Well it's been awhile, but I've been driving it off and on, and my plan had been to tear the motor out and install another sbc I have waiting in the wings, (still might happen) but I found the distributor got loose and the timing was off, causing it to run poorly. once I adjusted it, the car ran way better. I picked up a new headlight switch, they only had one available in the whole area, so i'll try the other parts store in town, or maybe just online. went over to my woodworker buddy's house, and gave him my scoop. he's gonna make a scoop plug for it, for when it rains. drove it to church on Sunday (note the extra distributor cap as a carb topper) and since my wife wasn't around this weekend I could park in the middle of the driveway and look at the car from the house. I pulled out dads timing light to double check the timing (it was a hair too advanced still) and then went for a spin up the road. but I heard a tick. well shoot. this is what I found. something made the rocker come off the pushrod, and the lifter doesn't seem to be lifting. so we are gonna tear the intake off sometime this week, and try to figure out if the lifter collapsed, or is stuck, or what's going on. and of course its trouble cylinder #4 maybe its part of the problem? but it still doesn't explain this... yes, that's a POOL of oil in the exhaust port. we'll figure it out. OR ill put another motor in. you'll find out next time! I'll leave on a good note though.
Perhaps the valve seal is toast too and the guides maybe a little worn, so all the oil flinging around inside the valve cover just found an easy way out? And I wonder how much the other primaries are scavenging from the dead cylinder, maybe sucking the oil in. Just a couple theories.
first off, thanks to all you guys for the ideas. I took the car outside Thursday afternoon to drain the fluids, and I had to stop and give a ride. . . ok so we didn't go anywhere, and we didn't even fire the car up. but we did some fast and the furious level shifting. fun of having a low car, having to roll it onto stands just to drain the oil and water. "OIL and water?" I hear you say, "why did you have to change the oil?" well I'm used to messing with VW's. theres a couple big differences between VW's and Chevy's. . one of them is the water that cools it. and if your dumb like me, you start taking the intake off before you drain the radiator, and let water seep into the valley. so oil is now out. Once I drained the rad and the oil, I popped off the intake. And wouldn't ya know. @32fenderless was right. the nut had just backed off. When I had previously thought I had set the pushrod on the lifter, it must have been next to it. cause once I put the pushrod on the lifter, it slid down and the rocker arm swiveled over on top of it. so I ordered poly locks and I got them Saturday, along with a new front tire. @Austin kays is gonna come over sometime this week and run the valves again. I also received the scoop-plug from my buddy. It's really nice. i'm excited to paint it, or stain it, whichever I decide. Im thinking about getting it scanned to make into a 3-D print. I'm gonna need a few more once I get my new intake. .
Sounds like good news on the push rod. If you can produce the carb scoop plug inexpensively, you could probably sell some here.
that's the part we have to figure out, the scoop plug he made was hand cut, and he didn't relish the idea of making more. I think a slight redesign and maybe a different material would be good. If we figure it out the hamb will be the first place I post it.
I’ve got a guy who could model that for you for 3d printing if you need a connection. Gonna have him make me some nylint roadster wheel covers
@Ryan didn’t know if you’d seen this thought you’d enjoy a good thrash build turned two thousand mile Texas road trip story
Well I've been quiet for a bit, been busy knocking out art for events coming up (including my own) and have been compiling parts for the repairs needed on the T. Ever since I got back home from Texas I've been looking for a 12" superior wheel like I had used on the trip (that one was borrowed from my tamale wagon) The other night I was surfing marketplace and found one. I did some cleaning on it and installed it last night. There's a couple things left to fix, like the headlight switch (I have one in stock) and the starter solenoid (should be here Saturday) I'm gonna try a fuel pressure regulator and see if that helps the carb flooding problem. I think the pressure from the pump (5-6psi) is overloading the needle and seat. In the same order I purchased a Stewart Warner fuel sender, I'll see if I can adapt that to my vw tank and make the fuel gauge work. I'm hoping that I will have the car ready to go to the Speedway Motors cars and coffee on the 27th.
Is that the wheel hub magazine event? Saw a three spoke at the swap and thought of you, I’d have looked closer if I knew you needed it
yupp. Mike is bringing his willys out for the event its probably the thick rim one that austin messaged me, im picky about my wheels. this is kinda a rarer duck, being a thin rubber rim superior 500 in a non-standard 12" size. (that said, if anybody has a thin rim superior 500 for sale, hit me up, I'm always interested.)
