Decided I wanted a fire extinguisher for both my car and my truck. I dyed the mount and secured it to the glove box door with some bolts. There is still room for the t tops, the glove box door and latch still works fine and the extinguisher is safety mounted in an easy to reach place.

 

Finished the hood to core support seals this morning. Heres what it all looks like together

 

Wanted to change the pickup coil so I ended up changing the whole distributor with an accel unit. It worked out to be cheaper. The spark seems brighter and more white. The eventual plan is to use this distributor with the 6AL setup to begin with

 

Big updates



I did the timing cover seal, front main seal, and oil pan gasket.





I changed to a PF35L filter.




I replaced the timing set with a double roller

Last but not least Im working on a full 2.5 true dual mandrel custom stainless exhaust with new 2.5” rams horn manifolds and cherry bomb pro chambered mufflers. Ill have more on this next week.

 

Also, I was surprised to see the engine was a two bolt main. I know GM was terrible about marking anything to make it easier to identify a two bolt from a four bolt, but this block is an 010 casting, 010 020 high nickel and it has the oil passage plug near the timing cover but it turned out to be a two bolt. Kind of odd. Those, from my research, are all usually signs of a four bolt block.

 

I ended up putting the stock pump back on because I had an idea.

I thought that maybe the plastic float was being saturated with the 10% ethanol gas here and not providing adequate pressure on the needle and seat during high RPM/pressure times. my thought was that if the float is weak, then the pressure of the pump at full throttle could blow fuel past the needle and out the vent tube, causing the car to flood. That would explain why I had low or erratic fuel pressure.

I tore into the carb and sure enough my float is bad, not to mention my power piston was hung up

I changed over to a brass marine float, and I also removed the caged needle and seat for a normal style non windowed one.

So FINALLY I think I have a smoking gun for this issue. Time will tell.

 

Ok, its been a bit. Finals time is here so it’s stressful for me. Not a whole bunch has happened since October but I figured id update anyways. So about my exhaust, in October I ditched the 2-1-2 factory L48 2.25 inch exhaust that I previously chopped the cat out of for a full custom 2.5 stainless true dual exhaust with an H pipe. My uncle helped me a whole bunch with the design and welding. I used cherrybomb pro mufflers which are absolutely fantastic. There is zero drone but a terrific idle noise. Not too loud at RPMs above 1650. Couldn't ask for more.

Old

Midway

Almost done new, temp’ed up for a picture before final fitment and H pipe

I also switched from the stock 2” rams horn manifolds to smoothie 2.5” rams horn manifolds from speedway motors.. Im not the biggest fan of headers and I really like the way the rams horn manifolds look and sound. Not to mention the stock brackets and heat stove bolted right up.

 

While I had the car down I changed the oil pan gasket, front main seal, timing cover gasket, fuel pump, rebuilt the carb and changed the timing chain, however heres where things kinda go sour..

There is still a decently persistent oil leak, I’m not sure if its the front main, oil pan to timing cover seal or the intake manifold.

I have successfully killed another power steering pump, bringing the K/D to 4-0 now

The power ram is leaking… again

The balancer was almost impossible to get off and I’m pretty sure that The threads in one or two of the pulley bolt holes were damaged but the crank is ok. I didn’t feel the best putting it back together and plan on replacing the balancer soon

The timing chain was absolutely spanked for only having 30,000 miles on it. Put in a cloyes double roller, took forever to do, fought the entire time

The front cover was warped so badly that even with an RTV coat on the gaskets I wasn’t convinced they would seal (another candidate for that oil leak)

And finally that brings us to my old friend, the Quadrajet.

I found the float was junk, and replaced it along with doing a rebuild and general deep clean. It ran ok, but I had the float set around 3x too high because I misread the directions. No stumbling but the fuel would boil out after heatsoak. I dropped the float, changed needles and seats, settings, different floats, and for the life of me I cannot make this car run good with the secondaries open. Primaries are no issue, 13-17MPG city, good power, cruise at 100 with no issues (not that ive done that) highway merging, no issues but if you dump the quads it runs great for maybe 5 seconds before stumbling, starving for fuel and falling on its face.





Im so fed up with dealing with the quadrajet Im starting to price out a 650 holley or something similar. Don’t really want an edelbrock. Furthermore, dont want to ditch the Qjet but if it wont work and I cant make it work, even after reading every lars article I could find and reading the X7 GM Qjet manual cover to cover, then Im not sure what to do next.

 

My alternator belt shredded on me, and after Amazon sent me 3 wrong belts I finally got the dayco top cog I wanted (remember, CS144 needs a non standard belt)

Then I basically put the car into storage but not for long because while driving to school my truck lost oil pressure. Turns out my LC9 LS motor, being AFM and flex fuel has an oil pressure sensor screen which I didn’t change when I did the sensor around a year ago. The corvette became my daily ride everywhere for a week because I thought I was shopping for a new LC9, and it dutifully shuttled me to school, for food, parts and other stuff. Luckily the motor is ok.

I know this is off topic but here’s what happened to my avvy;



Thankfully the corvette is very reliable, when you’re using the primaries and has really good air conditioning and heat. Also just a quick reaffirmation; SPAL FANS ARE AWESOME! If you want an electric fan setup I could not recommend them enough. Living in the city, traffic is inevitable, and I don’t fear sitting anymore.

