My eBay purchased 74

[dodj]

I'm in northern Ohio, about half an hour outside of Cleveland.

Wooo Hooo! Not too far from Cedar Point. My favorite Roller Coaster destination! 

[burdar]

I've been through Cleveland a couple times on my way to Mentor.  Hopefully you'll drive it down to Columbus to the Nat's sometime.

[Jamiez]

 Mentor Ohio? I live in the same county as Mentor, it's around 10 minutes away depending on where in Mentor

[Jamiez]

Maybe I missed it Jamie but what do you have the timing set at?

Well I borrowed a timing light...and fiddled with it some but I guess I just don't know how to read the thing.  On the engine itself there is a series of marks 5 - 0 - 5 with the words "Before" and "After" above them. On the rotating part there are two rather large indents...(around the size of a dime in diameter).  I can turn the distributor so that the indent appears near the 5 - 0 - 5 mark....but it's so large I couldn't accurately tell you what the timing was at.

So, I fiddled with the timing, turning it slightly clockwise made the engine idle rougher.  Turning it counter clockwise made it sound better and increased vacuum.  I can get the vacuum over 20 but then it idles high (on the factory tach around 1.2k-1.4k)  So I backed it off a little and fiddled with the idle mixture screws to get something that sounded right and had the idle back down (on the factor tach 800-1k) and still had the vacuum up right around 15.  I didn't pull out the FAST meter for a fuel air reading as I still don't have a good mounting system for it.

From what I've been able to pick up in my quick research, part of the problem is that I have no clue what cam is in the engine.  I know it's not stock but I have no idea beyond that.

[burdar]

Yes, Mentor Ohio.  That's where the bodywork and paint was done on my car.

From what I've been told, as long as the engine vacuum keeps rising, the engine wants the extra timing.  Yes, the idle RPM will increase...you just have to reset the idle after you set timing.  Initial timing is only part of it.  You also have to worry about the mechanical advance in the distributor.  Most factory distributors have too much mechanical advance.  What you need to do is find the ideal initial timing.  Then limit the mechanical advance in the distributor to give you a total(initial + mechanical) of around 35 degrees.  Mine is set to 15 degrees initial.  My MP distributor has 20 degrees mechanical advance for a total of 35.  If your using the factory distributor, you probably need to rework it to limit the mechanical advance...or buy a different unit.  The new MP units are made my Mallory and are fully adjustable.

I think it will run a lot better for you if you bump up the timing.  The 0 degree setting from the factory was due to emissions.  The engines run a lot better with more timing.  Again, I'm no expert by any means.  I'm just going by what I've been told and it seems to have worked on my engine.  It no longer stinks up the garage and it runs a lot smoother.     

[Jamiez]

Huh, small world, wish I would have known that when you were having it done, you could have stopped over and seen the car. 
I looked again and the marks are at 10 - 0 - 10.  I found the mark on the balancer as well and cleaned the area and then darkened the mark.  Tomorrow I'll fiddle with the timing some more.  I guess I'll keep turning it in the vacuum increasing direction until the vacuum stops increasing.  Then adjust the idle RPM back down, and then fiddle with the idle mix screws.

The distributor is another mystery piece.  The cap is a strange blue color which leads me to believe it's after market.  Even better it has cylinder numbers put on it with a sharpie....numbers that aren't even close to correct.  I guess I'll take a look at that as well and see if it has any usable numbers/manufacturer markings on it.

[Jamiez]

I spent Labor Day morning doing some more tuning. I checked the numbers on the distributor, and it is actually a Chrysler part.  Maybe I can get the marks off with some nail polish remover. Reading the timing still eludes me as finding the mark is difficult.  I probably need to clean up the balancer and maybe put some paint on the mark to make it easier to read.
I rotated the distributor some and adjusted the mixture screws and got the vacuum up to a solid 18

That's up from the 14 I had from just the idle screws, and way up from the about 10 I had when I first put the gauge on it.  It definitely runs a lot better now.  Unfortunately all the tuning had worn down the battery quite a bit and it was starting to crank weak so I decided to put the tender on it and pack it up for the day.

[Jamiez]

Spent the week working on the timing. First I made the mark a lot easier to read.

I picked up a timing light that had an inductive pick up for RPMs and the ability to advance/delay the strobe.  When I put the light on it, I discovered my initial was way way high, to the tune of 41*! With it all in near 80* 

At this point, I thought the timing marks might be mismatched so I consulted a few people.  Chryco Psycho explained a simple method to find TDC using a pencil.  Simple other than the whole rotating the engine by hand bit.  Using said pencil method and found the TDC mark on the cover matched the one on the balancer. Put the plug back in, hooked up the vacuum gauge, started the car and let it warm up (vac advance disconnected of course).  Backed the timing way off, adjusted the idle speed, and idle mix screws to get decent vacuum (around 16.5) reasonable initial timing, 15*, at a normal idle speed 1k RPM.  Opened the throttle up and with it all in the timing is up around 41*.  That's more than optimal, but I want to fit the wideband O2 FAST system on it for a bit and take it out to see where everything sits before getting an adjustment kit to back the mechanical down.

