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thinger2

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I was just thinking earlier that when these guys who know this stuff are gone, guys like me will have a steep learning curve...
When guys who knew this stuff are gone, you will be the guy who knows the ways.
Its a bit hard to describe, and I wish I had enough words to send too you how it felt back in that time and place.
The feeling and the brotherhood and being accepted by the shop as a master of your craft.
That is what you are missing and it is very much at the core of killing unions and offshoreing production and fabrication.
All of the empty shops in the US are the end result of the war on labor dating back to the 1980s
Every politician talks about rebuilding manufacturing in the US
How.
Maybe a bunch of us of us old farts are going to come out of retirement and mill some ****?
 

1owner1990

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It's an endless cycle, as long as those of us who know "less" keep wrenching and learning from those who know "more". Think about it, the first wrench was probably turned on a GMT400 in 1988. A guy who was 60 years old then would be 95 today. And yet today, somewhere, an 18 year old also turned his first wrench on a GMT400. It'll be 77 years (Year 2100) before he's 95. I'm right in the middle, but I don't think too much about it. Just trying to keep the Suburban roadworthy.
Turned my first wrench on an obs in March 1990. I'm 55 now. Still turning the wrench on the same obs. It's a love affair.
 

thinger2

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I turned a wrench on my 1st SBC somewhere around 1972 - didn't get around to an OBS until 2002 when I bought this truck. :biggrin:
Man do I have a question for you.
I rebuilt my first sbc in about 1980 or so.
Followed all of the rules
It kept randomly overheating.
This is a 1972 350 from a truck.
When I finally tore it all back apart, The water jackets were full off various lengths of short pieces of about 1/8 inch rusted and melted steel rod.
In the heads too.
About 3/8ths or so for the big ones.
My Dad thought it had something to do with the "casting hangers" melting during the casting process.
My ex father in law who worked for GM for years claims it was sabotage.
Ive never seen it again
Have you ever seen or heard of something like that?
It was bizzarre
 

Caman96

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Man do I have a question for you.
I rebuilt my first sbc in about 1980 or so.
Followed all of the rules
It kept randomly overheating.
This is a 1972 350 from a truck.
When I finally tore it all back apart, The water jackets were full off various lengths of short pieces of about 1/8 inch rusted and melted steel rod.
In the heads too.
About 3/8ths or so for the big ones.
My Dad thought it had something to do with the "casting hangers" melting during the casting process.
My ex father in law who worked for GM for years claims it was sabotage.
Ive never seen it again
Have you ever seen or heard of something like that?
It was bizzarre
It was sabotaged! He did it.
You must be registered for see images attach
 

PlayingWithTBI

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When I finally tore it all back apart, The water jackets were full off various lengths of short pieces of about 1/8 inch rusted and melted steel rod.
In the heads too.
About 3/8ths or so for the big ones.
My Dad thought it had something to do with the "casting hangers" melting during the casting process.
My ex father in law who worked for GM for years claims it was sabotage.
Ive never seen it again
Have you ever seen or heard of something like that?
It was bizzarre
I've never seen anything like that before. Since the "rods" were rusted, was it run without any antifreeze? A wild guess - maybe those rods are flakes of rust rolled up in turbulence created by the flow inside the water jacket? IDK
 

thinger2

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I've never seen anything like that before. Since the "rods" were rusted, was it run without any antifreeze? A wild guess - maybe those rods are flakes of rust rolled up in turbulence created by the flow inside the water jacket? IDK
They were solid chunks of wire.
About the diameter of welding rod.
But some were about a 1/4 inch and some were about 1 inch.
The ends of them all looked melted and kind of rounded over.
The coolant was pretty weak looking but still somewhat "greenish"
The only thing ive ever seen that had the same type of apperience was was hot dip galvanizing 1/4 inch pencil rod.
It melts in the same way.
But how on earth does that get into an iron block and head Chevy?
It has to be something in the casting process.
Friggen bizzarre.
My first 350 was a head butt challenge ******* of an engine.
Every damn dime of my lawn mowing paper route weed digging car washing money was eaten up with friggen gaskets.
And, just classic Dad, "Its not a rod knock untill your mother bitches about it"
Its still a rod knock, but it has to blow up before he can spend the money on a new engine.
About 7000 rpm will fix that real quick.
When I was a kid we knew that there was a really fine line between Christmas and ******* hot dogs and top ramen noodles
i ate the noodles.
I am the same.
Im am my Fathers son.

And now all of my friends think Im a loon because I pick up Chevy heads and shake them like Im trying to form a Conga line.
 
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