Fitzy's GP is back!

[Fitzy]

Oil pressure sender sits in amongst header pipes, so precious little room. I tried sockets, wrenches, a shifter, visegrips & long handle pliers. I JUSTA need the right socket, which when asked, Wrongway responded with.

Note to all: you'll probably need a deep socket to clear the actual electrical spade on the end. I'm at work for a week but shall regale y'all with appropriate pics & commentary upon my return.  Make the most of it, coz I'm taking a break from the car for a bit...until IT breaks, that is. Time to loosen that engine.

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

You'll get no harsh remarks from me mate. I'll leave the sarcasm to Justa, the sucking up sounds to Wrongway, and the laughing, pointing, and snickering in the corner to Kiwi. That's what real friends do!!!! Cheers! 

Ah that’s what mates are for isn’t it ??  

keeps ya ground mate 🍻🍻🍻

Fitzy if this doesn’t undo that gage ....

[64 kiwi boni]

This sucker WILL 

[Fitzy]

Ha! Although I have one, no room for that baby!

[Fitzy]

Hey y'all - I'm back from another 7 days of insane toil. Crazy start times, long days, hot as hell but it's over now. Picked up the CORRECT deep socket for that oil sender amongst some other bits & pieces. Got a bit on this week despite my pleas to be left alone so I can put some miles on that motor but to no avail. Never mind - I'll squeeze everything in. I shall post pics this time (been a while) and we can all laugh as I apply too much torque to that sender and it snaps right off in the housing! Makes you glad to be alive. 

Joined the Classic Not Plastic Car Club today as well so I might even be brave enough to attend one of their outings. My poor old girl, although basically totally mechanically rebuilt just looks shabby amongst all the nice paint jobs. I can't wait for my vintage US license plate frame to turn up - I really think it's going to have some impact on the rear plate and hence the back of the car as a whole. Beer o'clock now.

[Fitzy]

Just a few things to post here (yes Kiwi, I've included some pics for those of us with short attention spans.)

First up, friggin' oil pressure adapter is an entirely different thread size to the actual sender, so off to the Big Smoke tomorrow to try and cobble together an adapter arrangement for the adapter (there's a joke there somewhere.) See pic, Kiwi.

Last time I was home I could no longer ignore the smell of petrol in the car as I was driving. I remembered that the factory vent tube simply runs from the tank filler neck vent pipe to a funny little bent tube that sits behind the rear fascia between the tail lights. Every time I opened the trunk, I could smell fuel and of course the fumes got sucked into the car as I drove. I rerouted the hose from the vent pipe to behind the back wheel, angled it so as to not take in any water or debris and covered the end of the hose with some flyscreen mesh. No more smell and the fumes get sucked out of the way by the car's forward motion. See pics, Kiwi.

Last thing. I open the hood today and the first thing I see is a series of tiny muddy paw prints across my shiny air cleaner. The rodent is back and sure enough, that little prick had once again chewed through my bitchin' 7mm solid core HT leads. I have set a rat trap on the air cleaner and baited it with a piece of rubber (they like wires because they resemble roots) and another NZ 'Nooski' trap (down near the RHS head) and covered the HT leads with dryer softener sheets which have such a strong odour, I myself already feel repelled. That sucker had better get it's neck broken tonight. Kiwi...you know the drill. See pics!

Oh - if anyone's interested, the Flowkooler water pump is great. New engine is as tight as a drum but temp stays right on the money. Highly recommended. 

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

(yes Kiwi, I've included some pics for those of us with short attention spans.

thank god for that!!!

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

See pics, Kiwi.

i see a theme going on here.......

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

Last thing. I open the hood today and the first thing I see is a series of tiny muddy paw prints across my shiny air cleaner. The rodent is back and sure enough, that little prick had once again chewed through my bitchin' 7mm solid core HT leads. I have set a rat trap on the air cleaner and baited it with a piece of rubber (they like wires because they resemble roots) and another NZ 'Nooski' trap (down near the RHS head) and covered the HT leads with dryer softener sheets which have such a strong odour, I myself already feel repelled. That sucker had better get it's neck broken tonight. Kiwi...you know the drill. See pics!

peanut butter mate!!! they love it.... the f-cker needs to die!!!

[64 kiwi boni]

if the trap on top of the air cleaner doesnt work tonight, get a box, cut a 30mm hole in it put your wire trap inside with peanut butter on it and stick it in the fender well . close the hood and see if that works,,,,, rats dont like anything out in the open. 

ps. rat love silicon !!!! hence him chewing your leads

mate! your engine looks sooooo clean!!!!

