User Tag List
Results 631 to 645 of 726
Thread: Merc V6 History
-
04-01-2020, 07:56 AM #6315000 RPM
- Join Date
- May 2003
- Location
- Fond du Lac WI
- Posts
- 812
- Thanks (Given)
- 18
- Thanks (Received)
- 84
- Likes (Given)
- 72
- Likes (Received)
- 405
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
I knew some of the draftsmen and folks in the die design area at Plant 17, John Dow comes to mind. I marveled at the way they put on paper the means to cast what you guys at Plant 6 came up with, and then the die makers at Capitol Engineering came up with the die itself; the slides, the loose pieces, etc. It was all a great jigsaw puzzle weighing thousands of pounds! I remember the MCM 470 block die, when they hung that in a machine I heard the overhead crane actually flexed 3-4 inches!
-
rckid74, Lake X Kid liked this post
-
04-01-2020, 12:59 PM #6325000 RPM
- Join Date
- May 2013
- Location
- Pickett, WI
- Posts
- 210
- Thanks (Given)
- 19
- Thanks (Received)
- 86
- Likes (Given)
- 362
- Likes (Received)
- 210
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
A little story about John Dow (second in charge at die cast plant #17 - Pete Abel was plt manager). ----- It involves the first new die for the "Black Max" V6 block. Now this is one huge die. It has a number of slides pulling out in all directions, is some 15 ft long, 10ft high 8ft wide, weighs probably 20 tons and cost hundreds of thousands. Anyhow, I (up in Oshkosh) get a call from John (down in Fond Du Lac - 25 mi) and he says "Jerry I think you better come down right away. We just got the block die parts in and the liners won't load onto the pins, the blisters interfere with each other". WHAT!! I'm sure my heartbeat jumped from it's normal 75 to 150! I was certain I had checked that out as had Al Tyner (the block designer-detailer). If those liners wouldn't load, the whole die would probably have to be scrapped. I hopped in my '58 Vette and peeled out for FDL - heart in my throat all the way. When I got there John took me into the room where the die parts were, took a liner, slid it onto one pin and then attempted to slide a second liner on the adjacent pin but it hung up part way down. Sure-nuf the blisters interfered. We tried different liners on different pins but no luck. I thought, oh man, I better start looking for a new job. Then, all of a sudden one of the combinations worked. We had two liners on side by side. I said wait a minute John, what did you do there. We tried it again and they interfered. Turns out it depended on which one went on first. If you did it in the right order (top to bottom) they went on OK. Bottom to top - no go. Phew!! I still had a job!!
Last edited by rckid74; 04-07-2020 at 03:52 PM.
Never up --- never down!!
-
Kitch thanked for this post
-
04-01-2020, 05:44 PM #6335000 RPM
- Join Date
- May 2003
- Location
- Fond du Lac WI
- Posts
- 812
- Thanks (Given)
- 18
- Thanks (Received)
- 84
- Likes (Given)
- 72
- Likes (Received)
- 405
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
Little (and not so little) things like that could ruin your day! I reported to Bill Page at Plant 4, and Plant 4 was connected to Plant 17 via the tunnel under the railroad tracks - so when things went wrong, I (Chief Inspector) just had to grab a part and head for the die cast guys - Roger Scheuneman being my equal in die cast. If something went really wrong, we would convene a meeting usually in our conference room, and in would come Roger, John Dow, their die cast floor manager, and Pete Abel, and others. There was no love lost between Pete and Bill Page, I don't know why, they were equals but not friends in any sense of the word. Anyway once the problem was addressed by us peons, then Bill and Pete would go at it while the rest of us stared at each other across the table and said nothing. Pete would accuse Bill of not know how to machine something or have it located on the wrong side of the die, and Bill would shoot back about the die design stunk and the castings were terrible, etc. Then Pete would get up and leave with his staff, and usually by phone we peons would work out an agreement to get parts to feed to assembly. Die cast had an advantage - they could melt their mistakes!
Another quick one - once when we were having problems with manifolds being cast by Plant 8, Bill said to Jim Parker, Plant 8 manager, that he couldn't cast a round cannonball! Jim took that to heart and castings started coming with a small stack of cannonballs cast on one surface - they later trademarked it!
-
04-01-2020, 07:16 PM #634The Historic Photo Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2004
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 37,827
- Thanks (Given)
- 64
- Thanks (Received)
- 1667
- Likes (Given)
- 337
- Likes (Received)
- 19201
- Mentioned
- 3 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-01-2020, 07:17 PM #635The Historic Photo Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2004
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 37,827
- Thanks (Given)
- 64
- Thanks (Received)
- 1667
- Likes (Given)
- 337
- Likes (Received)
- 19201
- Mentioned
- 3 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-01-2020, 07:18 PM #636The Historic Photo Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2004
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 37,827
- Thanks (Given)
- 64
- Thanks (Received)
- 1667
- Likes (Given)
- 337
- Likes (Received)
- 19201
- Mentioned
- 3 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-01-2020, 07:18 PM #637The Historic Photo Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2004
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 37,827
- Thanks (Given)
- 64
- Thanks (Received)
- 1667
- Likes (Given)
- 337
- Likes (Received)
- 19201
- Mentioned
- 3 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-04-2020, 08:23 AM #638
Make it so!
-
04-04-2020, 09:40 AM #6395000 RPM
- Join Date
- May 2013
- Location
- Pickett, WI
- Posts
- 210
- Thanks (Given)
- 19
- Thanks (Received)
- 86
- Likes (Given)
- 362
- Likes (Received)
- 210
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
Capt.Insane-o liked this post
-
04-21-2020, 07:48 PM #640Screaming And Flying!
- Join Date
- Dec 2001
- Posts
- 9,503
- Thanks (Given)
- 23
- Thanks (Received)
- 270
- Likes (Given)
- 191
- Likes (Received)
- 1975
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
Tis' Why they went to lost foam casting?...….
-
04-21-2020, 09:12 PM #6415000 RPM
- Join Date
- May 2013
- Location
- Pickett, WI
- Posts
- 210
- Thanks (Given)
- 19
- Thanks (Received)
- 86
- Likes (Given)
- 362
- Likes (Received)
- 210
- Mentioned
- 0 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-22-2020, 05:53 AM #642Screaming And Flying!
- Join Date
- Jun 2007
- Location
- Singapore/Melbourne/Italy
- Posts
- 9,097
- Thanks (Given)
- 1008
- Thanks (Received)
- 354
- Likes (Given)
- 4297
- Likes (Received)
- 1953
- Mentioned
- 7 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-22-2020, 11:53 AM #643The Historic Photo Master
- Join Date
- Jan 2004
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 37,827
- Thanks (Given)
- 64
- Thanks (Received)
- 1667
- Likes (Given)
- 337
- Likes (Received)
- 19201
- Mentioned
- 3 Post(s)
- Tagged
- 0 Thread(s)
-
04-22-2020, 08:12 PM #644
The early chrome bore motors with a late model carb change run great. Then there were the Vega blocks.
-
05-06-2020, 04:52 PM #645
SO Epic !! Thanks for the amazing history lesson.
2006 Action Marine Comp
1980 Ventrua 2
-
rckid74 thanked for this post