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Ed Werick's Roadster
I have collected a few things I have received from Ed Werick by E-Mail. Ed has performed a 4.3 L V6 conversion to his chevette, and, using the leftover driveline components from the chevette is constructing a roadster! Heres some pictures of it:
Front View. The front metal surrounding the grille was made using an old wheelbarrow!
Left Rear View
Right Side View
Heres a Picture of the 4 carburetors installed on the motor using a custom made intake manifold. Below, is what Ed wrote in his e-mail to me.
Hi Darryl: I thought that would get your attention :-D The carbs are 30mm Mikuni CVs from a 4 cyl Kawasaki. I did make the manifold myself from 3/8" steel plate and exhaust tubing. I mounted the carbs with silicone rubber sink trap conectors (from Home Depot) The performance is awesome! It just pulls and pulls and pulls. I had to jet the carbs up quite a bit. The engine ran the first time I tried them but it had a HUGE flat spot. The other problem I encountered is that these carbs will not tolerate ANY fuel pump pressure. I tried a fuel pressure regulator and even with it adjusted all the way down, it would shoot gas out the bowl vents. I finally made a "float tank" from an old Holley float bowl and a piece of aluminum plate and mounted it higher than the carbs so it would gravity feed. The cool part is this setup is less than 1" wider than the stock manifold!
If you have any guys that race 3/4midgets in your area they are a good source of carbs. They use 4 cyl bike engines in those things and one of the first things they do is take off the stock carbs and put on slide valve carbs. Next best is a bike scrap yard. As far as the thermostat housing goes, it was a little tricky. I fabricated it out of 1/8" and 1/4" plate. I had to chuck the top plate up in my lathe and machine the bore and seat for the thermostat. I used an old gasket for a patern for the water and intake ports. The water port is fairly close to #1 intake so I made it a little smaller to allow more sealing area. I also welded the thermostat housing to the manifold plate BEFORE I drilled out the passage to cut down on the chance of warpage. Once I had the intake runners and thermostat housing welded on and the ports ground out to match the gasket and the bolt holes drilled, I polished the gasket side of the manifold on a 6" belt sander. Here's a couple of pics of just the manifold. They might make things a little clearer.
Ed
Just the intake- Note the construction of a coolant outlet / thermostat housing which is separate from the #1 cylinder intake runner.
Another view of only the intake
A motorcycle header modified for use on the 1.6. Ed reports that the throttle response and performance have improved a lot.
A Template for the windshield.
Thanks to Ed Werick for the information presented on this page.
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