Tim Wells broke my car

[Steve Lindsay]

If Tim Wells ever comes to visit don't let him drive your car. He came to visit a few weeks and I let him drive the vette. He broke it! We ended walking home. I'll let Tim try and expalin how he broke it.
These are pictures before and after.

[Dave London]

Humm
Lets see I think that appropiate punishment would be for a Georgia boy to spend the winter in NE:smilie5:

[Ray Cover]

So working backwards....maybe if I let Tim drive mine he'll fix it?

Ray

[Tim Wells]

There seems to be a key piece of evidence missing... the smoking gun.:sbrug:

I went to visit for 3 days, not enough time to learn all Steve's secrets but plenty of time to try and blow up an old Chevy. We went for a ride there in Buffalo county and he suddenly pulls over and says lets switch drivers. I got out and when I did I touched that drag pipe right by the door opening and it didn't take long to let go of it I'll tell ya that! First mistake.

So I drive down the road feeling this car out admiring the obvious power and it's low stance to the ground, feels like you're about a foot tall riding in a go-cart. About this time I see a buffalo grazing just off the side of the road a quarter mile away. He's broadside to us and I'm looking right under his belly and can see the horizon looking through his legs. I figure "if I can aim just right and hit the right speed we can slip right under that fat boy with room to spare and never even ruffle his fur".

He said wind it up to 5000 and shift gears so you can "feel the joy" well that thing is loud and I thought he said start at 5000 and wind it out to 10,000 so I did and I gotta say I was some kind of impressed; that dang buffalo never knew what happened as we slid under and was goooooooooone. Second mistake.

Just after that loud boom as we passed through the sound barrier before I could get my foot off the throttle and on the brake, the valves started ticking a little. I was thanking whoever built this thing that they had the foresight to put four wheel disc brakes on it. At first when I heard the rattling I thought it was just my dentures that I near swollowed rattliing around then I remembered I don't have dentures yet cause I ain't near as old as Steve.:hat:

I asked if he'd been tuning it up or anything prior to my arrival and he said he'd been "doing some stuff" to it which immediately raised my brow. On the way back home while digging upholstery out of my bu...never mind, the ticking got progressively louder so I coasted to a stop under a cottonwood tree, the only tree in the entire state so I figured we were lucky!
I reckon that would make us shade tree mechanics now wouldn't it? I'm thinking :wonder what it costs to rebuild a 427 these days???"

I got out and you know in all the excitement I plum forgot about that other drag pipe and you know where your ankle starts into the calf area of your leg? Let's just say I left a little piece of ME in Nebraska. Lucky for Steve he keeps such a high shine on everything, made it easy to scrape part of my carcass off that pipe a week later. Third mistake and I got the scar to prove it.

We popped the hood and started it up and I said it sounds like a rocker came loose. We walked home, got a few tools and I took off that valve cover and found out what "I've been doing some stuff to it" means when Steve says it and the photo is what I found. Brings a whole new meaning to that old phrase "throwing a monkey wrench in the gears" don't it?

We took that out and the rocker assembly, did a little grinding on the keeper nut that broke so we could tighten it good enough to get the car home and it worked like a charm. Oh I almost forgot. The UPS guy drove by and asked if we needed help; knows Steve on a first name basis (small town) so we showed him the broken part and he said, well I'll be damned if I don't have a box full of those right here in the truck, but since they aren't addressed to you I can't help you and drove off kicking up dust in Steve's face that stuck pretty good on account of the tears...:waaah: That's why I use Fedex.

When we got home and cleaned up I told him what I thought he said right before we passed the buffalo and he said "no Tim, I said go to 5 grand and shift gears, any higher and it'll cost me 10 grand". oops. I've heard gear heads say "there ain't no substitute for cubic inches!"; they were right!

Well, all's well that ends well right? It cost about $20.00 for the parts to fix that and he was at cruise night that weekend. That is what happened and it's the truth if Iv'e ever told it...:sleep2:

[jlseymour]

Good thing you were driving Tim or we would have never got this story...
Steve, Nice looking Chevy...
Jerry

[Steve Lindsay]

Hey, someone with a red shirt planted the wrench there for a picture. I've been framed. The meat from Tim's leg is still on the side pipe. It won't come off. It is cooked and well done.

