Final Tune

The last few days I gave the car a final tune, in preparation of the trip down to Adrian for winter storage at the parents. I had talked to my machine shop shortly after the engine was done, as I had misplaced my cam card and wanted to know the valve lash. I was told it was around .028-.030. Soon after, I found the cam card, which called for valve lash of .016 on the intake and .018 on the exhaust, a huge difference! I was sure that the loose lash was what was causing not only my valvetrain noise, but also my idle problems. The car has been occasionally backfiring at idle. I'd tried everything, yet just couldn't seem to tune it out through the carb.

After going through and resetting the lash to the proper spec, I found the valvetrain to be significantly quieter and my idle issues were resolved. I also took the opportunity to go up a couple of jet sizes both front and rear. After reading an article that was in Popular Hotrodding I am convinced that my engine problem would like more fuel. I was right, as the extra fuel seemed to also fix the occasional hesitation mashing the throttle.

I took the car for a spin after that tune the other day. First thing I noticed was the car started much easier. After the car started though, things still seemed to be kinda rough. With my recent hard starts I thought that perhaps I fouled the plugs a bit and maybe they just needed burned off a bit. After getting the engine up to temp I took a blast down the Lodge, and things seemed to be cleared up.

Today I swapped on a new powersteering hose, complete with two clamps on each end, which seems to have stopped my leak. I am concerned about the life span of my powersteering box, as one of the header tubes basically sits on the box, which can't be good for it. I thought about a cooler the other day, but I don't even think that would be sufficient. I'm gonna have to come up with a fix in the future. I also added a few extra grounds to the body, which seems to have fix my slow cranking problem. My fuel and voltmeter still seem to be having major issues, which I believe is due to a poor ground for the gauges. Is what it is, I'll have to fix that some other time.

I plan on driving the car to Adrian next week, and think it should take the trip just fine. The cooling seems sufficient, the carb is damn close, and valvetrain is much tighter now. The thing runs like an animal! Part of me will be sad to park it for the year, and the other part of me will be glad to be able to park my Formula back in the garage again. There are some things I'd like to fix on it before winter rolls around, and measures that should be taken to hault this expanding body rust, as well as salvage the floor pans before their any further deteriorated.

I still hope to get some more pictures uploaded soon, as well as a video or two. Then, come winter, so comes baby! I can't say enough how excited I am to have a little person coming into this world. Boy or girl, I can't wait to have that little buddy, nor can't I wait for the day we can due a father/son or father/daughter car, and have that car ready for when they get their license. While many look at having kids as a time when hot rodders have to give up their toys, stop future projects, etc, I see just the opposite. I see opportunity to raise a child enjoying trips to car shows, cruises, and nights at the track. I also see opportunity for future car projects, out of necessity. :)