IT LIVED!

Post date: Aug 26, 2012 7:50:57 PM

You know how sometimes in life it takes a long time to find out just how big of an idiot you've been? Like when you're a teenager, it can take years to realize the mistakes you made?

This is not one of those times.

Shaun worked long hours with me again on Thurs and Fri. First matter of business was fuel. That went pretty quickly with Shaun fixing some things I broke on the fuel pump canister. Made the last few teflon lines - only one end gave me any problems - and mounted the filter/regulator to the wheel well. Put a few gallons in the tank and we're good! The min pressure with the 5/16" return is about 5.5psi. I cranked it up to 15psi and had only one leak and the Fram filter. A re-tape and install of the MPT fitting and it was all good.

Next was the exhaust. Shaun did most of the work hanging the Torque Tech 2.5" system. Since this is a temp install and the driver quarter is all jacked up, I just wanted to make sure it didn't fall out. The tail pipes seem a little short with the ends about four inches before the bumper. Will have to check up on that. Didn't need the extensions to reach the headers. The engine appears to be titled to the driver's side - driver header hangs a couple inches below the tranny crossmember while the passenger header actually hit it. Some massaging with the BFH and it's good enough for now. We'll see what it's like in the other frame.

There was a handful of wiring and normal re-assembly stuff to do, nothing exciting. I ran a jumper from an IGN pin on the fuse panel to the Pertronix HC coil and it regularly blew 25A fuses once the engine started to fire. So switch back to the old coil.

The first start took quite a few tries, but eventually got it to light off. Final idle was about 850 in neutral, 650 in gear with a moderate lope. I had reduced the idle air bleeds to 0.082", and the idle screws had obvious immediate effects! That was really great to see. There was some really loud intermittent squeal, which I think is the power steering pump. Might be the water pump, but never had it while on the stand. Poking around with the stethoscope sounded like it could be either.

So on Sat I headed out for the test drive. A spin around the neighborhood went great, came back to do minor things like install a rear view mirror, check the tires, etc.

Had really good power, great throttle response, it was really a joy. For a while.....

Then out on the highways! About 15 miles in a chunk of metal fell out. Oh yeah - I shouldn't store unused brackets in the wheel wells. About 40 miles in the engine noise changed dramatically. Pulled over and it was just a minor exhaust leak where the silicone blew out. About 5 miles later there was a BIG change (incredibly loud), but seemed to me like it was just a bigger exhaust leak. Temp, pres, etc was all great, so I just headed for home but was about 30 miles out.

Well, how do I say this? I'm an idiot. Some time later, the noise suddenly stopped, a chunk of metal flew out from under the car, and the temp shot up. Pulled over and it turns out the fan shroud fell and was being chewed up by the fan. The fan had enough and two blades shattered and tore up the radiator. See, in my eagerness to get on the road, I didn't fully mount the shroud. Where's it gonna go, right? Yeah.

Limped it home, but it was really hot - 240deg on the gauge, but who knows how often there was actually water in the heads. Will have to spend some time checking it over to make sure I didn't destroy anything. Still had great power. Will drain the oil, check compression, patch it up and see what happens. Might've gotten lucky. I'll credit the upgrade to head studs if that's the case!