drove it, changed windsheild wipers, ordered a new starter motor. going to investigate why i have so much play in the steering tomorrow, along with a possible brake job.

 

Mechanical secondaries ftw! I knew those vac pots were going bad... Now I just need to put the new fuel pump and regulator in and we will really have something, (that can still get walked on by just about any new car. Damn)

 

I can tell I'm really power hungry these days...

I took "Icy" for her maiden voyage around the block today. She's fine down low thanks to the RB long primary exhaust and fairly mild port, and the fact it's a 13B with a light steel flywheel (excellent choice if I do say so), but once you get up past about 3.5k you tend to expect the real rotary power to kick in. But it doesn't.

Something about this particular 74 carb just doesn't like high RPM. I've been all over under and through it. Everything is as it should be, but it doesn't perform as expected. Gotta do something about that. Maybe once it's broken in a little. Thinking about power adders...

I was driving up to 4.5k rpm at like 1 mile on the odo and maybe 30 minutes run time. I peaked it at 5k once lol. I think Icy likes abuse.

 

Got my aluminum 3 row radiator installed, found out a butched old full size bronco upper rad. hose made me both upper and lower radiator hose. Also got a racing beat intake, 650 holley, and a pace setter header installed. Waiting on my crossed drilled and slotted rotors (thanks ******* FEDEX). Just need a muffler let her warm up and adjust the idle.

 

drove it to the JNCC meet in houston.

 

Changed out my engine-build oil and filter - nothing unexpected came out, which is good - and took the car for a long, hot drive. Nearly an hour of stop-and-go surface traffic followed by a 10-min freeway run at 4k (5th gear) & into the barn, then let it sop up the 90-degree heat.

90 minutes later, I went to start it. The engine was still hot enougg that the choke would not stay pulled (so, block water temp above 180)... and I encountered a mild semi-flood condition. I had to hold the pedal flat and crank for about 8-10 seconds before she lit off, and blew a smallish amount of black smoke. It then took about 20 seconds of part-throttle runningbefore she would idle smoothly & stop 'clearing her throat'.

This is far improved from what I experienced a week ago, using my older air cleaner cover/ carbon canister. All other conditions virtually identical, but that time she was harder to start, blew a hell of a lot more (black) smoke, and took about a minute or more to settle doewn to a good idle.

Which means the hot-shutdown flood is definitely related to the condition/age of the carbon canister's filling, that being the only thng I changed.

Now, even my 'newest' air-cleaner cover is not young; it's the original one from my car, which was swapped out of use in 08 for the used one I bought and prettified.

I'm willing to invest some time and effort on the premise that I can pretty much eliminate this post-shutdown flood if the carbon filler is in adequately good condition, even with the high-volatile gas being used today in CA.

So, I got another used air-cleaner cover off e-bay, and I'm going to disassemble it, find proper new activated carbon filler, and work out a way to make the canister 'serviceable' instead of just replaceable. It's all spot-welded together so some drilling and brazing is probably called for.

Sounds like the next phase of my endless build thread.

 

Gave both the 7 and the Speed6 an interior vacuuming/cleaning, then cleaned the 7's BBS RS. For those of you that have seen them, you know they aren't as easy to clean as a 5-6 spoke wheel. The Hawk HP+ pads dust pretty heavy so the cleaning did a world of good. Can't get to my polishing cloths so I'll have to buy some more on payday to do the lips properly.

 

rewired alternator, and did many more highway tuning pulls to 8k in 3rd and 4th gear

...and started making my custom Stinkfist edition camber/caster plates. prototype Alpha done, now prototype Beta to follow (similar to Aplha, but much prettier)

 

Today, I unloaded all the race equipment and drove her to work.

Yesterday, Rotormotor and I autocrossed it and damn near blew everyone out of the water. In fact, I almost got beat in my own car! Brett (Rotormotor) had a time that was only 7/10ths of a second off my best time. We took 1st/2nd in CSP, but really we were trying to beat everyone. No more than a handfull of the 89 cars put down faster times though, and there were some real monster cars there too!

Saturday, Rotormotor came over and did most of the work for me getting my car prepped for the race. A very long day. Finally solved the last issue (weird lighting problems, turn signals, car continued to run even with key off/out of ignition) by hooking up a missed chassis ground shortly after midnight. One last beer by the bonfire, then 4 hours of sleep before the alarm went off for race day.

Thanks Rotormotor for all of the help. Without it, I would've been a spectator this weekend.

The new turn in (roll center) spacers make an unbelievable difference! Thanks Sam!!!



.

 

Did a little Haltech tuning, leaned out some of the cruise area of the fuel map.

 

pulled the cb radio and related wiring, pulled old, non-functioning aftermarket headlights. have a nice big gap in my dash, don't know what to do with it. might get creative somehow...

 

From yesterday:

 

"One of these things.. is not like the other..."

 

my Rx8 does the same thing! except its the motor....

um all the new cars use big charcoal canisters, there must be an inexpensive one you could buy and crack open.

 

I like the fact that I can go to a meet full of 1st gens and still be a little bit different

 

I'm pretty sure that I can find a source for the raw material, once I have one open and can examine the grain size used.

The fact that newer cars are using larger canisters, even though the don't have float bowls to deal with (mainly just tank vapors) is another good indication that I'm on the right track with the higher volatility of modern fuels.

The SA in-lid canister is quite small in total volume, even in comparison to the FB canisters used from 81 on. Roughly a 6-inch hemisphere flattened to 3-inch thickness.

 

oh actually you could gut the SA canister, and just run an FB/FC/any other car, inline with the air cleaner lid. not very elegant but functionable

i think the new cars have giant canisters due to the really strict evap standards, but i don't know. the Rx8/tribute/mpv canister is like 10"x14"x6", its BIG

 

dumb question perhaps ... isn't it the same charcoal used in fish tank filtration systems??
like this

 

Took mine out for some grocery shopping action!

 

Requires some replumbing, though - - I'd have to add the purge port connection to the back of the carb (SA doesn't have the port) and the vent valving would have to change.

Which will make it fail visual inspection for smog check - - they actually go through the emissions and vacuum diagram in detail.

Not exactly the same, but from what I've read it's similar. It needs to be tailored in it's production process for gas-phase rather than liquid-phase filtration, but I've seen sources out there. I basically just need to know what kind is in there - - which I will know when I get my experimental unit apart in the next couple days - - and work out the best mechanism for making it re-assemble-able.

 

Got my crossed drilled and slotted rotors, rears are installed. Need new bearings, races, and seals for the front. Also need both front and rear disc hardware kits.

 

dude, you realize those are FB seats?

 

Divin, when do you know when the canister on the air filter is too far gone?
I have one from an fb sitting around that isn't being used and never will be.

 

FB's have a different A/F lid

 

.Yeah, from an '84 I was told.. unfortunately I really want to find SA seats but its not so easy, I hear they're more comfortable as well.