When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hello all,
I just recently acquired a really nice 83 GSL that had been owned by the same woman since 86. The car has 285,XXX miles on it, but it's cherry! The interior is all together and isn't cracked or ripped anywhere.damn near all the accessories work and the car is remarkably complete! The previous order parked it after suffering a sudden loss of power while goin up a hill and her mechanics said the believed it was a clogged catalytic converter. I'm an apprentice mechanic and I troubleshot the car and think they were correct. The engine feels choked up and the exhaust pules are very weak with the cat in the system, but without they're strong as they should be. Apart from that the engine is running awfully. It won't idle below 2000 rpm and it's idles is very rough. I sprayed starting fluid around the base of the carb to check for a vacuum leak and sure enough the idle shot up 500 rpm or so when sprayed. Right now I'm in the middle of swapping intake manifolds. I have a 12A from an 83 auto that I know runs well and that I pulled out of a junkyard a few months ago. I plan on keeping the car pretty much stock and using it as a daily wheel I work on my 82 Pro-7 spec race car!
Oh I also accidentally let the car fall off the jack and it landed on the stock radiator. Thank God it didn't damage anything but the radiator. The radiator was original to the car and was rotted out anyway and it needed replacing. The whole bottom half was green like Lady Liberty!! I have a Koyorad in it now, but annoyingly the coolant level sensor doesn't fit in the bung of the new rad so I'll have to this of something for that now too...
I'm really excited to get this thing on the road and driving! Hopefully I can have the intake swap finished and the engine running later today. The new cat is backordered by Magnaflow and I about I'lll see it before July. The original ship date was 6/3 but now its been pushed to 6/23. I have the exhaust jerry-rigid in the meantime. That's what happens to a stock rad when you drop eh car on it!
For reference, a 1980 just showed up at the Chula Vista - East LKQ Pick-a-Part yard today. Might want to see what spare parts you can pull off. '80 is an SA, so not all parts are the same as FB, but still worth a look.
Given the mileage, the car is in incredible shape!! Are the seats from a Miata? Do you know any of the car's history?
No the seats are actually stock seats. They're the originals that came with the car and are in desperate need of a re-foam! The driver's side is extremely worn out and needs a small tear sewn up. I know the history since 86 when the previous owner bought it. There car is immaculate for being a daily-driven 80s sports car. The only incident the car had was a rear end collision in which the bumper and paint were messed up but the car itself was undamaged. It has some issues I'll explain later but I'm stoked to be able to get it running and daily it!
Originally Posted by Carl
Very nice looking car. Will be lots of fun.
For reference, a 1980 just showed up at the Chula Vista - East LKQ Pick-a-Part yard today. Might want to see what spare parts you can pull off. '80 is an SA, so not all parts are the same as FB, but still worth a look.
Carl
Wow that's awesome! they very rarely show up in parts yards around here! I'm over a week late but I'll try to head that way tomorrow and jump on any parts that I can!
Alrighty, y'all here is the progress so far with the daily. I still don't have a name for it; noting has yet struck me as fitting yet. In mechanical news, the car had a clogged catalytic converter when I purchased it. I've ordered the Magnaflow direct replacement and its not slated to ship to me until the 23rd, so in the meantime I've rigged up a muffler so the car is drivable. Aside from the cat issues the next biggest problem seemed to be a vacuum leak. The car idled like absolute crap and I couldn't adjust it to idle below 1500 RPM with the idle speed screw. I swapped out the intake manifold and carb with an extra I had and at that point the car ran well at driving RPM, it still disked like crap, however. At idle it sounded like a 1-cylinder generator and at first I was terrified I'd lost a rotor, but once again at driving speeds >2000 RPM the car ran great. the engine seemed to rev happily and had a ton of power. Then the air cleaner starting to make noise like a horn and I pretty quickly realised that my shutter valve was stuck open and always pulling a vacuum. I pulled the hole in the air cleaner for the shiver valve and now the car idles velvety smooth!
The newest problem is when the car i swarm, it boggs down massively and stalls when trying to pull away from a stop. Theres also a hesitation when I give the car gas below ~2000 RPM before the car picks back up and revs fine. I think its an issue with the fuel supply as when I first start the car and have the choke pulled and the engine is running rich it doe3snt have the bogging/hesitation problems. I'll check for another vacuum leak with some carb cleaner after work, but aside from that or the accelerator pump failing idk what it could be. I have another carb I may try to swap onto this engine/manifold. I also have half a mind to remove all the smog stuff as it seems very prone to failure, but I really don't want to do that as its illegal in my Cali zip code.
