Jacko's Project

[Ausjacko]

nope, no leads on that first PO-doh!

[Nuts]

nope, no leads on that first PO-doh!

Probably too embarrassed to admit it.

[Ausjacko]

Right, radiator dropped in and tested- even though I thought I had done this before. The fins were coming off the tubes, the tubes had bowed and the bottom tank had a split. The professional view is the radiator is F&*^ed. New radiator ordered and should be here tomorrow.

I asked about fitting a cooler thermostat; she is running a 180degF at present. interestingly, the radiator guy asks if it is carbide or fuel injection. He explained that if it was running a carb, then it should be ok but with a properly working cooling system it would not be necessary. For EFI he would definitely say don't do it as the EFI will see the cooler motor and richen the mixture in an attempt to bring it up to temp- never realised that. For that reason he says many modern cars are designed to run around 90degC.

[Nuts]

190?

[hybrid]

Right, radiator dropped in and tested- even though I thought I had done this before. The fins were coming off the tubes, the tubes had bowed and the bottom tank had a split. The professional view is the radiator is F&*^ed. New radiator ordered and should be here tomorrow.

I asked about fitting a cooler thermostat; she is running a 180degF at present. interestingly, the radiator guy asks if it is carbide or fuel injection. He explained that if it was running a carb, then it should be ok but with a properly working cooling system it would not be necessary. For EFI he would definitely say don't do it as the EFI will see the cooler motor and richen the mixture in an attempt to bring it up to temp- never realised that. For that reason he says many modern cars are designed to run around 90degC.

It would have to be very cool for there to be any real difference. Air temp, yes, coolant temp not so much. For example, on my car, after 70degrees, fueling doesn't change. In my opinion, that's not really a valid concern.

[Shaunp]

Has it got a noisy lifter?

[Ausjacko]

Hey Shaun. I think it has, even though they are new. It comes and goes but will need looking at once I get the radiator goes back in. I have reset the rockers twice now and that has not helped therefore must be the lifter- doh!

[Ausjacko]

23 May 2018

Well, the car has been together for a while and I have had a chance to drive it and ID those ‘I thought I did that’ niggles. In no particular order they have been:

Fitech breather
The few drives I had revealed a smell of fuel from somewhere in the engine bay- no not where it should be Nuts. This turned out to be the breather from the fuel command centre I had not connected well enough.

The movement of the car led to fuel spilling in the breather and as I only had it exiting in the bay, the smell of fumes followed. Solution was to run a long length of rubber fuel hose back to the fuel tank as suggested in the instructions (who reads them right!). I was in luck as I found a breather from the petrol tank exited through the floor of the boot just above the diff centre and I used this.

Pressurised fuel tank
This follows directly from my ‘good luck’ in using the breather just behind the diff to vent to the fuel cell. After a drive to marvel in my mechanical fortune of curing the fuel smell in the engine bay, I parked the car and left it a while to return and find a puddle of liquid under the drivers side rear. As I knew there were no other fluids in this area but fuel, I feared a split fuel tank of similar. I pulled back the boot mat to reveal the fuel sender ring and fittings. Bugger me if there was not fuel being pushed from around the pick-up to rubber hose connection.

“How can this be as it is not under pressure” I quizzed myself.

To test for pressure in the tank, I removed the petrol cap. Yep, that gush of escaping air told me I had pressurised the tank when I connected the fuel pot breather. Not such a smart idea as even if there is no fuel in it, the air in the vent hose expands and causes pressure to build in the tank with no way of escaping-doh!

Vent removed from breather fixed the ‘leak’.

Over heating.
see previous post on my 'steam train re-enactment'

New radiator purchased and a test drive confirmed she was cooler than ever.

Brakes- or lack of them
While basking in the glory of my radiator success and confirming those Celsiuses were now under control, I decided to do a U-turn and head to the petrol station for some fuel. Now, I had already driven the car a few times, put her through a demanding initial brake test up and down the street and passed rego. Weird then that approaching the intersection the car was not coming to a stop. She would slow but stopping, like at a stop sign for example, was not happening. The pedal went from the normal disc brake pedal feel to something that now resembled pushing against a brick wall.

“Golly, I don’t appear to be stopping” I said whimsically as I ambled through one of those aforementioned signs. Fortunately for me, it was early in the weekend and there was no other traffic about.

Another test at the next intersection, now bound for home, confirmed the issue; no f*&^ing brakes! Hand-braked the car back down the driveway after crawling home for fear of colliding with a sprinting granny in her wheelie walker crossing the road.

