11 hours ago, Fitzy said:

If the rats at my place even LOOK at my expensive new MSD spark plug wires, they will die.

I should introduce you to my rat bait !!!

the boss found one dead the other day after having a feed on the yummy green blocks !!!! 

Yep, got them except ours are blue. Whenever I make her a drink I crush one up and add it. I tell her it's blue curacao. Only kills rodents, damn it.

Finally got around to installing the new fan in the Sunbird ( from the calendar winnings)  Cleaned the rad again with Muriatic acid and got quite a bit out of it again.  Must not have completely drained last fall as i only had water in it.  Antifreeze also protects from rust.  Don't have yellow (neutral) antifreeze as I plan to use a coolant enhancer if this doesn't drop my temp dramatically.  I know I bought it with the fan??    It was running hot last year with the new motor.  Never had it as hot as it hit on the way home from the Dustoff.  Trip to Orielly's when they open tomorrow. 

Edited July 23, 20241 yr by JUSTA6

Finally, a good result👏

The Pertronix module is brilliant...starts easily hot or cold, ideas well, and the acceleration is fantastic - better than it's ever been😃

Gapped the plugs to .040" (were at .030"), set initial timing at 14 º btdc, and total is 34 º.

I can't believe how responsive it is ( I guess where it should really be, given the work that has been done to it!), and the new open air cleaner element delivers an awesome induction roar😈

Thanks for all of your advice and support with this one - it's literally been months getting it sorted🙄

Finally, I can drive it again😍

 

Nice work Paul 👍

go enjoy 

Bonne61.....that's all win bud! Way to go! 

Finally popped in a new battery tray and battery hold downs in my 66 Grand Prix last Sunday. I now have a properly secured battery.

The original was a mere skeleton of a tray, eaten away by battery acid over the decades. My grandad had reinforced it with a piece of 3/4" plywood many many years ago. Secured the battery with a bugee cord. Unfortunately the battery acid did a number on the core support also.

I searched Ames and OPGI for years for a replacement tray, but there was always a gap for the 66 year. I was sure that a Bonneville  tray would work, which could be found on Ames. I was at a cruise night and asked a 66 Bonnie owner if I could take a close look. He agreed and was even ready to pull the battery for me to get a better look. Everything I saw said it should work.

Went home that evening after the cruise and looked up the Bonneville tray on the Ames site. Low and behold they had a new product, battery tray for 66 Grand Prix!

A bit pricey, but what isn't. OPGI also had it listed.  I live in the Northeast so I purchased it through Ames.

The Ames was unpainted, the OPGI was powder coated. I used 3M Undercoating to paint it. Time will tell how long it will last.

I tweaked up the adjustable regulator to increase the charge voltage. I had set it per the factory instructions a few years ago but it was right at the very bottom of the acceptable range. The battery/starter was struggling with hot starts, so time will tell if this helps.

Got my sticker today as soon as our state inspection computers were back up after the Crowdstrike outage.

Good to go for another year...

Ken

 

Always nice to knock another item off the never ending to do list.  Thankz for posting.  We really like pic's round here, post up your projects, cruise nites and carshows. 

Got the Bird back together last nite and turned into a race to get the lawn done before the storms blew through.  Fired it today and let it run in the driveway for about 25 min before it started raining.  Backed it back in the garage and the temp was at 160. (low as the gauge goes) Roads are a mess and all mudd. Gotta tell ya that new flex a lite fan moves so much air, I added a roadkill ratchet strap to my street scoop to be sure it don't blow off.  Looks like plastic, could be carbon fiber,  good to 8000 RPM. 

On 7/24/2024 at 7:05 PM, JUSTA6 said:

Got the Bird back together last nite and turned into a race to get the lawn done before the storms blew through.  Fired it today and let it run in the driveway for about 25 min before it started raining.  Backed it back in the garage and the temp was at 160. (low as the gauge goes) Roads are a mess and all mudd. Gotta tell ya that new flex a lite fan moves so much air, I added a roadkill ratchet strap to my street scoop to be sure it don't blow off.  Looks like plastic, could be carbon fiber,  good to 8000 RPM. 

Way to go buddy!

Well get to join this club today too! The two years the Indian has been making this noise on hard right turns. Several years ago I found a 20 mm rear sway bar. Its configuration is actually for an Impala, so it doesn’t have all the bends the Grand Prix bar has. This presented finite placement to avoid contact in certain areas. This made me believe the was due to that, but last year I was sure the clearance was good but the noise got worse. This year when I bought the new solid 25mm bar I thought it might fix the problem.