I have another update, this time hopefully with much better spelling! After I plugged the shutter valve hole in the air cleaner with some JB Weld Steelstik the car has been running really well! It pulls excellently and the engine seems lively and well reving. Now, the main issue is the car bogs down really badly in 2 scenarios: the first is under sudden acceleration from RPM <2500 RPM , and while pulling away from a stop, so much so that if I don't give it quite a good bit of throttle it'l stall out. I'm at a loss as to what could be causing the bogging down. So far I've tried adjusting the mixture, (enriching it made it idle a little smoother) adjusting the timing (once again a smoother idle) as well as checking the accelerator pump (it seems to be operating) and the vacuum secondaries. I used a test mentioned by sterling in another post and got the car to 80 MPH on the freeway in 3rd to see if the secondaries were in fact opening. The only test that showed anything negative was spraying starting fluid around the base of the carb, which caused RPM to rise only about 100 RPM, so I believe there's a small vacuum leak somewhere.
Anyone have any advice for where I should begin looking next?
Also I feel the need to mention that I'm not a beginner in regards to driving a stick-shift. The car I learned to drive on was an unrestored 1964 Ford Falcon with a 3 on the tree, my next car was a 96 mustang with a 5-speed and my most recent car before the 83 was an 83 Rabbit GTI. I believe over the last 7 years I've become pretty well versed in driving low-torque manuals, but I am open to the idea I just dint have the hang of driving a stick rotary yet. Do any of you have a problem getting the car rolling? Or is mine bogging down so badly that it stalls out. I'm currently having to rev the car to about 3000 RPM to take off.
I dailyed that Falcon around for a good couple years! It was a clunky hunk-o-junk but it still was fun! The RX7 definitely has a dead spot, around 1500-2000 RPM, but I've started to adapt to that issue and I'm able to get it going without too much hassle now. That being said I still want to fix, or at least diagnose and understand its hesitation on acceleration ASAP.
More than anything it's the time and ***-pain involved in changing the valve that's preventing me from swapping it out for a new one. Out of necessity the car has become my daily a little earlier than expected and before I could get everything properly sorted out that I wanted to, but sometimes that's just how it has to be.
i bought a 12mm wrench, and heated it up on the stove and bent it so that i could take the carb off without too much drama. i also only put the vacuum rack on with one bolt, instead of two (there is one that is easy and one that is hard...)
so there are two ways to put the carb, the factory wrench was U shaped, and then if you pull the vacuum rack (as an assembly) you can get in there with just a normal wrench.
Funny, I learned to drive a car with a manual transmission on a 1963 Ford Falcon with a 3spd on the column. The car was a gift from my grandfather before he passed away. I still have the car!
Since you got side-tracked on learning to drive 3-on-the-tree, here is my entry. The 52 Ford in the background was what I learned on. Don't have it anymore though. I do still have the Model A in the foreground.
Since you got side-tracked on learning to drive 3-on-the-tree, here is my entry. The 52 Ford in the background was what I learned on. Don't have it anymore though. I do still have the Model A in the foreground.
Carl that really is an awesome picture! & Mazdaverx713B my falcon has the next gen body style but it still has the 3-speed on the column. Learning how to drive on that car actually has been really helpful given that it helped me learn to be smooth on the clutch etc and also had a choke I needed to set when cold starting. Both those skills have come in handy for the 83 GSL daily! I don't mind the slight detour into old fords so I'll post a pic of my falcon when I can remember to take one.
The fuel filter seemed fine upon inspection but I may change it on principle in the near future. I think the pump has adequate pressure given that when I absolutely get on it seems to pull really strongly and doesn't hesitate at all after the initial 1500 bog down. Also if I go from idle to matted while the car is sitting in neutral it'll hesitate, but every mat after the initial will have no hesitation in that problem range. I checked the accelerator pumps again and they seem to be working. Might it be something with the floats?
Carl, (and everyone else) do you have ready access to a pdf or link detailing the mods one does to the carb to convert it to mechanical secondaries and/or to prep it for for things such as Pro-7 class racing? I have an extra carb off of a junkyard 83 auto that I'd like to rebuild into a back up for my racer that I'd also like to have as a test carb that can be thrown on to test fuel or air issues. I have tried the search feature and it yielded a ton of threads about random stuff unrelated to any of the carb mods I was looking for. I found plenty of threads advising searching the forum as it'd already been covered elsewhere, but I couldn't find the threads they were referring to! I've thought about messaging Sterling as well but Idk if its worth bugging him.
Oh and j9f3ds I bought a Home Depot 12mm wrench to do exactly that to! Though at this point I'd like to ditch that rats' nest (at least for the time being) as I think it needs a going through and rebuild as well.
Despite all these small issues I have been daily driving the car and its been an absolute JOY! It's a zippy little machine. There's been one more issue to pop up though: the car sags about an inch lower on the front left corner than the other 3. I've replaced springs with a set of Racing Beat springs but the problem persists. Nothing looks bent for broken. Any idea what may be causing the 1 corner to sag?
There's been one more issue to pop up though: the car sags about an inch lower on the front left corner than the other 3. I've replaced springs with a set of Racing Beat springs but the problem persists. Nothing looks bent for broken. Any idea what may be causing the 1 corner to sag?
When you installed the RB coils did you you installed the top strut mount facing the right way?
If one it's facing the wrong way that will explain the height difference.....
