Steve,

I grew up in a "Chevrolet" family. My first car in high school was a 1956 Bel-Air with a {Corvette Option Engine, 265ci 4 barrel carburated V8}. My Chevy dreams ended when my father stopped my project of transplanting our 1971 Kingswood Wagon 400ci V8, into a 1969 Corvette chassis. The Corvette would have been a fun project.

If we're reminiscing, my first brand new Chevy cost less than a CSP325 but I'm old.

....love it ....brought back a lot of good memories... I had a 66 Chevelle SS 396 ... l bought this car with money I was making from working at a gas station ...can you believe it...they actually had places back then where someone took care of your petroleum needs while you sat and watched them...it was first time I ever had a payment, not to a bank, but to my dad...I learned a lot about a lot of things during those times...cars, girls , and responsibilities...
thanks Steve for the post ...it was good reading

I've been wrenching on (primarily) this car since before I was old enough to drive.  The difference between where I started and now is precision.  When I was 16 I bet my friend I could hand him the timing chain from my car in 15 minutes... and I did it.  It was always about how fast you could do it, as if that somehow made it less work.  These days I am looking for experts to do it for me, but that's a lot harder than it sounds when you do actually know what you want - perfection.

So not that long ago I found an engine guru with a flawless reputation and long history of great motors... not one negative comment that I could find online, lots of rave reviews.  I had him build me a stroker motor with as much cam in it as you can get to idle with a 3500 RPM stall converter.

I was a real thrill to have something more perfect than I could have done myself, and I have really enjoyed it except for some nagging issues with intermittent pinging from what sounds like one cylinder only, and then finally the crushing moment came one sunny afternoon last summer.

I was on my way to Menards and a Camaro spotted me and had to roar past me and cut in front of me at the offramp so he could impress us all with how flat he could stay in the curve at 60 plus mph.  I decided now would be a fun time to warp his mind a bit, so I locked onto his tail and matched his speed until we exited onto the interstate at which point it was game on.  

I blew past him before things even got going, and flew up the long hill in the fast lane.  When I had him by at least 10 car links, I looked in my mirror and was F'in HORRIFIED to see a giant white/blew smoke cloud coming from the right channel.  It was so embarrassing I just wanted to die.

So that is what I was doing under my hood on the first warm Spring day we've had... chasing it down to an intake manifold gasket failure... which brings me to this weeks observation.

These people who did this motor were pros. It's a trick motor. The custom heads where the head meats the intake were polished when they shouldn't have been.  The intake gasket was set with only RTV on the water ports, 6 of twelve intake bolts were not anti-ceased or thread locked, and had lost all torque to the point where I could take 2 off with just my fingers. This caused a predictable chain of events.

So once again in a situation where I have to just buck up and do it myself, I decided to watch some Youtube videos of other experts doing it despite having installed at least 30 intakes in my life and never once having a single problem... I'm at that age where I try to get past my ego now and see if there is anything I can learn from others. So to this end I got on Youtube and watched every video I could find on SB CHEVY intakes being put on and I shit you not, all 31 videos did it wrong.

Watching 28 of these videos gob 4000% more silicon around the water ports and on the wrong side was just too much. Where the hell do they think that shit goes when it's compressed between the head and intake?  Most don't even let it set before they are sliding it around with the manifold not thinking to look through the bolt holes to align the manifold.

So, the short of the story is that per the manufactures instructions, you must use gasket sealer between the head and the gasket by painting a thin layer onto both, covering the entire surface. This seals the gasket in place and makes it oil proof. The RTV should be installed as a thin film, not a firkin 1/8 thick glob gooberd around the hole.  

Anyway, I did it correctly and perfectly and was so impressed with myself that while basking in brilliance and superiority I hooked the tach and batter terminals up backwards on the distributor and fried the module, and possibly one or both coils. We will find out this weekend.  

The most valuable tool would be a spray can of ego repellent.  Hell, while we're at it, let's do some memory spray also.

Steve

Quote:


Amen brother...

John

Dominick, it looks like good stuff.  I use Edelbrock Gasgacinch in combination with 3M 0867 Ultra-pro.

Here is what happens when you don't use anything but silicon around the water ports and no thread sealer on some of the bolts...



If this gasket had been sealed against the head, oil from the loose bolts wouldn't have gotten into the gasket as easily and delaminated it.

