<VV> Sleeping Lakewood

[Tony Underwood]

At 08:53 hours 04/07/2005, Chris wrote:
>Start using synthetic oil... Ain't cheap but every engine I've used it on 
>had black oil in a very short time. After 4-5 oil changes the oil stayed 
>clean. Still better than tearing the engine apart.



I found a local private Amsoil dealer who has good prices, works out of his 
basement     and supplies folks around town, as well as at least one 
FLAPS.    Got some crankcase flush... scrape the crankcase and valve covers 
out, top cover as well, and after that comes the crankcase flush, followed 
by some Advance store dino oil and Rislone for a while, then change oil, 
more Rislone, etc.  This is what I did with the engine in the '60 many 
years ago and it cleaned up rather well.   Oil runs pretty clean and last 
time I had a valve cover off (when it ate a valve) the insides looked good.

No reason the Lakewood engine wouldn't clean up OK the same way.   Then 
after reseal, synthetic oil.   It shouldn't use much if any oil since it 
only has 58K on it, and the engine burns perfectly clean,not a wisp of 
smoke out the tailpipe.   Got plenty of rodent nest smoke out the bottom 
shrouds though... much of which has already blown out after getting the car 
running well.   Also, no more overheating.   Haven't been able to really 
tear into it with shroud removal etc just yet, weather has only just 
recently cleared up...  this weekend it's gonna get assaulted, nice weather 
forecast.    It's time to drag a couple of other things out of storage as 
well...  the '60 4-door, and the Yugo (38mpg), and the '65 ragtop so its 
repaint can get back on schedule.   But this Lakewood is the current topic 
of interest.

I'm *really* hoping that the engine was manufactured late enough to have 
the big valve springs and the two-piece exhaust valves, rather than the 
small springs/retainers and the early series one-piece exhaust valves that 
were kinda soft and liked to burn.    Seems I recall this switchover 
happening in the '61 model year somewhere along the line.

Anyone know when the date was for the corporate springs/retainers instead 
of the initial production stuff?   If I knew, could maybe check the Fisher 
tag for a date...  or I could just yank a valve cover (haven't yet) and 
look.    But it would still be of interest to know just when GM started 
using the larger springs/retainers.


tony..