'69 Identity Crisis...GL or Classic...

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Nice car..

I must say reading about this accusump and other oil related threads.. wish there was a stick that had info on installing and benefits of a accusump, a tuna can/or similar deep sump, full flow, and dry sump setup.. don't mean to derail thread.. just a wish list from reading cool threads like this one.. any takers
Alex

[owdlvr]

Well...that was interesting!

It's been a month, definitely time for an update. Unfortunately the bug hasn't moved in that month...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IOZP9C_3ik



I put 2500 miles onto the car before the Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure started. We made it through day one, but mushroomed a pushrod playing with a 356 4-cam on the way to our lunch spot. A quick change in the vinyard parking lot, and we were back up and running. Day two was uneventful, at least as far as the new engine is concerned. But day three, well, that was quickly roasted in the first few km's as we spun rod-bearing number 4 coming down the hill from Sun Peaks. I think you can see it in the following photos, but the colour change on the big end is significant. The end is completely black.



Tear down of the motor revealed a pressure relief valve which is lightly sticking in the bore. Definitely don't recall that while building it, and I was sure I checked it a few times. Otherwise everything checked out. Roasted the rod, rod bearings and decided to swap out the crank due to heat damage. The journal has blued, and the crank isn't deathly expensive...so I'm replacing it.

Also found exhaust #1 lifter was pitted, just a little, but enough that it was a problem waiting to reveal itself. So, added to the list was lifters...and a cam due to some marks I wasn't stoked about on the lobes and bearing surface. Hmmmm...I've almost got a whole new motor going here! :P Big thanks to AVR Import Specialties (www.avrparts.com), who once again took care of me in the parts department.

I suspect this will start some debate over the value of the accusump, and why it didn't save the engine, but I don't think we can rule it out as not working...or give it a vote of confidence of keeping the motor together longer. The size I've got only buys me 15-30 seconds of protection, which just means I had 15-30 longer before the oil pressure warning light came on. Based on the relief valve I found...it was hooped regardless.

Not being one to sit back and do nothing, I did find some time to squeeze in a few chores in between coaching in Quebec & Whistler, Traveling to Toronto for a week and my 'real job'. Oh yeah...and the weather has been good for Mountain Biking too . Anyways...

Carbon Gravel Guards:


Took care of the Wheel-wells and inside of the fenders with POR-15. Haven't used it before, but we're using it on the Mustang so I thought why not.


Installed some new Eccentrics for greater camber adjustment...and then finally got around to popping the new rubber and wheels on the car. 205/60/15's on 15x6" wheels. No sway bar on the front to make them work, and it definitely limits the turning radius over the 195's, but it's a work in progress!


Tonight I finally started on the rebuild of the engine. Checked the rod bearing clearances (even at .0015), installed the timing gears and started cleaning off the pistons. Anyone have a quick method for cleaning the carbon off? Usually I use injector cleaner and soak them, but doesn't seem to be working this time. Tomorrow it's off to the balancing shop, and I should be assembling this weekend.



-Dave

[NO_H2O]

I hate to hear you smoked a rod bearing. Looks like you are on your way back.

[owdlvr]

Meh, it happens. I probably would be rather chapped that it only made about 3000 miles, but on our first day of the event the 356 4-cam owner came rushing over to the car at lunch to find out "just what the heck do you have IN that thing!?!"

After that, I can't really be upset about anything!

-Dave

[Bug@5speed(US)]

Dave,

Can I trouble you to take a pic from the side of your car.. those look like Design 90's, same wheels I have, but I haven't got mine painted/powdercoated yet..

I am after a similiar gloss black, or satin look..

Thanks
Alex

[owdlvr]

Once I've got the motor in I will slide it out for some side shots...here's the test shot from a few months ago. The wheels I'm running are actually an OEM Tonal wheel from an Audi 100, which I've powder coated black. They were my track wheels, so they have a gloss/semi-gloss finish depending on the wheel :P



-Dave

[owdlvr]

Well, the first test drive was this yesterday...but it wasn't entirely successful.



Had no problems with the drive to Whistler, hammering on the car pretty good, until I arrived into town and slowed down. MASSIVE smoke show out the tailpipes and all I could think was "*%$@ I blew another one".

Popped off the valve-cover on the 1/2 head, and found nothing but clean oil (first good sign) and then popped the cover on the 3/4 head. WHOOPS! Dumped 3/4 of a quart of synthetic oil onto the side of the highway. Combined with excessive crankcase pressure we figured it was probably pushing oil past the valve stems. Hmmmm. After letting the car sit for a while, I drove it 1km to a buddies place with nothing more then a wisp or two (likely off the oil-soaked engine from pulling the valve cover).

Shamefully parked short of our destination...



So the theory of the day called for a little testing after work. If I could drive the car at low revs without smoke, it probably wasn't going to be a horrible conclusion...Driving home at 2500rpm or less is a rather painful experience, but completed with out issues. I did get some wisps of smoke at times, but when I jumped out to check, it was always the oil I dumped on the heat exchanger.

In the meantime, it was suggested I vent the valve covers. Test covers were made by drilling and tapping some 1/2" nipples into old covers. I then ran the vent line from the left cover over the trans and into the right wheel-well. Vice versa for the right cover. For now they're just popped into some empty water bottles, so I can see if I'm getting oil, vapour or a mix coming out. Once I know what's coming out of the lines, I can then decide if I put a breather in each wheel-well, or if I need something high on the firewall that can drain back into the sump.




