Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

I want to say "congratulations" but so far it looks like, "Rikki, don't use that Humber."

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 5: Good fortune smiles on me

They say that good things come to those who wait.   Part of waiting, in this case, was wading through every morning's emails from eBay.   I had created some "Saved Searches" for Super Snipe items, one USA-only, the other worldwide.   It was almost as bad as wading through each day's crop of spam.

For months I had put up with hits for Super Snipe toy cars, advertising literature, seat covers, and the occasional manual or part.   Since the Super Snipe series had been in production for decades, finding something for a 1959 Series II was like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Then one fine summer morning I saw it: "Humber Super Snipe NOS Vandervell Rod Bearings".   All previous such hits had been for earlier models, but this was the real deal!   Before you could say "PayPal", they were mine:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_4752a.JPG

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_4753a.JPG

They were standard, not undersized, so I had to pray that the journals were not worn too badly.   They were somewhat scored, but I decided that I could live with it.   Heck, I would have to, as .010 or .020 undersized bearings didn't seem to exist any more.   Plus, grinding the crank would involve much more work (and money!) than I was willing to spend at this point.

One advantage of working on the car in a remote parking lot is the lack of distractions.   At home, on a hot summer day, with friends dropping by to "help", there would be too much temptation to sit in the shade and drink beer.   With the only shade being under the car, nobody in their right mind was going to visit me, whether to bring cold beer or offer to help wrench.   In one short afternoon I had the new bearings installed.   Now, when I wiggled the connecting rods, there was no sign of motion.   And, to my great relief, I could still turn the crank by hand (wrench).   Progress!

Finally it was time to start putting the car back together.   But what about gaskets?   For a Super Snipe?   Yup, I would have to make them myself.   Fortunately, I work at a place which has machines to punch holes in thin material.   With that, and a roll of gasket material, I soon had both a new oil pan and transmission pan (yes, it's an automatic) gaskets.   At least I didn't have to cut all 28 holes in the oil pan gasket by hand!

Next: Where did it go?

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

28 (edited by Marc 2011-09-11 04:52 PM)

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

CowDriver wrote:

Finally it was time to start putting the car back together.   But what about gaskets?   For a Super Snipe?   Yup, I would have to make them myself.   Fortunately, I work at a place which has machines to punch holes in thin material.   With that, and a roll of gasket material, I soon had both a new oil pan and transmission pan (yes, it's an automatic) gaskets.   At least I didn't have to cut all 28 holes in the oil pan gasket by hand!

yeah, i feel your pain. i learnt the long lost of hand gasket making when rebuilding that airplane engine. there's no way to find gaskets for an engine designed in 1936 smile

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Holy crap, Lead-Indium Vandervell bearings....  Sweet.   Heavy metal toxicity and crap can racing, does life get any better?   

   Seriously, those are the real deal... There are guys who pay the big$ for those old Vandervells for TRs, Jags, etc.    Don't use the white lithium based assembly lube on those.. use a mix of heavy oil and plain grease.

Gosh, my business card says 'Tech Tyrant'

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 6: Where did it go?

As I described in Episode 1, the engine is a six cylinder in-line hemi.   This means that the spark plugs are directly on top of the engine.   The previous owner had removed the plugs on the parts car, leaving the cylinders open for the small rodents to piss and crap into.   Fortunately, the "good" car had no such problems.   I had to create my own.

Early in this project, in a fit of OCD, I decided that it would be a good idea to clean the plugs before trying to start the engine.   My good friend Richard offered to take them home and use his plug cleaner (sandblaster) on them.   So we proceeded to carefully label each plug wire and remove them, followed by the spark plugs themselves.   Remember, each plug was at the bottom of a deep recess in the valve cover (see earlier photo), as in all hemi engines.

After removing the first two plugs, we noticed a disturbing fact: the little screw-on terminal on the top of the #1 plug was missing.   I was certain that there had been the normal amount of resistance when removing the wire, so it must have been there earlier.   Where was it now?