Ray, the backwards thing I don't think will work with Tim. Dave is right, punishment should be a Nebraska Winter.

[Tim Wells]

What ya'll might not know is that Steve has a still out back and he lives in the corn belt; corn as far as the eye can see. What better to do with corn than make liquor back there in the weeds where no one can see it?

That's why he bought that blue chevy so he could hual that stuff accross state lines in a hurry. You all know how he likes to be efficient...

[WVEngraver]

Boy does Tim tell a great story!!

Hey Steve .... bring the exhaust up to temperature (after you fix the valve rocker) then use EZ-Off oven cleaner. Works great for burnt on tar, oil and skin.

Chris

[SpiderCurt]

Did you ever think of cutting a few scrolls on those rocker arms? Oh, and how about that valve cover too

[Tim C]

He broke your "Baby"...I can't believe it.

First rule of owning a fast car or bike, "don't let anyone else drive it."

Did the valve(s) hit the pistons?

Dings in the top of the pistons will create excessive heat along the edges of the dings, like a light bulb filament glows, so check the pistons with a bore scope before you run it too much.

I would check the push rods too, something had to hit something to break that retainer.


Tim C

[SpiderCurt]

Being accustomed to viewing pictures of engraved items on this site, I was struck by the comparatively unadorned appearance of these engine parts yesterday morning. Shortly after posting what was intended to be humorous remarks, I finished my second cup/pot of coffee, fixed a computer and combined the computer delivery with an emergency service call. When my work day was finished, I came home to relax and found that someone had posted pictures of an engine with engraved manifold and valve covers on the other engraving web site. This made my remarks seem more offensive than humorous. Steve, I apologize, if you were offended by my remarks and hope that the broken retainer is the worst of the damage to your engine.

[Steve Lindsay]

Hi Curt,
I haven't engraved larger items like valve covers and such. I'd like to but not enough time.
I hadn't seen your first post in the thread until now. No worry, no offense taken. I've been pretty burnt out engraving but I enjoy being creative with the tool making. One day I'll get back to more engraving again.

Hi Tim C, The engine is ok. The nut was too hard and broke. The stress where it broke was caused by Steve tightening it very tight. There is a setscrew in the nut that adjusts where on the stud the nut is tightened. The stress on the nut is between the setscrew and stud and that is where the nut broke. The nut wasn't drawn back enough after heat treat and was too hard. (aftermarket junk) When the nut cracked it then began to unscrew. The rocker didn't come all the way off and was still aligned with the rod when we removed the valve cover. Tim laid the rocker and wrench in there for the picture. (bad Tim W ) The valve would have opened less and less as the nut unscrewed which means it couldn't have crashed into the piston. The push rod was fine.

Tim W. should still be punished though:smile5:

[Tim Wells]

That yarn was just that, a yarn or more likely a yawn.. Anyway, burning the hide off my leg was about the only true part of the story, that keeper nut was ready to go at any rpm, it was just coincidence that it started rattling while I was driving.

The original intent for that wrench photo was so that I could have some fun with it with Paul Hamler. We're all friends and we occasionally poke fun at one another and if there is an opportunity to get some humor out of it we generally avail ourselves of it.

I had intended when I staged that photo to send it to Paul with some sort of story behind it but I never got around to it. When Steve posted these "incriminating" pictures it set a fire under me to reply and quit being lazy and the result was that rediculous story.

Why, who would ever believe we wen't under a buffalo for pete's sake... it was just a cow grazin' by the road.

[Tim C]

That's good news I was thinking it was valve float with the higher RPM's.
I want to buy that car someday.

You might want to take a set of basic tools with screwdrivers and soak a rag with oil. Wrap it all up and use a Seal-a-meal to vacuum seal the tools in the bag. Now you have a set of tools that will not rust for many years and you can secure the bag under the spare tire.
If you want to, you can include a few nuts a bolts as well as hose clamps in the bag too. Now take another bag and put wire, bulbs and fuses along with a continutity tester and seal that up too.

If you break down farther than walking distance from home or a service station, you have some tools and basic parts to make emergency repairs.

Nice car,,,,it must be nice to have a car with a built-in Barbeque for those long rides. I like my bacon crispy, or was that a cow?

Tim C