Hot Rods The Belly Button Bucket Build Thread

Glad you didn't get hurt or wreck the T when that bracket tore off! You'd think a big name like Wilwood would make a stronger mounting point for their calipers?
I planned to go to the Cascadia show as I do every year, but both of my buddies couldn't make it so I hit a smaller show close to home. It was nice to meet you last week at PIR cruise.

 

Nice to meet you finally as well! I should clarify- the brake kit is sold by Speedway, with Wilwood components, but I don’t think Wilwood designed or is making the kit. I’m not sure who is making it, but I agree, the caliper mounts need to be improved. I like everything else about it, but I will be making the mounts out of steel, and likely tacking them to the spindle for some extra insurance. The tacks could be cut later if needed, but I do think that would be a safety upgrade and worth the effort.

 

I've used a number of Speedway caliper brackets, but haven't seen any that were aluminum? I buy their rear axle weld on brackets for GM calipers, and then cut and drill them to mate to whatever spindles I need to convert to disc brakes.

 

Tim, could you include a locking device that's removable?
Either safety wire, the folding tabs, or does it require the countersunk fastener?
It's so well detailed I'd hate to see a tack, even though I guess it's hidden behind the disc on the spindle.

 

Small update- daily officially has blown head gaskets- I miraculously got through the summer on a bottle of K Seal, but nothing good lasts forever I guess. So while I delay tearing that apart until the rain will keep me company as I fix it in the driveway, I’ve been driving the T- short trips around town mostly. I felt as though the car runs lean on the primary, so I welded in an O2 bung and connected an air fuel gauge. This morning I had an MRI to get to across town, and my gf had school stuff, so I took the T on its longest trip so far- 20 miles round trip. I figured out pretty quickly that the car does NOT like to run when it’s cold outside- I will need to investigate installing an electric choke. After it warms up, it is wayyyy too lean pretty much everywhere in the primary carb operation. There’s too much going on to figure out secondaries right now- I’ll need an assistant for that.

Anyway, the car more or less drives around somewhere between 16-20:1 AFR. I figured since the idle mixture was ~ 2 turns out and in the low 14s, I’d leave the idle tubes alone and go after the idle air bleeds. I had 0.052”installed and swapped in 0.046”- the theory is this should not only richen up the idle circuit (less air, same amount of fuel), but it should also allow the idle circuit to operate for a longer period of time. Sure enough, idle mixture screws had to go in to achieve same idle ratio, and driving around, I’m in the 14s at light/part throttle, 13s light acceleration, and noticeably a lot happier combo. I’m stoked I went through the trouble of drilling/tapping for screw in air bleeds! Massive success today! We’ve got rain all week, so I plan to fix a couple small issues, then next weekend dial in the main circuit. Photos of car out in the wild:

 

That looks nice out on the street! Bitchin from both angles.

 

It has "the look" doesn't it!

 

The end carbs should be contributing some air and fuel with the idle ports. You don't want the blades jammed shut and you don't want the fuel to get stale.

14 is tough with a rumpy cam, they tend to want to be rich at idle, mainly due to overlap pulling fuel across the valves and the weaker vacuum signal.
I used to adjust using CO and getting under 3 was tough with bigger cams. Just changing from 800 RPM to 1000 RPM would be a big help, but if you want that low choppy idle, it's going to want more fuel.

 

Might need to richen up the high speed air bleeds also. Just doing the idle bleed jets wont help once it's above idle.

 

To clarify, the end carbs have no idle circuits. I started out with primary carb only, then added each end carb one at a time, as mentioned a few posts back. Contrary to what the internet says, it is not possible to completely seal the end carbs. In this particular case, the end carbs will try to suck your hand through the airhorn, no matter how tight you have the throttle shafts held closed. The primary carb was adjusted to compensate for each secondary carb, which was ~ 1/8 turn on the idle mixture screws to bring things back into acceptable range. I believe these are set up pretty decently, because the car will consistently start, idle, cruise, tip in secondaries, and return to idle, cruise etc. Believe me, you KNOW when the secondaries open up. It's like being shot out of a cannon.

