SC Saga  #32

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7/7/12

After two round trips to AirMec the condenser is in place. The front is just TOO low, notwithstanding perhaps 4” of ground clearance. The car looks great sitting down as it does, but it’s not driver friendly. Randy and I did some cogitating on the springs, etc. I suggested putting load leveler shocks, as would go on the back of a pickup, on the FRONT.

He and I looked at different scenarios, one of which is to get coil-overs front and rear.

Randy cleverly suggested just lengthening the foot of the strut tower. It looks like a pretty easy deal. I am looking into it more closely, but I may just give it a try.

I will, of course, check with Tokiko and see what they have to say about that.

We touched up the paint on the firewall covers, got the condenser in (not plumbed by AirMec as yet), and had a successful trip to Bob’s.  I will schedule with Morgan come Monday to complete the AC plumbing.

Nick is still working on the hood. I presume I will wait to take the car there until I have the dually back as a driver. That should be later in the week.

The car drives just great. The shocks do not appear to be doing a whole lot. Randy agrees the front spacer cups would do fine. The rears might be able to use the same cups, but I need more lift back there.

So a little more research before the cutting and welding occurs is in order.

I got the EQL’s back in the headliner area, partially wired, but NOT complete by any means.

I will again beg Rob Anderson for pity and help on figuring it out. The amps are not yet back from Monolithic, so trying to get Rob to help is premature at this point. I will spend more time today cogitating on it and see if I can get a grasp of what is functional and not.

7/8/12

I left a message for a wiring guy in Lancaster, with no return as yet.

Randy and I pondered some other suspension options, and I need to make some more calls and do yet more research into the solution(s) for the too-low stance.

7-10-12

JJ and I worked the right side exhaust gasket today and it took almost ALL day to do it. JJ had it apart I under 20 minutes. But getting bolts STARTED through the new gasket was just a major bitch.

MAJOR.

At almost 1 pm I forced us off to lunch.

The gasket had failed up at the rear of the front port, looking like a screen door or Swiss cheese. The rear portion was holding fine.

We came back, and synthesized some new solutions to the recalcitrant bolting. JJ suggested we take OUT one of the tubes. I ground down the flange on the #2 pipe, and this allowed for some repositioning.

FINALLY I got the bolts in!

MAN!

We got it back together, and perhaps have the intercooler a little lower due to my relocating some hoses above the right rocker cover down onto the manifold (this would be REAL good), and NO leaks!

HOORAY!

The hifi remains a mystery and the head now does not turn on (it did previously).  Notwithstanding this, I got one new piece of connection done. NO amps have arrived. I’ll call Schuk tomorrow.

I have not yet called Rob Anderson again.

I may need to go to Al and Ed’s for this.

7-13-12

Evan Young, electrician, has offered to put some paid time into snooping on the Bird. I will do that.

I have been driving without a hood, and the temp gauge has stayed below the low normal position. However, I see a little spritzing on the windshield, and found something is dripping when I stop. I THINK it is the intercooler reservoir/puke tank. The level is down about 2 inches in it, and it appears to be the source. I’ll keep looking.

Without the interior back in, there are many rattles on bumpy roads. I will look at what is there right now and see if anything can be done before the headliner, package, tray, and rear sets go back in.

The temp has been in the high 90s and low 100’s, so the cooling has been mightily tested. With the hood on it may run hotter.

The AC has not been re-plumbed as yet.

7-18-12

Morgan again demurred and asked I wait a few more days for the AC recharge and replumbing. Meanwhile, the car runs WAY cool.

Kelly and I worked very hard for a day on the hifi wiring, and could not get the head to power up. I thought it might be some fault of the reinstallation of the EQ’s, etc.

I took it up the street to Street Sounds and Chris found the issue in about 30 seconds: it was the ALWAYS hot fuse in the power distribution box under the hood *(which is not on right now). A simple 10-amp fuse took care of that.

So when Schuk arrives with amps we should be in good position.

I gave Chris the ride of his life in the Bird, and he loved it.

Al the machinist has returned, and I went over to Ace Bearing and got more bronze bearing material. So tomorrow should see the finished product there.

I am proud of how Kelly and I got the wiring back to correct (or so it seems), and how I cleaned it all up. Kelly would have had NO clue as to what went where. As usual, I just seem to find the path and press through it.

I will shoot some more pix for Schuk tomorrow to clarify what is back there.

The shoulder harness retractors did in fact retract briefly the other day. I will return to Chris for some help there.

I’ll shoot some more driveline pix for Wade tomorrow.

7-22-12

I decided the gas/exhaust smell MUST be coming through the trunk. As the back seat and package tray are out, and the smell is worse, I tried putting plastic INSIDE The rear seat area. PBB and I drove to Bob’s and the plastic ballooned inward, demonstrating just how much outside pressure is occurring.

So I removed the trunk covers, and installed rubber sheeting using 3M 77 adhesive.

While this appeared to be a VERY good idea, the adhesive has some issues, and has remained soft and NOT sticking in some areas. So I just duct-taped over the edges. I probably should have tried the duct tape first. Whatever, the trunk is back to looking “normal”.

I will be taking a ride shortly to Valencia, and should find out immediately if this was the deal. Regardless, this sealing job is a good idea.

As obvious in the above picture, there are no amps backing the trunk yet. Greg from Monolithic is coming in another two weeks with them.

With the headliner out and the new Dynamat in the roof, it is HUGELY hot. The Dynamat is soft rubber covered with aluminum foil. This makes for a POWERFUL heat transfer and re-radiation. I don’t know what insulation I can bring to bear, perhaps the foam and foil stuff from Randy. If I have some I’ll stick it up and see how it works.

