The Pac West Chapter having just returned from our annual trip to our Treffen, combined this year with Rennsport, I finally have time (and computer access) to share a part of our story, and perhaps a field repair that may help others in the future.
We planned on a six day, 1,500 mile route that took us from the Seattle area through Central Oregon, Nevada, and finally California. On day two Bryan's Smurf blue '69 2.7 RS powered hot rod sprang a pretty serious oil leak. Tons of white smoke billowing from the right rear wheel well, as if an oil line had rubbed through or something.
Well, it turned out to be nothing so easily detected. And, well, fortunately, it was not an oil line, which would have been tough to source or repair. The culprit proved to be the plug in the camshaft bore on the front of the right cam tower. It had backed out and was leaking profusely. Fortunately, it was thick enough to where the engine mounted oil cooler kept it from falling out. But it was leaking like hell...
We thought we would have to pull the oil cooler to get to it, not an easy hotel parking lot undertaking. Then I had a thought - why couldn't I drive a long screw driver between it and the oil cooler and drive it back in? Thoughts of damaging the oil cooler and making it worse kinda precluded doing that. Hmmm...
Karl to the rescue - for reasons unknown (and I didn't want to ask...), Karl had a Slim Jim, or flat bar in his car... you know, the kind that tow truck drivers (and others) used to carry to break into cars... It's about an inch and a half wide, maybe a quarter inch thick, but most importantly, it has a very gradual taper to a very sharp pointy end. The perfect tool for the job.
So, I grabbed a little ball peen and went to work, not really expecting much. I managed to get it started between the oil cooler and the rim of the plug. Tapping ever so gently, the plug actually started to move. By the time I had the full thickness of the Slim Jim between the plug and the oil cooler, the plug was fully seated again.
But, alas, what is to keep the same oil pressure that pushed it out to begin with from doing it again? Why, a spacer, or a shim of some kind, of course. But what to use? What would actually stay in place?
The rest of the crew were all standing or sitting around, offering their ever helpful advice. And they were drinking beer... While they all thought they had beer cans in their hands, I saw shims. Yes, we cut up beer cans, folded them over and pounded them flat, until we had sufficient thickness to wedge into the gap. Bryan crawled in there this time, test fitting as our shim grew in thickness until it could barely be driven into the gap.
Here is our crack team relaxing after having affected the repair. Some of us had switched to bottles, the emergency nature of the situation having been abated. John, however, is dutifully producing a cache of shim material, in case more is needed to get Bryan home.
The repair was a success. Bryan was able to continue our drive to Treffen/Rennsport, stopping for our own little track day at Buttonwillow on the way. It held fast for four lapping sessions, then all the way out to Monterey, and got him home on our 1,000 mile drive back to Seattle.
Maybe this will help someone else someday. Even if it doesn't, I thought it was a story worth sharing. R Gruppe teamwork on a beer can field repair. It's how we roll...
