Build Journal
- 5/1/06, I jetted the carburetor down from .54 (what I found when I opened it, which is stock jetting for several models), to .51. Specifications on the Holley say reduce jets 1 size per 2000 feet above Sea Level (SLC is 4,330ft above sea level). The result was slightly better fuel economy. Didn't actually measure the result other than that the exhaust had less unburned fuel by smell and the engine responded better. Still had a little hesitation and since I rebuilt the carb I knew it was in good shape. I replaced the air cleaner and the hesitation went away. I decided that I could also replace the fuel filter since both of those parts may be 8 years old or more.
Another result of Jetting seems to be that the engine runs hotter. I don't think it's an issue because it used to run at a cool 160 degrees and now seems fine around 180 degrees. Since normal operating temperature seems to be between 180 and 220 it should be fine. But I'll watch it because jetting can cause heat issues if you get too lean.
I'm worried that the plugs might burn though. I noticed that my plugs seem whiter than before. I know that over lean setups can cause some bad problems. One sign of over lean is burned plugs.
- 5/3/06, I installed a new fuel filter yesterday. I figured that if a new air filter was that great then a fuel filter wouldn't hurt. Although AutoZone matched up the new filter to the old one in about a minute, it didn't look like a match, so I decided to crosscheck Checker Auto. They took forever and were not able to match it at all. The fuel filter that AutoZone gave me worked although the inlets were a little smaller than what was installed on the car.
I now have no hesitation and the engine is nimble when I open the throttle. I do have an interesting new thing going on. The last two times I started the engine cold it backfired just as it started. Sounded like a gun. It started immediately and ran as smooth as silk. No other backfires and when I killed the engine and restarted warm, it started right up and idled immediately. The only thing that I can figure at this point that I haven't set to specs is the spark plugs. I note that when I first cleaned and gapped the plugs I set them wide at .35 when they should have been .30. I think maybe coming in to .30 might help. I hope.
September 3, 2007
- I learned that I was wrong on the plugs. I have the HEI distributor, which means I can gap my plugs to .45.
I've taken the valve covers, carburetor, distributor, intake and oil pan off of the engine. The main thing I learned is that the block has 4 bolt mains. I've also learned that the block was probably a crate engine, while the heads, intake and crankshaft were all corvette. Nice stuff for the time.
October 1, 2007
- I've done more research on my Holley 4175 carburetor and they advise reducing the jet size by 1 number for every 2000 feet above sea level and increase jet size by 1 number every 35-degree drop in temperature.
November 3, 2007
- I decided to reassemble my engine today. The biggest issue was figuring out torque specs on the engine. I could have bought a manual, but that wasn't on my shopping list today. I checked several sites and of course found several different measurements. I went with the lowest specs. So, my engine the timing cover set to 8ft. lbs, valve covers to 3ft. lbs and oil pan to 12ft. lbs. I left the intake for last, but the engine is basically reassembled. I measured the distance from the middle of the crankshaft to the bottom of the oil pan and got about 7.25". I figure the transmission will just be along for the ride to some extent since it probably won't have as much material from the center to the bottom as the engine (not as tall as the engine). So, I'll focus on ground clearance for the engine and the transmission should be fine.
November 11, 2007
- Yesterday I finished the reassembly of my engine. The only parts that were left were the headers and the intake manifold. The torque specs that I read for those parts were 25ft. lbs. each. The original exhaust bolts were too big at the head to clear the headers, so back to the parts store for another set of bolts. I initial bought a set of header bolts that only reflected the shorter header length when compared to the iron manifold. Ended up making 3 trips and spending over $25.00 for mostly bolts. The little stuff adds up quick.
Once I had the right bolts for the headers I installed them and torqued them to 20ft. lbs. I just didn't feel comfortable going to 25. If they get loose and fall off then I'll know I was wrong.
I attempted to put the intake on and initially found that some of the bolts were too long to seat. The 4 perimeter bolts at each corner sat too high. I thought I was going to have to make a 4th trip for parts, but I tested the short exhaust bolts and they fit perfectly. I was able to get the intake installed and torqued to 25ft. lbs. Had to use the right angle socket to get the four center bolts installed and torqued down.