 

Im at a bit of a standstill on vette stuff right now, but Next up;

Exhaust leak, doughnut flanges loosened after a few heat cycles

weather stripping, it does rain inside when it rains outside

Delay wipers, detroit speed makes a kit, its wildly expensive but my 2 speed wiper motor recently became a 1 speed and then decided to not park anymore. I think if I want delay wipers nows the time

heater hoses, I want to change the routing, I bought correct GM stamped ones

oil leak; probably will start with the intake gasket and take it from there

Power steering; parts cannon some better quality stuff instead of the cheapest

carburetor; to be determined

 

Small update

My vette is still having the stumbling issue

I bought myself a 600 holley and I will take testing from there. Unfortunately theres only so much I can do with only a questionable quadrajet.

Im almost going all in on some kind of problem internal to the carb at this point. From here I think the best way to keep testing is to move forward with a different carb.

More on this to come, probably after Christmas. Also ordered the delay wiper kit, and will soon be waiting on carpet

 

You're getting a lot done!

 

HI-MGC/D76001 been reading. your thread and a real nice job on your 76 I liked what you did with your heater fan.i have a 1970 and rebuilt the ac plus all the vacuum parts under the dash.the problem is the fan brand new but not much air coming out.so if I buy a fan for a 1990 will it fit in my 70 or if you have better info I will Liston thanks for your help keep up the good work plus what you did with the door locks was great bob

 

Perhaps your carburetor problem is really an ignition problem? Lars always says that!

 

Thanks! Slowly but surely lol. If I'm not at work/school or sleeping I'm outside tinkering with my car. Wouldn't have it any other way!

 

Hi Bob,
For my purposes I used a 1996 fan, which uses a deeper fan cage than a C3. I 3D modeled a spacer to make up the depth I needed. It does move more air than my C3 fan. 1984-1985/6 C4 blower motors are different than 1987-1996... If you decide to go that route, make sure you get a fan that is from a 87-96 and with a spacer, it should fit just fine
I know you said your vacuum parts were new, but If it were me I'd check them again particularly the 7 way vacuum switch at the HVAC controls. Make sure its doing what its supposed to. Mine originally would not have enough jam to move the flaps in the vents because both the connector and seal inside were leaking. this would cause the flaps to end up in a halfway position, and there would be practically no airflow. Just another thing to check, might save you money from buying a new blower motor if yours is fine.

Thanks for reading!

 

My uncle, Ex drag racer, has told me the same thing lol. After changing the dizzy it was better, but I think I finally have it licked. Its hard working on a system where everything is suspect. Reminds me of owning my dodge lol.

 

So we left off on the mention of a Holley carb.

I bought a 1850-3 used as a core. 600 CFM. I rebuilt it myself, put it on the car and after playing 20 minutes of playing find a leak--stop a leak I hooked my coil wire up and tried to start it. With the throttle half open it coughed to life but was running rough. I figured it was flooded, so I tried to run it to blow out the excess fuel. Then I realized that raw fuel had made its way out of the tailpipe. So I shut the car off, turned the pilot on the furnace off, pulled the spark plugs and went in the house. I don't think I've ever seen an engine flood as bad as this. Turns out, it was my fault. I pinched the power valve gasket. I put the Q-Jet back on and started it to blow out what I could, then put the 1850 on and wouldnt'cha know it, bumped the key and it started right up. Ran like a dream. Smooth as glass. I put an initial tune on it and let it idle for a solid hour to get rid of any other fuel in the exhaust.




So at this point it runs but that's only the start of this story. I cracked the baseplate because of a floppy carb spacer, my uncle had a spare baseplate, rebuilt the carb on my kitchen table. Again. Had the threads pull out of a fuel bowl screw, had to helicoil. Had the threads pull out of the intake, had to helicoil. I was using Edelbrock carb studs, changed to ARP because the threads literally fell off the Edelbrock ones. Early on, I needed a throttle bracket so I bought a combo throttle/TV bracket for my 200-4R, reusable nylon gaskets for everything, I designed a new vacuum system to keep using my EVAP, sealed system and charcoal canister, got the air cleaner to fit and finally took it out for a drive.


What Holley?


I noticed right away there was a part throttle stumble, but im 99% positive this is some sort of accelerator pump issue. I noticed during the rebuild that it had 60 jets in it which is a touch lean, and this was confirmed reading the plugs. while I was driving I felt a bit of a lean pop through the exhaust on the highway. I went up to 64s. I changed the accelerator pump cam, spring, and squirter (25->31) but I haven't gotten a chance to test drive yet because it snowed here in Chicago.




Most importantly, the secondaries. Smooth as glass all the way up. The Q-Jet would stumble and fall on its face after 50, but the Holley pulls with no fuss to at least 90. Not even a hint of that fuel starvation.

I guess that's the nail in the coffin for the Q-Jet. There has to be something internally wrong with it. I suspect a problem with the main/ secondary metering rods or the air valve, but who knows.

I'm so so pleased with how its coming out. I have a bunch of tuning ahead, but I feel refreshed that at least at this current moment, I'm no longer fighting the same issues over and over again.

 

New heater hoses and heater control valve

 

Other than a few fuel lines and a vacuum tube I need to make, this is how the engine bay looks. Also custom made a set of 8.5MM HEI Super conductor spark plug wires from MSD. Overkill? Yep. But I wanted a set I could terminate myself.