2008 John Force Holiday Show @ John Force Race Station, Yorba Linda CA December

[57AGIN]

It is time, almost the last show of the 2008 season.  The John Force Holiday Show, held at the John Force Race Station in Yorba Linda, CA. is one of the nicest car shows of the year, in addition to being one of the last shows of the year.  Last year we were will represented by nearly all models of 57 Fords.  This year we aren't "special" any more, just another 51 year old car.  But, I think you will all agree a GREAT 51 year old CLASSIC car.  I just received my email registration confirmation and it said there are still spaces available, but there will be no day of show registrations.  So if you want to show off your 57 in the last big show of the 2008 season you must HURRY. Contact www.JohnForceRacing.com for a registration form.


I've had several inquiries about whether our 57's can be parked together like last year.  Yes we can, but we have to all show up together to do so.  Please RSVP to me at rlee@ovsd.org if you will be going to this years show and I'll figure out a place to meet before entering the show.  Except for the featured vehicles and the extra cost preferred parking participants, parking is first come first parked.  So we will probably have to show up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 a.m. (ugh, I hate that).

Hope to see many of you there.  Don't forget to let me know if you'd like to park together again.

Bob
57AGIN

[shopratwoody]

Bob,
I'll look for you out there.
Ron

[KidKourier]

Bob, See you there,I'd have to roll outta here at 4:00 am to be there by 5:30 am so I guess I'll be leaving around 6:00 am! Kinda like to park down by the entry point west of the Race Station, not so congested, but where ever I end up will see you all there! KID

[57AGIN]

Well the 2008 car show season is in the books and my 57AGIN is going up on stands in preparation for some exploratory surgery in the engine. 

I went to the John Force Holiday show on December 7 and had a good time visiting with several club members and oogling all the beauties (CARS, what else??).  The show was bigger this year, having over 900 cars entered and all of the club members were spread out over about a little over quarter mile radius of the Force property.  Bill Sawyer was there and his 57 Skyliner was one of the featured cars again this year (convertables were featured) and parked in nearly the same spot as last year when all our 57's were being featured.  Kid Kourier was parked the farthest away, but was getting plenty of attention with his sharp Courier.  About 25 or 30 cars closer to the Force property was Phil Preston's fine yellow Custom, he was always gone when I was at his car.  Then circling back in some of the industrial parking lots used for the show, adjascent to the Force property, we came to Phil & Linda Meyers blue Custom 4 door, they too were out looking at the show when we came by.  Finally, still in the industrial area, we found Shopratwoody and his black Ranchero and spent a few minutes talking cars.  Pictures of all these fine rides are in the Gallery, check them out.

My god son and I then spent about an hour talking with one of the Force Team mechanics as we toured Force's shop.  Very friendly and informative on how he got into the business and what it is like touring with a funny car team.  The weather threatened a couple of times during the day, but only a few drops actually reached ground level.  So we wrapped up the season with a small turnout, but good day for all concerned.

When I got home I noticed some coolant leakage from around the 351's bypass hose, so I knew I had a little maintenance to do.  Rick Crawford (57 TUDOR) came over and I were getting ready for a small show that was to be held this weekend on the 14th.  I fired up the 57 to see if we could pinpoint the leakage, unfortunately some very loud tinny metallic noises were coming from deep inside the left bank.  We weren't able to isolate the situation and shut down the engine.  Looks like next weekend we'll be using a bore scope Rick has to see if we can figure it out.  Bummer, only 13,000  mile on a $9,000 engine (built before crate engines were available).  Good thing it happened at the end of the year.  I'll let you know what we find.

Bob
57AGIN

[shopratwoody]

Bob,
The John Force show was nice, as you said.
Sorry to hear about your engine. Hopefully it's topside and nothing serious. Nice pictures also.
Later, Ron

[57tudor]

Hi Guys
Went over to Bob Lee's house today with my bore scope to see what the noise was all about. Bob had allready pulled the plugs out for inspection. The #4 plug had a bunch of small nicks indicating this was the cylinder to inspect. So in went the bore scope and on the monitor we saw 2 foreign objects. Fragments of what was left of a very small washer. Off came the head an hour later and the damage doesn't look as bad as my first thoughts were. I cleaned the cylinder and took a hard look at it for cracks, no cracks thankfully. The weather turned real cold and I'm still ill after two weeks so we called it quits for the day. Next weekend if Bob has some free time, we are going to pull the pan and push out the rod & piston for inspection. In the meantime, Bob is taking the head into the machine shop this week for inspection. We will keep you posted as we progress with the project.
How did that washer get in there...   Don't ask!!!

