Well -- Santa Barbara is a beautiful town! I love it here! We had a nice day of cruising down "old town" if that's what they call it - and just generally scoping things out. The car was running like crap... so ended up doing a big of the ol' parking lot re-do... coil wires from the MSD where bundled with the EFI wires - SUPER BIG NO NO.... so got that straightened out. Having a trailer is where that pays off... nice big box full o' tools... wire... etc. Then the injectors are LS7 versions - rated at 58 #'s (39# injectors - but MOST injectors are rated at 43#'s).... so that's where they were set.... Poor thing was PIG FAT.... so dropped that down to 50#'s and runs FAR FAR better....

The rear end is puking gear grease on my fancy dandy exhaust --- and that will just have to wait for a better time to fix it. SAR can handle that when I get back north.

The one thing I want to say -- this car DRIVES fantastic! As in 90 MPH on the freeway is like driving my big four door... well not quite... but it drives GREAT. I lowered the tire pressure to 25#'s all around and that really made it handle so much better... but the suspension is terrific in this car. I'm very very impressed with that. My buddies '32 with the dropped straight axle is a lane hopper. And it's rough... and wanders. Not because it's loose steering but because it's axle etc is all over the place. (The '32 I down here with is different than the one I say drives like crap... this one I'm with is a "Great 8" car -- all torsion bar suspension and a Northstar motor - and it's SWEET).

:thumbsup:

Jody -- I've got to run the rack in the AM... nothing better than cup of coffee - beach air - sunshine - and motor oil while adjusting valves. I think they're too tight having been adjusted one full turn -- I'm going to back them off and do 'em all at half a turn. Long story - but I think this might help. They're hydraulic rollers.

Wait... if you have the lakester sidepipes, how come you've got a central pipe?

Greg, That '32 is freakin' awesome! An average person might not think it, but looking at the before and after pictures is night and day difference in the transformation. I would love to own a rod like that. :thumbsup:

That obviously is huge....congrats on that. :thumbsup:

I don't how they did it, but the exhaust has got that nice Ford tone.

:P

that looks
AWESOME!!!!

Cant wait to cruise at Puyallup SP
now i think i need to bring the 33 down the 2 would look wicked together

Greg,

See you tomorrow at the show!


--Eric

Not if it's raining buddy! If we go - which means we're getting up and leaving the hotel at 6 AM IF it's not spritzin.... if it's spritzin' we'll decide if we all want to pile into my Nomad and just take it --- and if it's really raining - we're heading to VEGAS.....

The car drives great - but I have many other stories to tell when this saga plays out. This morning at 6 AM I adjusted the valves out in the IHOP parking lot... I have intermittent brake lights - I can't get into the trunk half the time - I have water leaks - I have gear grease puking onto the fancy friggin' exhaust... sometimes it starts - sometimes not. I've had to have it towed off HWY 101 (thanks for AAA) and back to the trailer parking so I could repair the wire that came off (terminal broke off because the wire was too tight) the alternator... and I've had to rewire the MSD and get that wiring all away from the ECU bundle. Funny -- I told SAR -- "DO NOT" place the MSD anywhere near the ECU. Great! They put the ECU under the dash - and the MSD under the seat... fine.... then they BUNDLED all the wiring in one loom. The car wouldn't run - it crapped and backfired and did all manor of ill mannered things. NOTE TO FUTURE EFI PEOPLE.... DO NOT RUN THE COIL LEADS FROM THE MSD ANYWHERE NEAR THE ECU OR IT'S WIRING!! How stupid.... Why would you relocate the brain boxes only to bundle their associated wiring.

I now know why I have a shop in my own backyard... because (sorry "pros") most of the supposed "shops" don't know diddly about nuttin'!

Can you tell I'm pissed? :woot:

I'm a greaser - not a waxer.... all the fancy chrome in the world doesn't mean squat to me if the car is dead on the side of the road! Take your chrome and shove it! Give me a dead solid reliable car any day. My Nomad has far more extensive electronics and systems in it - I did it ALL myself - and thank god - because it's down here (brother in law drug it down) and it's been the parts chase car... and the come get me off the freeway car... and it starts - drives great - runs better - the brake lights work - the headlights work... it doesn't rattle... and I'd drive the POS to NYC and back tomorrow. It was BUILT RIGHT! Attention to "circuits" in electricity - grounds - and +'s are EQUALLY important... Don't even get me started about the nightmare wiring in the '32 that was just "done" and then "Re-done" because I bitched about what I saw. Guess what... I'm not sure they'll get the chance to re-do the re-do.

It sounds one hell of a lot better now that I ran the rack on it.... I picked up a sound in the exhaust note (don't ask me how I hear it - it's just "experience" I guess) that said valve adjustment....

Ran the rack this morning --- the note is "solid" now... without the "backwash" hiccups I picked up on. :willy: :willy: :woot: