9/9/08

Well, the plumbing thing worked out before I had to get involved. Mom had a plumber there snaking the drains all afternoon and everything is flowing again. We still need to yank that downstairs toilet and replace it, but I'm not about to volunteer! Anyhoo, I was afreared it was going to be upwards of a grand when he was done but they charged less than $300.00! We were both quite surprised. Unfortunately, the flood wasn’t bad enough to cause her to clear out the downstairs room and throw a bunch of crap away. Oh well, one of these days. On a lighter note, I did get shipping confirmation on my radiator. The bad news is it is scheduled to arrive Thursday. Now, with any luck, it will show up Wednesday and I'll be able to pick it up on my way to the shop. John pointed out that waiting to install it Saturday makes a bit more sense since I could watch stuff better in the daylight during the first drive. While I agree in theory, I really want that thing up and running sooner than that. I could promise that the only thing we’d do Wednesday is install the radiator and fire the engine, not drive it, but we all know I'd at least take it around the parking lot. We’ll see. So I was having more thoughts about George. If that bottom end is terminal, which I've just about convinced myself it is, I have a few options. Option one is drop Gigi’s A-12 in with the turbo bits. That would probably be the quickest thing. I don’t like that option though because, well, it’s a forty year old engine of which we know absolutely nothing. Option two is go through Gigi's bottom end and install the head from George’s over heater motor. I like this option slightly more, and if we stick with an A-12, it is the most likely scenario. Option three is rebuild one of the A-14 engines in the corner using George’s head and pistons. This uses many of the bits I paid good money for when building the over heater. I suppose this is a good option if we make sure the compression ratio is acceptable. Option four is to try and put an A-12 crank in an A-14 block. That would drop the compression ratio considerably. What I need to do is sit down with a machinist and look at bores, strokes, rod lengths, cylinder head volumes, and whatever else, to see what that would net us. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like that idea. If the soggy compression ratio of the short stroke could be augmented by shaving the head, I think we might have a winner. Now, having said all of that, A-14 rods probably won’t fit an A-12 crank. I just called to see if Automotive Machine can re-size crank journals by welding on additional material. They cannot. So, I guess if an A-14 rod will fit an A-12 crank, we might have a winner. Ok, I just checked the 1200 club online and it appears as though all A-series engines have the same rod journal size. Apparently someone had this same idea just a few months ago. The wags estimate a 5:1 compression ratio with this setup, all other things being equal, so a pretty radical head shave would be needed, if possible. I'm not ruling this option out, especially since it would allow me to have the flywheel lightened when doing the rest of the work. I initially decided against lightening the flywheel to give the engine the illusion of torque off the line. I've waffled back and forth on the matter every time I thought about those bits but never went back to have it done. This time, I think I will. Unless of course Explodotron will fit an A-12 crank! No, I don’t want Explodotron in a 1200 next to my feet. I'd rather run it in Shi-Chi when it comes time to rebuild that bottom end. Oh, if you don’t remember what Explodotron is, go back to July 14, or so and re-read. Well, I've been away for a while and upon reflection I think option three, rebuild an A-14 bottom end with George’s head and pistons, seems the most logical choice. Of course we will need to measure the chamber volume of an A-12 head versus an A-14 head to see if that head swap is going to shoost the compression ratio out the roof. I'm a little afeared it might. We’ll see. I think that if my radiator isn't here by Wednesday afternoon when I head to the shop, John and I will be looking at various A-series engine combinations. Of course this is all assuming John doesn’t look at George and say, “Well there’s your problem. You have the continuum transfunctioner attached directly to the flux capacitor. You should have an oscillation overthruster in line there.” At which point I'd say, “Well no wonder it got hot so fast! You’re my hero!” Or, something like that.