First Drive!
 

Friday, took it around the block, lots of details remain, interior, etc. But I DROVE IT! See this youtube cellphone video .. not great, but it's all we had handy .. btw, lots of leaks ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzf_TtXiHtE

So, delivery of rolling chassis to first drive = 12 days!

Sam

Congratulations Sam!!!

Sam,
Congratulations! I mounted my MSD 6AL to the right of the glove box under the dash. If you or anyone else is interested I can give further details and pictures. My ERA is from the mid 1980's (#174), so I don't know if anything has changed that would precude mounting in this position on the newer ones.

John

Thanks, John! I went ahead and mounted it under the glove box. Very easy to do. I was just asking to see if there was anything to the MSD cautionary note in their manual about mounting it upside down. Apparently this has not been a problem for an interior location.

Sam

Congras Sam...
 

Looks like the streets of Dallas/McKinney aren't going to be safe for a while...Car looks great...

Mike

Thanks, Mike .. drop by when you're in town and I'll give you a ride ;) I had planned on state inspection today, but neglected to make sure it would go into reverse. So had to postpone to Wed. Toploader,you know, evvverything is adjustable ..

Sam

100 miles on the clock! But running hot ..
 

Gross oil leak seems to have been resolved with new rear main side seals and general cleanup of the excess silicone under the rear main cap :( Had to pull the pan to do that, but looks like I was successful. Last major snake to kill is overheating. Running at 220 deg down the highway at 65 mph with ambient temp of 75 deg F seems a bit hot. Thermostat is 180 deg and has been drilled. Radiator cap is 16 psi. Then it is still expelling coolant, so maybe needs more burping .. will do that some more.

Bob, the question is this: is there supposed to be a spring in the lower coolant hose? I ordered the NAPA equivalent to the Gates 20620 (couldn't find one anywhere) and it does not have a spring. I'm trying to address anything that could be causing the overheating.

Sam

Sam-
As for the overheating, I bet you have some air trapped in the manifold. I'm not sure if you tried this, but it worked on my car, either jack up the front of the car so that the front of the engine is higher than the back or park on a steep hill with the engine facing up hill and, with the car running, crack open the water temp fitting on the manifold and let all the air purge out until you get nothing but antifreeze out of that fitting. You might have to do it a couple of times to get all the air out.

Got it, Chappy .. thanks for the tip! I missed the part about having the engine running. Wondering if this same process applies to the radiator bleed valve?

Running about 1/3 antifreeze to 2/3 distilled water, plus a bottle of Red Line Water Wetter.

Sam

You could do the radiator fitting that way as well, can't hurt.

I run 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water with a 180 t-stat drilled per Bob's instruction and have never had my temp go above 185 or so, even after idling or slow moving traffic. Unless the timing is off or something else is screwy, once you purge all of the air out, you should not have any trouble keeping it cool even without the Water Wetter.

SSS:

Is your radiator bleed fitting connected via a small hose to your expansion tank?

Do you have a heater? This too needs to be bled.


Jim

PS: ...and has the faint smell of the Italian sausage grinder finally dissipated from behind the rear seat panel?

Jim, no .. I didn't get the bleed hose. Doug seemed to think it was unnecessary. No heater .. we don't need them in TX :)

I was asking about the spring because the manual mentions the lower coolant hose can collapse at speed without one. One of my symptoms is that it runs 210-220 deg at a steady 60 mph, but if I drive more briskly, the temp *immediately* goes up to 230 deg. Even during a hard acceleration away from a stop light.

At least today it didn't blow coolant out the overflow hose :rolleyes:

Also need to change the springs in the MSD mechanical advance distributor from the stock ones, I think. The distr is set up for a heavier car by the factory. And recheck timing.

I suppose the t-stat could be defective :JEKYLHYDE

All just things I'm looking at ...

Sam

You should not have to bleed anything, on an ERA the coolant tank is the highest point of the cooling system and once the stat opens all the air should be gone. If the timing is retarded that could be one reason for running hot. One other thing, make sure the fan is turning the correct way.

Some intake manifolds do retain a small air pocket, so we recommend bleeding at the temperature gage bulb boss on all installations. Any air in the system, when it expands and contracts, will push coolant out the overflow.

Probably not the problem because you overheat at speed, but you did get the big fan didn't you?

For timing, I'd shoot for 20 initial 38 total all in by 3000. I can't remember for sure what springs that is, light silver and a light blue? I also installed the 18 degree bushing. You definitely don't want the springs it ships with in there.

Chuck

http://www.chuckbrandt.com/fans.jpg

Did the manifold air bleed as Bob said, and I'm not blowing coolant anymore, so maybe that's checked off .. Yes on the big fan, and it is blowing correctly. Chuck, thanks for the timing suggestions, will try to put those in today.

I'm thinking these symptoms could be caused by a defective t-stat. Only coolant passing may be via the drilled hole and the heater bypass hose. Will probably pull that thing off today or tomorrow and test it.

Sam

SSS

One other remote possibility is that the water pump is bad. On one of my cars, I used a new water pump, but it turned out the impeller was slipping on the shaft.

As was indicated above, timing is critical in these old FEs.

Jim

Overheating Solved!
 

Bad SW mechanical water temp gauge or sensor .. thanks to Bob for suggesting I test the thing. Couldn't make it work by putting the sensor in a pot of boiling water with a meat thermometer, so I overnighted an AutoMeter electrical gauge from Summit. First it showed a steady 250 deg .. bummer .. then I changed the ground and it behaved.

(BTW, I love Summit .. I onlined an order at 5:30 pm on Friday, overnight Sat delivery .. it was at my door Sat at 10:30 am. When you absolutely, positively have to have something .. )

The car is actually running a steady 185-190 deg, no matter what. I ran it hard for 100 mi today, including some short bursts to 3 digit speeds. Also incorporated the timing settings suggested by Chuck Brandt .. thanks Chuck! Major difference in performance .. left the 20 deg bushing alone, but went with the light silver/blue spring combo in the MSD distributor. Set initial timing at 20 deg.

Other misc tweaks today .. set the rear suspension height at 6.5" to keep the billboard Goodyears from rubbing. They were hitting the body at the fiberglass panels behind the seats. Front is at 5 3/4" so I don't drag oil cooler on the steep driveway. Blisters on hands from shock wrenches .. use gloves!

Lesson learned for toploader installers .. cutting the hole in the tunnel for the shifter .. I centered the hole over the shifter when it is in neutral .. but this will not allow the shifter to go in reverse. Reverse is way the heck back and to the left. You need to fudge the hole about 1/2 inch to the rear and to the driver side from the neutral center point. Maybe this will save someone some aggravation down the line.

Thanks guys, for all the advice so far!

Sam

Good news, glad you figured it out. Swapping the temp gauge was probably the easist possible fix!

You're Welcome
 

You are welcome. I figured that would make your day :) Glad to hear the overheating wasn't real.

Chuck