We searched the ground around and under the car, and every place it could have possibly fallen.   No joy.   After much discussion, we concluded that it must have fallen down the spark plug hole into the cylinder.   This was Not Good.

Bernie, the owner of the lot where I worked on the car, hauled out a vacuum pump with a clear plastic tube.   It sucked.   It pulled a good vacuum, but failed to retrieve the part, if indeed it was in there.

We considered using a magnet until we realized that it is made of aluminum.

I considered pulling the head.   But I had no replacement head gasket, and the cost of having a custom one made would put me way over the $500 limit.   Months later I would acquire a small stash of parts which included both a used and a new head gasket, but that was in the future.

But there was another solution!   I owned a borescope.   But for whatever reason, it didn't seem to work well outdoors in bright sunlight.   The image was simply too dark to make out anything.   The next weekend, I rigged up a "grain of wheat" light bulb, waited until dark, and tried again.   With the bulb taped to the borescope, it lit up the inside of the cylinder enough to see.   Using both the "straight ahead" viewing, and a 90-degree mirror head, I (very) slowly examined the entire top of the piston.    Nothing.   Where was that blasted part?

To this day, I have not found it and have no idea where it is.   Could it still be in the cylinder and I simply missed it?   Did it fall someplace where it will rest until the car goes to the crusher?   I guess I will just have to take my chances and pray that it isn't inside.

Next: Another detour on the way to starting

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Evil Genius wrote:

Holy crap, Lead-Indium Vandervell bearings....  Sweet.   Heavy metal toxicity and crap can racing, does life get any better?   

   Seriously, those are the real deal... There are guys who pay the big$ for those old Vandervells for TRs, Jags, etc.    Don't use the white lithium based assembly lube on those.. use a mix of heavy oil and plain grease.

Tell me more about what make them so desirable?   I am ignorant.   They cost me only $49.99.

I used black moly assembly lube, was that the right stuff?

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

CowDriver wrote:

Before you could say "PayPal", they were mine.

"Pay Pal"!  Oh, wait...

-Victor

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

CowDriver wrote:

For months I had put up with hits for Super Snipe toy cars, advertising literature, seat covers, and the occasional manual or part.   Since the Super Snipe series had been in production for decades, finding something for a 1959 Series II was like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Sounds more like a snipe hunt to me.

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

We were kind of jacking the caliper thread talking about bolts.  What sort of carb is on the big ol' six in the Snipe?  If you want I think I have a 1966 Chevy 283 spec Rochester 2GC 2bbl that I had on a Malibu I used to own.  Parts are so easy to come by you'd think they grew on trees.  On the 283 (4.6 liter) it was rated at 190hp.  I imagine it would work okay on a 3 liter 6 cylinder pretty well.  If the stock carb is a 1bbl I would suggest finding yourself something else common and American, like a Holley 1904, which came stock on lots of stuff, and if basically 1/4 of a Holley 4bbl.

Constructor/Owner/Driver - Billy Beer Ford Futura

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

old school lead-indium steel-backed vandervells - the best bearing ever made. virtually zero crank wear at dry-start, takes heat much better than the aluminum ones - and has little difficulty with the acid build-up that happens with engine oil in moist areas. Also softer-but longer lasting than the later who-knows-what-and-lead?? compound and way better than the aluminum ones.
...modern engines designed around alu bearings are fantastic - but antiques were designed to run these - and running the alu type because that's what is avail in an antique simply doesn't work in the long term.
dunno the exact physics, but it all tru.

36 (edited by CowDriver 2011-09-18 10:17 AM)

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 7: Another detour on the way to starting

With the engine back together, I was almost ready to lower it off the jack stands for the first time in months.   As you saw in the photos in Episode 3, the brake rotors were pretty badly rusted.   It appeared that they had almost no wear, but 20+ years of sitting in a field had done a job on them.   Also, I figured that now would be a good time to check the wheel bearings.

I had been patronizing a small, non-chain auto parts store only a few blocks from where I work on the car.   This is part of my philosophy of supporting locally-owned businesses -- keeping my money in the community.   When I asked if they could turn my rotors, I was delighted to find that they only charge $10 each, and offer same-day service!