I did a little tune up on the side covers to get them straighter and stiffer. Once the trunk, amps, etc. are finally done, I’ll remake them in a final configuration. For now they are acceptable for display.

I also removed one bolt from the puke tank/intercooler reservoir to allow it to vent. Kelly and I added a bracket to that tank the other day to pull it forward about a ¼” to clear the fins of the alternator, which had worn about 1/8” into the upper corner of the tank.

About 30 years ago I had a 1970 240-Z, and near the end of my ownership of 12 years, I took all the interior panels out and put foam behind them. I also undercoated the car. It was like a sand bag for silence.

I need to take a similar approach here to make this REALLY quiet and TIGHT.

Dynamat might work on the steel, but I need to get all the plastic panels and hardware quiet as well. And the doors need some over-sealing to keep them from jiggling.

5:39 PM

The exhaust intrusion is DRAMATICALLY reduced. There is still something, but WAY down.

I think there are a few little holes around the battery wiring, etc. that need sealing. But a HUGE improvement. And as the ambient temp was 105 degrees going up the 405 hill over the 14 freeway at about 30 MPH, the lack of any temp rise is gratifying.

With the hood on this may be another story.

Nick and I have talked about doing a clear plexi center section for the hood. Nick suggested cutting the hole and driving the car with and without a cover to see how the temp is affected.

We COULD make a louvered (slotted) clear section, and that would be rather unusual and interesting, although not waterproof.

Nick was going to find someone today who did that, but forgot about it.

Tomorrow we will address that.

7-28-12

Nick has NOT addressed that fabricator, nor have I.

I intend to go there today (Saturday) and see just what the dimensions are for doing such plexi insert.

I need also to look at the ZR-1 Corvette hood and see how they did it.

The car continues to run BONE cold.

Excellent.

With the hood on it will certainly hold more heat. But clearly I have it as good as it can get without more capacity.

Morgan is still not ready for the final AC hookup. As the dually won’t be ready until later in the week, it appears the AC will not get completed until I can leave it with Morgan for a day or two.

I did a test just now regarding the exhaust smell. I put the 18” garage fan blowing across the front of the engine at about the windshield to see if that reduced the smell at idle.

NO.

I then pointed the fan to the rear at about the rear tire on the right.

YES, that worked.

So the intrusion IS still coming from the exhaust pipes somehow.

I reviewed the other day the sealing of the underside, and found no real clues to leaks. I still need to caulk two areas:

1-the battery cables coming up through the floor

2-the major engine harness coming through the front firewall on the right.

I will do that now and do a little more experimenting.

I was thinking that maybe I need some FANS or a strategic wing near the back of the car to blow airflow backwards past the rear of the car.

I also wonder if the upward sucking fans near the rear for the trans and charge coolers might be pulling exhaust up toward the underside of the car. I will investigate changing the direction on those fans to push down through the cores.

I can also just unplug them for the moment and see if that does anything.

7-30-12

I did unplug both rear fans, and there is a small difference. But something is still leaking at idle or very low speed. I will reverse the fans in a day or two and see how that works.

I have not yet caulked the battery cables nor the front cowl area.

I did tape up the AC inlet on the cowl area and it made no difference.

Probably some interior positive pressure would be good, as in having the fan running all the time.

7-31-12

The starter has been acting weird, disengaging and grinding more and more. Today it just wouldn’t stay engaged enough to start, so I had to tow it home (a 2.5 hour deal) from only 6 miles away, got it up on the rack, and after letting it cool for several hours, got it out.

I talked to Chris at Hi Torque before I took it out. He feared it was the ring gear. The teeth on the starter are tapered, and while it does actuate, a technician nearby at Grand Rebuilders (who tested it) thinks it is the drive mechanism inside. I will have them change it tomorrow (they were closing when I got there), rather than driving to Whittier to Hi Torque. If it works, great. If not, then out it comes again and I make the big drive.

I got a free one-time a year rental from AAA with the tow, and I’m happily driving a little Yarus. Imagine, AC and radio!

I called some people today about the plexi hood. I can get some 1/8” Lexan 33 x 22 for about $40. I have some 3/16” Lexan here, although I’m not sure it is large enough. Apparently Lexan tends to blister when heated and formed. Acrylic forms easily, but cracks more readily.

8-4-12

I constructed what is probably the FIFTH iteration of the condenser support system. Each approach has eventually gotten ripped off the bottom. So this time I eliminated anything hanging down in the prior modes. Instead, I took a piece of 2” angle iron ¼” thick, and cut it to width along the back of the condenser core. I then twisted some ¼” x 1” flat bar and bolted it to the sides of the fan shroud, and welded the bottoms to the back of the 2” angle iron. So this eliminates any lack of front to back stiffness, although the bolts could shear. I then added a second piece of ¼” x 2” flat stock (I cut down another piece of angle), and welded it to the front ¼ of the bottom of the angle, this to support the shortened plastic skirt. This does a great job of holding that in place, no bolts or screws to drag. I replaced the sheared-off 1/4 x 20 x 6 bolt that was pulling up the left side of the lower skirt. I still see a weakness: damage could result when backing up and possibly catching the new assembly. So I am going to add 3 or 4 skid bars from the back of the angle (even with the bottom) back to the crossmember, about a foot away. I’ll weld the legs to the angle, but bolt them to the crossmember, so as to permit the whole assembly to come off by just removing 8 bolts.

I discovered a potential problem and fixed it: the lower plate of the fan shroud had gotten pushed up slightly, enough to jam the lower left fan blade. I used a cat’s paw and hammer to tap this area down, and no problem now.

I test drove the assembly, sans skid bars, and it is better. This thing is still low, but this is as good as it can get without suspension changes.