Rick
57 Tudor

[shopratwoody]

Rick, Hope you get feeling better soon. Too bad about that motor with so few miles on it. I guess
that pan comes off that Windsor alot easier than the FE or 385 or at least I hope so. Good luck with
your project. Don't sound like fun.
Ron

[57AGIN]

Ron, Kid, et al.:

Rick pretty well outlined the damage.  Attached are a couple of pictures of what we found.  Actually, I'm now looking at this really dumb disaster as an opportunity to do a bit of improvement.  I'll be talking to the engine builder, Advanced Engine Machining {they do some engine work for Gale Banks Engineering}, about some options while the engine is in the partial tear down.  Things such as: maybe while the head(s) are off (the other one can come off, too) doing a bit of porting & polishing, etc.  We'll see, you know costs vs benefits.  I've thought about putting a centrifugal blower on (a modern one) for a bit of a nostalgic 57 F code look.  With the forged pistons & Edelbrock RPM heads currently at 9.5:1 compression a bit of opening up the combustion chambers would benefit that addition.  As the situation develops, we'll keep you posted.

Bob
57AGIN

[57AGIN]

Ron, Kid, et al.:

Here is a close-up shot of the cylinder head.  Another thing that is going to be corrected is the coolant leakage problem on the intake manifold.  Seems like no matter how tight we could get the now standard screw type clamps clamped down onto the bypass hose before the clamp screw stripped the screw holes, the hose would leak.  The same problem exists for the CoolFlex hose clamps on the main coolant inlet on the thermostat housing.  While the engine is apart I'll be looking for better clamps, maybe something like a stainless steel clamp used on marine installations or something used on turbo installations.

Bob
57AGIN

[JPotter57]

Ouch!! Sorry to hear about the 351 Bob...Any ideas as to where the washer came from?  Hope you get her back up and around soon..

[ranchero57]

hey bob when i build fords for racing (dirt or oval)i thread the inside of the elbow fitting and put a pipe plug in it and plug the pump likewise,all that elbow hose does is get warm water to the heater quicker. your heater will operate ok when water temp comes up to proper heat.one of my customers argued that his cooling system would not operate properly without elbow,so i plugged the inside of the upper fitting and put his elbow hose on(inoperative)he told me his engine was running cooler(hehehe)i later told him.campy

[57tudor]

Hi Guys.
Back over to Bob's house today to complete the tear down and son of a gun, when we got the left head off there was a small fragment of another washer in the #7. We didn't bore scope the left side last week because there was no damage to the spark plugs unlike the one on the right side. Damage in the #7 was less then the #4. We then got the oil pan off to push out the pistons. Say Ron, that oil pan was a cinch to get out. The #4 suffered some skirt damage and will need replacement and the #7 was not bad at all but will be wise to replace it too. Both cylinders are fine with good looking crosshatch. Bob's machine shop is going to resurface the heads and Bob tell's me they are going to CC the chambers, port match and polish both heads and the intake manifold. We will see a slight increase in the compression ratio after all is done, we will know the results after they do the math. We removed the SVO thermostat housing from the intake in preporation for the machine shop and man the inside of the thing was badly eaten up. Makes one wonder where these parts are made and what are they made of! Made in the USA? NOT! Does anybode know who makes a quality t-stat housing for the 351's?

Bob and his wife invited me back over for dinner after I got cleaned up at home. She made a very, very good home cooked dinner and along with some reminiscing of our first 57 fords, Bob's Big Boy, and drive in theaters made for a fine evening with good friends.

Ron. After 3 weeks, I'm starting to feel better. My immune system is still weak from my cancer problem and I don't do well in cold, wet weather.

Rick
57 Tudor