The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

I have been tuning the carb and timing the past few days. I am currently on 74 jets, 43 primary rods and DA secondary rods. She runs very nicely and pulls well up the RPM range.

Does anyone have a spare pair of BE or BL secondary rods they can "loan" me? The magic setup recipe that I had in the T/A was 74 jet, 44 primary rods and BE secondary rods and that car pulled like crazy (same rear gears, same transmission).

I have around 110 miles on the motor now and I am a firm believer in breaking them in like you are going to drive them: hard. She starts at the first turn of the key and idles nicely. I have been doing a lot of my 8 mile test and tune trips over the past week or so when the weather permits.

[njsteve]

Got the heat riser hoses installed for the Ram Air air cleaner. One of the PerformanceYears.com members, "PB" sent me the correct beveled 455HO plastic elbows and original clamps, as well as the heat stove base plate and 90 degree steel eblow. The corrugated hoses I got from Performance Years for $6 each.

This is sure one Rube-Goldberg contraption once all those hoses are hooked up. No wonder everyone who had one of these cars ripped them out and tossed them in the garbage. It takes two people to remove or install the air cleaner now.

I also discovered that if you don't have the correct "thick" 1/4" carb to intake gasket, the air cleaner heat riser elbow on the drivers side will jam up against the valve cover and will hold up that side up, off the carb.

[njsteve]

BTW, Here is a tip for the squeeling belt syndrome that Pontiacs have. These cars are very sensitive to belt thickness. If they are running multiple belts on the crank and water pump pulleys, the parallel running belts must all be of the same width or else they will scream at high RPMs.

The problem is due to the fact that they are trying to fight each other for traction while turning the same distance of water pump pulley at the same time. Because the thinner belt is sitting lower in the groove than the thicker belt, the thinner one is technically a longer belt by a few millemeters over the same distance of pulley groove.

Unfortunately, most manufacturers have gone to narrower belts for the old cars. I just bought two new belts for the Formula and had to search a while on rockauto.com for a matching set from Goodyear. Rockauto actually lists the widths for each belt, and they were cheap - around $10 total with shipping. The Goodyears were .44 width which is a little bit more than 14/32. The Gates and Delco belts were .4063 (13/32 width). Napa were the worst - they were around 12/32.

Here is the photo after the new same width belts were installed. As you can see, the inner, alternator belt only rides on about 3 inches of the water pump pully - just enough to create the scream if it is a different width. The power steering belt is what really operates the water pump pulley.



Compare that with this photo (courtesy of Steve Hoog) showing two different thickness belts on the water pump pully.

[napa68]

I ran into the same problem with belts on a 69 427 Corvette with A/C, P/S, etc. I had to purchase repro belts to get it right.

BTW, NAPA is the same as Gates.

I love watching for updates. Keep them comming Steve!

Happy New Year!

Tim

[jbsides]

Tim,

When you say NAPA is the same as Gates, do you mean dimensionally? Or does Gates manufacture NAPA belts?

The reason I ask is that I have been having a hard time getting Gates belts. Is there a business relationship between the two?

JB

[njsteve]

I use rockauto.com for all my random tune up stuff. They sell all the various makers' belts. Lots of Delco stuff, too. I even got my gas tank and radiator from them. The shipping was really cheap on their large items, like the gas tank.

[napa68]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jbsides</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tim,

When you say NAPA is the same as Gates, do you mean dimensionally? Or does Gates manufacture NAPA belts?

The reason I ask is that I have been having a hard time getting Gates belts. Is there a business relationship between the two?

JB </div></div>

The NAPA belts are Gates. Surely, they do not run two separate production lines for the product (especially v belts when you consider the popularity of them today ). Gates does all of the rubber product for NAPA as well as the water pumps.

I also suspect Delco is all Gates as well. Mind you, Delco makes nothing. They are no more than a repackager of product today.

[njsteve]

Did some finagling today and it fits much better.

1) I trimmed around 2 inches off the radiator end of the radiator hose. That pulled the hose bend away from the air cleaner.
2) Added the thicker carb to intake gasket. It's about 1/8&quot; thicker than the previous one.
3) Used a couple of air cleaner to carb gaskets and used a 1/2&quot; section of 5/8&quot; heater hose for the top vent grommet.
4) Rotated the driver's side elbow to fully ride up against the heat riser valve. I also was able to rotate the clamp 180 degrees to fit in behind the heat riser valve.
5) I removed 2 of the 3 washers that I had under the two mounting points of the rear A/C triangle bracket, leaving only one washer to space the bracket up just enough to barely touch the valve cover.
6) I squeezed a permanent dent into the passenger side corrugated hose in the area that it passes over the unique cut out in the A/C triangle bracket.
7) The valve covers are using the correct 1/4&quot; thick 455HO valve cover gaskets so they can clear the oil deflector cages. The regular gasket is 1/8&quot; thick on the D-port 400, 455 engines.

Here are some photos of today's fun: