MTFCA Forum

I jump in head first and talk to our favorite guy, Jeff. I like picking and choose my projects so this was no different. This should cure his issues since every time he goes up his steep hill it appears to be a game of chance on #1 connecting rod and others. 16 gauge steel is 1/16" so this is a good choice. In aviation and other vintage engines I have dealt with, a key in setting things right the first time is to make a simple clearance throw wheel out of wood. This is the dimensions of the connecting rod in its rotating area with room to spare (3/16-1/4"). The line across the wood represents the centerline of the crankshaft.

More coming.

After all of that, welding in the dams and shaping a little as I go.


Welding done, back to the blast cabinet, scratch wheeling, and stoning the welds. A nice coat of Gyptal Paint and done. I screwed up and thought Jeff said 3 dip pan the first conversation, oh well he has one custom made dipper well for his next project.


He should be able to take on a hell of a hill now, roughly 40 degrees from my rough calculations. Watch Out You Wild Cherry II Boys, He got lube!

As Always,

Humble Hank

PS, Kinda looks like a school bus! LOL

I Put a secondary dipper on the back of the rear horse shoe for extra!

Hank, you are somthing else!

I like it! The credit goes to Terry Horlick for the "Mountain Pan" idea and Hank's certainly improved on it.

Nicely done Hank!

Jeff

With the dam's in place, how do you intend on feeding oil to each dipper trough so all have sufficient oil for each dipper. By blocking each pocket, it makes it much more difficult to oil the forward rods depending on splash from the flywheel. Oil may not drain easily from pocket to pocket. Don't think the internal oil line and/or a 1/4" mag post oiler will do the job.
The aftermarket trans. cover oiler may not deliver enough oil pressure to push oil up-hill when climbing hills. With the stock pan cover, oil will run from pocket to pocket....the trick is to dump enough oil up front to keep sufficient oil in each pocket for the dippers. That is what I have done and it is still working after 20 yrs. with out any bearing adjustments. I could see your inspection cover modification working if you incorporated a log style manifold feeding each pocket....but that would require an oil pump to provide sufficient volume.
Yes, you can see the 1/2" oil line running from the hog's head to the front side of the pan when the hood is raised. That may bother you but not me!
I'm more interested in enjoying driving my T vice spending time/$$$ pulling the engine for new bearings or getting oil in my face doing bearing adjustments.

Les

This system has already been designed and used by Terry Horlick. I have in in my T's. The hogs head is drilled at the point of most oil sling, a 1/2" tube goes from there to the front of the pan and feeds the dams. Its a great system and Henry has made a real piece of art with his fabrication.

You missed the other thread(s) where the discussion of this design has already been tested/vetted, and I already have 3 xternal oilers feeding the front of the motor so there will be plenty of feed.

Jeff

I thought it was important after I copied some of Terry Horlicks dam designs for my car to drill some small oil return lines at the bottom of each dam. This allows the oil to flow back into the sump after the engine is turned off. I think it also aids in preventing any sediment build up.

Gene,

I have considered small drain holes for mine in the past but I don't find that they are needed nor advisable. The reason I chose not to drill them is that they will not accomplish anything on any of the dips in a 4 dip pan. In a three dip pan they will allow the #4 dip to drain when I add a dam to the main pan behind #4. Look at the Horlick Mountain Pan, when the car is on the flats the dips will stick up above the oil so nothing is to be gained by drilling them. On the contrary I feel that drilling will allow the dams to drain out faster on hills thus negating some of the benefit.


They don't fill up with sludge any more than a stock pan. As noted above holes won't allow debris to leave any faster than in a stock pan. I have made 3 and 4 dip pans depending on what fits. On my 3-dip pans I add a dam into the main pan behind #4 rod.

The only thing that these dips will do is to hold oil under the rods whilst on a steep uphill. You don't need them in the front of a dip as the engine isn't working hard on a downhill and the internal oil line brings lots of oil up front whilst descending.

After designing these dips I stopped having #1 or #1&2 rods wipe their bearings in the hills. A frequent headache was cured... until I stupidly put a stock pan without dips in to the engine after finding my old pan had warped. I forgot that my spare straightened pan did not have the Horlick Mtn. pan modification. Sure enough within a year I wiped out #1 rod bearing. About $1500 later I have a re-babbited set of rods and a new crankshaft plus some wonderful Erik Barrett work!

Terry

Gents,

This is an interesting thread to follow.

I am moved to ask if anyone knows what the builders of the clown parade cars
that did wheelies did to preserve the front bearings ? The angle of those cars in
wheelie position was far steeper than any hill a car could climb. I can only presume
the car was running and in motion when doing the wheelie stunts.

Might there be some useful lost wisdom in the mythical clown cars of yore ?

Brent B, I am sure, like with so many things, it varies greatly from car to car. It was discussed several years ago on the old forum, and the consensus was that many of those cars did little or nothing to help with oiling on those clown cars. A few people had previous connections with such cars, even I knew a fellow that owned one many years ago. Some years back, I saw (on the internet) a video dubbed from an old film of a clown car in a parade as the engine began bellowing black smoke while nose in the air. The nose was quickly dropped back down, the video didn't follow it long enough to what happened in the next few minutes. I also saw one such car at a swap meet many years ago, and when they started it, one could hear the rod knocking.
Those cars weren't intended to be driven in any kind of traffic, or any farther than a few hundred yards more than the parade route. In fact,one I heard about many years ago, was stored next to the fair grounds, where it was always close to where the parades in that town usually started or ended.
They also usually didn't keep the nose up for more than a few seconds, and usually had an excessive amount of oil in them. When they dropped the nose back down, the oil would splash forward,and quickly cool down the rod, hopefully before it throws the Babbitt out.
Those things were just old junk in those days. Nobody really cared if they were beaten or abused.
But I did through a chain of events wind up with the Ruckstell out of the one I knew the owner of years ago.

Well, durn it all ! .... I thought that *maybe* there was some ancient forgotten
secret there, that would solve the super steep hill oiling issue.

(back to my hole now)