Steve

Steve....wow!!  I can’t believe how that gasket delaminated from the head.  Not familiar with the Edelbrock Gasgacinch, but the 3M ultra pro is good stuff.  The thread sealer is also something I use a lot.    

I would give the Hylomar a try...I don’t think you will be disappointed. Here is the Technical sheet which lists  all of the uses and applications of the Hylomar.

http://hylomar.com/warrick/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Hylomar-Universal-Blue-Iss...

Working on my car is like therapy...even when i get thrown curve balls.  Luckily I have a solid of network of other guys who are knowledgeable with Lotus cars, so if i run into a snag, I have backup available.  

Dominick

After suffering through another week of snow (I know right?), the weekend has so far been similar to last weekend when I started this project, in the 60's and sunny... car working weather. My rule is simple, if I have to wear gloves for more than the first hour to hold tools because they're too cold, I just wait until another time.

Around lunchtime I began the self-inflicted punishment of replacing the module in the distributor and testing the coils. After replacing the module I noticed the battery connection in the cap was not on the spade but instead it was jammed between the spade and the cap. Oh well so maybe the module wasn't bad... so I put it back together and try to fire it and "we interrupt the program to bring you following public safety alert:" the old backfire bullshit from childhood is now happening again! Somehow I flipped it 180 out of phase after taking unusually great precautions not to do just that. You have no idea how aggravated I felt to have somehow done the exact opposite of my intensions...

So I pulled the plug and did the thumb trick and set the timing to 0 at TDC and put the distributor back in, and the same result. This is approximately when the pain and suffering began. I had to take an hour break to think about that one...

After getting past the disappointment in failing at something I've done at least 50 times in my life, which btw was brutal, I pulled the valve cover to find TDC on the compression stroke for certain this time, and sure as shit it was still 180 out of phase.  

This is when I noticed two of the valve stem seals had lifted completely off their seat and no longer doing anything. So another project when I feel withdrawal from working on the car. Meanwhile, I reset the distributor and it fired off with a noticeable happiness compared to when I shut it off in the fall.

The strange dichotomy with this car is that from the very beginning it has been a long process of continual suffering, especially in the early years. The suffering and constant effort to beat you down and defeat you is relentless. This is why when it works, and when it works well and when it works better than well, or even perfectly -- the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction is overwhelming. A feeling that can not be obtained without the suffering.

I suppose it's not unlike a submarine. Destin to fail, but bad ass as hell when it's working and no mater what always able to be fixed.

Over the weekend I have so far spent two entire afternoons under the hood of my car and only lost it once! I'm getting so much better with age.

Drove it to the car wash and it definitely runs better.  The rough idle has a better sense of security when fighting the converter at a stoplight and it just overall breaths better.  

I will definitely use it tomorrow to drive around out here in the country and really blow the cobs out of it... that's always fun.  A stabbed it a little bit today during the test drive and it just spins out until you let off it.  Can't hook in this cold with these hard tires.

Steve

After listening to probably too many exorcism stories, I think your car is haunted. Too many troubles to be natural.  It needs a Priest.

Always trying to be helpful, Brian

Today was a good day. I got to drive the car out and spend some time dialing in the carburetor linkage and secondary opening rate. I figured out that when the pedal is to the floor the carb was only 80% open. (Grin) and while I was at it I dialed in the secondary opening rate a little better.  

Having the dream of a car that runs like this since I was 16, and teasing it a few times along the way, made this sunny spring day one to remember.

The car runs glass smooth, like a fine Swiss watch. It's dialed in to where you spend way more time backing off the gas then you do getting on it. Just effortless and a somewhat dangerous.

On the street dyno the car does a 1/4 in 12.3 seconds with a lot of tire spin. I think with slicks it is an 11.9 second car. Makes it faster than most of the muscle cars of it's day, which were all big blocks... and this with pump gas, a carburetor, a no computers. That's like SET, point-to-point wired, and no solid state parts if it were an audio amplifier. But it's not an audio amplifier, it's a motion amplifier... 3870 lbs of get the crap out of my way.

And while it's always had an extra mean idle, it actually idles in gear now without being turned up to 1100 RPM. Just so sweet now that I'm not constantly fighting it.

So my favorite thing when driving this car is just to lay back and cruse, like a fishing lure waiting for either a Mustang, Camaro, Challenger or whatever it happens to be with a testosterone laden young man behind the wheel. By doing absolutely nothing, I can make him do something stupid. It's so fun. And, every now and then it's fun to surprise the crap out of them.



This is my replacement for the news.

Steve