AM General FJ-8A

There is something so cool about an ice cream truck that can burn the tires and put a holeshot on most cars on the road - I love it!

 

Quickie burnout in the city water dept parking lot; I was going to do a donut but the back wheel started coming off the ground so I figured I better not. Still some tuning to do but not bad for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYAUCk_e7SA

 

IT"S ALIVE!!

Cool rig you have built...gonna surprise people when you jump on it.

 

So when does my ice cream get delivered????
And will you be deliver it faster then "Jimmie John's"???...joe

 

Sorry, Joe. You are out of our approved delivery radius.

 

Awe c'mon, Cahokia is just slightly across the river from you.

 

Oh come on not this shit again.
Hell we use to drive over off Telegraph Rd to get an Imo's Pizza and eat it in their parking lot before they came to Cahokia.
So I guess what you're telling me is IF I want ice cream, I'll have to drive over & park in your driveway to get some.
I'm Map Questing you now....lol

 

Actually you have to drive over AND bring your own! (Bring me some some, too. I'll take a turtle concrete with Heath candy and whipped cream)

 

LoL love the burnout!

 

I tell you what, pick a day(PM me when), throw the wife in the I Scream truck and drive on over to Ted Drewes. The wife & I will meet you there & I'll even buy

 

I'm trying to figure out a new business venture that would justify having a hot-rod RHD delivery van...!

Still in my personal Top Five of the current HAMB project vehicles!

 

You're on; who could say no to that?

Thanks for the kudos, Patrick. Top 5 is quite a compliment. First car show this weekend! I still dont have the back door on it but it's going anyway. Also changed the hubcaps to a full moon style; the baby's didnt quite fit and wouldn't stay on. I went through three different sizes and gave up.

 

So where's the show at???????

 

McDonalds in Festus; Saturday at 6pm. Come on down!

 

W. Gannon Dr or S. Truman Blvd?????

 

W. Gannon Dr

 

What size caps did you finally put on?
I got some 10" Studebaker center babymoon caps from ebay but didn't fit.
Now they are back on ebay!!!

 

my kinda build! Good job!

 

Mine wouldnt stay on, either. I took them off. I went through 3 sizes and gave up.

 

How did the car show turn out???

 

Really good; I had people around it all night. Kids really liked it. I had two offers to sell but I'm waiting until February so I can play with it a while.

 

I finished rebuilding the back door this week. I had some new plywood panels cut and cleaned up all the old hinges, latches, etc.. I think it came out pretty good. Cleaned it up and crusied a couple of local shows yesterday; too. I'm definately going to need to build a fan shroud; it runs cool when your moving but definately does not like sitting still for very long.

 

The door looks great. How hard was that overhead spring to put in? Mine right now looks like 2 giant slinkies /\/\/\ /\/\/\. Getting parts should beeasy to get since the door is basically a garage door. Still cant wait to see the completed picture album when you get it together. Anymore vidios at the water plant parking lot???

 

Wow, looks like no one has been back here (logged in) for the past two weeks except for me.
Just wondering if you have won any car shows yet and if you have anymore pictures to post.
Sarge.

 

Hey sarge, I havent been on here in a while, now that this is pretty much done I'm catching up on home projects. My wife and I are building a small recording studio in our basement so we've been busy with that. I've had it to a few shows and it's got a lot of attention but no winners. Shows are pretty much over here until spring. It's running really good, I've been cruzing it around town whenever I get the chance. Still a few small details to get to but I'm really happy with the way it came out. There's a place online called stepvanparts.com that has a all kinds of door stuff for these so you might want to look there. How's yours coming along?

 

This was a cool thread man,that thing came out awesome!

 

Very cool & a clean build. You are gonna like that big Olds. I put one in my old pickup a while ago. Never fails to impress me how much tq they have.

I noticed you have the heater hose lines going way up. If they go higher the the radiator fill point, you will have air in the system. You can fix this by either adding one of those radiator flush kits that add a "T" into one of the heater hoses, or add a surge tank from an old Vette. If you add a "T", make sure you put it at the highest point. You will also need to top off your cooling system from the T as well.
If you decide on the Vette surge tank, they have their own rad cap. You would need to install a high press cap on the radiator, & a lesser one at the surge tank. The surge tank will also need to be the highest thing in the cooling system, including the heater. They reproduce these tanks at most Corvette parts sites (ecklers, paragon, zip, etc). You will need to specify a tank for a non-ac SB car, '70-'72. They look cool & racy too, with the aluminum tank. make sure you get the straps. The tank will need to tap into a heater hose.

Also, the Olds motors have a big port in the center of each head that dumps hot exhaust into the manifold. If you were doing the heads, it's normal in any Olds performance modifications to fill & shape the crossovers in each head with molten aluminum from a cast piston. Since your heads are already done, I think Edelbrock sells thick aluminum plugs that snugly fit into each crossover. Don't use the thin steel plates that are sold for a block off. The exhaust will also sound better.
Regarding your motor heating up, make sure you have enough ignition advance. Olds engines will get hot fast if the timing is too far retarded.

Good luck man!

 

That's great info, thanks! I set the timing to the Chilton specs for 1975 and it seems to run good but I'll definately look into blocking that exhaust port in the heads and a surge tank. I'm planning on selling/trading this in the spring and would like to have all the little bugs worked out of it. I used the valley pan and silicone for the intake gasket but I've since seen that there are standard intake gaskets available. Did you eliminate the valley pan on yours and just use gaskets?

 

The valley pan "turkey tray" gasket is good to use. It will keep the hot oil from cooking on the bottom of your intake manifold - where the exhaust crossover runs.

There are the plugs I was referring to, which fit into each cylinder head.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-2733/

This is the method I would recommend if you were still working on the heads

http://www.realoldspower.com/phpBB2...days=0&postorder=asc&highlight=miller+filling

&

http://www.robertpowersmotorsports.com/Tech1.html

Also, if you are heating up in traffic, you will need to install a shroud. I would also be using an 18" or 19" factory style clutch fan for maximum air movement.

That thing sounds great in the video

 

Thanks, i'm going to open the intake back up over the winter and address this, plus build a shroud. I need to do another video, that one wasnt long enough.