Today was the first time I got to take my new 74 out on an extended run. I got a lot of work to do !!

First about the car ....

It is a 74 L-48 Roadster, 4 speed, numbers matching, 67,000 original miles.Original paint (not good), original top (not good), original interior (not bad).

I am the third owner, the second owner bought it in 1978.

The engine was rebuilt by a pro shop 2 years ago. Sportsman II heads, headers, Torker II intake, 10:1 compression, MSD ignition, ARP Bolts, roller tip rockers, balanced and blueprinted. All the good stuff. I have all the receipts adding up to $4500 for the engine work alone.

It has a Comp Cam in it. Numbers I have for the cam are lift 480, duration 230 @ 50, 292 advertised duration, 190 degree lobe seperation. I am not sure what this all means ... any ideas?

I am not sure why, but some things were not done that I think should have. Car still has the original exhaust. No front end work was done. And for some unknown reason, the original 26 year old Q-Jet was not touched (I have already been in touch with Lars ... so that will be taken care of soon).

So today I decide to drive it into work. It starts right up (idles rough) .. get it out of the driveway. The car has power steering but does not feel like it. I need both hands to turn it out of the driveway. Past owner says it has always been that heavy. Going to have to look at the pump.

So .. get up to 40-50 MPH. Shifter is loose and clunky. Probably order the Hurst package tomorrow. There is a clicking from the right rear that is speed related. Might be something loose in the wheel ... might be worse :(

Drive for about 15 minutes. Temp is around 190, oil pressure looks good I pull into a parking lot ... it sputters and dies. I sit for a minute, pump the gas a few times, and get it to start again. It died again a few minutes later. I think I was bogging it down in first gear. Idle is all over the place (500-1100 RPM) so I think it all leads back to the carb.

The steering is loose or "lofty". There is about an 1/8 of a turn of play in the wheel. Very Very different from my C5. I am not sure if this is a PS pump problem or a worn out steering box.

Got to work without any more problems. Left a few hours later. The ride home was uneventful. I was carefull to keep the RPMs high coming off a light so it did not die. Pulled into the garage, shut it down and it dieseled for about 5 seconds.

So there you go. Cold temps are coming soon so it will be time to pull the carb, rip out the exhaust, put in the new shifter, put the original stereo radio back in, and get it ready for paint.

Like I said ... I got a lot of work to do. Expect to get a lot of questions from me !!

Thanks for listening.

Ed

 

Welcome to the forum. It sure sounds like you have a nice running car. I have a similar setup to yours. Up until about 3 weeks ago, my cam was the same as yours. I had my car run on a chassis dyno about a month ago and got a best of 250rwhp. That should have put me at about 365 gross hp. The old lifters were bleeding down a little too fast costing me some power. With the slightly better heads, good valvetrain, and balanced shortblock, I would guess you're making a bit more power. I already miss the lopey idle of that cam, but listening to the solids makes up for it.

Tom

 

Some thoughts on the possible source of some of your problems on your new car.

Clicking from rear -- could be that you have two slightly different size tires and the posi is clicking. This happened to me when I put on a spare that was larger than the tire on the other side. It clicked except when I turned one direction, and clicked worse when I turned the other direction.

Loose steering. If you don't have pressure at the cylinder, you will have quite a bit of play because of the type of steering you have. Take a look at it and I think you will understand. When you turn the wheel, it pushes a valve that gates fluid to the cylinder to move the wheels to where you turned the steering wheel. If there is no pressure, you have to turn a ways to steer. hard to explain.

Loose shifter -- I have the stock shifter and it is not a bit clunky or loose. You may need to tighten things up. The Hurst may be better, but the stock unit works very well if it is in good condition.

Rebuild your carburetor and it should run fine. Check to make sure your vacuum lines are all connected.

Have fun.

 

Tires are all new BFG T/A. I will lift the back end up next weekend and see if I can find the click.

Can anyone give me more info on the cam this car has? Is it considered wild, mild, or out of style?

I will try to get some pics up tonight.

 

Ok here are my thoughts. You surely have a ps pump problem (most probably not working at all). The play in the steering is in the power steering box (got the same thing but my ps works) the clicking in the diff is fine if you heard it while turning...if you heard it going straight then its not good. The idle/dieseling issues are carb related and Lars will solve that for you.

 

Rhubarb, I would categorize your cam as being an aggresive hydraulic street cam. It is by no means something you would find in a race car, but is more wild than most you will find on the street. The duration numbers at .05"(230)will dictate the rpm range of this cam(5500-6000rpm). The LSA(lobe separation angle) is responsible for the choppy idle. Yours is 109 (190 is not possible). Not only does it make it idle rough, but it also bleeds down cylinder pressure which prevents detonation. I ran that cam for many years with 10:1 compression and never experienced any pinging. I always found that the best shift point was at about 5700 rpm, but you may get a bit more out of it.

Tom


[Modified by tsw71, 7:04 AM 9/24/2001]

 

It looks like to me that you have a Comp 280H Cam, which is a pretty healthy cam. Best performance is supposed to be from 2000-6000 RPM range. It ought to make the car run really nice when you get all the carb problems sorted out.

 

On the clicking....
Take off the trim rings and drive the car around. I had (and still have clicking), and was ready to rebuild the trailing arms...until a mechanic buddy if mine suggest that I remove the trim rings to see if the clicking disappeared....and it did. Just a thought before you jump into something.

 

You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the great info.

I did notice it pulled really well once I got over 4000 RPM ... I think I topped out at 5K ... guess I will push it a little harder next time.

 

I put that cam in my fathers 69 350/350 car. It was a great cam. Lots of power to about 6K rpm. The motor was stock 11.1 pistons and he drove it many happy miles.

 

Hey Rhubarb...Look forward to seeing your car...We should meet up somewhere like the lake this weekend and go for a cruise