I had to take the carburetor, thermostat housing and distributor off for access to all of the intake bolts. So I have to put those back on and at that point the engine will be fully reassembled. The only thing that remains will be to add the front-end kit from Desert Hybrids and the adapter kit from Kennedy engineering. I wish the project was that easy, but I will probably have to redesign the engine and transmission mounts and all the linkage. Since the last transmission was automatic, the clutch controls will all be new fabrication. I've though about that for sometime and figure the throttle, brake and clutch pedals from a VW bug will work for the small foot area.
I wondered about the weight savings of going with new light headers over the stock, cast iron exhaust manifolds so I weighed everything before I installed the headers. The manifolds weighed 28lbs while the headers came in at 11.2lbs. I saved 17lbs there. Several weeks ago I did the same comparison going from the iron intake to aluminum and iron was 38lbs while aluminum came in at 14lbs. I was able to drop a total of 40.8 pounds off the stock engine weight. Add to that the 300+ pounds that the transmission will drop and going with a more ideal weight distribution and this car will be light and fast.
December 28, 2007
I'm reading the email notes of a guy that posts to a Kelmark web forum under the email name . Drew made some comments on plexiglass headlight covers that he's making. I'm just saving his notes for future use.
Gar:
Congratulations on the new woman. Hope she understands your love of
cars. I too have done little but order parts and tools this year. I was hoping
to get a new welder for Christmas, but alas, the hints apparently didn't
take. I will have to get it my self.
I have two days off now, and have started on the much put off headlight
shield project. The right side mold is complete, and I made the first cast
yesterday. My technique is not quite right, and I will try again today. I have a
couple of wrinkles in the shield, and have a trick to try today to eliminate
the wrinkling. I have slowly been bringing the oven temperature up to make
the plexi a little softer. So far I am up to 260F, and this seems close to
what is necessary to form the shields. I will send pictures and a description
of the process when I get one of the shields right. Then it's start the
left side. Should be a bit easier, as I know what mistakes I made in making the
mold for the right side, and things should go much smoother.
Have a Happy New Year All !!!
Drew
I am using 1.8" with a fine blue tint. The instructions that I got said to
use a female mold, and slump it into the mold. At this point that worked,
but produced a couple of wrinkles. I am going to make a male mold tonight, and
use it to push between the two, so there is an even shape and pressure. It
is probably good enough the way it is, but I am looking for perfect, so try
try again.
December 29, 2007
From "Eric" <aeauto@tri.net
I am assuming that you meant 1/8 (.125 inch)? I haven't tried
this, but after talking to some guys in the aircraft business I
think that using a male mold and letting the sheet drape over it and
bend to the contour might work better than a female mold.
January 19, 2008
I've been thinking about wheels and tires lately. My car came with 14" x 6" Chevy bolt pattern (5 on 4 ¾") standard offset on the front and 15" x 9" or 15" x 10" Chevy bolt pattern (5 on 4 ¾") (update as of Feb '84) on the rear. The tires measure 245 - 50 x 14" B.F. Goodrich radial T.A. fronts and 275 - 50 x 15" B.F. Goodrich radial T.A. rear tires.
I'm trying to find a more standard sized rim and wheel combination. I have been looking at some "plus sizing" sites on the Internet. The idea of plus sizing is increasing the rim diameter while keeping the same overall wheel and tire diameter. Using the Miata site: I am able to test rim and tire combinations and see how they work relative to what I already have mounted. 16" rims seem to be quite popular as far has having more options and styles. So with the plus sizing site I can match up hypothetical tire sizes if I use 16" rims all around instead of the 14" front and 15" rears that I have. I came up with 245 - 40 x 16" front and 275 - 45 x 16" on the rear. The result would be a nice 16" rim all around and the same clearance for the wheels and tires, which I already know, works.