Above-100 temps are predicted for this week. I hope Morgan can get me in soon to finish the AC. I still do not have the dually back as alternate transportation.

And, Craig Schuk has not appeared with the amps as yet.

Nick is ridiculously slow about getting on the hood. I think we are pretty solid about putting a clear plexi insert. Now it’s just deciding on the exact shape. Amy curves or bends will require specialized fabrication, and I think we will eventually just put in a flat panel.

I located a replacement hood if Nick doesn’t want to use this one. But we will, in any event, use this one to try out the plexi first.

8-6-12

I have been working a job, so car stuff seems not to get done so rapidly now. But hey, the money is a good thing. I added the skid bars, and the assembly seems to be holding up all right. It is WAAAAAAAYYYYYYY hot today (105), and the car got up to almost half, which on that gauge means it is pretty warm. No puking of liquid, all fans working (including the rears), and no big difference in the exhaust intrusion. I did tape up the gas tank filler pipe in the side of the trunk body, but don’t sense a difference.

I need to get the oil pressure, blower pressure, and water temp gauges completed. I need another sending unit for the oil and water temps, and a complete blower pressure gauge and sensor.

8-17-12

It turns out that the right exhaust header gasket was again leaking. After disassembly, the gasket itself was nearly perfect, but the bolts had loosened. Randy said my use of anti-seize was incorrect, and just made it easier for the bolts to loosen. So we cleaned out the holes with lacquer thinner, cleaned the bolts, and now hope for no future loosening.

I still put a new gasket on, and per Randy’s observation, scraped and cleaned the front port surface of some old debris.

The whole thing took SEVEN hours, including lunch, to accomplish. This is HORRIBLE stuff. Tight, joint-killing, awkward, ALL of that.

It seems to be working. Randy saw aluminum on the threads of the front bolt, as did I, and he made another stud for that position. So I have studs at the front and rear of the head. The rear stud proved to be very troublesome, as it prevented the header from sitting back down. I had to take the colts out of the collector, and put each tube loosely on its cylinder. It works fine now, and I will keep a tab on those bolts and nuts on a weekly basis, somehow.

The bippity-boppety performance of the engine at light cruising turned out to be the header leaking air to the Oxygen sensor.

I STILL want to add another gallon of coolant to the system with a tank behind the left headlight.

Randy felt the car was driving well.

I contacted Tony at West Auto in Corona (I saw him on an episode of West Coast Customs), and he would entertain doing some electrical corrections, but I would have to leave him the car.

The exhaust intrusion has again been reduced to nearly zero.

8-20-12

While driving home from Bob’s on Friday night, RL and I congratulated the project on the sterling V.6 on the condenser/splitter support and guard. VERY beefy, heavy steel, redundant bracing, etc.

RL existed the car and I drove on the rack, at about a half mile per hour, enough the compress the front suspension a half inch and RIP the two big pieces off, bend it back 3 inches, and shear the three bolts holding the VERY pieces designed NOT to allow such movement, as well as dismember the left-most strut.

It took parts of two full days to repair.

All better, and hopefully wiser.

Clearly, grade 8 bolts are needed there.

I have anchored the front two vertical legs to the core support and the fan shroud housing. Maybe I need to find a new structural home for the side braces. I did change them from small 8-32 screws to ¼ x 20 bolts as well.

In the picture BELOW, the two aluminum clips at each side hold the shroud to the core support and prevent radiator movement at the bottom, The radiator top is held down by a hemmed piece of sheet metal which is screwed to the top of the core support. The impact pulled the bottom of the shroud system back 3”, caused two fans to be hitting metal at the bottom, and tweaked the whole unit. I invented a spreader bar to press everything backing place, or so I thought. This did not work well.

So little by little I straightened, bent, remade, re-drilled, and got the thing back to right. I still need to find another level of angle at the front of the skid plate, so as to avoid any more “snagging” as occurred here. I think one more 2” piece angled up at the front will do it. I’ll need to make it cosmetically pleasing.

Here’s the bar condenser with no support:

8-21-12

The car appears to be working well, and all fans appear to operate. The car is running slightly hotter than previously. I suspect the lower left fan is not quite turning at full speed. I find also that the manual fan switch on the dash is not actuating the fans. So a little lifting of the console is in order.

On other fronts, I secured the EQL’s in the headliner by bracketing them to the stiffening ribs inside the top. I MAY have put a screw slightly too deep and pushed up the top sheet metal. I will back the two screws in that area off and see if that cures it. But it is comforting NOT to worry about those two equalizers falling on my head AGAIN.

I went by Economy Glass to see if Dirk could address what appears to be loose window mechanisms in the right door. He was too busy. It may be the DOOR is the culprit, as it has no weatherstripping right now. I am going to lean on Nick to complete everything but the hood.

I WANT to get the hifi hooked up before putting the headliner in, but that does not preclude getting the rubber and mouldings back in.

8-25-12

The fan switch began working on its own. However, the trans has been going into converter lockup WAY early, as in second gear. This combined with some shorting plug wire(s), and some goofy computer responses to another exhaust leak to make driving in the hot uncomfortable and annoying.

I found the driver’s side header flange loose on the #3 cylinder, and checked all of them. I also put insulation (slit rubber tubing) around a three places where plug wires were laying against metal. We’ll see later how that all worked (or not).

I saw Nick last night, and my work is languishing in his pattern. He is honorable, talented, and conflicted. Laurie, and friend of his, happened to call him on his massively lengthy process on her GN, and he got huffy. I probably should just tell him to finish the hood up with a new unit and forget the plexi, but I want to get some reality on it this week from Calif Plastics in Ontario. Now that I have a truck in which to carry the hood there, I will endeavor to do so before Wednesday.

