Transmission swap and engine compartment refresh Winter 2023-2024

Weather strip install is pretty straightforward, the only “issue “ was with the connector between the upper and lower sections. It is a large piece of very smooth rubber and it didn’t want to stick to the A pillar without being treated.

I used acetone to clean and a braid the surface to be glued and that worked on the drivers side, the other side needed some 3000 grit sandpaper. Adhesive used was Wurth black weatherstripping adhesive from a tube.

IMG_0656.jpeg
 
I have put about 250 miles on it now and the engine is doing fine. Keeping revs under 4k while breaking it in. So far a mix of country roads (there are plenty near me) and highway as well. The 5 speed is a nice addition on the highway.

I had he car in the shop this week for AC charge and found that it would not hold a vacuum. The problem is with one of the lines that I made up. The parts have been ordered and I will make up a new line early this week, then pull a vacuum and see if it will hold. If it holds I will head back to the shop for a charge.

Ordered a second oxygen sensor to install in the bungs on the headers so that I can check/work on the carb jetting.
 
Lance, all those hours of hard work have certainly paid off in spades!!! A beautiful job and a beautiful coupe. Assume you will be ready for Dirk's "road trip." And perhaps see you for a Rocket Dog drive in the coming weeks. Let me know what weekends work for you.

Steve
 
Lance, all those hours of hard work have certainly paid off in spades!!! A beautiful job and a beautiful coupe. Assume you will be ready for Dirk's "road trip." And perhaps see you for a Rocket Dog drive in the coming weeks. Let me know what weekends work for you.

Steve
Thanks Steve, any weekend for a Rocket Dog drive is fine! I have another appointment with the exhaust shop to make some adjustments this Thursday and hopefully a better alignment afterwards.
 
Had the coupe aligned finally. I had set the toe, but was not perfect and I know the camber & caster were out given replacement of the front suspension.

Engine was not running well on the way to the shop, so when I got it home I started on some tuning activities. Plugs (NGK BP5ES) cleaned and gaped for a hotter spark. Installed 02 sensors in the headers and while I was under the car tightened up all three belts.

Started the car and noticed that:
The front weber 38 was dumping fuel from the inboard (pass side) venturi was dumping fuel. I know that I had set the float level at some point, but pulled both carb tops off and re-set the float levels again. Of course I was careful to keep track of the tiny choke linkage clip and as careful as I was one of them disappeared so a replacement will need to be ordered.

The distributor cap (123 ignition) was moving while the engine was idling. Not engine movement, but the cap itself was moving. It appears that one of the spring clips had lost some tension and the rotor had backed out and was rubbing on the cap. New parts needed here as well, and given that I only have about 1,000 miles on the system I wrote to 123 to share displeasure. Will see what they say.

Cap damaged from loose clips.JPG
Rotor damaged from loose clips.JPG
 
The 123 weak cap springs are a common, ridiculous design flaw. Take some long nose pliers and bend the clip about halfway down to increase the “snap” pressure on the cap. Every year I redo this. Absurd that they continue to use this clip despite the numerous complaints over the years.
 
Well it is a good thing you gave yourself some shake out time and cruises before you meet up with Dirk and his posse. Perhaps one more Rocket Dog drive before you hit the road for real.

Steve
 
Fingers crossed Steve. I adjusted the float level again today, and it is still pouring fuel out of the venturi and when I add some fuel it starts pouring out of the accelerator pump nozzle as well. I have ordered a rebuild kit and also a base gasket to go back to a manual fuel pump.
 
Since I am waiting for parts to rebuild the carb and repair the distributor I decided to use the time to loosen and re-torque the head bolts. Also pulled the 123 Distributor when I found some oil present at the vacuum advance fitting. Distributor cleaned out and ready for the new rotor and cap.

123 Dist oil between plates.JPG
123 Dist oil at top of plate.JPG
123 Dist oil at vacuum.JPG
 
That’s strange to see it at the vacuum port. Did you check the little blue tube inside that it is still connected to the circuit board?
 
Front Weber rebuilt with new gaskets new needle and seat and floats adjusted, and also installed a fuel pressure regulator. The gas pouring from the inboard venturi has stopped.

The issue now is that it is no longer running well. The engine is misfiring and stuttering. It is clearly ignition, and may have something to do with the distributor (wires and firing order were confirmed).

I removed and took the distributor apart again with no real improvement. I am going to pull the spark plugs again tomorrow and start at the beginning.
 
Pulled the plugs last night and found cylinder 1 & 2 were completely fouled, explaining the misfire. Pulled all to clean and re-gap again. This must have happened just before the carb rebuild.

I also found that I had some differences front to back on throttle base plates at full throttle (not relevant to the no start issue) so I made some linkage adjustments and will see what happens.
 
Interesting that when you read through the forum posts since a while that you see something which is sooo familiar! I have had the same experience, not only with these rubber bushings but also the ones at the rear trailing arms. I also powder coated those and it does make a difference in the amount of play you have.

After making my home grown tools and frustrating myself for half a day I decided to order some ‘professional’ stuff:
View attachment 182279


It is what they say, good tools make half the work. Yes it costs something, but within a minute the bushings were out and also in again… good luck on your project!
 
Finally got it running today, but not well.

Electric chokes finally working well, timing set, but there is a huge imbalance between the carbs at idle after warm-up. Flow meter shows the front is pulling about 25 and the back about 11 with the linkage discounnected...the search contines. Of course the flow meter is pegged at 3k RPM, so will need to get out the Carb Mate synchronization tool once I find the idle issue.
 
Removed the front carb and found that the inboard throttle plate was open just a hair so I was able to make some adjustments on the bench to fix that problem. Spent some time on the connectors between the carbs and the throttle rod and found that I was able to get all four throttle plates to wide open throttle.

Re-assembled, warmed up, but idle is too high. about 1100 (123 distributor and about 1200 on the tach) and that is with no contact on the idle speed screw and the linkage to both carbs disconnected. Now the flow meter shows the rear carb is at ~22 and front at ~12.

Next step is to pull the rear carb off and look at the throttle plates there as one must be partly open.
 
A week of fiddling with the carbs. I ended up talking to Steve at Top End Performance and ordered a set of jets and we also discussed float setting on the 38/38's. Steve indicated that the fuel mix has changed over the years and as a result the specific gravity of the fuel is different, resulting in the need to address float settings. His advice was to have the front of the floats (farthest from the fulcrum) drop about 1mm lower tha n the back.

Both sets of floats are now set and the bowels are no longer overflowing. I will admit that the flow of fuel dumping out of the primary venturi is interesting, but so far the air fuel meter is not picking up a problem.

The carbs are set (for now) with the flow meter showing very close and the carbmate showing in balance at the most sensitive level. The air fuel ratio is about 14 throughout the rev band, but that is with the 02 sensor stuffed up the tailpipe, so it may not be an optimal position. I do still have a flat spot in the 1500-2500 rpm range. I will work on that once the additional jets arrive.

The 500 mile oil change is now due, so that will happen before I drive the car again. I did adjust the valves, re-torque the head, tighten up all the new belts and a few other maintenance related items. Looking forward to some more tuning this week.
 
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