Tune-up complete, though issues still exist.

I've been out in the garge the last few days, and of course it would be the hottest days of the year. Today, it was said to be a record high of 93 degrees, with a forecast of 94 tomorrow. That didn't stop me of tuning up my car, and what I discovered was both good, and bad.



I started out by installing new Accel shorty plugs, as I believed I may have fouled out muliple plugs last season. In order to install one of the passenger side plugs required nearly removing the passenger side header. I was able to leave one bolt in, keeping the rest of the holes lined up close enough to allow for an easy re-installation.



After the plugs, I drained the oil. Last season, my first oil change had engine coolant in the pan. It wasn't very much, but enough to be a little concerned about. Last engine build, I experienced the same issue, and ended up backing out all of the head studs, adding more sealant, and re-installing them one by one. I suspected this was where the coolant may have came from. This time, not a drop of coolant leaked out when I cracked the drain plug loose. I'm guessing it was a minor leak of the head studs which sealed itself off.

The oil change did however catch my attention. My 20w 50 looked more like 10w 30, and had a gasoline aroma. I knew that the engine was running rich, at least at idle, shortly after my last run last season. Of course, I ran her hard and put her away wet. After my one last blast down a country road, I noticed my idle was now eratic. By the time I got her back to my parents, it was apparnent that the idle mixture was extremely rich, so rich that it burned your eyes. So the fact that I found gas in the oil was not that big of a surprise. I'm guessing a little piece of something got in either the idle circuit, or perhaps the needle and seat, and is the cause for my problems.

Next up was checking the valve lash. I was glad to find all but a couple of rockers were still exactly where they were suppose to be. On my list of things to do is re-installing my bump button, that makes adjusting the lash soooo much easier! After getting everything all back together, I took a test drive. While cruising down the road seems fine, there is still an obvious rich condition at idle and low speeds. So, next on the agenda is tearing the carb down for a cleaning.

A few other issues of concern are my brake line that got crimped at my proportioning valve on the frame while loading up my car, and the other being my continuous leak coming from my power steering, which I believe may be an issue with the reservior itself. As you can see, aside from the carb tear down, and power steering leak, my list is relatively easy. I'm just hoping that I can get everything cleared up by Friday.