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Much fuss and bother later. What's not new or rebuilt on damn ol' car? Body, interior, block, odometer, fan clutch, lot's o misc details. Done are head, carbs, front suspension, shock absorbers, brakes, driveline, tranny, exhaust, gastank, radiator, steel cam gear & front/rear lip seal, ....
Last long ordeal was SU HS6 carb set. Tried several options on carb needle valves and floats. Even with brand new recommended parts from Burlen, I'd get needle valve fail to close and raw gas spillage from float bowl vent. All of about 4 or 5 combinations of different floats, hinge pins, and needle valves leaked intermittantly -- they would vary in the engine frequency at which they would spill. Fuel pressure is a tad high, around 4 PSI, but spillage would occur even with regulator set down to 1.5 PSI. I tossed the el-cheapo regulator after its plastic nipple broke spewing raw gas all over starter and distributor! After last install of brand new recommended Burlen parts (w/ all-plastic, non-adjustable floats)I just kept driving it. At first these would occassionally spill at idle, but also around 55-65 MPH, the car would start to hesitate and you could smell raw gas in the cab. Little by little incidence spillage decreased. Maybe after about 1.5-2k miles, the spillage stopped altogether, both at idle and at road speed. I suppose that the steel tipped needle needed to polish itself a proper seal on the brass seat.
Mandrel bent 2-1/4" exhaust w/ Dynomax sport muffler took several weeks to install and pay for. Ditched crappy header and installed reworked exhaust manifold - portmatched, polished, and jet-hot ceramic coated. Custom downpipe, 2>1, and mandrel 2-1/4" out the back. Sounds bitchin' except at 60-70 mph it sets off resonant frequency of 145 box echo chamber and roar is VERY annoying. Gonna add another Dynomax someplace. Change of exhaust system resulted in a quite dramatic improvement in performance (maybe 25-35% by seat of the pants meter).
Last weekend I took compression (good), reset valves, and changed oil & plugs. This morning took car to mechanic, we changed from SM to KD needles, balanced carbs, and set mixture by CO meter. Suprised to see that SM is fatter (leaner) needle than KD. Idle is much smoother now, performance at road speed is slightly up. Hope gas mileage will be up, but that will be hard to confirm as odometer has stopped working. I was getting around 20 MPG while buzzing around at 65-80 MPH (even up hill!).
Next major project is bodywork. Ouch. Another slam to the automobile budget.
I'll keep y'all posted.
Later,
Al
Old, cranky, tired, & broke. But 145S runs !
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