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Like the heater in body colour as well


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

Errol62 wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:43 pmEngine bay looks fantastic Harv. As do the seats. You got them retrimmed with the silver hounds tooth from SMS Fabrics USA? The icing on the cake that gear mate.

The engine bay is getting tight. Can get the plugs out, but have to get under the car to do so, and use a spanner on the end of a plug socket. Not sure I can get the dizzy out. I was tempted to hide all the wiring, but then I figured that the vehicle is destined to do a lot of miles. Lots easier to troubleshoot if I can find the wires.

The seat inserts are original ones. I was lucky enough to accumulate a heap of red and silver trim (with thanks to some of the forum guys - from memory Greg and Stinky). Most of it was hard or buggered, but the inserts were mostly good. I picked the best of the inserts, and had them recoloured by the trimmer. Came up nice. I baulked at the cost of getting the door trims redone... wish I hadn't now as they look like crap next to the seats.

Errol62 wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:44 pmLike the heater in body colour as well

Used some high-temp paint on it (leftovers from refurbishing Normans ). I have a dream of the heater knob being plastic-chromed. It's on the one-day list.

Cheers,
Harv

Put some iridium plugs in


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

Errol62 wrote: Sun Mar 31, 2019 9:34 amPut some iridium plugs in

Not a bad idea.

The main drama at the moment though is not so much plug wear, more plug fouling. This is what the rotten thing does after about 10km of driving:
With the high compression ratio, she struggles to get enough zap to light off. A (not so) quick clean, and it starts. Time for some smaller main metering jets methinks. Just got to find the Holley box-of-jets in amongst the rest of my crap.

Cheers,
Harv

Hi Harv,

The wagon looks great, it will be good to have it registered finally.

The fuel of today is just crap sitting around so that could be part of the problem as well.

I used to muck around with jets plugs etc and thought that dynos were for wankers, but the moment I used one it opened my eyes and I will never tune without it.

The fuel air mixture is graphed so jetting is easy,the timing can be measured for ultimate bang and if the tuner is switched on its set and forget.
The dyno will also highlight any other issues real quick including transmission slip etc. I believe its the only way to go especially if your engine is warm as you have said.

Dont worry I have to take 2 plugs out by feel and can barely see them around the booster and exhaust !!

Regards Greg

Harv wrote: Sun Mar 31, 2019 9:46 am

Errol62 wrote: Sun Mar 31, 2019 9:34 amPut some iridium plugs in

Not a bad idea.

The main drama at the moment though is not so much plug wear, more plug fouling. This is what the rotten thing does after about 10km of driving:

Optimized-Plugs.JPG

With the high compression ratio, she struggles to get enough zap to light off. A (not so) quick clean, and it starts. Time for some smaller main metering jets methinks. Just got to find the Holley box-of-jets in amongst the rest of my crap.

Cheers,
Harv

You could also try a hotter plug Harv, I run one range hotter in my drag car with a small block. It will still foul if it is not fully warmed up before it's shut down. Not sure what ignition you have, but may need an MSD or similiar.

A hotter plug is good advice. I run a range hotter in the FB, and the plugs come up beautifully. The colder range of plugs that I used to run end up really sooty.

The ignition seems to run OK, or at least so the dyno says. It's an MSD billet dizzy, running an MSD Blaster coil. Pretty simple stuff, but for what I am doing it doesn't need the "features" of a full electronic ignition box.

Cheers,
Harv

Great to see photos of your little red wagon Harv! I hope you're on a big push to get it on the road, I'm keen to check it out.

Cheers, Joe

What a weekend. Did you WA guys hear a loud, loud expletive on Saturday?

Took the wagon over to the chassis dyno mob on Saturday to get the mixture set across the whole range. Car ran OK tootling along in Sydney traffic. A little hard to start from the fouled plugs. Speedo checked out OK on the way over, so at least there was one win. Got over to the dyno place, and the dyno bloke takes a quick look to make sure it is OK before putting it on the rolling road. Good voltage at the coil, air cleaner off and carb looks OK. Fired it up, and the bloke reckons the car has a horrible noise. Stuck my head under the bonnet, and have to agree with him. Thought it might have been the water pump, but no. Looks like significant bottom end damage, drivers side rear. Dyno bloke checks timing, and it has 34º at idle and 44º all-in. Waaaaaay too much advance, and has detonated itself to death.

This was probably when the WA guys heard me swear.

Engine had been built, and I spent a small fortune having it engine dyno'd by the builder before I put it into the wagon. Haven't touched the timing since. It would fire up relatively easy, though after a few runs would struggle. I figured it was fouled plugs... more likely it was so damn advanced that it would not light off. Chassis dyno bloke wound the timing back a tad, and now it starts damn easy, even with crappy plugs. Managed to limp the car home again and park it in the naughty corner.

I've had the engine back for about a year, mucking around getting the car finished. It's been up and down the driveway and to the end of the road perhaps a dozen times. All low speed stuff, with the dizzy sitting at low timing (not much more than 34º). Last weekend's run down the M4 (to set the speedo) was at 100km/h - dizzy wound in the advance to 44º, and she detonated out. Didn't hear any pinging, but then again I was obsessed with the speedo (and then the smoke show from the failed trans cooler line).

Spoke to the builder, he will pull the engine down and see what he finds. Can't look at it until next month.

Not happy, Jan.

Cheers,
Harv

Oh shot. Hope they come to the party. Would have thought you’d hear significant pinging for some time before that sort of damage.


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Thought I heard a sonic boom coming from the east saturday when we were trying to pull in windscreens but wasn't sure as couldn't hear much over my own swearing.
Not good news Mate, the 305 I have just put in the guys FC was a similiar story although maybe not so bad we were told it had been rebuilt a number of years before; I stripped it down partially and checked bearings etc. it had assembly past all through it and looked ok he took it to the engine tuner to find out it had a bent valve, all the valves were not sealing cost him another $1700 odd before the tuner would touch it again.
Hope it all works out ok in the end mate.
Neil

Harv,

That's a real shit. I was going to pop my head in at yours over the weekend (since I was at Toongabbie) to see how you went with the seized EJ motor and the children of Arachne. But you now have other things on your mind, and I got distracted with my latest acquisition.

Rob

Really Harv what a bummer !!

I have my doubts that you have caused damage with the lack of work the engine has done and especially if you couldn't hear any pinging going on.

Was it getting hot ?

Mate do a compression check and dump the oil and cut the filter, see if theres any metal for a start. Maybe borrow a camera and look inside the bores for damage, broken ring lands etc.

Its pretty hard to break a chev unless theres something wrong in the first place and usually the motor will get real hot and pingy for damage to happen.
Please keep us posted and hopefully its not so bad to sort out.

Regards Greg

I thought it would be noisy (pinging), but not that I noticed. Runs warm (~90C on the Speco gauge in the ashtray) but not hot enough to turn on the idiot light.

EJ motor came out of storage OK. Few webs, and only one little spoodlet. Makes me wonder where the mumma spider went Block was still seized - no go trying to turn the crank, and some love taps with the handle of a lump hammer on the piston crowns would not budge it. Unbolted the caps and mains, and the crank came our easy. Pistons were all free in the bores. Crank has been machined funny (I think) - see photos in meth monster thread.

Cheers,
Harv

Bummer about the Chev Harv. Hope it turns out to be a pleasant warranty job experience for you

Cheers,

John