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And boy he takes good pictures.

Or can you?

During a rebuild, my son’s D17A1 stock cam slipped through my fingers and fell on the floor and instantly broke. There was language:

On the lathe, I threaded the broken end of the “front” half of the cam, drilled through the back two pieces, and counterbored the back of the back of the cam to fit a 9/16″ socket. I also threaded some 3/8″ rod:

Red locktite and some tight like a tiger, and it’s fixed:

No, this will NEVER be pressed back into service, it’s going back in a “dead” engine at work (our original engine when we got the car) that the cherubs work on (I stole its cam for my son’s car).

I guess, in theory, you could weld it once it’s assembled like this….

You run out of coolant? You toast the headgasket and smoke the rings. That’s a LOT more expensive than just checking the coolant level. AND, it turns out, the bearings are also shot.  Because why not.

Took about 12 hours not including breaks and parts runs.  Engine shows S.I.G.N.I.F.I.C.A.N.T. evidence of neglect from previous owners.  Might as well add “CHANGE YOUR OIL FREQUENTLY” in that too.

I did have a gravity yeet:

But I’m very glad I still had the original engine from this car in a bin at work so I could yoink the cam.

Pendozi Machine milled the head, and we got it all back together and running that evening.

At any rate, the engine is back together and runs MUCH better than it did before!  Yay!

My son and I road tripped up north for him to buy this Catalina.  This is a US car; Canada never got the Catalina.

California car, zero rust, never seen winter, always parked inside, indoor and outdoor car covers, 56 years of Waxoyl.  We’ll be heading up again when winter is over to bring it back.

 

Testing it out to see how it performs.

“Dimarra” (from the now defunct Locost Yahoo Group) used to save all my old tag lines. He shared them recently on the Grassroots Motorsports forum. I am deeply DEEPLY honoured. These go back to about 2004-2008, and include the build, inspection, driving, and modifications to the Lethal Locost. This is also around the time of the birth of my kids.

Greg “squeezing a nickel till the beaver farts” Wellwood
Greg “If you can’t do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly” Wellwood
Greg “my cranium has its own gravitational pull” Wellwood
Greg “naked to the invisible eye” Wellwood

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Just trying to work fast. Three times as fast.