February 9, 2008
It was warm yesterday so I got a little work done on the project car. More disassembly. I pulled the water pump and the a/c compressor and all related brackets. I cleaned up my transmission and the work area under the car. I put the car on jack stands and was able to get to and remove what I though were the last two screws holding down the gas tank. I need to pull the tank to make room to mount the engine right next to the firewall. The interesting thing will be that I might still have to cut the frame for the bottom of the engine to clear a cross member built into the frame. Time and some measurements will tell.
February 17, 2008
Seems the weekends have been pretty decent even lately although we've had quite a bit of snow this week. I was able to do some measurements and consider turning some of my old engine mount parts into a temporary engine stand to hold the engine and transmission once I mate the two. It's going to be a very long package. Might have done more but was sucked into wife's project carpeting part of the basement.
Had a closer look at the fuel tank that I'm pulling out and it is a tight install and the bolt heads might still where the "sending unit" would mount on the tank. Mine doesn't have a fuel pump on the tank, so I guess it's not called a sending unit, but it has a plate screwed on it and it will make pulling the tank a little trickier.
Almost forgot to mention it, but I mailed off my order and payment for my engine shortening parts from Desert Hybrids and transmission adapter and miscellaneous parts from Kennedy Engineering February 8, 2008. I've fought the urge to call to find out where my parts are in transit. I'm sure they'll be here soon and besides I probably won't be able to do much more than the engine modifications for a bit.
February 19, 2008
I pulled the gas tank yesterday. It wasn't bad at all once I found that the box that held the tank tightly in place had a restrictor bar end that was screwed in with two bolts on each side. I removed the bolts and with the metal band loose the entire tank came out easily. I was worried about blowing myself up with a slipped tool creating a spark, but it turned out that the tank was nearly empty. Not a great thing, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Also made removal easy since the empty tank didn't weigh much. Another interesting thing is that the tank is small. I think it might only be a 10-gallon tank. Each time I work on a different part of the car I'm impressed by the attention to detail that the builders paid.
March 16, 2008 1:50am
My parts came this week for the engine modifications and transmission adapter. The parts look high quality. I unpacked them all and checked them out and I can't wait to get started on the work. Big issue will be the engine hoist that I still don't have. Can't do the work without the hoist to move the engine.
March 18, 2008 9:34am
I bought a 15-gallon aluminum fuel cell yesterday for $50.00. I have been shopping for one for some time and I was prompted to go online yesterday during work and the seller had just listed his fuel tank he said literally a moment ago. I bought it within the hour and it looks like it will do the job. I still need to borrow or buy a hoist. I suspect I should buy one since I'm not going to be able to do this project very fast.
March 30, 2008 12:26am
I spent a little time yesterday working on the front-end modifications on the engine. I bought about $12.00 in bolts and washers and installed the new water pump fittings, installed the new water pump in the fabricated housing and started the install on the new harmonic balancer. I had a problem with the balancer until it occurred to me that the balancer wasn't going far enough onto the crankshaft because the bolt was bottoming out before the balancer was fully mounted. I got a bunch of washers and was able to use them to get the balancer to seat on the crankshaft. I created a problem because I guess I used too many washers and the back of the balancer ended up pressed in to the front of the timing cover. I need to use a puller to get the balancer to back off of the timing cover just a touch. The install looks like it's going to be pretty sound. I should get some thread locker to add to some of the bolts for the final install. Still need a hoist.
April 6, 2008 10:31am
I got an engine hoist this past Wednesday. I did a little prep work on Wednesday, but I chose to do most of the labor attaching the transmission to the engine yesterday. The install went relatively smoothly. In keeping with my engine's weight loss from the conversion I noted that the new starter is smaller than the stock 350 Chevy starter. The stock starter weighs 22.7 pounds while the Toyota starter weighs 10.05 pounds. The stock water pump weighs 13.933 pounds and the Chrysler water impeller weighs in at 5.289 pounds.
So far, in addition to losing over 300 pounds from the transmission change, I dropped 40.8 pounds by going to headers and aluminum intake. The new starter and water pump now drops another (36.633 lbs.& 15.339 lbs.), 21.294 pounds. The total package is over 362 [362.094], pounds lighter than stock. I also removed the a/c compressor from the aftermarket a/c and I'm not going to put it back on until after I know everything else is running. That probably dropped another 20 pounds.
