<VV> Resurrection Blues

[N. Joseph Potts]

I'm going to be flamed, with justification, for saying this, but I want you
to be aware of a MINIMUM strategy of getting your car back on the road
most-easily. With LUCK, you may be back on the road for MANY happy,
trouble-free years. The ODDS ARE that this strategy will NOT get you back on
the road for long, if at all, and that you MAY further damage your engine
(but you're pretty conservative about pulling over to the side when things
go wrong - this has served you well so far). While it entails quite a bit of
effort, (a) you can do it all on your own; and (b) the money outlay is
minimal.
     Get all new connecting-rod bearings and a Plasti-Gage set (cheap, easy
to use). Remove ALL your connecting rods from the crank (engine in car,
heads on engine). You don't of course, have to have them all off at the same
time - just do them all in some sequence or other.
     Inspect your crank journals - file/sandpaper any burrs you find. You
may find damage here that will make my plan completely inoperable (so start
with the obviously failed bearing). If journals are OK, put in bearings.
Plasti-Gage them. Any that don't fit right, get oversize bearings for (or
undersize, I forget which they're called). At this point, again, you may
encounter misshapen connecting rods/caps such that you CANNOT execute this
plan.
     But, again, if all goes well this far, reassemble and wash all you can
out of the crankcase and valve train (heads, push-rod tubes). Acquire half a
dozen oil filters and 10 or 15 gallons of oil (you can use cheap oil, even
some other fluids, in the early cycles). Prime the lubrication circuit
through the distributor hole with the oil pan OFF and no oil filter. Collect
oil that comes out where the oil filter installs. Strain this oil until you
find no more metal. Then put on a filter and the oil pan.
     Start the engine and run at idle 15 to 30 minutes, depending on ambient
temperature. Stop engine, drain oil, change filter. Cut the old filter apart
and look for metal. If you find any, repeat this step.
     When there's no more metal in the filter, put a new filter on, put the
good oil in, find a place to recycle all that other oil, and drive on with
your fingers forever crossed.
     That's the way *I* drive, and I've gone a LONG way that way. Once a
week, I uncross my fingers and then recross them the other way.

Joe Potts
Miami, Florida USA
1966 Corsa coupe 140hp 4-speed with A/C and all kinds of stuff potentially
wrong with it

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-admin@corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-admin@corvair.org]On Behalf Of BobHelt@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 1:20 AM
To: contactsmu@sbcglobal.net; virtualvairs@corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Resurrection Blues


In a message dated 11/9/04 9:40:07 PM US Mountain Standard Time,
contactsmu@sbcglobal.net writes:

> I took my finger and tried to move the piston rods to see if there was
> any play.  #'s 1 and 2 are tight. #3 is toast.  This may be the "main"
> cause of the debris.  #'s 4,5, and 6 had movement that was only
> detectable by sound.  They will need to be replaced also I would
> gather; or should I just do ALL of them?