I backed the two screws in the area of the micro-bubble in the top (noticed by Nick), and I’ll see if he feels it has retracted.

Regarding the converter, I will call Craig at CRC on Monday, let him know about it, set an appointment for that and correcting the speedo, and promise to pay him his $2500 balance upon completion of those items and correcting the shift points.

6:36 PM

Craig is overloaded, per usual, for another two weeks.

Meanwhile, I have an appointment at AirMec for Tuesday 9/4/12 to complete the AC system.

MAN, do I need that done!

I will be pulling the intercooler off tonight or tomorrow and examining the right side plug wires for shorting, as it is dropping a cylinder again. I checked the left, and all seemed well. I insulated a couple of spots, but the stumbling persisted, so that apparently was NOT the side of issue.

9-4-12

The car is at AirMec. Morgan called me late this afternoon and asked where the condenser was. WHAT? I calmly noted it was UNDER the radiator in the splitter. “Oh yeah, there it is…”

WHEW!

9-8-12

Turns out the condenser is leaking. So out it came, back over to Morgan, and I await his news on Monday about fixing it or replacing it with a new one. The fun just keeps coming here.

The right side MUST have a shorting plug wire. I will attempt to work it tonight, depending on whether I have a date or not.

I just went ahead and jerked the intercooler off, and found the #3 wire on the right bank TOASTED. I taped it up severely, added a wire tie to keep it even further away from the header, and reassembled everything in about 345 minutes. Not too bad. I backed it out and washed it, and it sounded fine. I may need to construct some loom or girdle for those wires.

I’ll check with Morgan tomorrow to see if the condenser was repairable or needs replacement.

And, I MAY be driving to Visalia for a CEGA inspection, in which case I will diver ton the way home to the coast and go through Nipomo to retrieve my amps from Greg at Monolithic.

The top DOES have a slight doinky in it from my interior screwing, and while very difficult to find, might be fixable by Nick without repainting. I decided not to pursue the plexi hood thing, as this will just take FOREVER, and told Nick to get on it and just fix it. Should I want this in the future, it can be done.

I MUST extricate myself from the delay bondage I apparently am so good at creating. Nick is one of those places of procrastination, with all his good intentions and work. I have to HAMMER him to get it done, or go elsewhere henceforth, if not forthwith.

9-11-12

The condenser was terminal, so Morgan is ordering another NEW one.

Oh well.

9-13-12

Put the new condenser in today, but not without struggle. This is odd. Since I reinstalled the previously pushed-back cradle, and it all fit so easily. After an afternoon of work, I redrilled three holes to make it easier, and all is well, painted, and in.

The plug wire repair worked perfectly, and the car runs sweetly.

The steering now has a small amount of play. I took it to Marlon across from AirMec, and he said it was the lower u-joint. I went directly to Galpin Ford, got a printout of the whole steering column, and will show the pix to Marlon tomorrow when I return the Bird to Morgan. It is a 5-day order, and over a $100 for the piece.

With luck, tomorrow may see me with AC.

9-14-12

ALL good. AC is COLD. REAL cold. Even Randy is impressed. Car ran adequately cool in the middle of the day with AC on at 105 degrees ambient.

NICE.

The tab was around $570 with a new condenser, new line, etc. But worth it.

I am considering making a “summer” hood consisting of narrowly spaced bars, like a deuce grille, to allow complete air flow, and be VERY unique.

This would be quite a bit of work, with thousands of little welds. More research is needed, but I’m liking this concept.

9-17-12

The right rear battery went flat, and the car eventually would not run. It ran like it was just running out of fuel for about 5 miles, then just quit. I think I flattened the battery running the fans for about 10 minutes Saturday night testing them. It started immediately after, but I have a feeling the battery itself is now junk. I’ve gone through MANY of the Duralast AutoZone batteries.

I recharged it ALL Sunday, and it now runs fine. But I’ll take it over anyway and have it load-tested.

As Monolithic has still not made his run down here, I might be getting the amps this week on my own. I’ll know tomorrow if I go Tuesday or Wednesday.

The AC works great, so that is a GIANT step forward.

The lower left fan quit, and it appears to be a connection inside the fan motor housing. I found a position where it made contact, and put a tie wrap on it. But I’ll need to pull the whole affair out, including the onerous condenser saddle connections to the shroud. I have two spare fan motors here.

I realize this project is so complex, that even I can’t remember some of the stuff I did. To that end I will enlist JJ’s help and trace which relays and circuits in the cowl pockets do what. I have EIGHT fans, and six relays. There are two older relays in the RF cowl pocket which do unknown things. One had corrosion in the contacts, the other will not yield to coming apart.

So labeling and tracing is in order there.

I also need to look at the relay (in the engine compartment?) which powers the shoulder harness retractors.

The tail lights are still jumpered from some other source, and I’d like to straighten that out, too.

Joe, a tech at Galpin, suggested the harness issue might be an ignition switch issue, mounted on the underside of the column.

9-22-12

I retrieved the amps from Monolithic up in Nipomo (a LONG drive), and have mounted all three, and wired them partially. I am now extending some grounds from “somewhere”, and getting close to having it all wired in. I hope to try it out a little later today.

9-22-12

The system WORKS!!!
HOORAY!

There is some adjusting to be done, but we have achieved music.

My next item is to remake the trunk MDF floor and cover. I’ve cut the cover, am ready to cut the MDF, and it’s looking pretty good so far.

I’ll try the CD player in the morning.

And then it’s back to the frying plug wire on the right side. Gotta come up with a deeper solution.