Before re-installing the rotors, my friend Richard helped me press out the bearings -- amazingly, they came right out.   Yep, they were in pretty bad shape.   The bearing surfaces looked almost like sandpaper, they were so worn.   Fortunately, and to my amazement, wheel bearings are pretty standard and the parts store had them for me in a few hours.

The cleaned-up hubs & rotors now looked pretty good, and ready to accept the new bearings:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1839a.JPG

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1840a.JPG

I made the mistake of buying a commercial wheel bearing grease packer.   I should have saved myself the money and just used my fingers to work the grease into the bearings.   It would have been faster, easier, and probably more fun -- almost like playing with mud as a child!  smile   Installing the bearings was easy, even without a press -- just gentle and prolonged tapping did the job.

With the hubs & rotors back on the car, I took a good look at the tires the car came with.   Not only did they appear to date from the Nixon administration, but no two of them were the same size.   Furthermore, they were all different brands, including Doral.   Doral?   I thought that was a brand of cigarette!

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1865a.JPG

Needless to say, the first trip this car makes will be to the tire store.

The Super Snipe now stands again on its own four feet, er, tires and is almost ready to test the engine!

Next: I want to choke you

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Do you want the set of cheap no-name 205/75-14 that came on my Fairmont?  I think they are less than 10 year old.  Though by the time you take them off the old rims and put them on the Snipe rims, you might as well buy a set of new tires.

Constructor/Owner/Driver - Billy Beer Ford Futura

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 8: I want to choke you

During the summer months when I was discouraged and just doing "busy work", I took time to do some cleaning.   One thing was the spark plug wires, which appeared to be good quality but were covered in dirt and crud.   I figured that a clean distributer cap and wires would be less likely to cause misfiring problems.   It also let me say that I was doing something productive.   The end result was the best looking part of the engine:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1872a.JPG

The original mechanical fuel pump had apparently failed, and had been replaced with an electric pump.   Like the gas tank, it was filled with crud, but a disassembly and thorough cleaning made it as good as new.   That is, however, after it failed to work and I discovered that I had assembled part of it 180 degrees off.   At least I discovered this on the bench rather than on the car.   This pump is gigantic by today's standards:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1874a.JPG

With the fuel pump back in the car, it was time for a preliminary test.   A temporary gas tank (an old coffee can with a length of plastic tube) and a set of clip leads led to... a massive flow of gasoline out of the carburetor!   Not Good.

Up to this point I had not touched or carefully examined the carburetor.   After all, "carburetor" is a French word meaning "Don't f*** with it!"   But faced with this problem, I threw caution to the winds and dove in.   It was then that I discovered that nothing on the carburetor moved -- not the choke, not the throttle shaft, nothing.   The years had taken their toll.   Since I couldn't make the situation any worse, I removed it from the car and took it home.

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1892a.JPG

The Super Snipe Workshop Manual identified it as a Zenith 42 WIA, and even had complete disassembly instructions.   Perhaps there was hope after all.

Removing the top of the carburetor revealed one of the reasons nothing would move:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1927a.JPG

In the Old Days, the cleaner of choice was Berryman 905.   It would dissolve the skin right off your hands, but did a decent job on baked-on engine crud.   It contains a witch's brew of the most noxious solvents known, but it worked.   Needless to say, you can't buy it in California any more.   You can buy something with a similar name and description, but it isn't the same by a long shot.

But the real stuff still exists in certain parts of the country where, for a (large) price, they will ship a can to you.   And it is a large price: a 5 gallon pail cost well over $100, plus shipping.   And UPS won't touch it -- it had to come by freight, on a pallet.   Fortunately, I had forseen the need and it was already in my garage.

Between the Berryman 905, plain old paint thinner, a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner, and lots of compressed air, I made progress.   It took an evening and an entire Saturday to clean the carburetor out.   Some of the internal parts (see above photo) were totally frozen in place.   With Kroil penetrating oil, a tiny hammer, and lots of tap, tap, tap, tap, everything was eventually freed up.