This is not a big cam. The guys over on the LT1/LSx forums and the OBS forums have daily driven this cam with excellent results. 218/228 .525/.525 112 LSA. The 112 gives greater vacuum signal/less overlap for the EFI/emissions guys, as that's what this cam was designed for. I can tell you it idles and drives around fantastic in the 14s. I've had it in the 12s and low 13s driving it around and you'll suffocate from fumes (just ask my gf, who has a very sensitive nose). The car has a decent chop about 900rpm, no need to change anything there.

The transition circuit, or transfer slot, or off idle operation as shown in the diagram below, is fed by the idle circuit. Main circuit takes over when there's a great enough pressure drop to pull fuel through the boosters. I haven't got that far in the tuning yet - excited for sunshine this coming weekend to get that dialed in. As you said, I'll be tweaking main jets and main air bleeds to get that circuit happy.

 

It does has the "I'd hit that" look. My roadster be lookin at me like "you're gonna need the rollback".

 

Okay, sounds like you've got a handle on it. I guess that it's a requirement to open those end ones up now and then if there isn't any fuel flow until they are.
Poor Tim, required to stomp on it to keep things happy!

 

LOL

 

Small update on the T - I’ve had a transmission fluid leak from the speedometer housing- to recap, this is a WC T5 with F body gears and an S10 tail, electric speedometer converted to mechanical. I bought it that way from a local rebuilder, and that speedometer conversion was the source of the leak. I tried to fix it underneath the car with no luck, so I pulled the transmission.

While I had the transmission out, I wanted to install a counter shaft stabilizer plate from Paul Cangialosi (makes the transmission a lot stronger by holding the countershaft in place, so it’s not able to walk away from the mainshaft under acceleration). I had bought a couple of them from him years ago- one for the T and one for the 32 - and I finally had time to install the first one. I’m fairly happy with what I found inside the transmission- the only issue was the 5th gear/countershaft plate that is factory has tangs to stake so the bolts don’t back out- rebuilder didn’t stake them over and a couple were already loose! The stabilizer plate replaces this assembly, so no harm done thankfully. I didn’t get the best pictures of this, but there’s info on YouTube on Paul’s channel if interested.

For the leak, while I had the trans apart, I filled the tail housing with fluid and let it sit, so I could see where it was leaking. After fixing, I filled with fluid again and let it sit- no more leak. I just got the trans back in the car, replacing the transmission mount as well. I had a knock-off polyurethane mount from Speedway that was cracked all to hell, now it has a made in USA Energy Suspension mount and already I like it a lot more. It’s a challenge to pull the transmission out the bottom of the car solo, but it’s definitely doable and I’m glad I set up the chassis that way.




Also, for continuity sake, did some troubleshooting on the daily- did NOT have blown head gaskets thankfully, and I was able to get it fixed (new injector(s) installed less than a couple hundred miles ago already failed, which is a PITA to diagnose and fix as they are inside the intake along with the FPR… oh the joy… but at least I’m back up and running. I’ve got a few more things to fix on the T, then gonna do some driving early this week to take advantage of the nice weather.

 

I’ll send you a pile of carburetors for you to set up for me, Tim! Might as well benefit from your experience… Maybe I’m crazy, but tuning Hilborns always seemed easy to me. Well, at least on methanol.

 

That's a lot of effort so soon.
Since you usually cover every detail, what keeps the new bolts from backing out? Are they the plate bolts discussed in another thread?
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/bolt-grade-markings.1341580/
Glad you are getting shakedown miles (and adrenaline) this year. Hope you get a great job and can finish up the T soon. Oh, and the garage, and the house, and the 32, and, and,

 

Odd to see a crack at that area that one wouldn't think would have any stress on it? Glad it was a cheap fix, even if not all that easy.

 

Paul provides red Loctite and 4 countersunk cap screws as part of the kit. The fox body Mustang guys and road race guys have thoroughly abused his kit in the t5, and it stands up to the abuse. At some point, I’d like to make a positive stop shifter to keep from breaking the forks (my forks looked great, I just know that’s a weak point from reading), but other than that I think the trans will be good to go.

The mechanical speedometer assembly was spliced/grafted into an electric speedometer tail housing - sounds unconventional but is somewhat common for these transmissions since the mechanical tail housing is more rare. I’ve seen them both welded and epoxied in place - I just happened to get the epoxy flavor. Overall I think I prefer that over welding- not sure to what extent the housing would warp from welding. For now, since I don’t have the dash in the car, I just have a speedometer plug in place of the gear/cable.