9-23-12

It turned out the two center plug wires were NOT clipped tight onto the plugs. That may have been my lacing them up with tie wraps, or something. Whatever. I have chosen to leave them with a little more slack, and insured they were in fact clipped on. This SHOULD help.

I am going to adjust the hifi now.

9-24-12

I can only get the left two channels working. These are NOT working from their normal and assigned places. Rather, the REAR EQL is handling the front and rear left channels. I cannot get anything happening on the right speakers at all. The amps in the rear are all mounted, have 12+ volts to them, and seem to be connected correctly. In attempting to get the other EQL to function I also cannot get the two audio runs to that unit working. I have made an appointment with Al and Ed’s Sound for Thursday morning to have Eric look at the system and perhaps find the faults.

9-27-12

s the car was still not running properly, I cancelled the hifi thing. I talked with Harv regarding the computer, injection, etc. He said the very things I did:

check the fuel pumps are on-YES

check fuel pressure-I HAVE NO GAUGE

a wiring problem telling the relays to shut off or not stay on-POSSIBLE

I feel that I must have changed something in the right cowl area the other day, or grounded something to the hifi that should not have been done. The grounding issue seems not appropriate, as a ground would CAUSE the pumps to run.

I asked if I could hot wire the pumps for a while to see if that cured it Yes, but he will call me back with details.

9-30-12

These diaries may never be read by ANYONE. But if so, THIS is one of those conundrums worthy of writing. The amps are back in the Bird, having been checked at Monolithic, and I can only get left channels. The way it is wired appears to put left front and left rear into the left EQL in the headliner. All wiring is as before, in the original places (I think). Rob had put this wiring very precisely with no loose lengths (save one). I have checked the system as follows:

1-verified the head puts out signal to all four outputs

2-verified the RCA cables going to the EQL’s in the headliner are carrying signal, all of them

3-verified the function of the EQL’s by plugging into each of them

3-confirmed speaker function by putting 9 volts on each of the speaker leads from the rear subwoofer enclosure where all contacts are available

5-confirmed 12 volts DC to all of the amps

I cannot confirm a turn-on pulse to the two Monolithics as there is no obvious blue wire going to them. Clearly at least the left amp is working, as I have sound on the left front and left rear.

What is odd is that the DIN wiring as converted from RCA to DIN at the output of the EQL’s apparently puts LF and LR into the electronic crossover and then to the left of the two Monolithic amps at the back. This left amp is wired to the LF and LR speakers, and the xover goes to the subs.

Were I to be wiring this from scratch, I would insure the EQL outputs were divided so that the front speakers had no crossover and were on the left EQL, and the right EQL would power the xover, rear speakers, and subs. This is how I remember it.

I have switched the DINs at the rear, and cannot change the left only working scanrio.

The odd thing is that the left EQL retains front and rear on the left. This should not work like this.

There are some unused DIN cables, all 8-pin males, up in the headliner. All other DINs are 5-pin.

I am going to try a DIN adapter to RCA, specified for Alpine, and see if I can get some action out of the right amp and right side speakers. Using a pair of long RCA’s directly from the head unit, them from the EQL’s.

On another front, the engine has suddenly gone into NO FUEL mode. It runs as if it has no signal to allow fuel, limiting the vehicle to about 30-40 MPH (at best), and just stuttering along. It will not allow even a blipping of the throttle without going lean.

The fuel pumps are working, there is about 40-42 PSI of fuel pressure, and nothing else appears to have been disturbed.

I had taken the intercooloer off to reconnect two loose plug wires, and started the car without the hat sensor plugged in. It ran, but did not idle well. I plugged it in, and thereafter the anomaly persisted.

I cannot fathom what is the culprit, and without a computer and diagnostic plug-in I am left powerless.

I have called Harv the Tuner, who is not available until mid-week. I will call Josh Deeds and see if he can come by and assess what is going on.

The AC works KILLER, the car runs plenty cool in this BLISTERING heat (107 degrees), but essentially doesn’t run at the moment.

Perhaps Jim Bones might have a thought. I’ll call him as well tomorrow morning.

And, I suppose Kenny Duttweiler might have a thought or two.

10-1-12

I towed the car to Josh Deeds, who took my suggestion and hot-wired the pumps. That seems to allow it to drive. There are some funny things going on, but the short story is it appears it is not the pumps, but the electrical feed to them, else it wouldn’t continue to run on direct feed.

So some grounding, etc. issues need to be addressed. Perhaps the relays are wired incorrectly by me or Bones. Josh also noted the computer positive and grounds are supposed to be always-hot, and just the pink trigger wire should be controlled by the key. I think the whole computer is key-on right now. So some work to do there.

Rob Anderson called and strongly suggested the wiring was wrong, and just correct it. I have my ideas of how to do that, and will address that in the next day or two.

With the fuel pumps hot-wired the sound system is way noisy. It appears some more work there will also be needed to quiet things back down to the original mil-spec levels as originally installed by Rob. He, incidentally, will be in Europe week after this, so will be unavailable in any event for hands-on help.

10-4-12

On the sound system I tried swapping wires out to the EQL’s, coded to the head output and the connecting wires, and still no right side. I have a large suspicion the right amp is just not coming on.

I’ll see what it takes from Greg to insure it is coming on.

On the fuel pump issue, I replaced both relays.

NO difference. Actually, a little worse.

So it is NOT the pumps. I hot-wired them differently to the left battery and the motor runs great.

I also corrected the two rear plug wires on the right side, They were off the plugs again. I shortened the rubber boots, double-checked they “clicked” in on a test plug, and got them back on.

The sound system is hopelessly static-swamped by the direct connection of the fuel pumps. So something else must be done there.