The manual says, "assembly is the reverse of disassembly."   Yeah, right.   It is unless you have managed to lose a (very) tiny cotter pin, and a tiny circlip (e-clip) flys off into the dark recesses of the garage.   Not to mention the fact that new gaskets are unobtanium.   The old ones will have to do until I know that it is worth the time to make my own new ones.   But eventually it all went back together, everything moved properly, and it actually looks good:

http://www.nelsonusa.com/alan/snipe/IMG_1954a.JPG

But will it work?   That is the big question.   Find out in our next episode!

Next: The Moment Of Truth

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Parkwod60 wrote:

Do you want the set of cheap no-name 205/75-14 that came on my Fairmont?  I think they are less than 10 year old.  Though by the time you take them off the old rims and put them on the Snipe rims, you might as well buy a set of new tires.

Thanks for the offer, but the Super Snipe has 15" rims.   Not that they are anything to write home about, but until I've driven it a while I don't see any point in changing.   At least they use the very common 5 x 5" bolt pattern.

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

True Tales of the Super Snipe -- Episode 9: The Moment Of Truth

The morning of Sunday, August 28th dawned hot.   Los Angeles was in a heat wave and it was forecast to be well over 100 degrees, and there was no shade where I was working on the Super Snipe.   But I had spent the previous day cleaning and re-assembling the carburetor and was anxious to see if I had screwed it up.

It was already pushing 90 degrees at 7:30 AM when I arrived at the car.   It took only a few minutes to bolt the carburetor in place.   I didn't bother with connecting the choke or throttle linkage, as that would just add complications.   I had previously removed the radiator in order to get access to the rest of the engine, so any test would have to be very short.   Not trusting the ancient Lucas wiring, I connected only the starter and its relay to the battery.   The fuel pump and ignition would be "hot wired" with a couple of clip leads.

Richard arrived with his video camera as I was making the final preparations.   He confessed that he had spent the previous evening trying to figure out how to rig something to make horrible noises when I tried to start the engine.   It involved a small pneumatic hammer in a bucket with a remote trigger.   The problem was how to hide it in the car so I wouldn't see it, so he had to give it up.   It's the thought that counts, however.

With the camera running, I connected the clip leads.   That fuel pump makes a hell of a racket!   The Lucas starter relays allow you to manually activate them simply by pushing a button on the bottom, making tests like this simple.   It cranked a few seconds.   I adjusted the throttle, manually choked it with my hand, and cranked again.   It caught!   It ran!   On the first attempt in over 20 years, the Super Snipe roared to life!

Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8eRXjuAUYw

Richard later said that my cries of "It runs!  It runs!" reminded him of Doctor Frankenstein exclaiming "It Lives!  It Lives!", as the monster came to life.

I would have loved to run it longer, but mindful of the total lack of cooling, I shut it down after only about twenty seconds, just as the oil and solvents started to burn off the exhaust manifold.   That big Hawker-Armstrong hemi sounded sweet, better than I had dared hope for.   Given that it was running with no muffler, I was surprised that it wasn't louder.   The only surprise was that no mice, spiders, etc. came shooting out the exhaust pipe!   smile

Considering all of the things that could have gone wrong, I was amazed at my good fortune.   Other than cleaning and lubricating it, I had done nothing with the distributer.   The coil was a complete unknown.   The carburetor had been in a zillion pieces just the day before.

As excited as I was, it was simply too hot to do any more work that day.   But now I knew that the Super Snipe was a big step closer to actually moving under its own power.   But could it stop?

Next: Give Me A Brake

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

I am absolutely in love. That sound...

Driver, Pit Monkey, Rod Buster and Engine Fire Starter
Team FinalGear

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

EyeMWing wrote:

I am absolutely in love. That sound...

I know!   You can see on the video how excited I was.   I keep playing it over and over, just to hear the sound.

I've been dealing with brake and other issues the last few weeks, so I haven't had a chance to run it again.   When I do, I'll make a better (and longer) recording.   I can't wait to hear it at WOT!   A problem is that the police regularly cruise by and sometimes park to keep an eye on a nearby schoolyard.   Also, I need to be a good tenant and neighbor.

