Follow up on ERA717

[D111]

ayyiyi..... at this point I'm actually hoping that the car grows a quart of oil every few hundred miles :-)

Originally Posted by fdjake

Rick,

Thank you for taking the time to respond here. I ran Joe Gibbs Racing 15/40 Hot Rod oil in the car while I owned it. (Incidentally, that was the FIRST question Bob Mason asked me when I called him about this engine) I have a video of the car running at idle with absolutely no smoke coming from the side pipes. Yet the car used 1 qt of oil every 150 miles. I'll be happy to send you the video. When the car went to ERA they found exactly what Bill found, a torn intake gasket....They actually saved it to show me. At that point they too thought they had it licked with just a gasket set because the car ran so well. Peter asked me if he could drive the car to gauge any oil consumption issues still present....After driving the car over 400 miles, Peter called and told me
the car STILL used 1 Qt of oil every 150 miles but ran PERFECT.
His exact words were....The car runs beautiful, I'd drive it for the rest of the season then pull the motor and look at the rings. On a side note....I found a bottle of Lucas Oil Additive in the car when I picked it up at ERA so apparently they did EXACTLY what you recommended here.
Once I had the car back, I too confirmed the oil usage ERA had noted. At that point it went to Bob Mason. It took him literally 15 minutes to find the pitting in the cylinders. I watched him scope the engine. I do not have picture of the pitting but I did provide Bill with Bob Mason's contact info so he could talk directly to him. Bill asked me for that info but never bothered to call Bob.

[mrmustang]

Guys, car is sitting in my garage, I am 1,100 miles away till Tuesday evening. On the drive home from my friend Steve's shop, we put 22 miles on it up and down some large hills with Steve following in my Explorer, no smoke or blow by was noticed at all, not at start up, not on acceleration or on deceleration, under some serious load , and downshifted into lower gears in an attempt to find leaks in the exhaust. No back fire, cackle, just a nice sounding tone through the exhaust.. There is a show at Freehold Ford this coming Saturday, it is 128 miles each way and my plan is to drive the cobra down weather permitting. That plus any seat time I can get between Wednesday morning and then I'll be adding mileage and notating my findings then, again, good, bad, or otherwise.........Until then, the car sits under cover, awaiting my return.......Has been since Friday around 1:30pm.......


Bill S.

[D111]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

There is a show at Freehold Ford this coming Saturday, it is 128 miles each way and my plan is to drive the cobra down weather permitting.

Bill S.

Bill I believe the show Is next Sunday, Route 9 Jersey?

it's not a Far Ride for me I will photograph and verify your dipstick Pull.. .

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by D111

Bill I believe the show Is next Sunday, Route 9 Jersey?

it's not a Far Ride for me I will photograph and verify your dipstick Pull.. .

I knew from talking with Bob and Vinny (Mongo) that it was next weekend, I've booked it on my calendar either way. Look forward to seeing you there (weather permitting as the rain date is the next Sunday the 22nd).


On another note, got rid of the anemic "period correct" air cleaner, replaced it with a K&N 66-3040 extreme top unit I've used on ERA234 (chassis dyno tests showing it good for 22hp at the rear wheels, so food for thought for those reading this) in the past. With it's drop base, it clears the ERA hood with room to spare. Should really make a difference in how the car runs now that the engine can actually breath.

This is how I calculated it with the help of K&N some 10+ years ago

Using the simple formula

A= effective filter area
CID=engine displacement
RPM=maximum RPM expected

112.96" is what I need if I am going to turn 5,500rpms

Using the CFM formula of height X diameter x 6 x 3.14 and if I did this correctly, I now have 791.28cfm of filter material, not including the extreme filter top which K&N states is 500cfm as a stand alone


Again without pulling the April 10th, 1968 cast 428 block, and doing my due diligence as already documented above (sorry, regardless of Pete's continued insistence, no cylinder wall pitting was found), the only thing left to do to see if the issues are taken care of or whether I'll be pulling the engine and replacing rings and such over the winter.

As for the insinuation of bad rings (Total Seal or otherwise), since Pete and I do not have the build records for the engine (unless of course Pete has them and never gave them to me, along with the phone number for the original owner), I'm taking things one step at a time and investigating everything for myself and not taking anything for granted. Sometimes it really is the simplest things that get overlooked, for me, I'm a bit more fussy about it and need to experience things for myself. Hence the original reason why I started this thread, and why I continue to do things in a hands on, logical and methodical manner. After all, it is my time and money, and the end of the typical driving season (most who know me know for me it never ends ) is not yet here.

As usual, only time will tell.


Bill S.