Power Tour update

[elacruze]

Beginning day 5 of the 2011 Power Tour. Hooked up with the MoPowered tour guys, having a great time. Car is awesome, although of course I tend to see only the flaws. Timing curve is way too aggressive, runs great to 2500 then have to keep the foot light. I dialed back the initial to about 5* with 10* vacuum advance, so it idles ok but I can't retard it more and keep the idle steady and can't back the vacuum out earlier for the same reason. Needs a recurve. Idle MAP is 35-40.
Having trouble with the Holley software, it runs about 5 minutes and then locks up so we're tuning only small increments at a time-losing lots of fuel because we don't get the time to dial in the acceleration enrichment, nor much of the main fuel map at above 1/4 throttle.
Rear springs are circa 1982 S/S, but with the Firm Feel torsion bars up front and a trunk of luggage they still feel soft. I need to move the front spring eye to the low hole to raise the rear a touch and reduce oversteer feel during turn-in.
Alignment shop stopped at 3.5* caster though I requested 4.0, feels like 4.5-5.0 will be about right in the end.

We drove past the very spot I first saw this car in 1980 in Cullman, Alabama. Unfortunately we didn't have a camera at hand. I should have turned back, in retrospect. What a deja-vu.

[TUFCAT]

Keep us posted! 

[elacruze]

Got caught in traffic on I-65 through Kentucky today, got to Indy motor speedway right at the bell...found a dozen cars in the Big Lots parking lot angry because the local gendarmes shut the entrance down at 5:30...didn't get to punch our tickets so I guess they're going to have the clocks at the morning driver's meeting. No wonder the Mopar Nats left. Indiana police have always been Nazis, and I guess they enjoy it.

Car ran good, valve lash is opening some and a little noisy but will have to wait until it's over. Still have some electrical bug preventing me from running the A/C above 2500rpm or so...made a couple changes in the parking lot before losing the software that helped a lot.

Off to Muskegon.

[firefighter3931]

Excellent....good to hear the trip is going well for you Eric ! 

That's one hell of a shakedown run ! 



Ron

[TUFCAT]

I hope to meet up with you guys Friday in Detroit. Do you know where the final ceremony will be? I know you will be at Metro Beach friday, but's that's a long way from where I live... Maybe I can catch the cars enroute.

[elacruze]

Tuffy, We'll be at the GM Proving Grounds in Milford tomorrow (Saturday) for the Long Hauler's party-supposedly no admittance to anyone without Longhauler's credentials though...if you're close, we could hook up afterwards, and the MoPowered tour guys are going to the Chrysler Museum after the LH party...I have no idea what time that will be. If you like, PM me your cell if you think you might be up there anywhere. Otherwise, I'll be out on the West Side near Metro Airport for at least a week, probably closer to 2. I have Family up in Farwell, friends in Alma, and my Co-Driver's family is in Sterling Heights so if you're anywhere near those we'll get together.

So...we're in the Hotel at the end of the Tour...all in all it was Rockin!
One of my old friends has sorted out my electrical issue (hopefully). He was a Dodge dealership mechanic in the '70's and as soon as I described my symptoms (Intermittent miss, worse with electrical loads-A/C, lights, wipers, turn signals) he said, "Heck, it's your module. If we did one we did a hundred...the internal ground fails and it looks out the wires for ground-add power spikes and the ground goes away shutting it down") I'd known the ground fails but never heard that it causes intermittent missing or drop-outs. We'll install the spare in the next couple days during maintenance.
Power steering cooler will be added, wheel bearings checked, rear springs moved to the lower front eye position to raise rear a touch, total fluid change (Royal Purple is giving away an end-to-end fluid change tomorrow, hope I get it)

I have only one breather and it's unbaffled, so we used 5 quarts of oil on the ~1700 mile trip, I figure 2-3 of them went down the valve cover...the guys said it quit smoking between Montgomery and Nashville lol.

We lost the ability to tune the EFI while moving, most likely due to the failed ignition box...RPM signal was wacky so the software would lock up while the engine was running, so I had to do a 'best guess' every morning in the parking lot before starting the engine, and the changes had to be small because I had to live with any mistakes the rest of the day, or pull over and tune while on the clock. I haven't added the fuel receipts yet, but my best guess including city driving and waiting in traffic is 11mpg + or - 1...not great but I guess not so bad for 3000rpm @ 70mph.

My distributor was set up for my .509-cammed 440 with 11:1 compression, so it was way too aggressive for this motor. Balancing the available adjustments to best possible was tough...engine wants 12-15 idling to work right, but has way too much @2500-2700 and rattles if you accelerate much while hot, and we were hot. Initial timing is about 5* with the vacuum backed out as early as possible below idle vacuum. Total is 30-32. Georgia and Alabama were 100* ambient, and I'm pretty sure we cooked 230-250* at a couple points...the air coming off the radiator was so hot I couldn't adjust idle speed without mechanic's gloves. Nothing came out past the radiator cap, so I figured it was all good...oil started turning dark after the worst of it in Alabama so I know the detonation was really heating the pistons up and killing the oil.
Despite my efforts to make it right, I didn't get the rear gears close enough and they started to make a little noise after about 500 miles. I don't like it, but no sparkles in the lube says nothing's ruined. I'll have to re-do the whole thing correctly with new gears and bearings.

The Firm Feel suspension is magic, so good that the rear end felt a little mushy by comparison even with the S/S springs. We did have a trunkload and usually a full tank of gas, though. I gave some driving lessons to a '65 Vette with LS III drivetrain through I-696 traffic through Detroit.

Centerforce Clutch was awesome, smooth and progressive and got better all the way through to now. I may try re-installing the overcenter spring; the clutch is lighter than my old Hays but stiffer than I expected, my knee is killing me after all the traffic. I still wouldn't trade for a slushbox though.
The Gear Vendors overdrive was a total savior. Worked flawlessly, and the driveline was actually smoother in OD than without-in fact, absolutely perfect in OD right from 25-30mph to 80.

All in all, one of the best road trips I've ever had.

Rumor says next year will be Detroit to Dallas-if so, I figure that means Rte. 66...another trip I already have planned.

[TUFCAT]

I sent you a PM