[Alvin]

Thx for sharing the clutch thermal coil adjust link and reminder that OEM WS6's came w urethane sway bar end links.

[68ragtop]

Bob, I know you had your carb gone through, but was it setup for the camshaft you installed? I only ask because When I broke in the cam on my 68 GTO engine, I used the carb from my 78 Trans am because I knew that car ran perfect & I didn't want to add a possible carb issue to the mix during the 68's cam break in cycle. On that engine I am running the 068 cam. first thing I noticed was I had to open up the throttle blades quite a bit to get the 68's engine to idle from where it was at on the T/A

I had the 68's original carb rebuilt by a local carb expert & he wanted all the specs of the engine. When I got the carb back from him & installed it on the GTO's engine, I couldn't believe how much smoooooother it idled. Not just a little bit, but a lot! Still had some lump to the idle, but very controlled. Next time I saw the carb guy I asked him what was up with that & he told me quadrajets are very, very sensitive to vacuum & have a touchy idle circuit. Because I added a cam that had less vacuum, I add to open the throttle blades to allow more air to get into the engine for it to idle. If I remember correctly this puts the throttle blades in a bad spot and causes some sort of fuel drip from the main circuit, or maybe it was too much from the idle circuit? (i forgot which it was) but it was loading up & he said no adjustment would fix it. So he made small holes in the throttle blades to pass more air & allow the blades to be in the location they were supposed to be. What a difference that made.

I'm guessing you have all of this covered already in your carb rebuild, but thought it was worth mentioning because I learned a lot from that experience. My carb guy said its one of the reasons people who modify their engines toss the quadrajets to the curb & call them junk.

Car looks fantastic! BTW, my 78 survivor I'll bet has more scratches & dings than your car has. In fact, when I first bought the car, I almost repainted it. Soooo glad I didn't now. So few of these cars out there with original paint.

[Bentwheelbob]

The carb is fine and the car idles nicely. Cliff supplied the deluxe rebuild kit spec'd for the precise application and motor/car details. It may just be the that EFE is tired since it is the original. It holds vacuum when bench tested, but flutters and rattles at low rpm.

[The Boss]

Very nicely done there Bob (& Dave) and thank you for sharing it with me while I was away on vacation! Unfortunately there was no visual evidence left on the street that you were there! If you make it out to Norwalk, I'll show you boys how to properly power brake a stick car so others will know you have been there.

First class job on that car!

[Bentwheelbob]

The light bulb lit up shortly after my last post and I am such a dumbass...

I took a short cut on plumbing the vacuum line for the EFE valve. Instead of running the vauum line all the way around the back of the engine and down the right side to the TVV valve on the front of the engine as shown in the vacuum diagram, I hooked it to the vacuum tree on the carb. Nice short run and a lot cleaner. The problem is that the EFE valve is normally open and needs vacuum only when the engine is cold. The vacuum tree supplies vacuum under all but WOT conditions, therefore, I have been essentially running the car with the left side exhaust blocked. Stupid...

It will be interesting to see how this thing runs with two exhaust pipes and the impact on the engine temps.

What an idiot.

Another mistake I made was on the sway bar end links. I mounted these threaded end down and they are supposed to be threaded end up. This has been corrected.

[RamAir]

Lighten up on yourself Bob, sounds like you have the problem solved ;-)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

The light bulb lit up shortly after my last post and I am such a dumbass...

I took a short cut on plumbing the vacuum line for the EFE valve. Instead of running the vauum line all the way around the back of the engine and down the right side to the TVV valve on the front of the engine as shown in the vacuum diagram, I hooked it to the vacuum tree on the carb. Nice short run and a lot cleaner. The problem is that the EFE valve is normally open and needs vacuum only when the engine is cold. The vacuum tree supplies vacuum under all but WOT conditions, therefore, I have been essentially running the car with the left side exhaust blocked. Stupid...

It will be interesting to see how this thing runs with two exhaust pipes and the impact on the engine temps.

What an idiot.

Another mistake I made was on the sway bar end links. I mounted these threaded end down and they are supposed to be threaded end up. This has been corrected.

Bob, reminder of this info from vintage HPP http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...=755425&page=3 (see post# 48) and this reworked hose layout (below)



x2 on taking it easy on yourself...until you mentioned it, I didn't even notice the end link bolt...from your post # 37 (below)

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Now for the bad.

Several issues that immediately jump out. The exhaust system is crap from the manifolds to the muffler. The car has a true dual exhaust with no catalytic converter. The installation was shoddy to start with and time has not helped it any. It will be replaced very soon, but I need some suggestions on good systems for a 1978. On the transmission the dust cover is missing - if any one has a dust cover please send me a pm. The engine really leaks oil and the rear main seal will need to be addressed this winter. The paint shows more wear than you would like, but at the same time it looks pretty darn good for a 53K mile survivor. The drivers side window needs adjusted, and the sway bar end link bushings are totally missing. All in all - not too shabby. here's some pics.

[Judge273]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Very nicely done there Bob (& Dave) and thank you for sharing it with me while I was away on vacation! Unfortunately there was no visual evidence left on the street that you were there! If you make it out to Norwalk, I'll show you boys how to properly power brake a stick car so others will know you have been there.

First class job on that car!

Bob, have you not driven it yet?

Chris, I'll be there and love to learn that trick too...

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Judge273

Chris, I'll be there and love to learn that trick too...

