My "Late Life Crisis"!

['69Novajoe]

The first “real” road trip was driving the car home from the alignment shop that day. It felt amazing, but I was trying to adhere to the recommendations/instructions of Centerforce in putting 450-500 miles on the clutch for proper “bedding” of the disc with the flywheel and pressure plate. I so bad wanted to go WOT!!!

After getting the car home I drained the water out and put in some antifreeze.



And then finally back in the garage with the hood on!!

[Arrowsmith]

I’ll bet it will “peel out” real good! Have fun with it Joe…W

[WILMASBOYL78]

Joe...

This whole build thread is amazing...nice job!

Are those chrome reverse wheels or just painted silver...I can't tell from the photo. It looks great

-wilma

['69Novajoe]

Originally Posted by Arrowsmith

I’ll bet it will “peel out” real good! Have fun with it Joe…W

We will know soon enough Wayne!!

Originally Posted by WILMASBOYL78

Joe...

This whole build thread is amazing...nice job!

Are those chrome reverse wheels or just painted silver...I can't tell from the photo. It looks great

-wilma

Thanks for the kind words Tommy!! The wheels are just painted close to body color, like they were from the factory. I had the rear ones made which are 15x7, but the fronts are "stock" 14x6.


But wait.......there's more......

['69Novajoe]

So, in order to put hundreds of miles on the clutch, I had two “trips” planned. One of which was to go see friends in another town about 50 miles away. The other was to head up to a friend's shop to run the car on their chassis dyno, another 50+ mile trip. You see, after driving around locally for a few days, I decided to check the plugs to see what they might look like. I was kind of surprised to see them looking pretty dark, which in my mind meant she was running rich. I thought by running it on their dyno, we could check the air/fuel ratio (AFR). I was hoping they could use the bungs I had welded into the collectors to get an accurate reading, but they said they could just stick a “probe” up the tailpipe to check it. I’m still not convinced that it was that accurate, but at least we got some numbers.

['69Novajoe]

They did a couple of pulls and noticed that it was pretty close as far as the AFR was concerned. They even bumped the timing up a couple of degrees and picked up a few more horses!! (Terry, in the video, said it picked up 20, but it was actually 13, plus they ran it to a higher RPM) As a side note, when we had the motor at the dyno shop previously, there was no attempt to adjust the timing, which might have put the motor over 500 HP??!! Another thing that’s puzzling to me is the discrepancy of both the engine dyno and the chassis dyno. I know that you can’t really compare the two, but to have 549 on the engine dyno and what we ended up with here, 402 at the wheels, seemed like a big difference. They did mention that it was a pretty “bad air” day, so that might have been the problem?? But, as you’ll see, I’ve got another “problem” to contend with now.....

[napa68]

Really nice Joe!

There is so much that can effect the "result" from an engine dyno then going to a chassis dyno. The correction factor on each is a big one as is the air the way you mentioned it. I'm a little surprised they did not adjust timing in the engine dyno session to begin with. On the bright side, it seems as though your fuel system is up to the task. That would certainly show up on the chassis dyno. You are also driving the fan and accessories in addition to the drivetrain.

My history with different combinations (engine dyno) were to start with 32 degrees (safe) just to make a pull and see where EGT's / AFR's are. Then start adjusting the carb and timing as needed. We'd always go in 2 degree increments to see how the engine responded. 36-38 seems to be the sweet spot. My only exception was the L88 in the HM Camaro where it liked 40. That L88 though had a camshaft and cylinder heads from the stone age

[dykstra]

Originally Posted by napa68

Really nice Joe!

There is so much that can effect the "result" from an engine dyno then going to a chassis dyno. The correction factor on each is a big one as is the air the way you mentioned it. I'm a little surprised they did not adjust timing in the engine dyno session to begin with. On the bright side, it seems as though your fuel system is up to the task. That would certainly show up on the chassis dyno. You are also driving the fan and accessories in addition to the drivetrain.

My history with different combinations (engine dyno) were to start with 32 degrees (safe) just to make a pull and see where EGT's / AFR's are. Then start adjusting the carb and timing as needed. We'd always go in 2 degree increments to see how the engine responded. 36-38 seems to be the sweet spot. My only exception was the L88 in the HM Camaro where it liked 40. That L88 though had a camshaft and cylinder heads from the stone age

That's one of the many things that make that car so flipping cool!!

['69Novajoe]

Originally Posted by napa68

Really nice Joe!

There is so much that can effect the "result" from an engine dyno then going to a chassis dyno. The correction factor on each is a big one as is the air the way you mentioned it. I'm a little surprised they did not adjust timing in the engine dyno session to begin with. On the bright side, it seems as though your fuel system is up to the task. That would certainly show up on the chassis dyno. You are also driving the fan and accessories in addition to the drivetrain.

My history with different combinations (engine dyno) were to start with 32 degrees (safe) just to make a pull and see where EGT's / AFR's are. Then start adjusting the carb and timing as needed. We'd always go in 2 degree increments to see how the engine responded. 36-38 seems to be the sweet spot. My only exception was the L88 in the HM Camaro where it liked 40. That L88 though had a camshaft and cylinder heads from the stone age

I, too, for one, was surprised more "tuning" wasn't done on the engine dyno?? They were going off of what the carburetor builder suggested, which was 34 total degrees. At the chassis dyno they bumped it up to 36 and David (the son) wanted to try even more but Terry said just to leave it there. That's when we saw 13 more horses!! (but that also included revving it higher in the RPM range)

['69Novajoe]

Now, after driving it for over the recommended number of miles (for the clutch break-in), I started noticing an oil leak. I actually fixed one early on which just happened to be coming from the valve covers. This one, however, is coming from the back of the block. I snugged all the pan bolts, checked the valve covers again, checked the distributor and oil pressure sensor, but it didn’t stop the leaking!! I even saw a drip of oil on the oil pan flange at the back of the motor. At this point I’m trying to give my engine builder the benefit of doubt. He’s forgotten more about the SBC than I’ll ever know!! I sent him a text message but never heard back. I’ll be paying him a visit whenever I get a chance, to get his input.

In what little research I did, I was wondering if I could have a PCV valve that’s not keeping “pace” with the crankcase “pressure”, and allowing it to push oil past the pan gasket?? What’s in there now is just a stock type PCV for a stock engine.



I then found out about the M/E Wagner Dual Flow adjustable PCV valve, which has helped others with this problem. I’ve since ordered and received one, and am in the process of getting it dialed in. They also mentioned that it could even be adjusted so much that it might even pull oil out of the valve covers (depending on the baffling in the covers) and introducing it into the intake manifold under the carburetor. However, my valve covers do have adequate baffling and I'll be keeping my eyes on the plugs for fouling.





For that problem though, they suggested installing an oil catch can between the PCV valve and the vacuum fitting under the carb. I found one on Amazon (of course!!) and am now in the process of making a bracket to bolt it in and make it look “factory!!” It might be “overkill”, but I don’t want any more issues! I might even invest in 02 sensors to be able to monitor the AFR in real time.