Now, I had had the master cylinder resleeved but I had subsequently heard some dodgy reports on the shops work from others. The booster felt OK when I cleaned it up but who knows. Checked the vacuum line- no problem.

Removed the master cylinder and retreated to the shed expecting it to be stuck firm, like a brick wall. Nope, piston cycled fine. OK, I am now at a loss. Returned everything back to the car and bled the system. The pedal feel was the same as it was before the ‘brick wall effect’. Puzzled? yep.

Enter a trip to Perth, and a cuppa with Scott66stang and Nassi. In one of his sheds, Scott says he has something for me. Bugger me if it was not a KTG booster and master cylinder.

Well, trying to get this sucker back on the plane was exciting, if not for us at least for the security staff at the airport. I explained it was a ‘vacuum pump’ (no that is not a lie, it is ‘mechanical rephrasing’) which seemed to go OK for a moment until someone says that it could be used as a weapon. Seriously, I am not up on my airline hijacking events, but can’t recall ever hearing about a flight crew being attacked with a dual diaphragm brake booster!

For fear of a full body search (H is sensitive to such things), I agreed to give it to our relatives who had stayed around to see if we got the part through; yes, they should have said something if they know it would not pass.

By this time, H was starting to really get stuck into me for,
“Seriously, you expected them to let you through with that bloody thing…”

The nice security attendant, upon seeing me starting to cower under the torrent of not-so-passive aggressive questioning from H, says to me just go and get it back and tell the airline staff that security would not let it through. I retrieve said bit and did as instructed, hoping that the bomb residue and drug testing H was now undergoing would turn a positive result and she would be detained (at least until I made it to the airline lounge).

I never anticipated the testing attendant was equally ‘confronted’ by H’s ‘disposition’ and he ignored the flashing red vitamin H result on the machine and my ‘quiet word in his ear’ that she looked remarkably like the ‘Queen of Spades’ in the deck of terrorist playing cards I had seen advertised on 9Gold shopping channel the week before. H was released back into my company to continue with her words of advice; how lucky am I…

I did have more luck with the airline lady as she checked the bag in as ‘tools rejected by security’, saving us $85 in excess baggage.

Right, back in Canberra and I gave the booster and master cylinder over for overhaul. Five weeks later the bits arrive back and I fitted them to the car. Booster did feel much better so perhaps that was the issue all along.

Shortened throttle linkage
The accelerator pedal does not have much travel and so I shortened and cut more thread on one of the throttle rods to lift the pedal away from the firewall. The drive on the weekend suggests this worked well.

Noisy lifter and a stumble around 2200rpm
As ShaunP (?) asked a while back, I think I have a dodgy lifter. This is disappointing as I fitted a new set of the suckers. I have reset the rockers twice with no change and so am resigned to changing lifters- again.

Also on the drive today, I noticed she has a stumble around 2200rpm. It feels like the vacuum advance is not pulling in or is catching then releasing around this rpm. If I accelerate through, the car picks-up and she zooms. I think the additional vacuum signal is enough to overcome the ‘sticking’ advance mechanism. Will need to do more work to track that sucker down.

Gave the car it’s first wax and she looks fabbo. I consulted Brother Steve on what to use and settled on a canubra (?) wax.

Cheers
Jacko

[Nuts]

It's a stinky rotten Holdon Jacko, what more can I say?

[Charbel]

A stinkin rotten Holden it may be, but across all makes hard brakes usually equals a dud booster or lack of vaccum being applied to it. Keep in mind if are still running the old solid discs up front braking performance isn't going to be all that flash! If they aren't already you want slotted rotors to help with outgassing, solid discs are a bugger for it.

If you need a lend of a hand held vac pump give me a hoy, they are a blessing when combined with a digital timing light (i have one of those too) to diagnose and play with vacuum advance.

Happy Classic Motoring!

[Ausjacko]

Hi Charbel, wish you had told me that earlier ;-)
Still solids on the front as that is how she came.

[LEEH69]

Haven't forgotten your wheel caps Jacko, just been too flat out lately, I'll try and draw something up soon and send it to you..

[Ausjacko]

no worries Lee. I thought you may have been mesmerised by your intake ;-)

[lukep6470]

It doesn't matter what brakes it has or how old the tech is, it still shouldn't roll through a stop sign!!!

I can imagine this Monaro slowly rolling through the intersection with the driver screaming in terror, all happening in slow motion

[hybrid]

A Mustang would never do that.