More poorly built engines

Another engine that's in for a rebuild at my shop...

Someone had rebuilt or tuned it up before, and whoever it was, had
conveniently marked each connecting rod with a punch. 1-2-3-4. Very
nice, thank you.

But if he bothered to do that, why didn't he bother to weigh them
puppies?

1: 569g
2: 576g
3: 593g
4: 580g


A whopping 24g difference! These rods never left the factory in the same
engine, someone scraped them together from a parts pile and threw them
in this engine without looking twice. Factory rejection limit for weight
difference is 8-10g. Rods were made in 2 or 3 main weight groups. Rods
from different weight groups were never used in one engine.

Because of this... I can't continue assembling the customer engine until
we find a matching set of rods.. trying to trim 24g off a stock rod is
impossible, without major sacrifices to reliability.
I hit my own diminishing parts stash and found him a 580g rod, resulting
in a weight distribution over 11g span. Much better, and trimmable...
but still requires a lot of grinding.

Maybe this message works as a reminder for someone who is building one
of his (or her!) first engines.

Jan

Jan Andersson wrote:

> Maybe this message works as a reminder for someone who is building one
> of his (or her!) first engines.
------------------------------------------------------------

In the same vein, it's unwise to believe ANY supplier is honest
nowadays.

I paid California Import Parts about $300 for a set of stroker I-beams.
Weight span was 16 grams. (You can only shave about 6g off an I-beam
type rod.)

They refused to replace the set or to refund my money.

------------------------------------

By comparison, the last set of rebuilt stock rods I got from RIMCO had
a weight span of only 6 grams and two of them were within 2g of the
lightest -- an easy set to easy to balance.

-Bob Hoover

wrote:
>
> Jan Andersson wrote:
>
> > Maybe this message works as a reminder for someone who is building one
> > of his (or her!) first engines.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the same vein, it's unwise to believe ANY supplier is honest
> nowadays.
>
> I paid California Import Parts about $300 for a set of stroker I-beams.
> Weight span was 16 grams. (You can only shave about 6g off an I-beam
> type rod.)
>
> They refused to replace the set or to refund my money.
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> By comparison, the last set of rebuilt stock rods I got from RIMCO had
> a weight span of only 6 grams and two of them were within 2g of the
> lightest -- an easy set to easy to balance.
>
> -Bob Hoover

Scat I-beams with ARP bolts: $250 and all within 1g
(don't take my word for it, weigh them anyway)


Jan

wrote:
>
> Jan Andersson wrote:
>
>
>>Maybe this message works as a reminder for someone who is building one
>>of his (or her!) first engines.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the same vein, it's unwise to believe ANY supplier is honest
> nowadays.
>
> I paid California Import Parts about $300 for a set of stroker I-beams.
> Weight span was 16 grams. (You can only shave about 6g off an I-beam
> type rod.)
>
> They refused to replace the set or to refund my money.
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> By comparison, the last set of rebuilt stock rods I got from RIMCO had
> a weight span of only 6 grams and two of them were within 2g of the
> lightest -- an easy set to easy to balance.
>
> -Bob Hoover
>

While on the subject of suppliers, I was at OVW today talking to Nancy
(and buying a wheel bearing). I was saying something to her about
something I'd read in a sermon and asked her if she'd heard of your
****. She said she hadn't seen you in a while and told me about how you
guys used to argue about VW's outside the shop. Any case, small world, eh?
Back to the question -- I can trust Nancy, yeah? I know I've gotta use
my judgement on parts and work, and right now I'd say it feels like
she's damned honest.
Thanks and have a good night!
-Kevin

