[ihc] Chapter 11 - Southern Sorrows

["T.R.E.Jr." <T_R_E_Jr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

---I am going to sum up what has happened to save some time. This message is
also going out to a couple people other than those on the digest... and they
have no idea what has happened to me in the past 5 or so days.
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---My freshly regasketed 304 has just had the Holley 2300 rebuilt. She ran
wonderfully at first, and then without warning and almost at random, she
would fire up, run like dog-snot and then stall out. At first I was thinking
it was the choke setting, so I insisted on trying to get it to run... all
this time I had fuel leaking down into the carb as it was flooding out. I
had also thought it had something to do with the EGR I blocked off at the
manifold and even considered that maybe I was burning up another dizzy. All
that seemed unlikely, so I continued to try and get it to run correctly.

---Jamie and I were off to the library after I had it running right. Well,
it got down the block and died. I smelt fuel, so I let it sit for a while,
pulled the fuse for the fuel pump and tried to crank it, still wouldn't
fire. Ended up getting towed home by an `82 Subaru station wagon. Was a
funny sight to see. After I had pulled the air cleaner and tried
troubleshooting again, I found immediately that the gas was pouring out the
vent. I changed out the needle and seat after 30 minutes of futile attempts
to set the fuel level in the bowl. She fired right up, kept running and the
next day we went to pay bills, do a little shopping and ship a package off
to family. I only had one problem starting her and that was after about 30
minutes of straight, in-town driving at 40 mph. The 55 mph 2 mile stretch
and the 40 mph 3 mile stretch afterward, she gave no signs of trouble and
she hadn't used 1/16th a tank in the 3 hours of driving around town.

---Get her home and park her. I see oil leaking down the back of the oil
pan. After investigation, I smell and find that  it is not just oil. As I
figured, but was too dumb to check, I had gas in my oil. Pull the dipstick
and there is 2" over the FULL line. She sat all night until this morning,
when I pulled the plug. Walked over to the job and put in a few hours, came
home and removed the oil pan.
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---Just to brush you up on my findings. Some metal flake in the bottom of
the pan toward the drain plug, not anything to write home about. A few bugs
in the bottom of the pan, no idea how the heck they got in there, but they
were well preserved. Maybe they flew up in the drain hole while the plug was
out. On the tailgate, is 7 quarts removed from the pan, not including what
was flung all over the bottom of the Scout during driving and what leaked
out overnight. I have the pan off, the oil filter draining and cardboard
under the crankcase to catch fluids dripping off the internal parts. She
will sit till morning.

---For some reason I keep thinking that the 304 has a 7qt capacity. Before I
fill it, I always look at the manual, so I know it wasn't over-filled from
the get-go. The mark on the dipstick was made after the initial fill (with
6qts) and last night it was 2" over. That would tell me that there was at
least an extra 3qts in the crankcase, because I have over-filled by 1qt once
and it put the fluid 1/2" over the fill line. If you recall, I had a broken
dipstick, headers and the need for a new dipstick. I altered the bracket
from a Toy r20 to fit the 304 and scribed my fill line after filling the
crankcase to the correct capacity.

---Maybe the "powers to be" told me to fill with M-1 and save the old oil. I
have two 5qt Castrol jugs filled with Castrol SAE 40 oil from the Scout and
20 W 50 from the transmission. They have been filtered through cheesecloth
the first time to make certain there were no bugs in it... lol and the
second time just to make certain that the oil was filtered well enough. This
oil has less than 300 miles on it and is a blessing to me right now. I am
going to run some cheap oil through the system to help clean the rest of the
 gas out and I will then drain it, save it for emergencies :-D and fill the
Scout with two fresh quarts of Castrol HD 30 and 3 quarts of the filtered
oil. The next oil change will be in 2000 miles and by then I believe I will
be able to change the filter and fill her up with Castrol Syntech.

---If you recall, I originally went with the Mobile 1 because Castrol
Syntech has a tendency to clean real well, and real quick, I didn't want my
filter or lifters to suffer because of this. I myself am sold on Castrol...
and maybe one day I will test Amsoil... maybe even be amazed, but until
then, I will try to find myself another motor and once I have done so, this
wartime 304 is going on the stand. Until then, she is going to be babied and
I will push her even further to her limits. Remember, this motor has 470K of
hard worked miles on her bottom end. She has been through a lot and that's
not driving through town doing 40mph max. She spent 4 years in Michigan with
me, 3 years here in Alabama and before I owned her, she was used* on a farm
and her first years were in a military vehicle. IMHO there is nothing on the
road (other than another IHC) that would have been able to stand up to what
hell I have given her, what the others' have and still ran like a champ...
well, she did. Right now she sits "half-naked" and drained.

---Thank you
-T.R.E.Jr.(temporary manager of the Tommy-Bob Garage, till Daryl gets back)
-`73 Scout II (StoneThrower)
-`51 Farmall H (Heinz)
-`49 IH fridge (presently unnamed and in need of a compressor)
-`49 Plymouth Special Deluxe 4-door Sedan (Papapalooza)