Now anyone who has followed the Indian build should understand this a stout car with a suspension that will compete with some of the good sports cars. It’s not a harsh suspension, but it takes some serious speed on a hard 90 degree corner to make it lean. And this new 25mm bar just made it better, but now the noise has gone to a new level. Now this noise has always sounded pretty much like car exhaust rumble, but I had inspected over & over again & could never find anything!
Well today I found the problem! Would you believe a rubber bumper on the gas tank door!! There are two of them one top one bottom. Because the bottom one is missing, the door being on the left hand side of the car. On hard right corners the lateral G force is so great it causes the door to vibrate drastically at the bottom missing bumper! Unreal!

Have no idea how ya figured out that one.  But it is always good to practice safe sex and always check your rubbers. 

58 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

Have no idea how ya figured out that one.  But it is always good to practice safe sex and always check your rubbers. 

Even a squirrel finds a nut once in a while! I been looking for this noise for two years! JustA stupid dumb luck! I knew the basic area it sounded like it was coming from. There was nothing else left except to tear my back door panel off & see if it was coming from inside the door. So I open up the gas door, as I’ve done before. Stand there looking at it look a moron. But this time I let the door go on it’s own instead of closing it softly by holding it. When I did that I saw it vibrate a little. So I opened it back up & started looking, that’s when I saw the missing bumper. Fortunately I had a spare so I put it in. Took it out, no noise! Thank the lord!

Some way, some how, it’s these small victories that seem the most satisfying! 

Another happy update...

Now it's idling so smoothly, I spent some time setting up the Edlebrock as per their instructions👍

Mucked around with the idle mixture screws, readjusted idle, back and forward a couple of times, final idle speed in Park set at @730rpm. Seems a good balance between fast enough not to want to stall when reverse parking and swinging on the steering wheel, and not idling at 35mph in gear😆

Result is an even smoother idle, great responsiveness.

After a couple of longer drives it seems I was getting a bit of pinging under load, so I've retarded the timing 2 º (so 12 º initial, 30 º total. Slightly out of the ideal range of 32-36 º, but all engines are different and it seems happy there🤷‍♂️

Have attached a couple of videos for amusement value ( if I sound like I'm an excited kid, that's because I am🤣). Hopefully you can hear how clean and strong it is🤞

Had our Christmas in July lunch with one of our Car Clubs today, so have included a coupe of pics and videos from that as well.

Enjoy😎

It does sound good!!   What mufflers are you running?

Rick

 

20 minutes ago, B52bombardier1 said:

It does sound good!!   What mufflers are you running?

Rick

 

Dual 2 1'2", standard headers, Redback stainless mufflers (Australian brand)🤙

Well done Paul !!! That edelbrock sounds like my one on my 64 !!! Very very cool 

23 minutes ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

Well done Paul !!! That edelbrock sounds like my one on my 64 !!! Very very cool 

And it sounds so much better now I've put the open air cleaner on it - what a growl😃

Happy Days🙏

 

Even in the heat of the day,  temp guage barely moved off 160.  That flex a lite fan is freakin unreal.  Real test won't be until Dream Cruise with temps in the 90's and 4 lanes of dead stop traffic, but so far I'm impressed beyond words. 

On 7/8/2024 at 9:22 AM, Fitzy said:

Thanks for replying, Paul. I can't find one that cheap but found one that's just a little more. I measured up my old one and all the specs are very close - it'll do.

To be brief: I never got a decent spark out of any distributor set up and it all seems to have come from never getting correct alternator output, so (a) self regulating alternator should fix that once and for all. (b) Pertronix coil must have been faulty because measured resistance increased as it got hot - also coil will get too hot if it's not getting enough juice from alternator because it's having to work hard to produce it's required output. (c) It seems that peeps who know stuff just go straight to MSD. I have given up and threw $1000 at a MSD plug & play distributor and matching coil. That combination should sort the electrics. The carb's fuel problem will be a minor fix. If it isn't, I'll do what Kiwi did and throw ANOTHER thousand on an Edelbrock.

Oh, how I wished I just bolted in an LS crate motor and modern trans combo. Never mind - as you said, onwards & upwards...except for my bank account which is in a Titanic like death dive.

Hey @Fitzy, have you fitted up the MSD yet? I'd love to know how that goes for you?

Hi Paul, I've been at work more often than at home for weeks now. I'm flying home tonight and will hopefully pick up GP tomorrow.

You can all expect a full rundown and performance report soon. 

You have also inspired me to mount my phone somewhere and record a short highway blast.

The Crimson Terror will soon be back on the road! Yes!
 

Can’t wait to see the video footage Fitzy!

well i took the motor mount shims out, so much fun with the motor in the car...now the air filter lid doesn't contact the hood. seems the new motor mounts are enough to get the oil pan farther away from the draglink. side by side comparison of old vs new mounts didnt look any different at all. Oh well live cuss and learn i guess. installed the rebuilt hood hinges a week or so ago and what a difference that made. hood sits flat in the back and was alot easier to adjust. still havent heard from roadkill and today is the day im supposed to find out. man i really hope to represent FP with huge smoky burnouts!

Fingers crossed for you Joe!