April 6, 2008 2:43pm
There is a cross bar in the engine compartment that several engine or auxiliary parts were mounted on in the old engine set up. I'm going to have to cut several inches out of the center of the bar so the oil pan will sit low enough to mount the engine without the bar bending or running on the bottom of the engine or transmission. The oil pan measures 7 ½ inches at the widest point. I will likely add an inch to that measurement (so I can leave ½ inch on either side of the oil pan and cut the 8½ inches out of the center of the bar in the engine bay. I also found that the front motor mount bar is very wide. May have to cut the bar down to make it fit in the engine bay.
May 1, 2008 7:55am
I haven't written much or done much with the car lately. Last weekend I did a little auxiliary work. It was quite a bit of fun. Earlier in the week I had purchased two used Edelbrock 1407 carburetors. They were dirty and needed to be cleaned up and evaluated for damage. I cleaned them both up Saturday, April 26th and found that one was dirty, but otherwise in perfect condition. I had found a guy a few days earlier through the classifieds that wanted to trade an Edelbrock 1406 for a 1407. The difference is that the 1406 moves 600 cfm (cubic feet per minute), of air and is calibrated to burn leaner than other edelbrock carburetors of the same size. The 1407's that I have move 750 cfm and are more geared to performance. The guy that I ended up trading with had a car that he drag races and has had the 1407 mounted on the engine and found a little better performance gains from it. He had another trade that fell through that morning and called and we ended up trading. The end result is that I bought two carbs that sell for $125 to $200 used for $50.00 and traded one of them for exactly the size carburetor that I wanted in the first place.
I still have the old Holley that came with my engine. It's a 650 cfm carburetor and having rebuilt it myself, I know it works fine, but I think since I went with the Edelbrock performer intake I might have better performance by using an edelbrock carburetor with it.
I moved the engine and transmission out of the garage and into position behind the car. I've been measuring and re-measuring the fit of the engine and transmission in the car. The one thing that is comforting is that I will definitely have enough room -front to back- for the engine to fit without the axles being behind their center point. I'm considering the height of the package now. I thought that I would need to do a lot of cutting to make the axles sit as close to center as possible at ride height. Now I'm thinking that I can have the engine a bit higher and the axles would therefore ride an inch or two above center. That doesn't look too bad and if I go that route then I would only have to get the motor mounts and transmission mounts welded into place and the engine package would be done and I could turn my attention to making the drive axles and getting control linkage run to the carburetor and gear selector.
May 4, 2008 12:56am
I closed a deal today that was pretty fun. After buying two edelbrock carburetors for $50.00 I cleaned them up and as already mentioned traded one for a 1406 carburetor. I advertised the remaining carburetor on KSL this morning and had a call within an hour. The guy that called came over and paid $40.00 for the remaining carburetor. The result is that I bought a perfect carburetor for $10.00.
1:16am
The first measurements came to 8 ½" from the engine front to the rear of the motor mount. 2nd measurement made May 4, '08 came to 8 ¾" from the engine front to the rear of the motor mount. The coolant hose that comes from the radiator to the water pump is going to be 1 inch at the pump and 1 ¼" on the radiator hose side.
Engine Installation Measurements:
- Balancer at 7 ½" (height with motor mount attached), equals axles ¾" behind axle center and less than ½" above axle center.
- Motor Mount width is 42 ½"
- 33" from engine front to center of drive axle
- 3 ½" to outside of roll bar brace. Brace is 2" wide.
- Firewall to rear of Motor Mount is 8 ¾".
- Motor Mount is 2" tall on the base.
- Mount is 1" wide.
May 5, 2008 8:46pm
Engine Installation Measurement 3rd:
- 33 ½" Engine front to center of drive axle
- 9" Engine front to rear of motor mount
- 7 ½" from base of mount to mid harmonic balancer
May 7, 2008 8:45am
I was interested in finding out the difference in weight in going from the Holley carburetor to the all aluminum Edelbrock so I got out the bathroom scale this morning. The Holley 4175 weighed in at 12.2 pounds while the Edelbrock was 4.4 pounds lighter at 7.8 pounds. Incidentally the Holley electric fuel pump weighs in at .4 pounds. I'm sure the difference in weight is negligible on the fuel pumps. Total engine/transmission weight loss is 369.894lbs.