 

[Fitzy]

I remembered your trap set up and I shall do the same. Thanks for engine compliment. I'm totally pleased with the result. I think I nailed it with the silver painted inlet contrasting with that lovely blue Pontiac paint. The air cleaner is the icing on the cake. Engine still has only about 100 miles on it but is enormously responsive. It will jump from 60 to 70 in a coupla seconds on light throttle and sounds really good. Still have that annoying misfire under heavier acceleration. I'm convinced it's fuel related.

[JUSTA6]

Engine Looks so good.  Sorry bout your critter problem.  Bust his A$$

[Fitzy]

Thanks JustA. I was always adamant about being able to open the hood and gaze into a clean uncluttered engine bay. I will be tidying up all the extra wires and tubes that were recently installed to take care of registration and gauge requirements. 

Speaking of gauges, the saga continues. I bought an adapter to enable the fitting of my oil pressure gauge/idiot light adapter and she works a treat. A little teflon tape on all the threads, don't overtighten and the gauge reads 60psi straight off the mark.

So today, the temp sender adapter turns up, but the threaded hole was never going to be big enough, so now I gotta find an engineering shop that will drill & tap the hole to accept the adapter that will enable the temp probe to sit nicely in the coolant flow. And THAT my friends, will be THE LAST THING I do to that car, until something breaks, leaks, catches fire or falls off. Happy bloody days!

[64 kiwi boni]

well done mate!!! did you catch the Rat ?

[Fitzy]

No rodents in sight. I think the dryer softener sheets are repelling any critters. I have set both traps adjacent to the inside of each front wheel so we'll see what happens tonight.

Update on the temp sensor adapter threaded hole resizing: I went to every engineering works in the town closest to us and nobody had a 1/8" x 14 TPI NPTT tap. Honestly, if you can't sleep, research thread sizes. The selection of different threads is almost endless. I got talking to the last chap and he said he was going to Cairns and that he'd pick one up. So we went halves in the cost, so he'll keep the tap and drill & tap my adapter for free. Sounds good to me. Wrongway sent me a pic and it showed his inlet manifold with 2 factory predrilled & tapped holes for sensors. I had a look at my own and there is a blank machined pad opposite to where the factory temp sensor sits. I could have had that drilled & tapped but this alternate solution will do.

I shall post a pic of the finished installation tomorrow.

Still waiting for parts to arrive on the GT Mow, gotta do some chainsawing, brushcutting & mowing tomorrow too. Oh, and my work wants me back early, so I fly out Monday. No driving around this weekend.

[64 kiwi boni]

Stink! Work coming first again !!!

[Fitzy]

Okay - a good day today. Picked up my drilled & tapped coolant sensor adapter, whacked it in and it works a treat. Now...as I'm chatting to the 70 year old bloke who did the work, I notice his workshop is full of old motorbikes. It turns out they are his! He informs me that he has all the equipment to do engine machining. I told him about my engine and we got onto the subject of PCV valves. He said he rebuilt an old 327 for someone and they complained that it was playing up. Upon tearing down the engine again, there was nothing wrong with it but someone noticed that the PCV valve was smaller than the original and the engine was not happy. Once replaced with the correct PCV, no more issues. He then fixed me with a steely glare and like an old wizard told me that the PCV valve and the entire crankcase ventilation system was vital for an engine to work properly. I walked out of there wondering how could he possibly have known that I fiddled with mine and although I have a functioning PCV valve, I blocked off the factory air intake because I wanted a clean looking engine bay. Upon returning home, I researched engine crankcase ventilation and became educated. I have just ordered an oil filler breather cap and a push in breather for the driver's side, so pretty soon will have plenty of fresh air getting into the engine as well as the PCV valve taking care of crankcase gases. Lesson learnt.

In the interim, I cobbled together a 'bush intake device' which consists of a piece of 3/8 fuel hose pressed into my freshly drilled blanking grommet with a piece of flymesh over the opening to exclude debris. Then I went for a drive to test the coolant sensor setup for leaks and to monitor all the gauges. Coolant is bang on at 180°. 13V at the voltmeter and oil pressure is between 20 psi at idle and about 40 or 50 on the highway when the engine is warmed up. Perfect.

The latest no hurry task is to straighten up the bodywork - an adventure that could take some time.

