[TPR] Monday August 20 (later)

cengles at cox.net cengles at cox.net
Tue Aug 21 06:49:14 PDT 2012 

Dear Asa: Things seem to have fallen together.  Well done, sir. 
Warmest regards, Chuck Engles




On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 11:02 PM, Asa Jay Laughton wrote:

> I think we had a really good day today.  :)
>
> I'm taking vacation from work this week so Shelley, Sam and I can take 
> some time as a family.  We reserved a cabin at a local lake for a 
> couple of days.  It will be nice to get away and just be with family. 
> That's one of the reasons it was so important for me to get this fired 
> early as opposed to later.
>
> Here is how the day went:
> - Pressure tested the cooling system, found the fancy thermostat 
> gasket wasn't going to work, replaced with standard paper gasket and 
> sealing compound.  (that story was in the earlier email below)
> - Found oil drips under the car, inspected, found the front bung on 
> the pan was loose (I thought for certain I tightened it before). 
> Tightened it over one turn, so I hope it's good now, will continue to 
> monitor.
> - Primed the oil system with my drill and the shaft from an old 
> distributor.  Read oil pressure on the stock gauge in the car.
> - Stuck the dizzy and fired her up.
> - Set the idle to about 1,750 or thereabouts and let her warm up to 
> about 196 where the thermostat should open and shut her down.  Allowed 
> to cool a short while.
> - Burped the system at the radiator and swirl tank (I have petcock at 
> the top drivers corner of the radiator; makes it easy to burp air 
> out).
> - Repeat the running/shutdown/burp scenario about four times over a 
> few hours, making sure the thermostat opens, the radiator is 
> circulating, the fans come on.
> - Used some Engine Brite and a scrub brush on the engine compartment 
> (now with the car outside), hosed it off, let it dry and then 
> Armor-All'ed the heck out of it.  Looks nice and clean now.
> - Installed the hatch loosely (to prevent accidental entanglement 
> while driving)
> - Installed the drivers seat loosely (lap harness kept me firmly in 
> place)
> - Took her for a drive, ran her moderately hard between 45 and 80 MPH 
> in third gear, up and down, up and down for a few miles.  Monitored 
> temps and oil pressure, all seem good.
> - brought her home hot, parked, shut down... no boil overs.  Wrapped 
> it up for the night.
>
> HOLY CATS!  Does this thing accelerate now, and that's without getting 
> into the secondaries!  Jimminey, do they go even faster once they 
> break in?  I didn't take it above 5,000 RPM, though I got close at one 
> point and it seemed to fade.  I later remembered the Pertronix I have 
> in there has a built-in rev-limiter and I think it's factory set to 
> 5,000.  I hadn't bothered to change it earlier with the stock engine, 
> but now with this magnificent soul powering her, I had better change 
> it to 6,500 or a little less.
>
> About the only thing left to do now is put the deck lid back on.
> Time to make reservations.  :)
> Asa Jay
>
> Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
> &  Shelley Marie
> Spokane, WA
> ******************************
> http://www.racingagainstautism.com
> http://www.teampanteraracing.com
> http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism
>
>
> On 8/20/2012 5:25 PM, Asa Jay Laughton wrote:
>> Yes, it's ALIVE!
>>
>> Mad Dawg wrote me earlier asking about that (possibly) leaking 
>> thermostat gasket.
>>
>> I had purchased a brand new reusable gasket from Summit.  It's 
>> actually a really cool piece.  It consists of a hard material (kind 
>> of like Bakelite) about an eighth inch think with a rubber sealing 
>> surface bonded into it on both sides.  The objective is for the 
>> rubber to act like an o-ring and seal both the top and the bottom.
>>
>> I have no doubt this probably works very well for two -very- flat 
>> surfaces.  However, in my case, the housing "tube" that connects the 
>> top of the thermostat to the swirl tank is the original welded 
>> assembly.  It turns out the diameter of the embedded o-ring in this 
>> fancy gasket is just inside the flat part of the flange welded to the 
>> tube.  Therefore, it doesn't seal well in my application.  I checked 
>> it this morning with a pressure tester and sure enough it was weeping 
>> coolant.
>>
>> Soooooo.....  Out it came this morning and was replaced with a 
>> standard paper gasket with some Hondabond on both sides.  It now does 
>> not leak.
>>
>> I have a brand new stainless version of this pipe with a nice large 
>> sealing area flange on it that I'm sure would work fine.  However, 
>> due to other modifications I'm currently using, I can't use that pipe 
>> unless I want to cut it down several inches.  I don't really want to 
>> do that yet.  I cut down the original pipe for the current 
>> configuration which includes a TEFBA filter.  In the future I'll 
>> probably mode the cooling system again and will use the new pipe and 
>> will then be able to test that fancy gasket again.
>>
>> Here's a cool note for today: I installed two drain petcocks in the 
>> engine, with a hose connection on them, this part from Napa:
>> 
>> http://napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=WH_6660_0367751284
>>
>> This was huge help today as it allowed me to drain enough fluid to 
>> remove the thermostat housing without getting coolant all over the 
>> front of the engine.  I have one of these installed on each side of 
>> the engine and in the radiator.  It's very nice being able to attach 
>> a hose and route it directly into a container.  Helps save on really 
>> messy floors.  :)
>>
>> The engine is running so rich it's making my eyes water.  All I did 
>> was crank the mixture screws to full rich (remember it's an 
>> "emissions" carb and has limited travel of a little over 3/4 turn.) 
>> We'll run it this way for just a bit longer and then lean it out.
>>
>> One bad news part.  The heat riser didn't fit this manifold, so I'm 
>> running -without- it.  Which means.... no choke. <sigh>  I'll have to 
>> fix that up some other way maybe.
>>
>> Asa Jay
>> Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
>> &  Shelley Marie
>> Spokane, WA
>> ******************************
>> http://www.racingagainstautism.com
>> http://www.teampanteraracing.com
>> http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism
>>
>> On 8/20/2012 3:59 PM, Mad Dog Antenucci wrote:
>>> Teaser Alert - Yea, that is what he looks like when he's in the 
>>> garage doctor. ;-)
>>>
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> *From:* Charles Engles <cengles at cox.net>
>>> *To:* 'Asa Jay Laughton' <asajay at asajay.com>; 
>>> tpr at teampanteraracing.com
>>> *Sent:* Monday, August 20, 2012 3:50 PM
>>> *Subject:* Re: [TPR] Monday August 20
>>>
>>> “IT’S ALIVE!!!”
>>> Dear Asa: I would expect that things are going well in your 
>>> garage…..      Chuck Engles
>>> *From:*tpr-bounces at teampanteraracing.com 
>>> [mailto:tpr-bounces at teampanteraracing.com] *On Behalf Of *Asa Jay 
>>> Laughton
>>> *Sent:* Monday, August 20, 2012 5:35 PM
>>> *To:* tpr at teampanteraracing.com
>>> *Subject:* [TPR] Monday August 20
>>> Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
>>> &  Shelley Marie
>>> Spokane, WA
>>> ******************************
>>> http://www.racingagainstautism.com
>>> http://www.teampanteraracing.com
>>> http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism
>>>
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>>>
>>
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