And I checked the grounding trigger wire, and it is in fact from the BigStuff 3 computer. So I am about to direct-wire the grounding wire to the console switch and see how that works. If good, then some head-scratching will be in order. And if not, similarly head-scratching will be warranted.

10-6-12

Head-scratching occurred. The console switch AND 2 new relays did no better.

I then direct-wired the pumps through a trunk-mounted switch from the left battery, so that I don’t have to disconnect the battery every time I want to shut off the pumps. That works fine. Dan and I went to Bob’s last night and it ran fine. HOWEVER, the trans is shifting WAY early, has no passing gear, and still will not respond to the overdrive off switch. Perhaps disconnecting the battery somehow wiped out the memory on the PCS trans computer.

I then turned my attention to the hifi. I reconfigured the amp outputs so that the left Monolithic amp is rear right and left, and changed the right amp to front left and right. Without the motor running, the Monolithics do not turn on, but the Kenwood does, so all I get without the engine running is bass, but NO left to right balance at the rear on the subs.

At this point I feel I have dialed all the wiring correctly. I MUST be wrong.

It’s time for Eric at Al and Ed’s.

On the trip home I heard the blower whooshing, and I knew immediately that the intercooler sleeve had slipped off the blower outlet. Sure enough, when we got home it took me about 6 minutes to get it all back attached. It ran just fine with that massive air leak.

I wonder if rigging a bypass after the intercooler would be a neat way to get a LOT of air in the car?

10-9-12

I got the car to Eric at AL and Ed’s, and the very short story is $683 later he has replaced the two Monolithic amps (he claims they are dead) with a 4 x 75 Alpine amp.

I just could not screw around with the system any more.

I will pick it up tomorrow.

10-11-12

Sound system appears good. However, the right battery was under 10 volts and the radiator fans were just not turning. I overheated by the time I got home. I have charged the right rear battery for a day now, and mounted a digital voltmeter on the front right cowl buss. It is showing now 14.5 volts as the charger is still connected. I will monitor this, and perhaps get another for the left side battery.

Do I need ANOTHER battery yet? Perhaps THREE? Yikes.

The issue is whether the alternators are keeping up with the loads.

It is raining right now (basically the FIRST of the season), and it has cooled WAY off. BUT, I have no hood from Nick. I am AT LEAST a week away from getting the hood, and that’s if I postpone the truck until after the hood. Without a rental car, I have NO driver. The dually is still in Lancaster hopefully getting repaired.

10-15-12

The voltage appears to be holding above 12 volts, usually around 12.5 to 12.8 when I shut the car off.  The tranny is still goofy, wimpy if not limpy. Per Randy’s suggestion, I will check the throttle pressure linkage. I’m not sure it even has such linkage. But if so, this might be the thing.

I am also again calling Craig at CRC and trying to get him to schedule the car for its final speedo adjustment, shift point tuning, etc.

It did go into limp mode for utterly no apparent reason yesterday. I disconnected both batteries, washed the car, plugged them back in, and it went to its wimpy normal.

The stereo works fine, needing still a little more tuning The car handles great, sides quietly, the AC is excellent, and aside from the fuel pump strangeness and the wimpy shifts, it’s good.

Nick promises to recommence on the hood AFTER he paints the dually, which will commence tomorrow afternoon. Nick appears to be fixing the hood, rather than getting a new one.

10-17-12

I checked and there is no throttle pressure linkage. Rather, the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) has 3 connectors which each have a Y-adapter, half going to the trans, half to the computer. I suspect the Y-connectors have a bad connection on one or more of the leads.

The car began to heat up today crawling in 90+ temps and traffic to Beverly Hills and back. It did not boil over but was getting up there. I stopped for fuel, watered down the radiator, and it cooled right off, but warmed again as I hit the freeway for home. I checked the left bank of fans once I got back and they are almost not turning. So either a fuse or relay, or perhaps a fan or connection is not kosher. The battery voltage showed right at 12.5 when I shut it off, so the battery and charging system is not the issue.

10-21-12

Turns out the upper left fan motor was gonzo. I replaced it with JJ and Kelly’s help, and it took most of the morning. We had to redrill some of the lower girdle bolts (from the last iteration’s crunching), and we replaced some of the 10-32 bolts with ¼” x 20, a more substantial size.

All good.

The voltage now shows a consistent 12.4-12.8 at shutoff after every drive.

I went to Nick’s today and picked up all the remaining uninstalled trim, AND put the hood back on. It has NOT been repaired, but is back bolted as before.  I will order some hood pins tonight or tomorrow for ASAP install.

The hifi and AC are working peachy, and as the fans are good, the cars drives OK. The trans is shifting better, but NOT correctly. There is still no higher RPM shifts, but it does kick down at moderate speeds.

No overdrive control.

I sent an email ultimatum to CRC saying this was my final attempt to get the car in for work, or I will just jerk out the PCS controller and go with a Compu-Shift and call our relationship done.

I will work on the interior trim, but did not get the headliner, as it must wait until after the outside mouldings are installed. These mouldings have interior clips, so no headliner just yet.

I will get the carpet redone by Miranda, and then respray the console in trim black.

10-27-12

I called CRC yesterday and told the assistant that this was my last call, and if Craig did not call, we were done.

The assistant called later, confirmed I could come in Monday, and asked if I would be paying the balance. Yes, when all is done.

The car is running smoothly, although it has an odd sort-of turn-off while coasting and restart when touching the throttle feel. It’s as if the fuel turns off when coasting. Perhaps this is my inadvertent homage to Hybrid systems. Not a huge thing, but certainly not correct. Otherwise, it’s running smoothly.

The fuel pump thing needs finalization. Having to get in the trunk every time is a drag. So some research will be done on the relays, grounding, wiring, voltages, etc.