(excuse the zipties...it is all temporary for testing :P)

With the new vents in place...it was off to whistler again this afternoon...or so I thought. We made it about 10min up the highway before there was a smoke show out the back. Pulling over I found the 3/4 cover dripping oil fairly quickly onto the heat exchanger. Geesh, what now? It's all downhill home, so I was able to coast it almost the whole way back. Pulling the valve cover tonight, things became pretty clear on what the issue was:



I've used a bit of Aviation 3H to hold down the new gasket, ran the car at idle for 10min and found no leaks...so tomorrow it will be off again to do another short test. In the meantime, I thought the car could use a bit of a pep-talk and reminder of exactly what type of relationship we're supposed to have...





-Dave

[owdlvr]

Success! (on a small scale)

Managed to take the car on a repeat of yesterday's trip, this time without the oil leak issues. Took it around town for a few errands and so far it would seem the movie viewing helped! Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to get the oil out of the heat exchanger. I'll probably have to drop the engine this weekend though, I've got a few leaks likely due to the crankcase pressure.

-Dave

[NO_H2O]

Hmmm. Maybe I should play the movie for my car. LOL

[owdlvr]

Alrighty! Back for an update



The airsoft beads work like a charm in the tires. No vibrations unless you hit a big bump in the road, or a cat-eye, and then it just takes a few moments for everything to settle down again. The first couple of times it was a bit odd, but you get used to it. I've actually never had a car balance that smoothly before, it's kinda nice. Occasionally on a hard launch the beads appear to "bunch up" and cause vibrations, but a lift off the throttle and back on seems to sort everything out.



The new engine was leaking badly, so I popped it out of the car and discovered both the cam plug and flywheel seal to be leaking. The resulting oil ruined my clutch disc, but I happened to have a new one sitting on the shelf to put in. It was actually a bigger pain the butt then I anticipated. I pulled the motor on a wednesday evening, as we were leaving on a big long trip Friday morning. Motor came out by midnight, flywheel seal was diagnosed and replaced and I went to bed knowing I had tonnes of time to pop the motor in and spend some time tuning before packing Thursday evening. Motor was back in by lunch, and that's when I discovered my new flywheel seal was either a) bad or b) installed incorrectly. Regardless, it didn't start leaking until the motor was running...which meant I had put everything back together. Sigh. Popped the motor out once more, frantically called around to find a seal and had one delivered for 8pm. Motor was back in by about 10:30, but tuning had to wait until the morning. Woke up at 7:30 for some quick tuning, and then took the car on a 1,000km roadtrip.



As you can see from the photo, we were a little bit loaded down! Four bikes, full riding gear, spare parts and tools for both car and bikes. Needless to say we spent most of the trip visiting service stations for fuel!




I knew the 205's were going to be a touch wide for the car... In regular daily use it will rub slightly on big bumps or hard corners...just enough to tell you that the space is toight, but before our trip hadn't even marked the tire. My front left fender is an aftermarket replacement, and about 5mm narrower then the passenger side, with which I have no issues. Fully loaded, you can see the rubbing became a wee bit more of an issue! Part way through the mountain twisties we damaged the fender enough that it was rubbing further...so I pulled out the tools and tweaked the fender to clear. It's definitely going to need a replacement, which is turning out to be harder to find then I expected.

The problem, however, seems to be deeper then just the fender. Camber adjustment on the left side maxes out at -1deg, while the right will go to -3. I have a complete (rim to rim) NOS factory front suspension assembly for my '75, I just need to go about taking some measurements to figure out where the incorrect or damaged parts lie.

Other then that, I've been working on the tuning of the new engine. I swear I have a million photos of spark plugs, taken after an uphill loaded run to determine how each change is effecting things. The plugs have shown a rich running condition from the get-go, and you could see it at idle sooting up the tailpipes. It seemed that my rich running issue was caused by three things: incorrect jetting, too much fuel pressure and the accelerator circuits being miss adjusted.

The fuel pump was putting out 8psi instead of the required 2psi, so I spent an evening with the car parked beside the lathe, slowly shortening the fuel pump rod until I had the correct pressure. I worked on the accelerator circuits tonight, which combined with my new idle jets from a couple of nights ago seems to be ticket. I'll do a bit more testing on the idle side of things, and then move over to the mains.

Biggest thing for the moment is making sure I didn't lean out the accelerator circuit too much...but the car and I made it to whistler today without blowing up...so here's hoping :P

Seriously considering a wide-band to make this easier & faster.

-Dave

[Steve C]

Hi

Do you have a adjusters fitted?

When adjuster are fitted or the car is lowered by cutting and turning part of the beam the whole upper or lower centre section can be moved left or right causing the sort of problems your having.

Serious racers down here have the arms bent in a press to gain extra camber.

I had new rear fenders fitted on my sons car made in Brazil or Mexico, they're about 20 mm narrower.

Steve

[owdlvr]

Standard width beam without adjusters. My drop is done with spindles only. Definitely not the spindles, had the exact same issue with my drum-brake spindles as well.

-Dave

[chug_A_bug]

not to get off topic but dude I'm a huge DH rider myself... what kinda Rig you have there?
and all the other looks like nice Dirt jumper/street you have too

Chris.

[owdlvr]

Hey Chris,

I coach downhill mountain biking, and ride for Marin Bikes. I'm running the TeamDH prototype for my DH rig, setup with Fox suspension front and rear, Hayes disc brakes and SRAM drivetrain. In the driveway photo my DH bike is second from the right. The other bikes are all Connor's, as we're loaded up for NSMB's AirPrentice contest. Connor runs a Kona DH, Giant Trance Slopestyle and Kona Hardtail.

Shoot me a PM if you want more.

-Dave

[chug_A_bug]

Sweet man I may have to come visit some day and we hit the north shore
pm me some pics of your rig would like to see it
thanks

Chris.