Keeping on, keepin on. Went to the local bike shop and had them break the old tire off and then slip the new tire on. ok, I only went there cause I'm lazy, and didn't want to do it by hand like last time. I still wound up doing it mostly myself. But once I got it on, tube in, and aired up, I came home, only to realize, that I never had any rear seals on the trip to Texas... That never made it on the pre-trip checklist I guess. So I got some ordered, and should be set this weekend when all the other stuff shows up. I also put the finishing touches on my Open House flyer. I'll get these done this week and pass them out at shows this summer. As you can see I've embraced the single carb life for now. that will change soon enough.
Got my order in from speedway, got a fuel sender (actually bolted right into my tank) and a solenoid for the starter. I also grabbed a few more scoops (foreshadowing) But for now its still a uno carbo, so I had to clean up and repaint the intake. I installed my new headlight switch, and ran the wire for the fuel sender and wouldn't ya know it? it worked right off! hopefully I won't have to adjust it too much, its a pain to take the turtledeck loose and slid off enough to get to the sender. some friends came over today to buy stuff, so I threw the intake and valve covers on for show. I should get my spindle-rear-bearing-seal-things today. I installed the new solenoid on the starter, and got it ready to go. I also pulled my tach and vacuum gauges out to send off and get repaired. @Austin kays is coming by tomorrow and we should be able to get the motor sorted. I need to drive this thing again!
got the roadster out yesterday afternoon, and got it tuned up a bit. drove it around town a bit and the carb flooded in the Walmart parking lot. its kinda annoying, I have a gauge, that says its regulated to about 5 psi. Its a new regulator, supposedly 4-7 psi, but I cant seem to make it go below 5 regardless I drove it to work today. it drove pretty good. I've gotta get it tuned up a little more, cause this weekend I'm headed to Lincoln NE for the speedway cars and coffee.
When I got home from work today I had a couple packages waiting for me, the main one was from speedhut. I purchased one of their gps-to-mechanical speedometer boxes. I hooked up the cable and thought I would try and log some miles to get closer to the correct milage on the odometer. I spun it up to almost 80 mph! Unfortunately, at that rate, we figured it would take 16.5 hours to install the 2250ish miles that I've got on the car. so I abandoned that. Instead I turned my attention to getting the Speedbox placed under my dash. Handy light-table is handy.. Transfer to metal and add studs... (sorry for the awful picture) Install sound deadener to the back, then remember that you need to paint it. Install plate into position on inside of cowl, wedged between 5 things. (the notch in the left side is to go around the rubber line to the vacuum gauge) install the box, hookup the cables, and then tear the dash apart to install the wiring. All installed and zip tied together. I placed the gps sender on the driver side out in the open, so it could see the sky easier (even though you can put it under a dash) the cable lays pretty flat on the firewall, and I think once some carpet goes over it, you'll never notice it. I ran the demo/calibration and it spun right up to 60 mph. Hopefully I will be able to try it out tomorrow!
I spun my Model A speedo ahead 42k miles in a couple evenings on the living room floor with the electric drill while I watched TV.
I have the same speedo, they are easy to take apart and could be set in just a few minutes. That may be not worth the hassle, though. It's great reading about your adventures. Makes me want to get mine done so I can drive around.
ok lets start with the good stuff. my review of the Speedhut "speedbox" It works! It is super simple to install, just switched power, and ground. then you find a place to put the sender thing so it can talk to the satellites, and install the cable to your speedometer. hit the test button and it should spin it up to 60mph. you can adjust it (while in test mode) to land right on 60 so it works with your specific speedometer. In actual use, it is a little clunky. It makes a buzzing "electric motor" sound. so if your car is quiet, I'd put it somewhere that it wont be heard, maybe just tucking up under the dash of a big car would be enough? If you have a hood you could put it with the motor, or if you got a longer cable, you could put it in the trunk or something. but its not really bad, so maybe if you stuck it in a box with sound deadener? It also takes a minute to register movement. This isn't much of a problem, but sometime it takes a minute or so after startup to start registering speed. (I have the sender in clear view of the sky) other than those two things, it registers speed accurately, and makes my vintage speedometer work. One of the biggest selling points for me is it will be accurate, even when I change tires, or change gears in the rearend. ANYWAY. off the soapbox. wanna see pictures of a hot rod in the grass? Yes? me too. I took it to our church for a VBS family night, and then drove up and saw a couple buddies at the parts store. afterwards I stopped at my old work to take photos under the lights. It's running pretty decent, I'm excited to drive up to Lincoln Saturday. drove it to work today again. ..