The shoulder harness retractors have indeed done some unexpected movement as of late. I will research the column ignition switch, and perhaps the relays.

I need to find a plastic cover for the right side retractor.

10-31-12

The car is at CRC for its final trans tune.

11-2-12

Despite all cautions, Craig’s guy killed the right battery and consequently overheated the car on a test run.

I re-explained what to do. They have not completed the reprogramming, etc.

I’m thinking maybe by next Tuesday.

11-16-12

I picked up the car Monday, Veterans Day, and limped it back here. It ran crappy, does not like much throttle, sounds like a rod knock or severe detonation if I give any appreciable gas, and goes in and out of feeling like it is dropping cylinders again.

Worse yet, it had a constant drip of oil when I pulled into my garage. This is VERY troubling. I am afraid they nuked the motor, and I suspect I am getting major crankcase pressure from a blown piston, ring, etc.

I am certainly not giving ANY more money to Craig until this issue is handled. If I have to pull out the motor, this could run another 3 or 4 grand.

DAMN!

I am also going to do research on a vacuum pump (I have a smog pump here) to possibly alleviate any further pushing of oil out the gaskets, etc.

This process has lost its fun factor. This is just crisis management with no real payoff in fun and driving.

DAMN!

We drained the oil out of it, as we could not get any reliable reading on the dipstick. I painted the stick flat black, and we have only a slightly better ability to read it, particularly with new oil.

We’ve got about 7.5 quarts in it now with a new filter, and it reads a pinch above full after a short start and run of 5-10 seconds.

Josh Deeds and Harv were both unavailable this week, and I have no tows left on AAA to take it anywhere. I tried Brian at B&D Racing, but he does not know BigStuff 3, and does not want to learn on my car. He will allow me to bring it over and do a cursory check to see what he might ascertain on Monday.

I’m likely going to hold off for Josh to return, probably Tuesday.

11-20-12

I spent half a day altering the lower alternator mounting to gain an ENTIRE ¼”!!!

REALLY!

It was a good effort, a serviceable bracket (sort of), and id pull the alternator away from laying against the crank sensor. It still runs funky.

This may have changed a little bit of the crazy running, but it is still WRONG.

Deeds is NOT available until NEXT week now. I’ll call Harv, and perhaps San might be able to break free with a AAA tow on Thanksgiving Day (although I double Harv will be available at his shop) or Friday  morning.

I for the umpteenth time mopped up dripping oil, and it appears the rear drain plug and rear main seal are the major culprits. There appears to be STILL some power steering fluid leak from the fittings near the reservoir.

The blower oil return is also proving itself a leaker, but from ABOVE the fittings at the pan. It might just be right above, or maybe ALL the way up. There were also two minor drips off the trans cooler lines in the rubber portion. I tightened some fittings and will keep watch.

The RR battery still shows 12.6 volts at shutoff, so that part is working well.

I am going to chalk the front upper leaks to the manifold, and it appears I will have to remove the manifold and reseal it, although I do not see the actual trail of oil, just the matching puddles on the timing cover at each side.

I am holding out hope that a single injector has failed and is causing a lean situation. The car stumbled away at start up on 6 or 7 cylinders, then cleared up, but did show lean out symptoms down the street, and the odd knocking.

Nick is waiting yet ANOTHER week to order the new hood. Man, great work, TERRIBLE getting to it. Once on it, he is tenacious. If I hit the Lotto, he WILL do the KK, but on a very different arrangement.

Of course, IF I hit the Lotto, I’d buy a Cadillac CTS-V INSTANTO and be done with this thing.

This whole 23 years of SC Saga has really come down to an engineering challenge. I would say I have succeeded about 90%. There are some things that are not yielding to even my high level of perseverance and ingenuity. Stuff like this tuning issue and oil leaks are just emotional hobby killers.

11-28-12

Deeds did a little tweaking, richening up the area around 2000 RPM, going from MAP settings of about 40 to 64, and increasing the correction factor from around 8% to 15%. He did nothing else, and charged me zero.

He feels there is still a little miss somewhere, but not electrical or computer. He thinks it is mechanical, like a loose rocker arm, bad plug wire, etc.

The car ran strong and lit the tires easily.

The rear seal leak is onerous. It puddled on HIS floor, and we lost at least a quart just driving 20 miles.

I took the access plugs out of the bottom of the pan to attempt to tighten the INNER pan bolts. This was a 2-day process, culminating in driving around looking for a ¼” drive ¼” socket 12-point configuration. I finally chased (literally) a SNAP-ON truck down and bought one. Still no good. It turns out it was a 5/16”, unlike ALL the other pan bolts.

In any event, the bolts were tight, so it is indeed a rear seal leak and not the pan gasket.

Too bad.

Worse, the motor has a 2-piece seal, meaning the engine must come out, as the pan cannot be dropped in the car.

I looked at what it would take to make the K-member under the motor removable. I might still do this AFTER I take the engine out. Why this seal failed immediately and eventually so miserably is up for discussion. I have asked Duttweiler by email about his thoughts there.

I also attempted to tighten the difficult to reach power steering tee clamps which splits pump pressure off to the HydroBoost brakes.

I have given PBB his eviction notice, so he will probably not be amenable to servicing his leak on his HydroBoost install.

We will pull out the motor soon, but I need to align all the processes before I do so. I can’t be down two cars with nothing to drive. Nick claims he is ordering the hood tomorrow and apologized for the delay. I will be “reminding” him daily until he does so.

I am considering putting on a vacuum pump to ease the sealing pressure. I asked Duttweiler if a vacuum (smog) pump might work.

I must note here that I NEVER wanted to have to pull out that motor, EVER. But as it now must happen, I probably will modify the K-member, or replace it.

