Projects Mild custom '51 Pontiac Chieftain

Enjoying the ride Phil!

 

Haven't been doing much other than just driving about.
At 55 it was beginning to sound a little like it was doing more work than it needed to. Time for a tune-up.
Decided to forego the strobe light and instead utilized Beautiful Assistant (wife) to hold the brakes on in gear and shove the throttle wide open for a few short periods as I adjusted the spark timing.
The fluid coupling stalls out at about 1800 RPM hot so that's quite close to the peak torque at 2200.
Timing carefully adjusted to be on the "hump", peak RPM on the rising edge for most useful work. Ignition had slipped, needed about 6 degrees advance which woukd explain why it felt sluggish.

Set the idle mix just off idle and now the result is a much more eager engine, the ol' pants-seat dyno says it's better. It's a lot quieter and smoother at low RPM also.

Still needs that valve job which I've been putting off and off and off...

Let's see if the fuel economy improves, certainly I can hold a few more inches of mercury on the manifold vacuum at cruise now.

Phil

 

Still along for the ride, and the way it looks is a nice "reflection" on you . Oh, and I'm with what tubman said.

 

'Fuel economy' and 'Pontiac straight eight' don't belong in the same sentence. They were never known for good mileage, but run all day at (then) highway speeds without any issues. Just a good old workhorse. (my Dad and brother drove a '53 pretty hard for years and couldn't kill it... that tells me a lot!

 

Was out and about again today. Walmart trip, on the way home had people slowing down as they passed to take photos.

Still getting used to that, even today.

Car's definitely running better for having the timing adjusted and the economy is a little better.

Can just about keep up with modern traffic on the highway. Just about.

Phil

 

A recent bout of cooler weather (30's-50's) show the transmission to be operating exactly as it should even when warm. I think I'll try a heavier weight oil and see how it behaves when the weather warms up. 50W is probably far too thick for 50's but a steady 80-100F I reckon it might work better.


So, been enjoying being out and about with the heater on.

Phil

 

Lotsa zeroes. 110,000 miles.

 

What is that dog?
A genuine maremmano-abruzzese?

 

Australian shepherd.

She's just a very pale red merle.

 

I got fuel. Also 10101.0 miles made me smile.

Windy as all heck today. Went get oil for the car at Tractor Supply. They put the price up by $12, not happy about that.

Phil

 

Man, I'd SPEED UP if I saw THAT mug staring back at me!

 

Looks like the poor thing is starved for attention! That other pooch is a good looker, too!

 

Neither of them want for attention, food or shelter! She's just good at putting a soppy face on.

Sitting outside right now, they've just been playing rough-n-tumble.

 

Oil change and grease up this morning.

Just adding the miles lately

 

I prefer this oil (Mobil1 Delvac diesel oil) over what I had before (Shell Rotella T4 diesel oil).

This is a lot quieter and doesn't now smell of burning oil on over-run. It keeps oil pressure hot better than the straight weight oil I was using (which has now gone up in price to be more than this).

Nice thing is it's one oil fits all (car, golf cart, lawn mower)...

Phil

 

Which grade are you using?

 

15W/40.

 

Sadly soon I'll be pulling this down. I'm not sure if the mural will survive.

 

Hope it survives Phil. It is an awesome representation of your car.

 

Found a nice little gauge with a sensible RPM scale for this engine.
Need to paint the bezel though.

Phil

 

Still ride'n shotgun with Ya Phil. Neat gauge set. Pup's sad face reminded of this song...enjoy

 

Nice evening tonight so took the car out for the first time in three weeks.
Naturally it was running like a bag of smashed crap for a few miles but it cleared up.

Stopped in for milkshakes. It looks so small...

 

A rose between two thorns!

 

Tidied the new tach up and added the orange and red area to the markings.

 

You know your car sits low enough when you pull up to the side of the street and it tears the exhaust off.

Oops.

 

Yup, oops. Nothing broken, just the sleeve pulled apart. Bolted it back up but brought the clamp round a touch.

 

One of those satisfying moments today.

Found and resolved a really annoying rattle. Loose bolt on the front bumper, of all things.

 

Tweaked the mixture a little, now the weather is warmer.

I'll buy that. Going to see what the nose looks like in the next few tens of miles. Might need a bit more fuel if it continues light like that.

 

Yeah, happy with that.

Phil

 

150 mile round trip today, up to headquarters and back. Averaged 13mpg which was good.

The car is definitely happiest on the back roads.

However, the gradient up the bridge over the Mississippi proved to be no problem.
I have more got a bit of vibration at 30-35 mph so I need to check the joints on the propshaft, might have had one go bad on me.

Phil