it's just a bout time to get this project back on track. Spring is in the air.

Alan, sounds like you've taken care of all the loose issues to make for a reliable and powerful engine. With 10:1 this little engine ought to sing a beautiful tune and with the right prop ought to make the '55 run like one of TRB's boats! I cannot wait to hear it and see how it performs on the upper register of its sweet exhaust note. It might be best to hear you leave the dock rather than be in the boat. Boats tend to get away from their sound!

Alan,
That 331 should now run like it should and even better than it originaly did! One of these days I'll get that Hurrican ride that I'm looking forward to.

81nautique wrote:    I've been working on another special project over the winter ( more on that maybe tomorrow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQFxmAdyKcg

Spent the day Saturday working on assembling the motor, I could probably put a small block Ford together in a day but there is nothing fast about this one.   Everything I touch on it needs to be looked up as far as torque settings, gear box backlash, assembly sequence,etc. Just a slow process and it's just such an odd beast I am being very thorough on checking everything.

Besides that the sheer size and weight of the components are difficult without another set of hands.   Here's a reference for you, a velvet drive sitting next the hemi's reverse gear.




the reverse gear is easily over 100lbs.

I was able to get the Gear case and reverse Gear installed. Impossible to line up without the hoist.







Moved to the front (or Back) of the engine to install the flywheel and ran into a problem.   Found out that the flywheel bolts must be installed before the rear main cap is installed or there is no way to get the bolts into the crankshaft flange. Major brain fade by the engine builder.   My options were to remove everything I had just assembled (to get the pan off all that gearbox has to come off) Didn't like that too much so after a few phone calls and some internet research I found we're not the first ones to forget this. The common fix is to drill the flywheel to accept 1/2" bolts and tap the crank flange.







Ended up not being that difficult a task and will be better than stock because the factory only used 4 bolts and now we've eight 1/2" ARP bolts in place.

Anyway, that's where it sits right now, basically ready for paint and final assembly. All I need is a decent day so I can roll it outside and paint.

tryathlete wrote: I hope it's ready for Quinner's graduation party/mini. !

Is Quinner finally graduating?

Good setup.

Frankenotter wrote: Very cool Alan. How did you drill the holes? I can't imagine punching and drilling with a hand drill. Did you get the flange off and get it on a drill press or milling machine? That looks like really nice tap work.

Chris, the crank holes were there already for 7/16" bolts but needed to be sized and tapped to accept the 1/2-20" bolts, Did that with the crank still installed in the block.   The flywheel holes were opened up for 1/2" bolts on my drill press. Actually was much easier than I thought it would be.

Alan, one benefit of it being such a rare engine with significant problems is that it must have had Van Ness' best working on it. She ought to run great now

I thought Van Ness had a large shop with many employees. That's great, he did the work himself.   Jim is the first one to tell someone, "don't ever tell me you don't need it in a hurry". There's definitely not enough hours in the day for these guys and there's always people coming in to their shop needing help. I can't think of anyone doing that type of work that's much under 70.