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Henry,

You have an artistic family, starting from your grandfather. I assume you showed your grandfathers Packard drawings to your son?

Henry, it never hurts to ask Max again about the head you want, I don't know how inventory comes and goes.

yes he has seem them, thanks for reminding me though. My aunt and my Grandfather both had the talent, me not so much, but maybe little Henry does!

I have emailed JD and Fred again. we shall see.

I guess we will see how this turns out. seems to be working so far. I guess i'll find out after a few hundred heat cycles of the head if my welds are good. haven't finished the second one.

yes I preheated before welding.

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well here is what I ended up with.

cleaned up the head and even polished it up some. the head had been decked already before, I could see the swirl marks once I took some fine grit sand paper to the bottom with a flat piece of wood. so I just slapped her on, but not before taking some fancy pics.

I just decided to clearcoat the head, I liked the way it looked in bare metal, and I was out of the green Bill Hirsch paint.

the three nuts I welded to the side lined up just perfect to mount the oil filter and the coil. hopefully that stays put.

I hope to have her running in the next couple of days.

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car is running.

I put the aftermarket temp gauge in the side of the head this time. it fluctuates from 200 to 230 when I sit still at a stop light. pretty hot outside in Texas right now, but I think I need to check my timing again because this head is not a HC and the head gasket was thicker then the last one. and then I need to adjust the carb for the new compression ratio. while i'm moving the needle stays at 190-200. if the above solutions don't help, then i'm not sure why this car runs so hot.

I got super lucky too, I was tightening the 7th brand new spark plug and it let go...I was like oh hell no I did not just strip the threads in the head. luckily I did not and the spark plug was just a rogue POS....it sheered the tip of the spark plug off in the head. I had to remove it with some needle nose pliers, but luckily it came right out. stuck one of the old ones in for now and it worked fine.

that clear on the head sure does look nice. a little more bling. and the welds seem to be holding the oil filter on fine.

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Looks nice. Where I see the most stress likely to be on the nuts is because the heavy canister is seated against the nuts and not the larger surface of the head. It would appear all the weight and vibration is going to be concentrated and exerting force on a fairly narrow area. Could you surround the nut with a spacer the thickness needed to take up the space between the bracket and head. That way the vibration would be minimized and give it a larger surface to steady from. If that is not feasible then maybe some sort of brace at the bottom of the canister to the block to steady it a bit.

believe it or not the metal lines hold the oil filter pretty solid on there own, so they kinda act like a support. so even if the welds break and i'm not at home, the oil filter will just hang out, but wont stop operations.

as for the spacer.... the welds are conical, but I may beable to find a large enough spacer to fit around the welds. problem is I don't want to put stress on the nuts when I tighten. I did that with the coil as the nut bottomed out on the head and popped the weld off when I tightened it. so I had to bend the coil bracket and mount it from one of the studs. I liked that better anyways.

if the welds don't hold on the oil canister, i'll just make a bracket to mount it to the studs at the front.

I also have some weird ass whining noise, may just need to grease the water pump.

and then today....the door latch on the driver's door decided to break a spring and so the door wont latch. I had to slam it shut and use the inside door handle to lock it to push the slider out to catch the latch. never ending.....

all I want to do is drive it and enjoy it dammit! LOL! I know...its old.

Looking at the last picture above and knowing the stress welding puts on cast metal, could a steel bracket have been made to hold the oil filter using the two head studs right above it rather than welding nuts to the head?

probably, but I had already drilled holes into the head thinking I could tap in just like it was on my old head and found out that you could not do that as there was not enough meat. something is different with the heads over the months or years, some have predrilled holes that are tapped and others don't. this one didn't and I thought I could convert it. so I had to weld the holes back up anyways.

if they break off, its not the end of the world, and I will then make a bracket at that point.

welding cast iron isn't as scary as people make it out to be. just have to do it properly and slowly and even then its not always gonna last. I welded the thermostatic tube into the exhaust manifold on this car and so far so good after several heat cycles.

my dad had an exhaust manifold on his 70 dart welded and it lasted for 30 years till it broke again. luckily with the invention of the internet it was much easier for me to find a new one then it was for my dad, thus resulting in his having it welded.

in the long run, yes, I should have just made brackets. but, not all minds operate the same and I have ocd pretty bad. I was hell bent on the oil filter mounting like it was before and it was hard for me to get over that. at some point the welds will fail. maybe tomorrow...maybe 10 years. who knows. when it happens i'll make a bracket. you're thought is the better process though.

p.s. everyone here knows I do some really questionable things and sometimes even some batshit crazy ones.

starting to question my use of the Evans now. now that the temp bulb is in the coolant instead of on top inside the extender, it is reading 200 when driving at speed and jump up to 230 when sitting still. when revving the motor it drops down again.

this link really shines some light on what i'm experiencing. i'm just worried that if I convert to 50/50 or even straight water...the cooling system is not pressurized and i'd just be going from hotter temps and no boiling...to lower temps and boiling over.

http://www.norosion.com/evanstest.htm

thoughts?