 

Mostly good news/update: went to drive the car yesterday- would only half go in 1st gear. I tried adjusting the clutch, playing around with the shifter, no luck. So, trans came back out. I wasn’t really sure what I needed to look for, but I inspected the shift forks and manually moved the sliders into gear. Eventually it dawned on me that I installed the 5th/reverse gear shift rail 180* out, and it was interfering with the slider movement into 1st gear. I feel like an idiot for not noticing that the first time, but I was focused on 5th gear assembly and completely overlooked checking inside the main case when I put that assembly back together. So, I drove the pin out, flipped the rail around, DRY ASSEMBLED THE TRANSMISSION AND CHECKED FOR SMOOTH OPERATION OF SHIFTER AND SMOOTH SPINNING OF INPUT/OUTPUT SHAFTS, then pulled it apart again, sealed it up, re-installed in car. I believe I’m down to about 3hrs to pull the transmission and reinstall- I’m reasonably proud of that.

The sun was setting and I had data to collect, so I quickly changed into, “I’m a contributing member of society” clothing and went for a drive. As assumed, the main circuit is also lean, but not too bad. I had #60 jets installed, and would have liked to go to #62’s, but I must have those in the secondaries as that slot in the jet kit is empty. So, I went with #63’s. My thinking is, it will likely be rich, but safe to do some wide open pulls to see where the secondaries are at. If all goes well, I’ll do this tomorrow. After that, the rain comes back, so I’m hoping for a couple data collections optimistically.



Oh, almost forgot- no more transmission fluid leaks!

 

Good to hear you can beat book time!
If possible, try to pull a plug right after a few good pulls to get an idea where the mixture is.
It isn't bad to be a bit rich, especially if it's staying together for Fall. Dense air needs more fuel.
It will keep the pipes from coloring as much, too. Lean = hot.

 

Good thing a running hot rod is so much fun.
They’d think we were crazy people other wise for putting up with this nonsense lol

 

Everything on this car is really tight to work on, but I’d work on this over the daily any day of the week LOL. There’s at least a logic I’m familiar with, generally physical indicators something is wrong, and working with polished ARP fasteners doesn’t hurt haha. It’s a pinky out sorta thing vs a where is my largest hammer and longest pry bar cause I got a lotta rage and not a lotta time so the impact is set on kill sorta thing…

 

Oh 100%

that’s partially what, I was going to say is taking me but we are both in the same boat. That’s what takes so long with building this stuff is thinking of it from a packaging angle of make it work, make it look on purpose, have it as tight as possible but also make it as easy to work on as you reasonably can.

I’ve spent hours just on my current little project within the larger project making sure bolts can be removed from things, that I can access parts. It’s a slow go but when you have to tear into it it will have been worth the effort!

 

Pinky out

That's always been the beauty of the T bucket, at least the "driver" type cars, though, the show car versions were known to be somewhat over-complicated.
Tim, those front wheels are so 60's, always felt many of the T bucket builders of that period had some sort of connection to drag racing, a lot of them had big Halibrands and front spindle mounts.

 

Had some time this afternoon to take the car out for a drive. I probably drove it 30mins today, just doing merge loops onto the highway at full throttle, settle to cruise rpm, exit, circle back and do it again. I did 3 full throttle pulls and cruise sessions. It’s really fun to drive.

Best I can tell, the air fuel is in the 11’s at wide open throttle- it’s hard to watch the gauge and pay attention to everything else going on. I am a tiny bit rich now at cruise- so I think I will lean out one jet size in all 3 carbs and it will probably be pretty dialed in after that. It’s an absolute rocket ship.

First time out today, fuel pump died on me down the hill. Called gf, she came down, and I was thinking I was gonna be changing the fuel pump on the side of the road, but I wiggled the wires and it started working again. Drove it home, basically quit in the driveway. So that’s something I want to fix- will just wire up and plumb the in tank fuel pump and put that nonsense under car pump behind me. For now I zip tied the wires in place so they can’t pop off. Rigged but it works.

 

You could set Your phone to video the gauge when you go for a romp and then watch it back.

 

I have the phone on the floor in between my legs telling me how fast I’m going LOL

 

What's wrong with this picture?

 

LOL

 

Are you going to need proper headgear?