When my wife first saw my treasure. her first words were " what a piece of junk", and then " it'll never run". My wife is not a seasoned wife of a hot rodder, so the gauntlet had been dropped. My first task was to clean it up so it didn't look and smell like a barnyard. I spent all yesterday with various and sundry scrapers and wire brushes and a can of chevy orange spray paint( a temporary coating to cover the cleaned parts) At this point it was 4 AM I staggered upstairs fell into bed and passed out. My wife was at work so there was no one there to annoy with the wire wheels and grinders.
I awoke at 10 in the morning and headed back downstairs, slipping out of bed quietly so as not to awaken my wife who had come in sometime around 6am. After a quick breakfast I spent 3 hours or so with final cleanup. The chore of running this thing was very simple, a feed to the hei ignition with a twisted connection so a tug on it to shut it down just in case things didn't go too well. I wired in a pushbutton from the battery terminal to the solenoid terminal on the starter. I had checked the oil level on the dipstick which was ok although had a very dark color. I plumbed up a pressure gauge just in case. Well I was ready for lift off. I brought in my son for assistance just in case. i pumped the carb a couple of times then hit the start button and was rewarded with a fast very irregular idle then it died after a few repeats of the usual procedure, and fiddling with the choke it settled into a very irregular idle. (at least its running). I let it warm up till I was getting steam out of the temporary rad cap opening, cant run it pressurized, the rad leaks like a sieve. I shut it down and went back to the basics. After a cooling period, I pulled the plugs and found what I expected, black and gaps all over the place. time for a trip to the auto parts store.
Before I went shopping I checked the compression, low was #1 at 150 psi....high was #6 at 160 psi, the rest were 153 to 157 psi. Not great, but with not knowing the compression factor cant tell how bad it really is. BUT it should run reasonably well with the way it is.So off to UAP for plugs. This was another treat. When I asked for 6 R44T plugs, she said What plug number? Since this motor was probably built before she was born, I just asked her for the plug cross reference books, and came up with a Bosch Platinum plus plug with all the proper specs, which by good fortune she had in stock The sales girl asked me what it was for and when I told her, she told me she had never heard of that type of engine. LOL
After checking the gap and installing the plugs. We fired up the engine and after a short warm up we were rewarded with a regular idle. Much to my wife's surprise, although she did have to complain at how loud it was, which I can understand, its right out of the manifold. Ya gotta love em!
So now new chrome valve and side covers, new starter, new fuel pump, new HEI, and new alternator are on order.
I think the carb will be a new ProjectionIII from Professional Products, and a Clifford Research single 4150 style manifold. That should get good performance without boost, and then when I decide on supercharge or turbocharge the projection can handle up to to 21 lbs of boost. Ah to dream. Well its 0130 and its time for bed...
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