Now the steelrims with Lancer caps are finally mounted I would prefer www but that will come in the future,
When i bought the Chevy it was equipped with a Edelbrock 600 carb and that is just the worst piece of crap i´ve come a cross, it looked like new but it had quite a play in the throttleaxels (not sure if thats the right word) and it had a huge vacuum leak, you could hear it whissling, couldn´t get the idle lower then around 1000 rpm even with the idle screw removed. Looked around for a rebuild kit but got the answer that they don´t sell such kits Also i think 600 cfm is to big for a 283 engine, had really bad mileage, vacuum leak is also the cause i guess. So i bought a Holley 465cfm and it runs and drives MUCH better, and a huge difference in milage, but i´m not pleased yet, probably gonna replace the points with a HEI distributor aswell.
What’s your reasoning to go HEI? I went back and looked at your engine photo. I see your running an aftermarket intake. How’s your throttle response when leaving from a dead stop?
Main reason to go HEI is that it's been a struggle gettin this engine running good. It's been spitting bogging misfiring and bad fuel economy, after changing to the Holley many of the problems disappeared, and i did cut the fuel consumption by 1/4 but I still get misfires sometimes when going wot, and it's still kind of thirsty. I have changed points plugs and wires adjusted timing checked vacuum advanced, so now i'm thinking of swapping distributor. About the intake, the response is quite good, but i've never driven a 283 before so I got nothing to compare to, what i've heard the 283s got good throttle response from the beginning so I think swapping intake is waste of money.
No mention of changing the condenser. I asked about throttle response thinking maybe that’s why you wanted to go to HEI and or that the runners of your Edelbrock intake are causing a lazy flow thru the runners as compared to a stock 283 intake. A thought just came to mind. Do have the correct value ballast resistor?
I don't know much at all about this engine, the heads don't have any name/brand or numbers so my guess, cheap kind of China heads?? I really don't know. The engine have a bit lower compression then you should expect, (it's kind of same on all cylinders) so I don't think its because of blowby, but maybe to big heads for the 283, maybe heads for a 350 engine, wrong type of pistons? I don't know. One more thing, for some strange reason they have mounted solid lifters in it, my opinion is that you only have solid lifters in race engines and this is for sure no race engine or race car. In future i hope to change to hydraulic lifters/cam and change the heads to stock cast Iron, or maybe i just pull it and put a 350 in it instead.
Condenser is changed Ballast resistor Value is something i haven't checked, stupid question maybe, which value should it be?
You mentioned solid lifters. Not uncommon to find 283’s that came with solid lifters. Have you checked to see if valve lash is too tight?
Ok I didn't think they equipped these "modern" engines with solid lifters from factory, my ol Buick got hydraulic. I think this 283 is an early one because it doesen't got any harmonic balancer only a kind of hub. Yeah valve lash i adjusted two days ago, feelergauge 0010 , the valvetrain still have a ticking noise so it can't be too tight
The Chevy is in storage now and this winter the sloppy steering gonna get an overhaul, are some play in the tie rods king pins and lower spindle mount, but 90% of the play is in the steering gear, amazing how good the Chevy is acting with that kind of play. Got the steering gear out this evening, it would for sure have been a lot easier if I have had the blueflame 6. Tomorrow the steering gear will be inspected, I have a bad feeling, it feels very rough, im pretty sure the worm gear are pretty shot
Just like i suspected, the wormgear are missing big chunks of metal in three places, you could feel these cracks when driving, especially when turning left, felt like the steering went thru a bump, and thats just what happend. When turning the gear on the bench now it sounds like a rockcrusher. sector and bearings looks surprisingly very nice, but i´ll have too get a rebuilt one
Not much of a progress here, still waiting for some parts for the front suspension. I have painted the new steering column, thats all. But i manage to get a pair of these speaker grills, gonna make an improvement compared to the modern ones. The chrome is kind of bad so i´m probably gonna spray them in some kind of silver paint.
To be on the safe side i removed all the old paint, were 3 layers on one of them. I use this plastic grinder, works really great, removes the paint really fast and easy and don´t destroy the metal
Also changed the ignition switch, before i got this universial forklift kind of switch, works yes but it doesnt fit the dash so no matter how hard i wrench it, one on/off turn and it came loose, tried several different gaskets but the issue remained. Bought a original style that fits and now it solid, and i think its much nicer lookin with that key slot Before After
Your furry package tray reminds me of the one I made for my '64 Olds years ago. I like it, and those speaker covers are great. So many cars are spoiled by modern looking speakers in the package tray. The new key switch also looks nice and was well worth the effort.
After putting some miles with the Chevy this spring i realized i had to do somthing about that 283, its kind of a dead pig, wrong heads wrong cam resulting in very bad compression drinking oil and runs really rough, doesn´t rev over 3000 without backfiring thru the carb. Instead of rebuilding the engine in the middle of the season i decided to do a quick change, got this 267cui from a 80s Malibu that only needed a set of new valves to get ready. All Chevy people hate these 267 engines but one of the main reason i choose it is because that engine is in this cars papers, if i would like to have a bigger v8 i need to mount disc brakes and boxing the frame, and probably more stuff, and im no fan of discbrakes. The fun is, after driving the 267 for 2 weeks now, i can sum it down, it runs smooth quiet its alot quicker 0-60 no spitting or backfiring and i have cut the gas consumption down by almost the half. The "new" engine were in place in three days but in that time i also changed the tie rods and made an alignment, now when almost everything in the steering is new it drives amazing, no more driving all over the road.
By the way, someone here knows how to remove and mount the hood springs in a easy way? It were one of the worst parts in the engine swap Remove, using a crowbar and jerk it off so it shoots like a projectile Mounting, found this tip on youtube, and it worked quite good, but it had been alot easier if the fenders had been removed, took some time to remove those washers
The Jalopy Journal
