Guess the MPG Worn vs. Rebuilt (+)

vintagetrk said:
Engine braking-in and update: ( its a book sorry) Thought I'd update here so everyone knows we are moving forward with the competition.

I'll start with a question: Should I take care of the lifter tick now or wait until the 250 miles? It's not getting louder just checking.

I put a drop of oil in the cups as Ben suggested with the exception of the backside of the generator. I pulled the screws and put in some quality grease. I was there looking at the brushes so why not. I found one set of brushes was not even touching the stator ( ?) I'm not completely up on all the parts names of a generator. Even after that, I was only getting 11.88 volts.

So I have to make the decision to either go to an alternator ( internal regulator) or buy a good voltage regulator. If I sold the generator I could easily pay for everything needed for the alternator, but that's not original so... that's always the trade-off. I have the thought... if I'm going to be taking this truck way out in the boonies, reliability and efficiency might be the way to go. These are reversible modifications anyway. So I'll just forget about selling the generator and put it on a shelf. IF I decided to go that route.

I checked the oil yesterday about a 1/8 qt low, not bad. I really don't smell the oil burn much anymore. The first time I fired it up, that engine smelled terrible. The second oil change I put in some 1040 from napa and a bottle of zink additive and so far it's very clean and no signs of fuel smell or the old paper towel trick.

Fuel wash kind of worried me a little since the guy who built the engine said it had fuel washed cylinders. I believe that was from the old YF, it had issues. I kind of wish I hadn't sold that carb but at the same time, glad I did. The Weber does great, but I don't feel like the tuning guide is the bible if you do anything inside the carb like change out jets or air/fuel. I just played with it until I had a nice startup, smooth idle, and no hesitation. The idle speed screw isn't where the tuning guide says it needs to be but I haven't uncovered the ports completely in my adjustment. Maybe a Weber expert can tell me if that is right or not. I just know its working.

I used a vacuum gauge to tune the carb after I re-jetted it for higher altitudes ( not sure entirely how much this is needed to be honest. ) I wonder if a guy got on the mountain and did some timing and idle jet tuning he would be just fine? Either way, I put more air and less fuel initially. I was running way lean and had the idle adjustment screw way out. I ended up going 3 sizes up to a 95 main jet to get the correct 1.5 to 2 turns. So I must have added too much air? That might have been a mistake but in the right direction. The little 226 wanted a touch more fule than I thought. I think that would have been the same if I had been at 2,000 ft or 5,000 ft. I could go get a wideband AFR gauge, but it is kind of fun to do it the old school way.. and with carb not being able to adjust on the go like EFI, the AFR is really only useful if you are way out of bounds, right? I don't know.

This stage of the game is kind of fun. I have a drum to deal with and that's the backing plate, not the drum, but the drum is the expendable part and so it's logical to modify that to fit the defective backing plate, or is it? I still might take a standard metric tool and try to bend it back out and never tell anyone that's what I did. I did a search and it seems like a few years back a lot of folks were complaining about bad backing plates. Makes a guy wonder. From my own experiences, good companies send tooling to Asia but they Asian factories get the stampings too hot warp the dies and just keep ongoing or they make the dies there and they are junk compared to what we used to do here. I'm not saying that's what happened to this backing plate at all.. just what I've seen in the past. It is funny that just one of them was bad. Could have happened during shipping who knows.

Outside of that its a matter of chasing leaks and adjusting this and that.
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I would put 500 on it and then do the valves. Oil will burn for awhile.

I found a three wire delco remy internally regulated alternator at napa that is around 60 amps. One wire gets connected to the alternator from the alternator. One is a big wire to the battery and another hooks to the light on the dash. The two battery wires in the harness get bolted together and voila. No cutting the harness, simple hookup and solid charging all the time - with a working indicator light on the dash. It also makes it clean if you need to go back to a generator. Sure its not stock, but its easy to go back.
 
Flinthillsben said:
I would put 500 on it and then do the valves. Oil will burn for awhile.

I found a three wire delco remy internally regulated alternator at napa that is around 60 amps. One wire gets connected to the alternator from the alternator. One is a big wire to the battery and another hooks to the light on the dash. The two battery wires in the harness get bolted together and voila. No cutting the harness, simple hookup and solid charging all the time - with a working indicator light on the dash. It also makes it clean if you need to go back to a generator. Sure its not stock, but its easy to go back.
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I have the alternator sitting on the bench, hope to get to it next week . I'm in the sandhills until Monday. Will do on the valves!

