Now that my friend is what I call the true basis of hot rodding! Adapting and manipulating to make something not only work, but work better and in a different capacity. Great idea on the heat shields!

You now have me wondering in those would somehow work on the lower firewall and / or floorboards??? The plastic blocks behind the VW versions would work well to insulate the heat shield from the fiberglass of the Vette.

Great job!
Adam

 

Thank you, kindly for the kudos! The shield is nearly mounted and it was so easy to work with! You could form it, right there, versus the hours I spent adjusting the 0.09 aluminum sheet. Made it much deeper, because the first version, left the entire lower section of the steering box, unprotected. That steering box casting, goes 8 inches or so, straight down and slightly angled back, all the way past the bottom of the frame!

And all four exhaust headers group together and run parallel, right next to that lower section of the steering box. It was only because I was underneath the car, looking up, that it really got obvious! No wonder it was still getting hot! Not as hot as before, but extending the shield, can only make it better.

Testing tommorow, one hour, pretty warm temps.

 

I do think a lot of engine bay air is getting in to my cabin, something was burning in the engine bay and if filled the cabin horribly, could smell it more in the cabin than on the actual engine when I pulled over to check it.

Another time transmission fluid was burning on the exhaust and I noticed smoke coming in to the cabin from the foot well area.

So I should probably start by sealing up any gaps first.

 

Good point!

 

Disgusted! Bleah! Total careful install of that Audi dimpled heat shield, not touching nothing and it barely made a difference!

Sheesh, I'm having a beer and cooling my blazing boots.

 

Where did you put it?

 

That is unfortunate F22! Are you still going to move ahead with the ram air setup? You need to get more airflow through the engine compartment and out of those hood vents. You may want to start taping off the forward portion of the hood vents to see if that makes any difference as well.

John

 

I suspended it in mid-air between the row of exhaust headers and the steering column, including shielding the entire steeting gear box. It didn't touch either of them, I double-checked. Also had one protecting the entire support plate and brake booster, that overlapped the front one.

The steering column right above the rag joint was 170 degrees! The rest was similar, with the brake booster at 155, etc. The inside saw the column at 125 and the inner support plate at 133.

 

I wonder if wrapping the steering column above and below the rag joint with header wrap would make any difference.

 

Good points on both and thank you. I will try the tape today and see how that works and then the ram air next weekend. Finally, I'll try the bottom laminar flow scoops and after that, I'm going to go with the LT-1 manifolds.

 

I don't know, as I exchanged the header wrap for a new set of plug wires, which it needs badly, to replace the cooked ones on there.

 

I think it's eventually going to be the headers.for my problem. At the junk yard, most of the modern vehicles had close fitting exhaust manifolds and they were all closely shielded in a wrap around fashion, with external shields as necessary or farther back.

 

I believe I figured it out. If it is what I'm thinking, it was not only stupid simple, it was overlooked, though I always had this thought before. Another test tomorrow.

 

THIS has got to be good!

 

And

 

Going to test it in a few hours, but here's what happened to make me believe that I possibly have a solution. I've been driving the '74 daily and on the way in to the Shop, it started running a little rough.

After I got there, I started looking it over for vacuum leaks, plug wires arcing and I didn't see anything until I put my hands on the distributor and to my surprise, found it loose! You could turn it an 1/8 of a turn in either direction, so I got out the timing light and found out that the timing was BELOW the zero TDC line at 4 degrees AFTC!

I looked at my brand new tune up sticker on the cowl and it said 8 degrees BFTC! Ok, so I turned the distributor to 4, 6 and the engine just smoothed out so nicely. Set it at eight, tightened the bolt and did a couple errands in the late afternoon and then late last night, the thirty-forty minute ride home, noticed how I wasn't getting as warm as usual, felt the columnbase with my bare foot and it wasn't as hot as usual, so that got me thinking.

All afternoom, after I reset the timimg, I couldn't recall the engine putting out the huge amount of heat, that it was usually putting out, so I wondered if the heat output was related to the timing? When I got home, last night, l looked up on my droid, "retarted timing hot" and sure enough there were a bunch of references, posts and threads all over, stating just that!

I always wondered why my engine was putting out such an enormous amount of heat! And now it doesn't feel like that from my casual observations, so now I've got to test itout, later this morning, to see if that's really the fix! God, I hope so.

 

I just recently richened up the rods and jets on my Edelbrock 1406, and feel like my car as well, is running cooler. I have also been messing with the timing over the last month or so.

I have not taken it on an extended excursion since doing the rejetting, but am planning to take the Corvette to a show at Sunset Hills Winery near Purcellville, VA then off to another event later in the afternoon. We'll see how warm it gets today.

I may tape off the intake to the plenum on the passenger side of the windshield wiper trough to remove that from the equation. At least that way I can see if that is the major source of the heat in my car.

Johm

 

John, I'd be interested in your results. Now that the steering column is not blazing hot (so far), I felt some.residual heat from my vents as well. Not much, though, as I have the shut off valve on the heater hoses. In a couple of hours, I'm going out and see if resetting the timing, is the cure.

 

Certainly better. Steering box is sub 160. Under floor is 123-126 after an hour. Not monumental, as Airborne would say, but better than 144 or more. The outer plate is still high at 168, but the firewall itsrelf is 172 degrees and all the components are still 150-160 or so. Next is the ram air. And I'll have to say, sometimes, you feel like the experiment yourself.

 

I gotta tell ya honestly I was rooting against you since my engine is timed at 36* total so the timing is right where it needs to be according to Lars' papers and that would leave me no where to go... Sorry to be a dick about it