May 26, 2008 2:48pm
I shopped for a welder for the past few weeks. I even considered buying my own welding set, but I wouldn't feel safe driving a car that I welded the engine mounts into. Last week I found a neighbor that can weld.
I also bought custom transmission mounts and received them this past week. I had to order bushings for the mounts and they haven't arrived yet.
June 1, 2008
I haven't made much progress lately, but I think I'm about to make some strides. I had a neighbor that welds, Nathan Rushton come by the house Saturday and he looked at the engine mounts and he says he will be able to weld the mounts into the car. He even thought of a nice bolt on installation that would make the mount removable for future upgrades.
I had a guy, Tony Laws come this morning to buy the old transmission and he builds sand rails. He does all of his own work and is probably very accomplished. Tony had some great suggestions on the control linkage and drive axles. I think he will save me a lot of time and money on the project.
July 13, 2008
A lot has happened and some of it may not be that good. Tony Laws ended up having a look at the job and telling me he could do it for me (welding the motor mount bar). He came by about 5:30pm on Tuesday, July 8th. He did a great job of welding the motor mount. Looks good and feels solid. I tried to put the engine in today and the bad part is that I think I may have missed something when measuring the engine bay for the mounts. The firewall slants toward the front of the car, but the slant only starts in the last 7 or 8 inches at the bottom of the firewall. So just from a quick effort the engine can't fit the bay because I can't get it low enough to fit far enough forward for the front end of the engine to clear the motor mount bar. When I work on it next week I'm going to try to find a way to lever the engine into the mount. I have already taken the alternator off, but it would be near impossible to put the water pump on once the engine is installed. That said I might have to try that option at some point too.
July 16, 2008
I'm pretty sure I have decided to cut out the firewall and rather than moving the firewall, I'm going to make a removable hatch that should provide enough relief to get the engine installed. Once the engine is in place, I'll be able to access the front end of the engine via the hatch to replace the alternator, water pump any drive belts and when I'm ready to add a/c I should be able to do that easier too. The only question now is how big should the hatch be. I thought initially it should be the dimension of the front of the engine and then I can pull it out and when the engine is mounted I can remove the chains from the front of the engine with relative ease and of course I'll have more room for all the other front end work. I worry that that a bigger hatch could weaken the car's body structurally. I think I'm worrying about nothing on that front, but you never know. I'm not the pro on that subject.
July 18, 2008
I started removing the firewall yesterday. The bottom quarter of the firewall is sheet metal and is riveted in place. I drilled out the rivets and removed the panel. That part went like clockwork. Once the panel was out of the car, I was able to see the bottom of the water pump pulley and the section where the alternator will fit. I only need to drop the engine another inch and a half and move it forward that distance too. I think it will fit, but it will be a tight fit. I'm going to cut the hatch because regardless of how the engine fits it will be tight enough on the front end that the hatch will be useful for accessing the drive belts, alternator, and water pump. The hatch section that will need to be cut is about 10 inches high and will only cover the space from the drive pulleys up to the boltholes on the heads. I think that should give me enough access to the engine without opening a gaping hole. I'm still a bit worried about making things too weak, but it has to happen.
August 1, 2008
On Saturday the 23rd I finished work on the firewall and was satisfied with the outcome. I cut out a spot as large as the front end of the engine and replaced the section I cut out with sheet metal. I drilled out the mounting holes for the new sheet metal and it looks and fits great. I finished reconnecting most of the electrical connections and attempted without success to turn the engine over.
