NICC Welcomes New Members

Renewals for 2008 are due.  We have two options for paying this year.  You can send in your check in to me at the above address or you can pay using the PayPal option that is now on the club’s website,   Just go to the bottom of this page and pay.  Easy to do, just pay and be done.  Every year there are at least 10 members who renew very late because it just slipped by.  Now, there are no excuses.

 Any member #638 and above does not need to renew as they are new and these current members have previously renewed for multiple years:  Cole, Patrick (’09); Koss, Fred (’11); Mielke, Eddie; Neuman, Terry; Place, Gary (’10); Rylander, Larry (’09); Storms, Dale; Taylor, Ron (’12); Varney, Dave; Wilkin, Tom.

MAY  17th  CRUISE  AT

JIM & MARY  HOLBACH'S

On Saturday, May 17th, at 5pm, the NICC will be going "back to our roots", that is, where it all began.  In February, 1984 a select group met at Jim & Mary Holbach's for the inaugural meeting of the NICC.  Since then, I believe we've spent each May since then starting the cruising season at their house, and it is the same this year.

Be there at 5pm.  We have club business to take care of;  announcements, discussion of the summer’s activities and then the election of officer’s that was postponed from the April meeting.  The officer elections were postponed until the May meeting, so it is important that you attend the May meeting.  The offices of President, VP, Treasurer and Board are up.  If you want to keep the same officers, that is fine.  If you want to run for something, that is fine.  Just come and let us know.  From there we'll cruise our cars to some fun in the NW Suburbs!!!

ADDRESS:  144 N. Greenwood Ave., Palatine, IL.

The first drag outing of the year will be at 'Da Grove on Saturday, April l9th.  This will be a joint outing with the Chicago Gearheads.  Plan on getting there about 2pm at the latest.  There is "program" racing prior to that.  The NICC and Gearheads hang-out together in the pits.

For any questions, call Ralph Weidenbach at 630-918-5552.

See  you 'Da Grove !!

OPOKA FAMILY INVITE THE NICC

 TO A MAY 31^st CRUISE-IN

By:  Jim & Maryann Opaka, #620

Since 3 kids on our block are graduating, we decided to have a block party.  Our entire block long street will be closed down from Noon to 10:00 p.m. that day.  I will be cooking up a storm, We will have music from a DJ, a jumping jack tent for the kids, a fire pit, etc., etc. 

april 19th meeting recap

There were approximately 18 members in attendance for the April meeting.  We had a couple of members who drove their Chevelles to the club for the first time.  That was nice.  John Sonnefeldt spoke about the Hot Rod Power Tour this June and his arranging an overnight cruise to Rockford on Saturday, August 2 and then up to Freeport for a large car show.  We did this several years ago and saw some great sites, including Hooperstats shop where a 50’s Auto Show Dream Car was being restored.  Go the Activities section of this website and the year 2005.  There is a recap of our last trip there with pics.

The car under the cover is Tom's '72.  Tom is having the engine redo after some trouble, attributable to what he chalks up to "25 years of pounding the snot out of it".  Big block Chevy's can take alot of abuse, and Tom's right foot is right up there with the best.  Long live Big Blocks!!!

By:  Jim Opaka #620

A few weeks ago, my 97 Ford F-150 Truck with 80K miles and a 4.6L developed a miss in the engine. There was also a consistent pop through the exhaust that pointed to a valve either stuck or not opening. A free Auto Zone engine scan revealed a miss-fire in cylinder #1.  Starting with the obvious first, I changed all the plugs, wires, and coil packs (since it was time) but it still didn’t correct the problem.  I took it to a friend of a friend who is a mechanic at a major Ford dealer.  He ran a scan and compression test.  He determined that the #1 cylinder was not firing and the #2 had low compression.  The opinion of the mechanics there was that there was probably some lower end internal damage.  Bottom line is that I would need an engine rebuild, salvaged, or remanufactured replacement.  Price - about 2 to 4 grand depending on which route I go.  Not good news.  Wanting a second opinion, I took it to another Ford dealer across town.  They gave me the exact prognosis and options.  More bad news.

I did a lot of research about the engine on-line and looked at bone yard, remanufactured, and crate engines options.  Having attended our last NICC meeting, which was held at Built-Rite Engine Rebuilders in Lombard, and being impressed with their operation and people, I decided to call them and discuss options for them doing the job.  I talked for a long time with front office guy Jim and owner Bill about what was going on with the truck and what the Ford dealers had found. There was no question they could handle the rebuild but they both felt that it sounded like a top end problem and not a lower end problem.  Bill said he has seen a lot of these engines out of cabs and police vehicles with se veral hundred thousand miles and there are rarely lower end issues.  He suspected a damaged valve or broken valve spring issue.  Then he suggested something that surprised me.  He said they normally don’t work on engines in vehicles, but since I was with NICC, he said I should bring the truck over to the shop and he would check it out for me to see what was going on.  Better news!

Bill was in the middle of finishing a Cutlass build so he took the truck to his house.  Over the next few days he began diagnosing the problem.  He prefers cylinder leakage tests over compression tests as a more accurate gage of engine condition.  Yes, there were issues with Cylinders #1 and #2.  He pulled the valve covers off expecting to find a broken spring.  What he found was that the rocker arm had fallen off the #1 intake.  The valve was obviously not working properly in that state.  No broken springs and resistance tests on the other springs showed no problems.  No valve problems and no damage.  He re-installed the rocker arm, put on new valve cover gaskets, re-set the computer, re-ran the cylinder leakage test – which now came back normal on both cylinders – job done -problem solved.  Amazing!  I went from 3-4 thousand dollars minimum to paying for a few hours labor and a new set of valve cover gaskets.  Excellent news!

Honesty, integrity, skill, experience, professionalism, easy to work with, and nice people to do business with.  Everything we expect and demand as consumers, especially when it comes to our classic cars.  Bill, Scott, and Jim at Built-Rite Engine Rebuilders demonstrated all of these qualities – and more.  They are “car guys” who will take care of car guys.   They will have all of my engine work in the future and I highly recommend them to any NICC member or anyone needing engine work or building an engine.