[TPR] Asa's progress

Sat Aug 15 19:41:50 PDT 2015

I just drove Lolita over home roads today ( 160 mi. .) the new rack makes a world of difference.......very happy with it. It did well in Ne. but now over roads I travel a lot I know things are great.
 Bud #3400 ( Drive it like there is no tomorrow -- for there may not be ! )
      From: Asa Jay Laughton via TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com>
 To: tpr at teampanteraracing.com 
 Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 12:41 PM
 Subject: Re: [TPR] Asa's progress

 Alright!
 The carb has been tested and no additional tuning has been made at this time.  It runs to 6,000 rpm sustained in 2nd gear (which give me about 70 MPH).  It will make the engine rev easily to the rev limiter (set at about 6,300), and pretty smoothly too.

 Vacuum at idle in the driveway after a high speed run in second gear shows 13", so I'm confident the power valves are sized correctly at this point.

 I had to make an adjustment to the linkage as I found I was only getting about 3/4 of WOT.  After my adjustment, I now get WOT and it comes fast.  The vacuum secondaries seem to be coming in just fine.

 With this and the steering rack I have a lot more confidence in the car.  Now left on the list is:
 - Cut access in rockers to finish attaching roll cage (I'm really dreading this one because I have to cut the carpet to do it)
 - Change ZF fluid (I still have to order that yet)
 - Change oil in the engine
 - Get new tires mounted
 - Get the O2 sensor bung installed and the wires run

 No pressure.
 Asa  Jay
 Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
& Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA
******************************     
http://www.racingagainstautism.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com
http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism 
 On 8/14/2015 10:24 AM, Mad Dog Antenucci via TPR wrote: 

 right on Irish! 

      From: Steven Donegan <steve at donegan.org>
 To: Mad Dog Antenucci <teampantera at yahoo.com>; mark skwarek <ehpantera at yahoo.com>; Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com>; "tpr at teampanteraracing.com" <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> 
 Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 10:17 AM
 Subject: Re: [TPR] Asa's progress

   Lean == melted pistons - very bad juju :-)
     ____________
 Steven Donegan
 KK6IVC FCC General Class License
 SSCC/NORC Life Member, Car #86
 www.sscc.us

        From: Mad Dog Antenucci <teampantera at yahoo.com>
 To: Steven Donegan <steve at donegan.org>; mark skwarek <ehpantera at yahoo.com>; Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com>; "tpr at teampanteraracing.com" <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> 
 Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 10:14 AM
 Subject: Re: [TPR] Asa's progress

    Good input Irish.....being rich is better at SS and plenty of stories of those who liened out who went for the power dyno (lean) Hp pull down at sea level!  ;-) 

      From: Steven Donegan via TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com>
 To: mark skwarek <ehpantera at yahoo.com>; Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com>; "tpr at teampanteraracing.com" <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> 
 Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 6:41 AM
 Subject: Re: [TPR] Asa's progress

    A reading from the book of Holley: -----
  Holley carbs are calibrated for sea level operation and an inlet air temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  Once you know the correct stock jetting for your particular Holley carb, you can determine whether you live or race at an altitude above sea level. For every 2000 foot increase in altitude, you can reduce the jet size by  one size. If you had a carb which has a stock jet size of 80 and you live or race at 2000 feet above sea level,  then you would use a #79 Holley jet in the carb. Similarly, a change in the carb's inlet air temperature may require a change in the jet size from the stock calibration. Many racers go a step further by combining all of the weather  varibles, temperature, barometric pressure, dewpoint and humidity with the altitude of the track they are  racing at to determine the "density altitude". This is a "corrected" altitude above sea level. From there they can determine whether a jet change is necessary to maintain performance or whether to change their "dial  in" (if they are bracket drag racers). 
  ----- 
  So assuming you don't care if you run lean at sea level, your optimal jet size for 6000 ft is likely 3  sizes smaller than optimal at sea level. Now if you don't want to be changing jets then assume you will run rich during the race... 