Over the past few days I've tested various connections and reviewed some of my deconstruction pictures from the past to find additional wiring scenarios to test. I really had 2 wires that I needed to reroute. Once that was done I still couldn't get the engine to turn over. At that point I decided to have faith in my own work and decided that if I had connected everything correctly I just needed a better battery to use for testing. I pulled the battery out of my wife's van last night and used it for the test. As soon as I had a clean connection wired to the car, which took a minute because the negative ground wasn't as tight as it needed to be, the car turned over nicely. I turned it over several times and was able to observe the answers to several questions. The starter connected cleanly to the ring gear on the flywheel. The front end of the engine turned over without obstruction from the firewall and the engine turned at a high enough rpm to build enough pressure in the cylinders to eject the shop rags that were stuffed into the cylinders to keep out dirt and spiders.
Now I can have the transmission mounts welded in place and try to finish the rebuild/upgrade. The clutch, shifter and throttle control will be a challenge, but at least I will have the engine running to cheer me on in the rest of my labors. Expect lots of fun figuring this stuff out.
August 3, 2008, 11:35 am
I worked for a few days to arrange for the purchase of some plastic racing seats for my car. For the price I figured I could buy them and see if they worked. The seats were in Ogden when I found them, but they were moving them to Salt Lake over the weekend and I was able to drive into Salt Lake and pickup a pair of seats with covers for $20.00 total. I got them home yesterday and dusted them off and test fit one of them in the car. Didn't fit and wasn't even close. Of course that was disappointing, but I figured all I could do was list the parts for sale in the local classified and get rid of them. I sold the pair today for $100.00. That was fast since I listed them last night and the $80.00 profit will help me get over the fact that I didn't have a good fit.
August 5, 2008, 11:23am
I've been contemplating my next move. I have a lot of little loose ends that need tying up. I could spend time and money on those or take on some of the bigger projects. I think at this stage I'm going to clean up the water lines and such so I can be ready to start the car as soon as I install the fuel carburetor and fuel pump. The only larger project I'm going to do during this time is get the welding done for the transmission mounts. Once that's done I should have enough of the electrical and hoses complete to test start the car and hear what she sounds like.
I imagine it won't sound too good because I need to put my mufflers back on. The mufflers I have are some kind of glass pack (a straight through pipe with baffles). They are old and rusty and were originally set up for the old iron exhaust manifolds. I'm running headers now and will have to cut the old rusted pipes off the old rusted mufflers. I would love to replace my mufflers, but with the cost of paint it might be cheaper to sand and paint them. I really have liked the idea of reusing as much of my older hardware as possible to keep something of the old car around.
August 7, 2008, 7:56am
I bought a carburetor gasket yesterday and placed the gasket and carburetor on the intake this morning. I need to buy longer carburetor mounting studs to make the installation fit. Once the carburetor's mounted, I'm going to find a place to mount the electric fuel pump. I found that the driver's side head has a bit of rust on top were it wasn't painted. I need to clean that off and treat the couple of spots.
I've been watching the space that I have to mount the headers and it looks like it's going to be tight. I need to test fit it because if the motor mount isn't centered I might have to have it cut out and moved it to make sure everything is centered. From what I can eyeball it looks like the mount is close enough to center that it wouldn't make a huge difference, but I am finding that my space tolerances are less than an inch, so every measurement counts.
I've been fortunate so far because everything has been pretty simple and predictable. Even the major changes have worked out the way they were supposed to. That said, I'm getting to the . . .
9:04 pm
After work today I bought a set of longer carburetor studs and installed the carburetor on my engine. As an afterthought I decided to test fit the air cleaner. It turns out the after thought was a good thought. The air cleaner will not fit because the top of the roll bar intrudes on the 14 inch cleaner by about 1 inch. I need to see about alternate arrangements. I see why some of the set ups that I've seen use interesting shaped air cleaners. They no doubt have to solve this same problem.
August 11, 2008, 12:08 am
I have been hooking up coolant and vacuum hoses. As I've searched my photos and install guides and manuals I've been reminded of a few changes that my current install has created. For instance, since my new transmission is a manual I don't need to have engine vacuum for the kick down. I also have found that my heater hose does not have a connection built on my custom water pump to get coolant to the heater core. I'll figure these changes out. My new carburetor also has a different vacuum setup than the Holley did. I've done enough research to believe I'm very accurate in my rebuilding and that my deviations are proper considering the new systems that I will be running.
November 11, 2008, 1:39pm
In the last 2 months I haven't made a lot of progress on the car. Spent a lot of time waiting on the welder to come weld my transmission mounts. He still hasn't come, so in the mean time I've picked up a few other projects. I'm working on exhaust and fuel pump now. I think I finished the bulk of the fuel pump project Saturday and today. The hardest part of the fuel pump project so far was figuring out the wiring for the relay that will carry power to the fuel pump. I've been working on that on and off for at least a month. I buckled down and did the research over the past few weeks and found out all the basics to relays and wiring. I also studied enough wiring diagrams and keys to the diagrams to figure out what I was doing wrong. Prior to that I would just put some wires together in what looked like the right order and see what happened. The result of that process was burned fingers and sparks. I got it right today though and the fuel pump works. I still have to mount it and run some fuel lines (probably to a can for the initial tests).
I also spent a lot of time shopping the various classifieds and parts stores for mufflers and other exhaust parts. I found some nice "tuner" style mufflers on Ebay for about $36.00 each, which was a good price, compared to some of the cheap glass packs and other likely candidates for the job. I figured I would need to get new mufflers even though my initial thought was to paint and reuse my old ones. I changed my mind when I checked out my old mufflers and found out that although they are straight-bodied mufflers they have some kind of chambered restriction built into them. The result would be quiet, but also restrictive and bad for power. Since I have the intake that can produce power, I might as well stick with exhaust that can do the same. I also figured it would be fine to spend the money on new mufflers since I was going to have to get new exhaust pipes to conform to the engine's new placement in the bay.
It's getting cold and we've had the first big snow of the season, so I might be shut down for a few months. I'll do what I can and be ready for warm weather when it comes.
November 28, 2008, 11:09pm
I made a little more progress on the fuel pump install. Last weekend, I wired a switch into the fuel pump and added quick disconnect wiring to the pump itself. The main reason I made those upgrades was initially I thought I would be able to test run the engine last weekend. I got the switch wired in as a safety precaution and then routed my hoses from one gas can to another. I figured I could test pump the fuel back and forth a bit to make sure nothing was wrong with my fuel system. Once I got the hoses routed and ran the pump from the switch I found that I had a leak at the pump. I couldn't really find where the leak was coming from, but it looked like the pump. Since I was going to need to take the pump out of the car to figure out where the leak was coming from I ended up adding quick disconnects to the pump wiring. Once I got the fuel pump out of the car I disassembled it and checked the gaskets and pump parts. Everything seemed to work fine. I checked my fuel inlet connections and found that I had one that was lose enough to turn by hand. The problem with the fuel inlets was that I just found connectors at Lowes and they were too small. I shopped around this past week and after trying several sizes at AutoZone and PepBoys I finally found a size at PepBoys that seems like it will be as near perfect as I'll get. If I hadn't gone to Idaho for the holiday and the weekend I think I would have put everything back together and test run the car for a minute. I couldn't run it any longer than that though because I don't have any exhaust system after the headers and it's very loud.
January 10, 2009, 5:32am
Cost and availability have affected my build again. I had been holding out and thinking a lot about how to approach the build of the exhaust plumbing. I ended up deciding some of my higher end custom exhaust pipe pieces for cheaper pieces that I found locally. It saves me a few dollars, but also saves me a bunch of time that I will be able to use playing with the car instead of waiting for pieces to come in the mail and then welding them in place. The local parts are also slip fit, which will make the welding a lot easier since I won't need the joint to be a perfect load bearing joint.
I bought some pipes this week at Checker Auto. I got my straight pipe and then as an afterthought decided to take advantage of the cheap price and get some 45 degree bends (last night), and see if I can use those to put together a temporary exhaust system just to quiet things down for a test run of the engine.
I pieced the system together in the living room last night and although the bends don't look 45 degrees when you hold them, once it's all stuck together they look like 45 degree bends. I still would need to get some 90-degree bends and cut and piece the whole thing together, but so far it looks like I'll be able to put the exhaust together myself.
