Hershey or Bust was a BUST

[SMHnat]

Hershey or bust was a BUST this year. I tightened up the engine last week and headed out for Hershey Thursday afternoon. I heard a knock start to develop about 50 miles in and 80 miles in I didn't want to drive on it anymore. I had it flatbedded to my friend Ralph and Margaret's in Toledo and they graciously let me work on it at there house for a couple days. I am very thankful for the friendship I have developed with them... they are like another set of grandparents to me. If it weren't for meeting Ralph I would have never gotten into old cars.
I had the inspection cover off on the bottom of the engine 3 or 4 times and everytime I started it up Id find another knock to fix. Ended up taking 1 to 2 shims out of every connecting rod and 1 shim out of the center main bearing. The final startup Saturday morning revealed a knock in the front main bearing that was too tough to get to with the engine in the car. Normally I dont remove 2 shims again until after few thousand miles of driving. I believe my problem was that I used and assembly grease last week instead of an assembly oil. As a result, I learned that the assembly grease is meant for cars with a pressurized oil system that will overcome the grease after the system pushes it out leaving the oil to do its job and the grease didnt leave the rods and mains in time for a splash oil system to take over. I truly believe that this is the problem as it was the only thing I did differently in my process of tightening up an engine as I have ever done before, so learn for my experience..... dont use an assembly grease in a splash oil system.

I still plan to go out to Hershey, I'll just drive my station wagon and bring some stuff to sell. Next years Hershey trip will be much better with my T!!!

Update: Kevin think something else is going on in the engine and Ill take my block down there some weekend and we are going to work and see what's up.
I remember the guy who originally did my babbit(not kevin) said his engine work lasts about 10,000 miles and that's not right, but I have driven about 10,000 miles since this babbit was put it in. I still have lots of shims left, but we'll see what's going on in a month or two.

[Retro54]

Tough luck, but glad you'll be able to still make the show. I'll make it a point to stop by and say hi. Looks like I'll have mine at the spaces for fun, so feel free to stop by if you end up wondering around.

Andy

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

Bummer...

I have used grease when assembling. Not necessarily "assembly grease", just "grease". Was very surprised when looking into the engine years later, that some of the grease that oozed out was still there! Grease that squeezes out into lube holes, essentially plugging them, could be a bad thing...