The alternator theory is also what I was thinking. Put the generator on the shelf for the next caretaker. Go have fun!
 
mickeykelley said:
Still no number........to quote someone we all know "come on mannn"
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All in good time. The dragging brake shoes need to be fixed to get an accurate reading, and the motor needs to break in a little and maybe have the valves adjusted. And he’s got to find a good test route. Perhaps the trickiest part in Wyoming will be choosing a day when strong headwinds and tailwinds aren’t distorting the numbers. These things take time. ;)
 
Lookout Ranch said:
All in good time. The dragging brake shoes need to be fixed to get an accurate reading, and the motor needs to break in a little and maybe have the valves adjusted. And he’s got to find a good test route. Perhaps the trickiest part in Wyoming will be choosing a day when strong headwinds and tailwinds aren’t distorting the numbers. These things take time. ;)
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My vote would be the sinclair in Cody, WY to Fishing Bridge, YNP - gas at the Sinclair there and record the numbers, see the park or whatever then top off there again, and drive back to the Cody Sinclair - and record the numbers. Then average the two(up and down). Flat sections, twisties, climbing alot and then the reverse. Then average the up and down trips. But all of this after that thing is past 500 miles and a valve adjustment and head retorque.
 
Lookout Ranch said:
All in good time. The dragging brake shoes need to be fixed to get an accurate reading, and the motor needs to break in a little and maybe have the valves adjusted. And he’s got to find a good test route. Perhaps the trickiest part in Wyoming will be choosing a day when strong headwinds and tailwinds aren’t distorting the numbers. These things take time. ;)
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So true! The brick of a design doesn't appreciate the Wyoming wind does it!
 
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Flinthillsben said:
My vote would be the sinclair in Cody, WY to Fishing Bridge, YNP - gas at the Sinclair there and record the numbers, see the park or whatever then top off there again, and drive back to the Cody Sinclair - and record the numbers. Then average the two(up and down). Flat sections, twisties, climbing alot and then the reverse. Then average the up and down trips. But all of this after that thing is past 500 miles and a valve adjustment and head retorque.
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That's a good idea because the speed limits are so low in the park.
 
So alternator bracket is in and now I'm ready to figure out the wiring side of the project. I've looked at a few diagrams , shouldn't be bad at all.

Being a knife maker has its advantages. I dug out a piece of W2 tool steel from the scrap bin. A few bends on the anvil , some repurpose brackets off another engine.. and all mounted up.

I am trying to get it all done this week. Fix the drums and I have a wire or bad ground to track down. My blinker turns off , drivers side rear when I turn my headlights on.. dang gremlins.
 

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I've got 103 miles on the truck as of this morning. I pulled out at around 6 am to beat the traffic work rush and heat. 95 yesterday and it will be a cool 90 degrees today. I did free the drum up a lot. I still have a hissing noise that comes and goes. Pops said because the backing plate is warped the pads are having a hard time getting reset. I knew I should have sprung a couple hundred more bucks and got the disk setup.. just saying.

Willys sunset (2).jpg

All is well so far. The 226 runs great, sounds great. I'll let it cool off and go check fluids. I am impressed with this little flatty so far. I will try to hit the road every afternoon or morning just to keep putting on the miles. I am getting used to people flipping me off as they blow around me on the highway. Most of the time I get a friendly wave though.
 
vintagetrk said:
I've got 103 miles on the truck as of this morning. I pulled out at around 6 am to beat the traffic work rush and heat. 95 yesterday and it will be a cool 90 degrees today. I did free the drum up a lot. I still have a hissing noise that comes and goes. Pops said because the backing plate is warped the pads are having a hard time getting reset. I knew I should have sprung a couple hundred more bucks and got the disk setup.. just saying.

View attachment 81027

All is well so far. The 226 runs great, sounds great. I'll let it cool off and go check fluids. I am impressed with this little flatty so far. I will try to hit the road every afternoon or morning just to keep putting on the miles. I am getting used to people flipping me off as they blow around me on the highway. Most of the time I get a friendly wave though.
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That's a great possible 2021 calendar pic.
 
Tralehead said:
I think that's the exact same alt I have in mine. BTW, don't mix up the two wires...
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I bought the little GM plug so I didn't do that. I know the little wire doesn't go anywhere near power LOL! I wired the excitor wire back to the LEDs in the dash. I have the dash lights turning on with the key so it all works well. I figured this out after I bought the diodes to wire inline... oh well.
 
vintagetrk said:
I wish I would have shot it 3/4 front and had just a little more light.
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Good plan. Shooting in low light is always tough, the picture gets grainy. When shooting into the sunlight, the camera lens needs to be squeaky clean to avoid a filmy haze or flaring. If you go there again, try to park a little closer to the fenceline so you can exclude the overhead lines. It might also be a good location to try at another time of day.
 
Lookout Ranch said:
Good plan. Shooting in low light is always tough, the picture gets grainy. When shooting into the sunlight, the camera lens needs to be squeaky clean to avoid a filmy haze or flaring. If you go there again, try to park a little closer to the fenceline so you can exclude the overhead lines. It might also be a good location to try at another time of day.
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I might try that, and thanks for the help! I'll take the other one down if I can get a better one. If that's cool with the rules.
 
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