[Fitzy]

Whoops - one last thing: Frosty was good enough to sell me his Pontiac tach, so I need to be good enough to get it working. Today, I emailed Lionel Otto Instruments here in Queensland who's business is fixing all manner of automotive gauges. Once I get a response, I'll post it to him and hopefully he can solve the mystery of why it seems to be absorbing the current that feeds the distributor, instead of working in sync with it. I told him that I now have a Pertronix ignition module installed - I've read stories of certain tachs not wanting to work with an aftermarket electronic ignition. Right - I'll shut up now.

[Fitzy]

I'm home for 7 days R and R. No 4am starts for 7 days - yay!

Today I fitted the oil breathers for both rocker covers and then used that as an excuse to go for a drive. The misfire under hard acceleration seems to have gone. I can accelerate from 65mph to 85 in a few seconds without any histrionics. Engine runs sweet.

I took a coupls pics to show off the rear acre of our property. Behind the GP is an acre of virgin rainforest and our back boundary ends at a creek within that rainforest.

[Frosty]

The important thing is you are out and about and enjoying the Crimson Terror.

[JUSTA6]

Awesome pic's, excellent background.  Don't drop any nuts or bolts in all that grass!  Much to be proud of with all that work. 

[64 kiwi boni]

wow!! what a back lawn!!!!

Edited April 20, 2022 by 64 kiwi boni

[Fitzy]

Thanks boys. Now you can see why I like to bang on about mowers sometimes - without a mower, we are in the jungle. I must say, car looks good as it's going past you or from a distance but there are now patches of as yet unresolved body filler and primer and crappy old paint so I need to make a decision and get serious about getting rid of the plethora of little dings all around the car and prep it for painting. A definite work in progress. You mightn't hear much about my car for some time, but that's probably a good thing! I'm gonna pull the tacho and take it to an auto sparky to see if there's a fault within it. The instruments mob in Brisbane guessed about $300 to fix it. I'll try the local guys first.

[64 kiwi boni]

Yeah we are over you banging on about that bloody car ! 

Bring back the ride on posts !!! 

Did you get that rat ??? 

[Fitzy]

Rattus is still at large - it tried to chew through my thongs (flip flops) the other night. I'm still waiting for the mower parts that I ordered 2 months ago, and yes, I'm also sick of hearing about my car!

[64 kiwi boni]

Bloody rats ! They are so distructive ! 

[Fitzy]

I couldn't even go one day without talking about the bloody car, BUT it was an interesting day. Removing a console mounted tach is harder than it needs to be - had to shift the entire console in order to get access to the 2 bolts that secure it,  and that's after removing the trim pieces that tie the console to the dash. Anyway, I got it out and took it to an auto sparky. I asked him if he could test it and he said no and suggested a place in Cairns. I asked him about the wiring setup and how there were only 2 wires and one for the light. I told him about how I wired the red to 12V and the black to the coil negative but it robbed power from the coil causing the engine to not start. He said "no- the red wire goes to the coil and the black goes to ground. If you put 12V through it you'll fry it."  I stood there trying to look intelligent but was clearly losing the battle. I thanked him for the info and slunk out under the door. As I was driving home I thought I'd at least try it the way he said it. I got home and pulled it apart, just in case anything inside was burnt out or obviously wrong and that was when I noticed that someone had got the wires wrong. They had earthed the black to the tach body and not to the contact that drives the needle. So I wire it how I think it should be and connect it up temporarily and sit it on the radiator shroud and point it towards the windscreen so I can see it. It works! The needle bounced around a bit and it wasn't exactly accurate but at least it moved. I make the connections more secure and it improves it but it's still not responding as well as it should. I do some reading and it seems that electronic ignitions and 1960s tach technology won't talk to each other real well, so I'm gonna email Pertronix and see what they say. There's talk of the unresisted coil (to feed the Pertronix) providing a solid 12V to the Ignitor and the old skool tachs were designed for the resisted voltage that points require. If you're still awake - watch this space. 

Okay, this is much longer than I planned but we're almost there. My vintage licence plate frame arrived today. It required me to 'modify' (read 'butcher') my nice new licence plate in order for it to fit the frame but I really like it. I think it finishes off the back of the car. It looks like I drove it onto a ship in California and then drove it off here in Oz. I had to modify the plate because even though they are a 'US size,' they're not quite right and the pre drilled holes are all wrong. Honestly, what did they use as a template?