Kevin Holzer wrote:
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Jan Andersson wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Maybe this message works as a reminder for someone who is building one
>>> of his (or her!) first engines.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In the same vein, it's unwise to believe ANY supplier is honest
>> nowadays.
>>
>> I paid California Import Parts about $300 for a set of stroker I-beams.
>> Weight span was 16 grams. (You can only shave about 6g off an I-beam
>> type rod.)
>>
>> They refused to replace the set or to refund my money.
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> By comparison, the last set of rebuilt stock rods I got from RIMCO had
>> a weight span of only 6 grams and two of them were within 2g of the
>> lightest -- an easy set to easy to balance.
>>
>> -Bob Hoover
>>
>
> While on the subject of suppliers, I was at OVW today talking to Nancy
> (and buying a wheel bearing). I was saying something to her about
> something I'd read in a sermon and asked her if she'd heard of your
> ****. She said she hadn't seen you in a while and told me about how you
> guys used to argue about VW's outside the shop. Any case, small world, eh?
> Back to the question -- I can trust Nancy, yeah? I know I've gotta use
> my judgement on parts and work, and right now I'd say it feels like
> she's damned honest.
> Thanks and have a good night!
> -Kevin

****. Nix this. Supposed to be private.

Kevin Holzer wrote:
> Nix this. Supposed to be private.

----------------------------------------------------

No problem. Nobody reads this **** anyway :-)

Yeah, Lou & Nancy are honest, in my opinion. But that's only based on
knowing them for 25 years or so.

I'm not sure what she meant by 'arguing' unless it was over at their
old shop, where I had words with a fellow who thought it was a good
idea to run-up wide-five lug bolts with a pneumatic tool set to about
600 ft-lbs.

Speaking of the 'sermons,' I offered Nancy a chance to sell the printed
version. She turned me down flat :-)

-Bob Hoover

On 8 Jun 2005 14:15:35 -0700, wrote:

>
>
>Kevin Holzer wrote:
>> Nix this. Supposed to be private.
>
>----------------------------------------------------
>
>No problem. Nobody reads this **** anyway :-)
>
>Yeah, Lou & Nancy are honest, in my opinion. But that's only based on
>knowing them for 25 years or so.
>
>I'm not sure what she meant by 'arguing' unless it was over at their
>old shop, where I had words with a fellow who thought it was a good
>idea to run-up wide-five lug bolts with a pneumatic tool set to about
>600 ft-lbs.

Didn't that idiot know it was just a matter of time before those lug
bolts came loose and fell out? It's not like he couldn't have just
bumped up the air pressure a little bit and got the damn things on
there TIGHT like they're supposed to be.

>
>Speaking of the 'sermons,' I offered Nancy a chance to sell the printed
>version. She turned me down flat :-)
>
>-Bob Hoover

wrote:

> Speaking of the 'sermons,' I offered Nancy a chance to sell the printed
> version. She turned me down flat :-)
>
> -Bob Hoover


I'd buy a copy. Have you considered marketing them elsewhere?

Tony

"Anthony W" > wrote in message
news:VsKpe.5923$Kj3.494@trnddc03...
> wrote:
>
> > Speaking of the 'sermons,' I offered Nancy a chance to sell the printed
> > version. She turned me down flat :-)
> >
> > -Bob Hoover
>
>
> I'd buy a copy. Have you considered marketing them elsewhere?
>
>

...................I'd buy his complete works in a heartbeat. And I wouldn't
be worrying too much about the cost either.

On Tue, 07 Jun 2005 22:00:08 +0300, Jan Andersson
> wrote:

>
>
>Another engine that's in for a rebuild at my shop...
>
>Someone had rebuilt or tuned it up before, and whoever it was, had
>conveniently marked each connecting rod with a punch. 1-2-3-4. Very
>nice, thank you.

Reminds me of my friends Humber engine which he bought at an
autojumble (swapmeet). Someone had rebuilt it in the past and found
two of the bores scored. So instead of getting the engine bored up to
the next size, just had the two cyliners that needed doing done.
Goodness knows how long the engine had been running with different
sized pistons!
--
Howard Rose
1966 VW Beetle 1300 Deluxe
1962 Austin Mini Deluxe
1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe
http://www.howard81.co.uk/ (cars on website)