  BTW - the ATIS information at Ely airport would give you all the info you need to calculate density altitude if  you wanted to get really picky :-) 

      ____________
 Steven Donegan
 KK6IVC FCC General Class License
 SSCC/NORC Life Member, Car #86
 www.sscc.us

      From: mark skwarek via TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com>
 To: Asa Jay Laughton <asajay at asajay.com>; "tpr at teampanteraracing.com" <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> 
 Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 6:23 AM
 Subject: Re: [TPR] Asa's progress

    Glad to hear about your success. You might want to make sure your jets are  for the higher altitude in Nevada. 
  Mark 

        On Friday, August 14, 2015 12:50 AM, Asa Jay Laughton via  TPR <tpr at teampanteraracing.com> wrote:

 In my best Gene Wilder voice...

 ALIVE!.... ALIVE!.... IT'S ALIVE!!!

 I forgot to grab the extra bits I needed on the way home, so after  
 dinner it was back to Napa and then to Autozone to get the  fittings for 
 the fuel and vacuum.  Done deal, I picked up the brass fuel fittings 
 from Napa though I had to do a two-piece kludge to get  90* and the size 
 I wanted for the fuel line; at Autozone I picked up a large variety  pack 
 of vacuum fittings and a large variety pack of vacuum plugs.

 Once home, I fit the 90* fitting onto the fuel log, an appropriate  size 
 vacuum fitting on the ported vacuum port and set about final float 
 adjustments.

 I'm beginning to love this little hand-held vacuum pump.  It came with a 
 reservoir so you can either suck fluid without getting it  into the pump, 
 or push fluid out in a neat manner.  With that in mind, I used the pump 
 to get some gas out of Shelley's Jeep (don't tell her that).  I then 
 reversed the pump, attached it to the fuel log of the Holley and  started 
 pumping.

 With the sight plugs removed, I could see the floats rising until  they 
 stopped.  They both stopped short of the sight holes so I raised them 
 each about a quarter to half turn.  I'm sure glad I did this on the 
 bench and not on the car... those center-hung fuel adjusters  for the 
 needle and seat can leak like a mother when you loosen the  screw to 
 adjust the nut.  Good grief!

 Once the floats were adjusted I installed the sight plugs  and put the 
 carb on the engine.  I snugged everything down, routed the fuel lines, 
 vacuum lines, attached linkage and the 12V feed to the choke.  After 
 installing the air cleaner, I pulled the Halon fire extinguisher  out and 
 set it on the seat next to me.

 For some reason, I kept thinking of the next door neighbor kid  when I 
 was young.  He was 16 or 17 and had an early 70's Camaro.  One night he 
 was messing around with the carb (not that he was the brightest  bulb in 
 the box) and he got a backfire that lit it on fire... in the  garage.... 
 under the house.

 The house burned completely to the ground.

 I figured if mine caught fire I'd throw it into reverse and  get it out 
 of the garage, then put out the flames.

 One pump on the pedal and she fired on the first turn... and  idled 
 smoothly without intervention.

 HoooHAAA!  She's alive and purrs.

 I grabbed my drop-light and did an inspection around the  carb while 
 running to check for leaks.  Finding none after a bit of engine rumbling 
 I shut it down and quit for the night.  I have to pick up friends at the 
 airport in a little while.  I'll monkey with fine tuning it all tomorrow 
 and this weekend.

 But right now... that old Holley 3310-2 (modified)  from Mark is working 
 after about $150 in parts and some of my evening time over the last  week 
 or two.

 Fun times,
 Asa  Jay

 Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
 &  Shelley Marie
 Spokane, WA
******************************
 http://www.racingagainstautism.com
 http://www.teampanteraracing.com
 http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism

 On 8/12/2015 9:43 PM, Asa Jay Laughton via TPR wrote:
 > Just about finished the carb tonight after running into some necessary  
 > changes; all this prior to mounting on the car.
 >
 > I found the choke fast idle cam was broken and missing the 
 > bob-weight.  The one on my current Holley was fine.  I swapped the cam 
 > to the rebuilt 3310.  Then I had planned on using my existing choke 
 > cover except that it really should have manifold heat (it's not 
 > electric), but the passage in the intake is blocked because the  heater 
 > gizmo didn't fit properly when I rebuilt the engine.  So I thought 
 > about using the electric that came with the 3310, except that it was 
 > kind of funky with a hand soldered connection on one side; I didn't 
 > really trust it.  Then my long-term memory kicked in and I scrounged 
 > through some old drawers with Mustang parts.
 >
 > Aha!  An older Motocraft electric choke cover in great condition.  It 
 > might not be calibrated for Holley but it's essentially the same.  So 
 > I put that on.  Oh, but did I mention I don't really have an electric 
 > supply to the choke?  More on this later.
 >
 > Then I noticed the linkage wasn't nearly the same.  I thought it was 
 > close but didn't worry about it until tonight.  Argh!
 >
 > I thought about swapping the base plates, but the 3310 has larger 
 > bores; that wouldn't work.
 >
 > I thought about swapping throttle shafts, but the screws in the 
 > throttle plates are staked and it's too much work to swap; that 
 > wouldn't work.
 >
 > As it turned out, the funky (I actually think it's GM) lever on the 
 > primaries had a nice hole in just about the right spot where the 
 > linkage needs to hook up.  And it just so happened that I had a spare 
 > ball post that I could mount there.  Nearly perfect!  We'll check the 
 > entire throttle throw once we have it mounted on the car.
 >
 > However, when I went to swap the electric throttle positioner  which 
 > holds the idle when the car is running and allows the throttle plates 
 > to -completely- close when the ignition is switched off, I found the 
 > accelerator pump mechanism is larger and in-the-way of mounting the 
 > electric positioner.  Argh!
 >
 > Well, I -could- swap the pump lever from my existing carb but it's got 
 > a lighter spring assembly and I'm not sure it would be calibrated 
 > correctly (spring-tension-wise).  And I don't -really- need the 
 > electric positioner if I dial the idle in correctly, so let's just 
 > leave it off
 >
 > Well, wouldn't you know... that leaves me a 12V source that's only ON  
 > when the ignition is ON.  Now where could I possibly use that?  OH!  I 
 > know.... how about the electric choke?  Yea, that'll work.
 >
 > All that's left is to mount the fuel lines, do a final adjust on the 
 > floats and hit the road.  But before I get that far I have a couple 
 > more parts to get.
 >
 > The supply line on the car is a 5/16" metal tube, which means I need a  
 > 5/16" hose barb fitting to 3/8" NPT fitting to the supply line on  the 
 > carb.  I can pick one up at Napa tomorrow.  The ported vacuum on my 
 > present Holley is the small size, same as the vacuum advance on the 
 > distributor.  The ported on this 3310 is about twice the size so I 
 > need to get a reducer and some hose.  I'm currently running the dual 
 > diaphragm vacuum advance, and no it's not necessarily been dialed in  
 > properly.  I really need someone with a distributor machine, or I need 
 > to cough up the money for a whizbang electronic distributor with 
 > computer controlled advance/retard.  But you know... if I go that far 
 > I might as well buy a fuel injection system that can take advantage of 
 > that. <sigh>
 >
 > Everything else seems to be alright.  OH, one last thing.
 >
 > I sighted in the level on the intake pad, it' has a slight forward 
 > tilt; that's expected on the Pantera.  Some time ago I purchased a 
 > "wedge-plate" to try and level it up.  When I test fit it tonight and 
 > checked level, it had about twice as much tilt to the rear as the 
 > manifold did to the front without the wedge.  So I'm not going to put 
 > the wedge on.  What I really need is a wedge at about half the angle 
 > this one is.
 >
 > My thoughts are to set final float level on the bench by rigging the 
 > base to be at about the same angle as the intake on the car, then 
 > priming the fuel bowls manually and adjusting the floats via the sight 
 > holes.  Since the needle and seats are at the far ends of the fuel 
 > bowls and the floats nearer the meter blocks, I think I need to set 
 > the front (primary) to be just a touch high, and the rear to be just a 
 > touch low.  That should give me approximately the same amount of fuel 
 > in each.  Any thoughts from other experts?
 >
 > Alright, enough of a tome for tonight, more tomorrow.
 > Asa  Jay
 >
 > Asa Jay Laughton - W7TSC, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
 > &  Shelley Marie
 > Spokane, WA
 > ******************************
 > http://www.racingagainstautism.com
 > http://www.teampanteraracing.com
 > http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism
 >

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