This section is a chronicle of significant voyages made
in the car. Come along for a ride on the maiden voyage, a trip to the dragstrip,
or on a highway cruise.
Getting it running:
 During the week, I had to relocate the spring perches on the rear end and the frame rails to make the panhard bar level and provide the stock ride height. I installed the fancy disk brakes, and welded in the emergency brake handle and started on the sheetmetal between the tubs.The time had finally come send the car to the exhaust shop. I called up a towing company and they sent out a flatbed, and we loaded up the car. At that point I had my first look at the car from the side since it was moved into the garage a year earlier. Man, those big tires really looked cool, but the cowl induction hood was really rough at this stage and it threw the looks off balance because it had to rise up so quickly to clear the distributor on the front of the engine. Anyways, the hood was not a priority since the moving van had just pulled in front of the house. The rest of the day was spent with the movers and sneaking in trips to NAPA for miscellaneous fluids and hardware. The next day, the car was done at the muffler shop, so I had it hauled
back to the house to try to get it running. Time to hit the key !!
There was way too much fuel, and the timing seemed to be way off, but the ignition system was definately working. I checked the plug wires and double checked them. (using the 1988 van book as a reference)* I indexed the distributor back and forth while trying to start it . . . no luck. At this point, the gas was starting to pool on the intake manifold. This went on for about an hour, as I drained the battery with the starter, and second guessed the entire installation of the major systems.(lots of unknowns on this one). After catching the intake manifold on fire a few times (and having to put it out with a moving blanket) I decided to surrender, and I called the flatbed a third time to hoist the car into the moving van. That was two times in one day. I was so bummed out that I asked the flatbed guy for the "frequently towed" discount.
Moving pains: Several weekends pass, and the weeks turn into months as I try to find a new home for the incomplete project. Apartments usually don't allow vehicle maintenance of any kind, and my new residence required all vehicles have a valid registration and inspection, so I was permitted to use a quiet driveway at my Grandparent-in-law's about 180 miles away. I had to rent a truck and trailer rig to move the car and tools. I took I-84 to route 9W and noticed a huge parking lot of hot rodders in Highland, New York... I'll be back when I get it running. Being 180 miles from the car gave me time to think about what to try next. I repeated the try-to-start-it scenario taking up two more weekends without succcess. I was chasing my tail, but checked the compression, the cam profiles, triple and quatripple checked the order of the plug wires: 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8, right ?? At this point, I rebuilt the carburator. The metering rods had some kind of growth around them and the obstruction was certainly causing some problems. After rebuilding the carb, I spent another day trying to get the car started. My wife was there for moral support and she nicknamed the car "Puffy" because of the puffs of smoke and all the popping and wheezing. I gave up for a while and started working on other things that needed attention. This bug caused me to miss the Inaugural Power Tour East, but probably saved me from spending part of the tour on the side of the road with any of the other problems you will read about. Bleeding the brakes was difficult, and I spent a whole weekend trying to get "good pedal". A friend was able to identify that I had the rear calipers installed with the bleeder valves lower than the piston, which kept an air pocket from being pushed out of the system. After flipping the calipers over, the braked bled out quickly, but the emergency brake cable was now too short, so another had to be custom ordred. Eureka!
The first mile: After having the motor run, and letting it get to operating temperature, and seeing the automatic thermostat kick in and cool the car, I was ready to try the steering and suspension. I chose a nearby parking lot as the place to scub those new tires up a bit. On he way there, I hit the throttle and noticed the engine would easily spin the tires. My first driving impression was that the tires were making "chirpy" sounds every time I touched the throttle, so I needed to put chassis tuning on the list of things to do. For now, the 4 link was set with the bars parallel to minimize the chance for binding or chewing the tires up. I made a video of the first few power launches, and will add it here when I figgure out how to make it smaller than 10 MB. Maiden voyage: Finally out of the driveway, I start on a long anticipated trip...the first trip around town. Part 1 : Kingston local - To Kingston plaza, filled up with gas back home - Impression from the parts store people. - Checking the instrumentation on the highway I found the speedo was off by 40% - Another bug...at 55 it bogs when pulling in the secondaries during a pass Part 2 : Heading East to Mass.