[Jamiez]

Picked up a timing adjustment plate from FBO systems.  I like that it's a system that can be installed and removed with out permanent alterations to the distributor.  It looks fairly simple as this plate just sits between the weights and the stock plate.  the different size slots allow for different mechanical advance settings:


The rebuild kit for my power steering pump showed up.  I read this excellent thread found here:  http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=86728.0
Unfortunately, removing the pump from my small block wasn't as easy as I hoped.  The small block seems to use 2 brackets.  The easy to access bracket connects directly to the engine and would be ideal to remove.  I'm not sure if someone attempted to remove it before, but one of the bolts was looking very worn.  I put some torque on it and got it to move a little, but eventually it bound up and I didn't want to risk stripping it, or snapping it off in the block.

I set to work attacking the other bracket,  Accessibility was the issue here with some bolts easier to remove from above and some from below.  Once it was free, I was able to remove the belt and hoses, but getting the pump out proved to be another challenge.  The existing bracket required some interesting maneuvering.  To actually get the pump clear I had to remove the negative battery to the block, and eventually the battery itself.


I borrowed a pulley puller from my dad and now have it ready for disassembly, hopefully I'll have it rebuilt by the end of the week.

[joelson6]

just catching up on some reading, been real busy and havent been on too much.

it's coming along real nice. looks great.

what do you need for the TQ ? i have tons of parts and carbs.
i use to race a TQ on my 440, went 11.93 with it. i always loved the expression on everyone's
face when i opened the hood and they saw that carb setting on top of the engine. 

[Jamiez]

what do you need for the TQ ?

Mostly a new top plate.  On the one I had, one of the jets was mauled and I still can't get the thing out.  The interior is rusted pretty heavily.  The clear plastic tube has a crack in it, and the plastic plunger type piece of the pump shattered into a dozen pieces during removal.  The whole pump was rusted solid and it didn't survive my efforts to free it.

I did manage to score a replacement TQ off ebay that looks to be in very nice shape and even comes with a rebuild kit, so I should have a ton of spares now.  After all the tuning I've put into the Holley that's on the car, the TQ is probably just going to sit on top of the spare stock intake manifold that I have.  I probably won't end up running it any time soon, so I'm in no hurry to put it back together.

[Jamiez]

I disassembled the pump and swapped out all the o-rings.  I also decided to swap the bushing that the shaft goes through.  THis turned out to be quite a pain until I picked up a set of bushing installation/removal tools.  I also managed to dent the pulley when working on the pump (overtightened it in a vise).  This is what it looked like before:

and this is with it all reassembled and painted:


Now I just have to reinstall it on the car and hope I assembled it all correctly.

I also had a frustrating week with the TQ I picked up for parts.  A few of the screws were stubborn and took a lot of soaking/heating/etc to get free.  One I just couldn't get free and ended up having to sheer to get out.  Fortunately I didn't damage any of the parts I needed.

[Jamiez]

So after all that work I put the pump back in..which was a lot harder than I expected.  I fired up the engine....and fluid blasted out the pressure union like it was a squirt gun.  I suspected that the o-ring was too small and hoped that I could get the union off, replace the o-ring and put it back in without removing the pump.

That hope was short lived.

I was too frustrated to work on the car for about a week so it sat until this weekend.  I pulled the pump out, replaced the undersized o-ring, and used an impact wrench to spin it up.  fluid came out the output hose, and nowhere else.  so hopefully it's all working this time.

I then spent the majority of the morning getting the pump in...and I couldn't get it completely lined up.  I decided to remove the bracket that connects it to the engine....and then discovered that removing those bolts lets coolant pour out of the engine.  So I put them back in...after making a mess.  Next I finally managed to loosen the bolt you are supposed to loosen to get the belt on and off.  Loosening this bolt caused more coolant to leak (although this time it was a drip)..but with it loose I was able to get everything back in place...



At this point I was too frustrated and dirty to bother putting the battery and radiator expansion tank back in and attempting to bleed the system.  I'll let it sit for a few days just assuming it's working great with no leaks.

...
At least I hope.

[burdar]

Oh, the joys of working on cars.  Those pumps are not fun to put on.  If the bolts still leak fluid, you'll have to pull them out and put some silicone on them.

I really like this car!  At some point, you'll be driving it more than working on it.  I think that day is coming very soon.

[Jamiez]

Week 70:

I cleaned up everything I could reach and then reinstalled the battery, coolant overflow, ground wire, and everything else I had removed to get the pump back in. Then I jacked the car up, turned it over and bled the pump.  During which I took the most unimpressive picture:



Everything seems to have worked and the leaks seem to be gone (finally).  I moved it lock to lock a good dozen times with no noticeable fluid appearing anywhere.  I also stopped any of the anti-freeze leaks from the block when I put everything back together.

After that I was able to clean up all my tools and put them back in their places....that only lasted for a day but it sure was nice!