Big update, grab your beverage of choice, (mine is coffee) and settle in. so to make saturday's trip even better, we have to look at friday night. I went from work, over to my buddies bike shop, (the one that helped with the front tire) and showed him the car, as he had not seen it yet. He also owns a body shop next door, and its been tradition as long as I can remember, to do a burnout as you leave. I may have given it the beans a bit much. It was to date, the best burnout I've done in the car, but it was floating the valves a bit. I came home, didn't think much of it, and just hung out and cleaned bugs off the car. later that evening, I took dad for a short ride around town and started hearing a familiar sound. so when I got home, I took off the valve covers. And I found a loose #6 exhaust rocker. we speculated a bit, but it seems maybe the valve float of a big cam and stock valve springs, was enough to make it loosen up? either that or we didn't get the polylock tight enough. Regardless, @Austin kays got to my house at just after 6 on Saturday morning, we bumped the motor over and set that valve, and we were off! We met up with a buddy at the little truck stop outside of town, and started our way northward. It was bitter cold, and about the time we hit interstate, Austin regretted not having some better PPE. but he did manage to take this photo of Mike's willys. We stopped at the Nebraska city exit, Mike topped off with gas, and Austin made the wise move to hop in the car with a roof and mufflers. A few more (slightly warmer) miles later, we arrived. John Carter caught us coming in. aaaaaand then caught me leaving, and apparently scratching my forehead? We 100% left at the wrong time. The guys wanted to leave and get lunch, and apparently everyone else had the same idea. we sat in traffic for what seemed like forever. She got a little toasty. as did I, sitting in the hot sun. but as soon as we took off down the road, both were cooled down. I wish I had a video of the trip on I80, cause it was a rip. we cruised for most of it, but at one point my carb started to flood again. I stuck my foot in it and it flattened out. So I figured, I'll leave my foot in it. I went by Mike and Austin doing somewhere around 85-90 and held it there until the next exit. It worked, it didn't flood out, and eventually the needle started working again. We continued on, towards Plattsmouth NE, for some good homecooked food at Moms Cafe. We almost made it. Over that hill a bit, Is a gas station. turns out, E means Empty on the gauge. Austin pushed me out of traffic, and then left with my gas can to get a gallon of gas. He also got this great picture on the way back. luckily the cop was cool, and stayed there until I got fired up and left. We made it to Mom's and had a good meal. Then had to do an adjustment to Mike's clutch linkage. With that fixed we went up the road and introduced Austin to our favorite Model car store, AK collectibles in Bellevue, NE. I stopped and grabbed a water, then caught back up to the guys on I29. Mike was taking it easy, cause the wind was whipping him around pretty good. For the first time ever though, I wasn't getting pushed around by the wind! It was nice to be able to cruise, with relative ease all the way home. We made it back to the truck stop we started at, and Austin loaded back in with me. And we got back to the house, after another 330ish pretty un-eventful miles. Austin parted ways and headed for home, I hung out outside and I slept like a rock that night. I then drove it to church the next morning, and parked in the yard. Then it had to be inspected by the boss. Which led to my new favorite picture. Teach 'em young.
You need the actual LOW pressure regulator. 1-4PSI Quick Fuel 30-804QFT Low Pressure Regulator (holley.com)
I need it to be that low? I was under the impression that a stock gm pump makes 5-7, and since this was off a Chevy 283 V8, I figured it would work with that pressure range. (the fuel pump puts out 6psi which I was told would be good out of box for this carb) It runs great 98% of the time, just every once in a while it floods, so we were gonna switch in a different needle/seat and see if it helped. But I know I will have to install one of those regulators once we install my intake full of holley 94's.
If it is only once in a while I would not worry. The Holly style is still one of the better choices but they will fluctuate a bit. Yours is probably bumping up a couple PSI at times?
I have it setting at 5psi right now on the regulator and it is a Holley "sniper" brand. It's happened more than I want it to, so I'm all for ideas. I wish I could see the fuel psi gauge going down the road, but its on the firewall.
The Jalopy Journal
