not yet

So close, yet so far away.

The motor on the '66 is just so close to running that it's ridiculous. The only thing stopping us is the damn carb. Considering we got it for 'free', we can't complain too much with it giving us problems, but it certainly is frustrating. After fixing the diaphragm issue, we thought we had it licked, only to find out there isn't a single other gasket on the carb. (Did I post the info already?) So I went to go get some today, installed them, and the carb still wants to leak. A rebuild with a new primary fuel bowl is in order. Dunno if I'll go and get that tomorrow or not, if I don't, it'll be got on Saturday. As I see it, once we rebuild the carb and get it right, that bitch of a motor will finally crank and run. I can't wait.

f'n happy

Well, today turned out to be not so bad after all..

Lets start at the very beginning. Saturday my father and I worked just about all day to get the motor in the '66 ready to fire. Took care of mostly the small stuff, hooking up essential gauges, installing the rocker shims, lifters, push rods, intake manifold, valve covers and piddly shit like that. Sunday we left to finish up the last of the wiring. 'Round 'bout 2:00 we got ready to fire the motor off, turn the ignition on, and flip the starter switch....nothing. Damn. No idea what the problem is, but we need to get the motor fired off to check it, so we'll just jump the solenoid. The motor isn't wanting to start...timing is just too far out. Tweaking and turning, the motor just isn't wanting to kick off. By now the battery has no juice. Time to put it on the charger.

Fast forward to about 7:00 pm, the battery is nice and charged, so we try again. Nope. adjust timing and try again; she almost was there. Tweak some more, and she's there! Not running, but wanting too. Oh shit...that's not good, lots of gas pouring out of the carb. Turns out the accelerator pump diaphragm is shot. Taking a few steps back, we find that one of the screws is all but stripped. While looking for a bigger replacement, we find the oil pump driveshaft...whoops. Kinda need that... A blessing of sorts. Not wanting to keep pouring gas everywhere, we stop for the nite. A small victory, the motor is just about there and sounds sweet as hell.

Today I though would be better. It certainly started off well, getting a shipment of new rear wheels. Gotta test fit them to see if they'll work; they don't, bolt pattern is wrong. Fuckna. So I go out to get a new solenoid and diaphragm. Boy, the solenoid was a bitch to replace. We've got it tucked up under the dash, out of site, which is great when thing all work, but when they need to be serviced? Forget about it. So after much fighting and throw wrenches, I got to 'noid replaced. Switches should work, right? Wrong. Still not working. So now I've got a set of wheels that don't fit, and switched that don't switch anything. To top it off, the water pump needs to replaced as the internal seals don't seal and weeps water out of the weep hole. At this point I'm quite aggravated. I kill some zombies by playing the Dead Rising demo, that helps a bit.

Feeling quite bummed out, my dad and I try again at this damn'd motor. I tried to troubleshoot the switch problem, but everything checked out. It's got me in a cross mood for sure. Just as a though, how 'bout switching the input and ground wires on the solenoid coil? Shouldn't matter a bit...you guessed it, it does. Now the ignition and starter switches actually work! Nice. After rotating the plug wires one spot over, the timing is damn near spot on and the motor wants to run. But...the carb is still spiting more fuel onto the top of the motor then inside it. Now it looks like it's coming from the fuel bowl/body joint. Take the carb back off and diagnose it some more....what's that? No gaskets at all on the carb? Sweet. No wonder its more of a leaker then a sprayer. Should be any easy fix. Since we got the carb for 'free', can't complain too much. No telling how long it was sitting on a shelf somewhere. Looks like someone stole'd the gaskets off it. Those bastards!

Tomorrow will be better, I know it. Get a gasket kit for the carb, return the wheels and order the proper ones, remove the water pump and get a new one, and who knows, maybe by Friday I'll be able to go out, turn the ignition on, hit the start switch and the thing will crank and run. I'll tell you this though, what little I have heard from the motor? It's a beast. Makes me feel good too, as this was my first solo complete engine build. It's my baby, and baby screams like a banshee. Run baby run!

new goodness

Remember some of those projects that I've been wanting to get to now that I've got my computer back? Well, I finished one late last nite, a 'toonish' version of a picture I took awhile back. Came out decent I think. I've got a wallpaper version in the wallpaper section. Also got an airbrushed Holden Efijy that I did a while back, in a lovely wallpaper form. Slightly different though. Enjoy.

