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Bowling race car driver, superficial hitman.. |
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"You're On the list at every door,
You don't bowl or race fast cars.
Composition, competition, you drive."
(Warning! This entry is image-heavy! 56kers.. need to upgrade)
Well, another weekend of turning wrenches done with. Didn't get tons done, but it felt productive, so we'll rest upon the feeling of satisfaction.
First things first, I picked up a 6th spark plug, and quickly swapped that in. Then, I planned to do an oil change. However, cold oil doesn't drain as well, so I needed to warm up the engine a bit. Hop in, turn the key.. Sputter, clickclickclickclick. ********. The damn battery is nearly dead.. again. I even left it unhooked this time! Guess I didn't charge it enough. Once again, pop the mustang into the driveway, run the cables, let it charge idle for a minute or two, and then.. *turn key* vrooom! Sweet. Step out of the car, sputter, sputter die. Damnit. Needs more gas. So, I dump another gallon and a half in. Then, start, run, sputter die? What the hell? Try it again, listening very carefully.. Start, vroom.. try to idle, choke, cough die. Oh. Damn. My idle is really off.
So, once again, under the hood and fiddling with knobs and switches. No, not actually. Fiddling with one screw. I love old cars. Carburetors are so easy to work on. Just use a screwdriver and adjust my idle mixture, and *poof*, the Duster is idling away just fine.
Don't beleive me?
Yessiree bob, we have moving pictures! Don't I treat you so nice?
For those who wanted to hear it "scream".. Here, have another look and listen at an engine, most likely made 15 years before you were born.
Yes, that's the remains of an exhaust pipe.
It sounds like several large, angry pigs.
Once there's a muffler on it, it'll sound less amusing, which is sad. it will be street-legal however, which is happy.
So, so far.. to get an engine, that's been sitting in a field for nearly a decade, running.. It's required 6 spark plugs, a new battery, some replacement fuel lines, and a screwdriver.
So, the carb is mostly dialed in. It's running a bit rich, but otherwise fine. I let it idle for a while. Occasionally playing with the throttle and listening to the pigs roar. Smoke starts to billow from the engine compartment. Swearing a blue streak, I rush up and start looking for signs of death and fire. The people around me are getting worried that my project is about to explode in flames. Then, I start laughing. Why? because last time I was working on it, I sprayed a good coat of degreaser all over the block and head, to break up the accumulated filth of years.
Here's a nice example of the filth I describe.
Eww. Anyways, a nice coat of degreaser had pooled into some places on the block and exhaust header, and was burning off. No death by fire for my car!
After it ran for a while, I shut it down and crawled underneathwith a drip pan and my gloves on. The oil pan drain was easy as pie to find and release. I'm also very glad I had my gloves on. The initial glut of oil all over my hand was very warm and very messy. Without too much of a mess later, I had the pan drained, and the old filter pulled.
Mmm.. 10 year old oil..
4qts drained, oil filter swapped, new oil in..
Pretty good progress, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm not just working on the car on weekends, either. During the week I'm getting my gearhead groove on by dreaming up what I want to turn this junker into. Some time with google image seearch and photoshop..
So without further ado.. I introduce you to..
Project Duster.
Hopefully, I'll have a looker on my hands when all is done.
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So, now it's time to move on to my *other* project.
This last winter, somone I new who lives out of state was being pestered about a car sitting in a driveway that he basically hadn't touched for 10 years. The car had been moved from North Carolina, parked, and covered. The people who own the driveway had occasionally roatated and refilled the tires, and started the engine from time to time.
Knowing that I was into cars, and having basically zero interest in the car.. I was informed that if I wanted it, I could have it. So, a bit of talking later, I've got a new project.
Why yes, that is a Firebird.
Like the one in Smokey and the Bandit.
No, I'm not doing a bandit conversion. I'm not that white trash.
It's a 1980 Firebird Esprit. Those who know cars, or, more specifically, Firebirds, are chuckling to themselves. Go ahead, get a good laugh.
For those not knowing cars or Firebirds, the esprit was a base-model 231ci v6 pretender to the Firebird throne. It's like buying a ferrari, only to find out that somone put a lawnmower engine in it. It's sad. Hence, the laughter.
Except this one, so I was told, had a pontiac 400ci V8 swapped in. Not too shabby.
After being stymied from checking it out by an inital misplacement of the keys, and then later by the tricky hood opening mechanism,(Designed to prevent theft, in actuality it just makes opening the hood a royal pain in the a**.) I was unaware of what lay within the black beast's inner chambers.
Finally, we got the tricky hood to open, and my jaw hit the floor.
Why yes, that is indeed a 400ci V8, with a new ED, wires, and plugs.
And yes, that is a very large carb and new heads.
And yes, that is an Edlebrock intake mounted proudly with a Holley dominator 4 barrel carb. It also has a custom grind cam.
More research and discussion finds that the engine, when last run, was pushing a good bit over 400 bhp, and 410ft-lbs of torque. It wasn't just pulled from a wrecked firebird and dropped in stock. The engine was ground-built new, and custom fitted to this car.
s**t, I'm going to lose my license.
My jaw could only have become further unhinged were I a snake of some sort.
I'll update progress on this one as I make headway. It's not going to require too much work at this point, but.. much like the Duster, for everything I seem to fix, I find three new problems. Mostly, this one needs the interior redone and some external cleaning, maybe a new coat of paint (I'm thinking dark metallic green, currently.) So, this one will be moving a bit slower.
Once I get it running and dialed in.. I'll post more videos if you want to see em'.
Next update - Hopefully, my goddamn parts will arrive, so we can get those cleaned up and ready for install. Then, we'll look into engine cleaning, some interior work, and the joys of paperwork when it comes to titles and registration.
Also, with luck, we may have a running 400ci V8 to play with.
Until then..
"You shift, I'm the driver,
over time in its' defense,
I move their car,
And for a moment it makes sense,
but I fail them in the end."
 Twistex · Sun Mar 22, 2009 @ 10:50pm · 5 Comments |
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