Been a long couple of months since we fired up the car and I last posted an update. Illness and death in the family along with a crazy work load can really burn a person out. Thankfully things are normalizing.
Took a little time off work this week and got some things buttoned up on the car.
Heat shield on fuel lines
Adjusted exhaust to add clearance to fuel lines and built new/better muffler hangers
Installed speedo gear/adapter
Wrapped up AC wiring and cleaned up wiring under dash
Fixed a clearance issue between the throttle linkage and air cleaner base and took slack out of throttle cable
Installed seat belts in the back seat and a hook in the package tray for our son’s car seat
Got the AC charged
Buttoned up the engine bay and cleaned the interior.
Driving to the AC appointment Wednesday was the first time the car has been on the road in 2 years. Man, it’s crazy to think about that… After picking it up I put on 20 miles of town and hi-way driving. There is a bit of a stumble when taking off with too low of RPM that I still need to figure out. But other than that the EFI really lets the car pull strong and smooth.
Yesterday our town had a cruise night. It was great to finally be able to load the family up and go for a drive. Made a couple laps around town then met up with some friends. They had never seen the car out of the garage before. Hung out with them a while and then decided to take a couple more laps and head home. Traffic was bumper to bumper at a snail pace which really sucks with a torquey big block and manual trans. We decided to head towards the edge of town and do a loop around the industrial park then head home.
A couple blocks away from home the exhaust fumes/gas smell got really strong. We’ve got a header leak and the tune seems to be running rich so I assumed it was coming from that. We got her pulled into the garage and I noticed wet spots on the driveway and floor. It was gas! I did a once over of all the fittings I could easily access and did not see an drips. I cycled the fuel pump a few times and finally found the leak. It was a pretty rapid drip coming out of the braid hose that runs from the driver side fuel rail behind the distributor to the regulator. It was dripping onto the EFI wire harness then down on to the bell housing. Thank God nothing caused it to ignite!
I was not able to pin point where the leak originates from. It seemed to be coming through the braided ss at the low spot but I could not see an obvious hole. It could be coming from a hose end and traveling down to the low spot. There are no pinch points and the hose is not rubbing on anything. Everything was hot so I did not dig into it too much. I wiped up what I could and put a fan blowing on the engine bay to cool it down and dry it off. I had pressure tested every hose before final install and fire up. Hopefully I find something obvious and can get it remedied quickly.
Here's some obligatory crappy cell phone pics from Wednesday.. Will shoot some better pics and maybe a video next time we take the car out.
And just for fun, I thought I’d share how my uncle packages his sweet corn. He works pretty hard all year long to stock piling these boxes.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
J/K But I have been learning a lot as I go with this project. Pretty much everything I’m doing is a first for me. Yesterday I did find TDC for the first time in my life after some reading and watching a video. I gutted an old spark plug, drilled it out, ran a piece of all thread thru it, then ground down a jamb nut so it would fit into the head threads. Our old cast iron heads are laying around yet so I had something to test fit before trying on our aluminum RHS heads. I verified I was on the compression stroke by holding my finger over the #1 plug hole as I manually turned the crank. Then I inserted the piston stop into cylinder 1, placed a piece of tape on the balancer, turned the crank slowly until it stopped and marked the 0 location on the tape. Then I spun it the opposite direction until it stopped and marked the 0 location on the tape again. Wrapped a small piece of paper around the balancer, transferred both marks to it, matched up the two marks while folding in half to find the center point, then wrapped it back around the balancer and marked the center point on the tape. Not too surprising but it matched perfectly to the original line on the balancer.
Hybrid Mode