So I updated the backend of this here 'blog to the Beta of Blogger. Can't say I notice too much different about it, but I'll explore it some more in the future to see what it has to offer. It does have a 'label' thingy that I might abuse. Er, will abuse. Also updated to FireFox 2.0. I suggest you do too.

get me some raid

I've got this damn persistant bug that won't leave me alone. When it started cooling down, I got just a little sick; nothing bad, just pressue and stuffieness. As soo as I felt a little better, I'd go outside and work for a few hours- and get to feeling worse again. This cycle has been going on for a few weeks now. Oh well.

So I get a call the other night saying my computer is ready...er? It was supposed to be sent to my house. Either way, I go pick it up. And, egads, it worked! So now I can get back to working on some projects that I've been putting off. Good times.

ugh...

For the past week or so, I've been feeling a bit ill, man, it sucks. Nothing more then just enough headache, fever, and general yuckiness to make everything suck.

We've now got a radiator in the '66. It'a an f'n huge thing that has probably 200% more surface area then the old one, so it should cool the 302 down just fine. The electric fan is mounted as well, and other the hoses and fluid, the cooling system is done.

Still need to tweak the passenger side header to make it fit....since we don't have a torch set, it something we have to do at my dads work. That just kills us on time. Not that we have a deadline or anything, but still. Maybe, if we get the header situation solved, then maybe it will crank this weekend. I'm not getting my hopes up, but you never know.

i'll have the chicken, with a side of shit

Just drop some more shit on me, I'd never notice it.

So, my computer breaking is well documented here. It was supposed to be done last Monday, it wasn't. I gave them till Friday to ship me my computer, they didn't. So today, I go down there and ask where my computer is. They run some numbers, "it'll be there today". Sure enough, maybe an hour later, UPS shows up with my computer.

Perfect, everything is going peachy. I start the badboy up and to my delight, ALL my data is still there. The one thing that was causing me the most stress the past month turned out to be fruitless. So, after waiting a month for a computer fix and getting it back with my data nothing could be wrong, right? Wrong. I have no sound. A whole month of waiting and I've no sound.

I've spent all afternoon trying to fix the problem. I've come to the conclusion that it's a hardware problem of some sorts. There is nothing on the computer telling me that anythign is wrong. It thinks it's putting sound out. No hardware conflicts, no software conflicts, nothing. Just no sound. Shitty. So now I'll go back and tell them to fix my damn computer without breaking something else.

Maybe I'll get a new external HD to backup my data this time....

another day, another.....damn

So my computer that is broken was supposed to come today, it hasn't. I'll give it till Friday. If I don't have it by then, I'll be pissed. Even though I'm using my mom's laptop, which I'm growing quite fond of, well, the screen and keyboard at least, I want MINE back. Then I can get started of some projects that I been putting off, not wanting to take up too much space on this one...Maybe tomorrow.

creamy goodness

Just a few snaps of Saturday's install. Obviously, it's not done or running, but it's in. Sweet.

tired, and how

Today was a good day, because finally, FINALLY, the motor is in the '66. Pics? Of course not. Tomorrow though, promise. It was a complete bitch to get it. With the transmission bolted up, we had a helluva time clearing the fire wall, core support and everything else. We ended up dumping who knows how much ATF unto the floor. I guess the tranny was full of fluid. Was being the key word.

We had to remove the motor mounts, which are offset, and bolt the up the other way to give us firewall clearance. Then, the valve cover barley clears the power booster. 1/4" of room. However, the headers do not fit. They came out of a V8 Falcon, but that motor had 302 heads. We got 351 heads. The head angle is different. Neither side works. Gonna take some tweaking.

So, is the motor where we can just go out and crank it up? No, and probably won't be until next weekend at the very earliest. Disappointing? Slightly, but not too bad. I mean, damn, the engine is fuckin' in. Awesome.