Watch Bruno's video here & it will give you the basics - pay special attention to his feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbddnGO1_YE

....and remember, practice makes perfect!

[Judge273]

Thanks, looks like the kind of practice that's fun too!

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Watch Bruno's video here & it will give you the basics - pay special attention to his feet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbddnGO1_YE

....and remember, practice makes perfect!

Thxs for sharing the video link and technique...

1st thing I noticed was drag racer driver wearing shorts instead of long pants. I was told @ NHRA Track in Ennis TX during a DAPA meet that I had to wear long pants for safety to race on the track...which was no problem had them to change into then.

IIRC - was told Long Pants required by all NHRA tracks for insurance purposes?

[The Boss]

I'm pretty sure it's a requirement there as well Alvin, they do seem lax in the enforcement of it however. Most guys can be seen pulling sweats on over their shorts in the staging lanes but I've been known to take a pass or two with shorts on.

I've noticed Bruno does his burnout in 2nd - I've done my powerbrake in 1st and just modulated the brake/gas to keep the RPM's in a healthy range while controlling the forward motion.

[muscle_collector]

Originally Posted by The Boss

I'm pretty sure it's a requirement there as well Alvin, they do seem lax in the enforcement of it however. Most guys can be seen pulling sweats on over their shorts in the staging lanes but I've been known to take a pass or two with shorts on.

I've noticed Bruno does his burnout in 2nd - I've done my powerbrake in 1st and just modulated the brake/gas to keep the RPM's in a healthy range while controlling the forward motion.

modulated hmmmm I thought you said you exxxxxated or was that later

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Very nicely done there Bob (& Dave) and thank you for sharing it with me while I was away on vacation! Unfortunately there was no visual evidence left on the street that you were there! If you make it out to Norwalk, I'll show you boys how to properly power brake a stick car so others will know you have been there.

First class job on that car!

Wow, me and he Child Bride took the Black Car on a "date" tonight. Tried the manual transmission power brake trick and the results were amazing. I think I might even get lucky tonight....The smell of burnt rubber is quite the aphrodisiac.

[Bentwheelbob]

Well, My Pal Dave broke the Gold Car....Seeing your newly revived hot rod and motor on a rollback is something that usually isn't good. Fortunately, in this case it was not terminal and is already back on the road.

We got the newly modified EFE (heat riser) valve in place this morning and the exhaust hooked back up. We also installed a 180 degree thermostat. The car is completely different with two open exhaust pipes. Quite frankly it is a beast. It ran good before this problem got diagnosed, but the difference now is incredible. We took it out for a shake down cruise and wow.

There is a nice stretch of four lane highway near my house that is part of a 10 mile loop that I frequently run. I drove it out and once on the four lane took it kind of easy and kept the top speed below 95 MPH. At the turn around point I switched spots with MPD and he got out of control. As best we can figure he was running along at about 120 MPH and the car was still pulling hard. The speedo only goes to 100 MPH and it was pretty much half way between 100 and O MPH - dead nuts on 6:00 o'clock. He swears the tach was only at about 4500 rpm, but with 3.42 gears I think it was well past the red line. Regardless, the engine started making noises that sounded like a hay baler with a lot of mechanical noise from the left bank and we quickly coasted to a stop on the berm. After a few minutes we restarted it hoping for divine intervention, but it has obviously been too long since I was in church.

Once the rollback got the car home we quickly tore it apart and got the valve cover off. As it turns out the rocker slipped off the push rod on the exhaust side of number 3 cylinder. Luckily the push rod wasn't bent, and after a lot of pain pulling spark plugs and manually rotating the engine, we got the pushrod and rocker re-installed. Once everything was buttoned up it fired first time and sounded great. We took it for another shake down (with me driving) and ran it pretty hard and everything is once again good. That was enough excitement for one day.

BTW - with two exhausts and a 180 degree thermostat the engine temps stayed between 175 and 185. Perfect.

Here's a couple sad pictures.

[Judge273]

Dave looks shamed... Did you yell at him?

[The Boss]

No salute this time huh?

[The Boss]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Wow, me and he Child Bride took the Black Car on a "date" tonight. Tried the manual transmission power brake trick and the results were amazing. I think I might even get lucky tonight....The smell of burnt rubber is quite the aphrodisiac.

[Bentwheelbob]

Yeah, no salute this time. He was feeling pretty bummed out. Andrea made him ride back with the tow truck driver as punishment. Of course earlier in the day he made the mistake of comparing the Gold Car to her supercharged Range Rover rocket.

We both felt a lot better when we got the valve cover off and saw the pushrod sticking up and it wasn't bent. Even better yet when we got it back together it fired right up with no drama.

I'm buffing the Gold Car out today and it's really starting to look good. It's kind of frustrating though because this is original Van Nuys 38 year old paint and it's thin and soft. I can't put much pressure on it and therefore am having to leave a lot of imperfections behind. The top radius of the B pillars are already showing through so I can't even buff those areas. Regardless, it iooks a lot better.

Everyone have a great day. Get out and beat on your car...

[Bentwheelbob]

I finished buffing the Gold Car and it really looks good. I did one pass with a light cutting pad and Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover. I followed that with Wolfgang Finishing Glaze and a polishing pad. Lastly, it got a coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant. Here in a few days I'll add a final coat of liquid Carnauba Wax. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I also lightly buffed over the original hood bird with the finishing glaze and then coated it with the paint sealant. It really cleaned it up and it looks amazingly good for being as old as it is.

Here's a few pictures.