Well that would potentially explain it. When I reinstalled the front struts I made extra effort to ensure that I installed them in the same orientation in which I removed them. That being said I was replacing shocks and springs in an attempt to fix the fact that the front left corner of my car was sagging noticeably. I don't remember any instructions in my FSM in regards to orientation influencing alignment or ride height. Can anyone provide any info that the FSM didn't? My strut mounting braces have a little notch cut out on one side of them, does that influence anything?
Well that would potentially explain it. When I reinstalled the front struts I made extra effort to ensure that I installed them in the same orientation in which I removed them. That being said I was replacing shocks and springs in an attempt to fix the fact that the front left corner of my car was sagging noticeably. I don't remember any instructions in my FSM in regards to orientation influencing alignment or ride height. Can anyone provide any info that the FSM didn't? My strut mounting braces have a little notch cut out on one side of them, does that influence anything?
I found this...it will show you the right position...where it is supposed to be the factory setting. .
i bought a 12mm wrench, and heated it up on the stove and bent it so that i could take the carb off without too much drama. i also only put the vacuum rack on with one bolt, instead of two (there is one that is easy and one that is hard...)
so there are two ways to put the carb, the factory wrench was U shaped, and then if you pull the vacuum rack (as an assembly) you can get in there with just a normal wrench.
are you serious? I thought steel only starts to bend at 600 F ?? your kitchen stove gets up to 600F ??
Since you got side-tracked on learning to drive 3-on-the-tree, here is my entry. The 52 Ford in the background was what I learned on. Don't have it anymore though. I do still have the Model A in the foreground.
seems like our parents and grandparents up graded their cars every 5 years because the tech advancements being so rapid. now the technology improvements aren't as rapid ? my folks had a 1960 ford falcon. they dumped it in 1968. it had trouble going up hills.
Add 38 years to the '58 ford and you got 1990. Having a 1958 ford would be unheard of in 1990.
Last edited by midnight mechanic; 06-26-21 at 01:10 AM.
are you serious? I thought steel only starts to bend at 600 F ?? your kitchen stove gets up to 600F ??
i was surprised too, it is possible that a 2019 vintage craftsman wrench is not steel....
gas stove, i held it in the flame for a while, and then at that house there was a gap in the pavers right outside the kitchen, so i put the wrench in there and stepped on it. i went slow, because i didn't want to crack it, and i had no way to tell how hot it was.
The gas flame is actually pretty hot, as opposed to the temperature of the oven. To confirm, I just measured the temp of the flame and it is 1550 degF. More than enough to bend your wrench.
For mechanical secondaries, I don't think you need/should want to do it on a street driven car. In my opinion it will add driveability issues (or other mods that will needed to avoid the driveability problem). It also has the potential of smogging your car difficult. If you want to do it though, I think Benjaminxxxx and Jeff20B have done some serious write-ups of the other mods that are needed to make it street drivable.
For the race car, I am not sure if it is really necessary either. I am pretty sure that Pro7's were not allowed to use mechanical secondaries and I never used them until I bored out the primary venturis. I do not have any dyno data to compare the HP/TQ curves with and without mechanical secondaries. One of my racing buddies is on the technical staff at Mazda and has worked with a lot of their vintage race cars and his advice is to stick with vacuum secondaries unless you can't. When I bored out the primary venturis, not enough vacuum was generated to open the secondaries. I have made the conversion to two different carbs (FB and SA). The linkage is different and I did it two different ways. There seem to be a variety of ways it can be done. I also had some difficulty understanding how other people were doing it. The descriptions always seems to be missing key details. I just figured out my own ways. Once you strip the carb, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out what you want/need to do. The one thing I def don't recommend is to tie the primary and secondary linkage together with twisted wire. That seems like a serious potential failure point for a race car.
If you are running a stock port 12A, I am not sure if there is a benefit to enlarging the venturis. Someone else might have better info on that. From an SCCA standpoint, Spec7, Pro7 and ITA do not allow any venturi enlarging. I have a spare carb with enlarged primary venturis that you can try sometime if you want. In the meantime, you should be ready for the track with what you have.
I realize that was all kind of wishy-washy, but hopefully at least marginally helpful.
I've bent cheap Harbour Freight and Husky wrenches after letting them glow a little after being held under a propane torch for that felt like ages. If you can get metal to glow red hot you know you have it cooking though!
I'm not old enough to have seen many major advancement soon cat tech as they debuted, but it does seem that at a point around the 80s-90s the mechanical components of a car became pretty much standardized and then the improvements were related to each being added to cars, so the individual improvements may have had less value individually and it only really mattered when whole systems could be integrated or improved. That's my thinking on it anyway.
Carl I see your points on why mechanical secondaries may not be the best choice is I'll table that while concept for now. The vacuum system seems to me to be a point of failure and I'd like to eliminate was many of those as possible but that may not be an option sadly. I have a small vacuum leak now somewhere in my carb/rats' nest and I'll have to put some time into chasing it sooner rather than later.
06-07-21, 01:24 PM
I've thought about messaging Sterling as well but Idk if its worth bugging him.