 Functional shakedown:
Performance measurements: - Calibrated the speedometer with help from Service Instruments - Highway MPG is averaging around 15 MPG (not bad for a big block) - The car really rips when the secondaries open up, it pulls like a bike! - Because of the high torque and 2.75 gears, launching the car quickly and quitetly is a challenge. - Got a G-Tech meter to be scientific... With practice, my 0-60 times have dropped from 7.45 to 6.68 seconds, then down to 5.94 seconds after adding an "H" pipe. - I expect the 0-60 time to be consistant in the high 5 second range after more practice and balancing the weight in the car... Now its ready for a trip to the strip, but finishing touches for looks are a priority, since Power Tour is a few weeks away.
Taking it easy: I finally got the car painted, and took a weekend to rest up a bit.
 Prep for Power Tour East:
Power Tour East 1999:
 Return from Power Tour East: From Panama City, I went to Montgomery. The alternator belt "flipped out" and the charge light came on along the way (surprised that the indicator actually worked) From Montgomery, I went to Pell City, Alabama (about another 80 miles or so) to see my Mom. I washed the car, and took my brother-in-law for a ride, and noticed power was dropping off and an ocasional spit through the carburator when I pulled in the secondaries. We went to Wal Mart to get some oil for an oil change, and to pick up some spare gas filters and an extra quart of 90 wt for the rear end. During the dyno session in Daytona, the Dyno tech pointed out there was "some kind of problem", with my engine, since the engine revved up so slow and power started dropping when the secondaries opened. It turned 194 rwh and 273 torque then. He mentioned that a stock 460 should pull about 265 rwh and around 380 torque. A problem with the engine became evident on the way back to my Mom's house. The drive gear locating pin for the distributor had failed (sheared), which had caused the timing to slip into a retarded state. It got so bad, that I had to stop at the top of a long grade because of a loss of all power, and saw that both of the exhaust manifolds were glowing cherry red. (quite impressive at night!) I had the car towed to a muffler shop because assumed the converters had become plugged up... (I used the Power Club roadside assistance towing service this time) I told the folks at the muffler shop to replace the cats with a balance tube and they did. (65 bucks) Then they called me to let me know the car still would not start or run. I had it towed to the house and prepared for major surgery...was going to tear into it and do the timing chain. I called my buddy Danny in Texas, who gave me a couple of other suggestions: Carburator may have leaned out; so clean it, and check the timing at the distributor first. I got a couple of cans of carburator cleaner and took the Motorcraft unit apart and did find some crud in it, no surprise, with all of the fuel filters I was plugging up Then I saw the rotor was not right when the timing mark was set for TDC. I was able to actually move the rotor back and forth. Inspecting the distributor, I see the pin that holds the drive gear had sheared, which caused the timing to retard and the subsequent loss of power and glowing exhaust manifolds. I turned the oil pump with a socket and saw it was building pressure without binding, so we got a replacement roll pin from NAPA (free) and restored the distributor and timing. It started right up after that, and actually run better than it had in the last few hundred miles ! I took my brother in law out for a demonstration of my G-tech meter and laid down a 5.94 second 0-60 MPH time. That was a .7 second improvement over my previous best time ! The car hooked hard with him in the passenger seat (more on that later) The next day, I weighed the car at a truck stop up the road. It weighed 3300 lbs with me driving. Based on what the dyno guy said about the typical stock 460 rear wheel horsepower, I figgure I have around 12.5 lbs per rear wheel horsepower. Thursday, I left Alabama for New York. In Roanoak Virginia, I noticed the rear end was leaking a large puddle in the time it took to refuel. Crawling under the car, I could see a crack where the 4 link bracket is welded to the housing, the crack reaching all the way around the housing. I cleaned it with engine cleaner and sealed it with permatex, then refilled it with 90 wt and considered looking for a welding shop the next morning. I just babied the car until I made it back to Massachusetts, and the rear end stayed in one piece. The next week, I took the rear apart and repaired the cracked weld on the housing. As an extra measure, I replaced the drivers side wheel bearing because it seemed to have more play than the other one.
 - After the 3,400 mile trek, I am back in the North East. The car made the 3,400 mile trip under it's own power at an average of 14.12 miles per gallon. |