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

CowDriver wrote:
EyeMWing wrote:

I am absolutely in love. That sound...

I know!   You can see on the video how excited I was.   I keep playing it over and over, just to hear the sound.

I've been dealing with brake and other issues the last few weeks, so I haven't had a chance to run it again.   When I do, I'll make a better (and longer) recording.   I can't wait to hear it at WOT!   A problem is that the police regularly cruise by and sometimes park to keep an eye on a nearby schoolyard.   Also, I need to be a good tenant and neighbor.

I think the fuel pump needs a new set of main bearings.......damn that thing is loud!

"Racing is an addiction that makes heroin seem like a vague longing for something salty." -- Peter Egan

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

dagoodwin wrote:

I think the fuel pump needs a new set of main bearings.......damn that thing is loud!

I wish I could just replace it with a new one, but my non-exempt build cost is already $480, plus a few bucks worth of gasket material, nuts & bolts, wire, etc.   Oops, I forgot about oil and transmission fluid -- that will probably put me over the limit.

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

I might be going out on a limb here, but I suspect that you are not going to be held to that limit very closely by the judges. You could run a Humber on pure gold as a lubricant and you still wouldn't get laps.

Pat Mulry, TARP Racing #67

Mandatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone & not those of 24HOL, its mgmt, sponsors, etc.

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

CowDriver wrote:
dagoodwin wrote:

I think the fuel pump needs a new set of main bearings.......damn that thing is loud!

I wish I could just replace it with a new one, but my non-exempt build cost is already $480, plus a few bucks worth of gasket material, nuts & bolts, wire, etc.   Oops, I forgot about oil and transmission fluid -- that will probably put me over the limit.

I hereby decree that all Rootes Group products will get cut a lot of BS inspection slack for stuff like this. Get a fuel pump. If you want to go cheap, go to Pick-N-Pull and find an old Chevy LUV or Ford Courier pickup- they have easy-access inline low-pressure electric pumps attached to the frame rails.

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Judge Phil wrote:
CowDriver wrote:
dagoodwin wrote:

I think the fuel pump needs a new set of main bearings.......damn that thing is loud!

I wish I could just replace it with a new one, but my non-exempt build cost is already $480, plus a few bucks worth of gasket material, nuts & bolts, wire, etc.   Oops, I forgot about oil and transmission fluid -- that will probably put me over the limit.

I hereby decree that all Rootes Group products will get cut a lot of BS inspection slack for stuff like this. Get a fuel pump. If you want to go cheap, go to Pick-N-Pull and find an old Chevy LUV or Ford Courier pickup- they have easy-access inline low-pressure electric pumps attached to the frame rails.

Thank you, sir.   I will not abuse the slack.

I'm actually thinking of "borrowing" the mechanical fuel pump from my TR4, if it will fit and still works.   That will keep the Super Snipe more original.

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"
IOE winner in the Super Snipe -- Buttonwillow 2012
IOE winner in Super Snipe v2.0 -- Buttonwillow 2016
"Every Super Snipe in Lemons has won an IOE!"

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

Judge Phil wrote:

...If you want to go cheap, go to Pick-N-Pull and find an old Chevy LUV or Ford Courier pickup- they have easy-access inline low-pressure electric pumps attached to the frame rails...

That is to say they HAD. I know what I'm going to look for next time I go to the junk yard.  That's the kind of thing I like to have just in case.

Constructor/Owner/Driver - Billy Beer Ford Futura

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

First- and second-gen Civics also have very nice carb-friendly electric fuel pumps, with a well-engineered vibration-damping mount that should make them last longer. Located behind a panel below the rear seat. They flow pretty well, too- I ran an Olds 350 with one for over a week.

Re: True tales of the Super Snipe

1st gen Accords, too. Right up in the left rear fenderwell, similar rubber mount.

Volvo PV544 (RIP) - now with Chevy 3.9 power!
2007/2012/2013 Driver's Championship (what was I thinking!?) 142 races and counting.
2/25/24