Another little let down is that the local exhaust pieces are compression bent and not mandrel bent. I figure it won't make much of a difference in performance, just appearance. Since my plumbing is now 21/2" pipe instead of 11/2" I will definitely have enough capacity despite the compression bent tubing.
January 11, 2009, 2:55pm
I uncovered the car yesterday and dried it off and let the sun work on it a bit. It was a nice day. By the time I got done with some of my other projects (changing oil in the jeep and an appointment in the office), I wasn't really thinking about starting the car. I did decide to piece the exhaust together and see how it fit under the car. I figured it would be far from usable, but that I might get a feel for the possibilities and see if I could fit enough exhaust parts together to be able to test run the engine.
Turns out I was further from that point than I thought. I fit it all together Friday night while Angela and I watched "Vantage Point". It all looked good enough, but when I finally got around to test fitting everything to the car the collector from the exhaust header didn't fit. I had a 2 ½" collector and the same size pipe. Turns out the 2 ½" was too big and that 2 ¼" was called for. I took the 2 ½" collectors back last night and will have to return the rest of the exhaust pipe sometime this week and swap it for 2 ¼". At that point I will be back to the drawing board on fitting a system together. I've actually sketched the system out and will use slip fit pipe, which is cheaper and faster for a novice welder.
January 19, 2009, 8:17pm
This past week I returned all my 2 ½" pipe and exchanged it for 2 ¼" bends and straight pipe. I fit the new pipe together Friday night and test fit it to the car Saturday morning. I got a bit distracted with some other projects (wife's break job), so I was done till today. Got up this morning and made a call to the local parts store and got the last few pieces I needed. I got side tracked, but was able to finish part 2 of the project today. I matched up the driver's side exhaust pipes and installed the new battery I bought.
I figured with the exhaust loose fit on the car and the battery installed I could give the car a test run. I ended up running the car 3 times. The exhaust was so loose fit that it was still loud. The main thing that I was satisfied about was that the car started and ran reliably. Now that the car runs and the exhaust is loose fit together I can figure out the axles, clutch and throttle controls.
I noticed one thing after I got the car running for the first few minutes. At first I couldn't figure out what all the smoke was about. I thought I had oil in the engine and although the cooling system isn't closed the car can't overheat after running for 1 minute. Turns out that the high temp engine paint I put on the headers was burning off almost immediately. I don't know why I hadn't noticed but the heat rating between engine and header paint is huge. Engine paint has a 500-degree heat range while the header paint is good to 2000 degrees. So after things are all good with the build and the car has some run time on it. I'll take the exhaust system apart and repaint the headers with higher temperature paint.
February 1, 2009, 7:58am
I ran the car again yesterday. I wanted to know what the exhaust would sound like when it's fully functioning. I tightened the whole system up (pipes are slip fit), as if I were about to weld it all together so I had few leaks or seams. Once the pipes were tight I clamped the mufflers on and started the car. The sound was music to my ears. Where the car sounded loud and sharp lots of firecrackers or mini explosions last week. Yesterday it sounded deep, strong and very stable at idle. I was even tempted and would have revved the engine, but the throttle control was on the driver's side and I was on the passenger side of the car and couldn't get to the other side before all the fuel ran out (as a precaution I ran the car using a remote fuel can with about a cup of fuel at a time).
The headers are still burning off the engine paint and looking worse as it bubbles up and yellows. I'm not going to worry though because I can sand and paint later. I'm going to pull the exhaust off the car after I fine tune the fittings and then weld and paint the pipes. Might be a good time to repaint the headers too.
Angela's mother was able to pick up some Audi drive axles I bought from European Only Salvage yard. I bought them over the phone on Friday and she got them yesterday morning. They look well used, but I paid $75.00 each and if nothing else they are excellent rebuildable cores for me to begin working with. One of the axles is short of 4 bolts, not a big deal.
June 10, 2012, 8:24am
My baby's finally home. The body guy started delivering parts about 2 weeks ago and its in my garage. That was about 2 years! Looks unbelievable though.
Lou G. Harris