Research shall be done on this.

11-30-12

JJ and Kelly and I spent two days and got the motor out. The toughest part was separating the trans and converter. Getting at the trans bolts was just pure innovation and grit and perseverance.

With it out, more about that in a moment, I called Duttweiler and he easily expounded his thoughts on the sealing situation. He claims Windsors are HORRIBLE with their two-piece seal, and related several situations for me. Short story is he is going to accept the motor on 12/10/12. JJ and Kelly and I tested the engine with compressed air to find some leaks, which were exactly where we thought. The manifld (right side) leaks a LOT, also the front left of the manifold, and the blower oil return line right at the point on the fitting which we thought (and had cleaned DOZENS of times).

We are not cleaning the engine at all, not disassembling anything, and will take it to him complete, grimy, and ready for its autopsy.

The exhaust on the driver’s side was leaking at the old #3 cylinder spot, having eaten the gasket away there.

So in removing the engine, the myriad of little inventions over the last few years played out OK, and while tough, disassembly was straightforward, if difficult.

It got WAY tough getting to the trans bolts, and finally separating the converter from the flywheel. We ended up pulling the converter out a bit, perhaps 3-4 inches, enough to have it leak. We got it back in place, and I finally managed to pry it off the flywheel.

Craig at CRC says he will come soon and replace the front seal with the car in place on my rack.

We had to remove the motor mounts partially, not just remove the center pin joining the upper and lower shells, in order to get the motor forward and out. Getting the engine back in place on the converter bolts (4 of them) looks to be very rough.

I seriously want to section the front crossmember to allow the pan to be removed in the future in the car. This is not a small thing.

There may be some tubular structure approaches available. Or, I’ll just make my own.

We are going to spend the next two weeks detailing the engine compartment, and looking to simplify, if possible, any aspects of the myriad of plumbing nightmare in there. I particularly want to address the wiring. The very stiff blue water tubing (3/4” ID) to the intercooler “brick”, similar heater hose tubing, and some other hoses would need changing to other materials to yield a better routing.

There might be some places where putting disconnects in the lines might help.

I might get some pix here later on this area of effort.

Of course I NEVER wanted to have this motor out, did everything in my power to prevent it, used the BESST engine guy in the world, and still here we are. All I can do is apply my best thinking and go for it, AGAIN.

12-1-12

While the engine is out I am going to indulge a little fantasy: see what an LS-1 looks like in the engine compartment. I’m going to pull the rearmost engine out of the KiloKub and winch it down into the bay and see what it looks like. The pan may not clear, there may be major fitment issues. But this will be a relatively easy way to check it right now.

I have said many times in the past that if I had to do this all over, I would just have stuck in a blown LS-1 and a 4L80-E trans. Of course I started this V-8 thing in 1993, 8 years before the LS-1 came out, and before the 4L80-E was on the market.

I suppose I could consider leaving the E40-D in place if I did the LS-1 swap. But all said, it would be WAY easier to just go to the matching trans.

I looked at the crossmember again, and there are several things to consider if I want to make it a drop-out center thing:

1-the left motor mount would sit across the divide line on that side, so some interface would be needed

2-the steering rack appears to need no disconnections of line at the rack itself, as the high and low pressure lines coming away from it have in-line disconnects

3-the sway bar would still interfer with the pan dropping down, so must either be removed to allow that to happen, or be modified in some way. For instance, it could be sectioned at each side and a sliding, splined collar installed to make the center removable. This would be doable by Rob Moore.

4-perhaps the whole sway could be removed and reinstalled to allow the pan movement

5-the crossmember would be easily platable along the bottom and front

6-we need right at 12” of side-to-side clearance for the pan to drop

7-maybe someone makes a whole tubular replacement for the area

12-7-12

Kelly made a suggestion about hatching the pan. GOOD idea!

I will discuss it Monday with Kenny Duttweiler when I deliver him the engine for his autopsy.

I removed the steering rack, finding two loose fittings, and took it to Pacific Rebuilders. This should eliminate any debris being stirred up once we hook it back up. There were leaks at at least one of the fittings and at the tee below the power steering pump. Of course PFB will not be around to do any more service on his flawed install.

I used dum-dum putty to seal up several places on the firewall, and reattached a completely loose heater core cover on the firewall. This should cure the heat entry into the cabin, and hopefully eliminate any exhaust infiltration as well.

I found the 3-4 left side header gasket was leaking again, and may have been a source of exhaust leaking.

We pressure-washed the entire chassis outside, cleaned, sanded, and in some cases primed surfaces, and shot a lot of areas again with trim black paint. We also put aluminum paint on the exhaust system. That looks WAY cool.

Of course, only the three of us will likely ever see more than a few tiny places of that once the car is running again. But hey, it makes ME feel good, and that works.

We are sprucing up the engine compartment as possible, with JJ polishing some of the aluminum. We’ll detail the engine once Kenny is done.

CRC Transmission’s Craig has NOT shown up to change the converter seal on the trans, which is NOT leaking.

Marlon has also not shown up to view the steering components I intend to have him replace. Fortunately, there is not much rush, at least not for the first half of next week, as no motor will be around.

The AC did not need to be evacuated as it was DRY. Once together, back it goes to AirMec to see where the leak was.

I want to make effect some cleanliness upgrades to the engine bay, but without the engine in, it may be hard to properly route stuff.

Whatever I do, I intend to make it EASIER to service.

We also pressure washed the front wheels (off the car), and got them remarkably clean.

I am also going to look at the alignment of the pulley system, and see what, if anything, can be done to perhaps move the WHOLE thing back about 1/8” to more correctly align with the crank pulley.

 

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