Last Indian

Frosty, when you redo the brake lines I presume you will change the fluid? So food for thought, the best non silicone fluid I ever use was valvolines SynPower 5.1, but it's not available any longer, but this past winter I redid the Indians brakes because I replaced all the lines in the car. Which didn't make me happy because the SynPower was in the car. So the search was on. What I found was pretty close to SynPower. It's Bosch ESI6 and Autozone carries it. You might take a look at it.

17 minutes ago, Frosty said:

As much as I agree whole heartedly with both Ringo and Last Indian on their principles and such, from a pure advertising perspective, this almost a sure thing. Lebron represents a leader, an athlete, a man who can literally afford what his heart desires and people know that. So making him a front man "must say something about this product or technology".

Now that I've taken my marketing hat off, the technology (as Last Indian points out) could be total B.S., but someone might buy it anyway (hey some people bought Yugos didn't they?).

From a marketing perspective I agree wholeheartedly. I'm not the norm  though! So I know why they do it, it's just wasted on me. There are hidden agendas in most businesses and they will prevail since most of the sheep eat the grass not knowing its laced with dioxins! You might have to think about that for a minute!

I take it one step further, I don't care who drives it, who sells it or what they tell me about it! I judge a car on engineering, common sense in design and what it truly is worth; at least to me! We could get into a whole quagmire here of principles, but a simple example is the front suspension that overtook Macpherson strut rear wheel drives from Mercedes to G8's to Camaros. What an abortion! All because somebody  wanted to make it cheaper. Well that did' work, five joints that fight each other to replace what worked in harmony and could align a car pretty simple in 4 directions. Justa abysmal design. One of the reasons I never bought a new Camaro, sorry Ringo!

Maybe because in 2008 he got a speeding ticket for doing 101 in a 65 on I71 in his Mercedes, so a self diving car stops that?!! 

360, sounds good, fingers crossed for cold start. Never used the tape, but I can see it would be a problem! 

This probably isn’t something you would want to do, but I mention it anyway. I always took my harmonic balancer off or bought a new one and then did the following. I would take the balancer chuck it up in a degree chuck, take a tool bit with a sharp point and then cut about .015 wide X .015 deep degree marks in the balancer. I would go up to 50 degrees. So you might find a local machine shop and see if they could do that.

Justa thought!?

I imagine there are some great postal carriers, Justa not mine! First they change daily, yet they're all the same. Come anywhere from 10 am to 7pm. Put mail in the mail boxes, does a loop around the cul-da-sac, takes mail out of one box puts it in an other. Or comes back from a street away to bring back mail. Ya I feel very secure that no one else is getting my mail and won't steal my identity!! 

Couldn't agree more!! Their services at every level is beyond abysmal!

Ringo deserves a large portion of the credit for this post as I asked him to review it first! I wasn't sure it was what the principals of How To's were trying to convey. I feel Ringo's guidance throughout this site is crucial to convey the right behavior we all have here!

Put this document together about 15 years for a class I was teaching at the time to introduce individuals to the cars at my company. Covers basic knowledge, safety and various other aspects.

Any questions or comments would love to hear!

HTML: https://foreverpontiac.com/automobile-101/
Word doc: Auto Maintenance Safety & Driving Tips rev1.docx

360, it would appear you’re headed in the right direction. it’s been awhile, so this is food for thought. Not knowing what you’ve tried and not tried I will say this. I’ll do this backwards, as usually it’s total advance minus initial, but in this case the total seams too much. So total advance should be between 36 and 40 degrees btdc. Meaning if you start with 15 or 12 degrees initial, which is reasonable, mechanical & vac should add know more than 25 to 23 degrees, as you implied. Carb tuning is a little more precarious because it will change timing some and vice versa because of idle speed. I would usually set the idle down until, hearing wise, the engine was struggling a bit. Then about half to three quarters turn up on the throttle screw. Then each idle screw went the same way, down till a blurb in the idle then up a half turn. I never found vac gages to be very helpful. 
Also with the HEI, have you checked the spark plugs, gap erosion, etc? What about the coil, they can make a big difference, as can spark plug wires. 

A little story! I always ran a duel point distributer with full mechanical advance in my Z. One nice Sunday afternoon I tuned up the Z, drove it Monday to work. That morning on the freeway I encountered an idiot in a CRX Honda that thought he was going to give 600 hp a run in a somewhat light morning traffic, as well as jeopardizing others in the process. So to end it before it started I downshifted and punched it. This car being what it was, squawk tires at 50 & was gone! For about 300ft! This is where it gets embarrassing! Suddenly the car backfired violently about 5 or six times. So much so the the car shook and when I looked in my rear view mirror cars behind me were get out of the way of the big ball of smoke! In that 300 ft the car had gone from 50 to 85 or so. So at that point the car was dead and coasting up about a 75’ rise overpass, it coasted about a mile and stoped. Like any other idiot I got out opened the hood and looked at a motor that looked perfectly fine! It obviously would not start so I looked some more. Finally I saw it the spark plug wire were all as taunt as a guitar string. The distributor had spun, must have forgotten to tighten it! So I grabbed it rotated it back, hit the key and it started first crank, but didn’t run good at all. I nursed it about an other mile to work and parked it by our fleet garage. Later I came out with a timing light to check timing among other things. Popped the distributor cap, say what, the side of the rotor was blown out, it was just flopping around. Put a new rotor on, timed it, seemed ok! Till I drove home, anything over 35 mph and the motor ran like crap! For the next three weeks I went through the motor, compression, points, condenser, etc nothing, but at about 50 under load there was a miss, a shutter. On week four I found it at night! I opened the hood in my drive, being dark out the engine was a light show, rev it up it was a bigger light show. Every single spark plug wire was fractured internally and when loaded everything would bleed to ground. The worst part of this was two years later the real damage reared its head. Two years later the motor started huffing oil out the breathers and exhaust big time! A compression test showed 5 & 7 at only 85 lbs. pulled the motor both 1st & 2nd compression rings on 5 & 7 were broken in no less than at least 5 places on every ring.
So check it all!

360 that is so cool!! thanks for sharing, great to see it in action again!!

I so glad you're pleased, I hope they work and serve you well as they did me. I cherish the memories that I made with them. All the years of racing, all the years of tuning some incredible machines. These are forever a part of me and I hope you make some great ones for you with them!

Talk about your hoodie drivers! Holy crap! 

I was pretty sure it was a 32, but I see now it's not a coup. Looking quickly the first time I missed the rear door because the handle is missing. The radiator emblem was the confusing part. If you look close it is a Pontiac emblem that's been modified. To look the way it does. Back on what would be the neck, look close and you can see the Pontiac head embossed in it. Pretty neat! Also the front fenders have a raised body line at the front edge that runs backwards in the center of the fender that I think was unique to Pontiac? 

Thanks for sharing!

Looks like a 32 chieftain v8 coup, but the radiator shroud emblem I don' t know. Though it has the appearance a Pontiac indian except for the round circle with the g in it. Was it a prototype? Doubtful?😰

You are the man Justa, thanks! Sorry for the delay 360, but as a bonus, well maybe it's not, I'm also sending an old TRW tach/dwell meter. Should get to Fedx tomorrow!

Hoka Hey!

Ringo thanks for your help as well! Hope things are getting back to normal!

360, sorry, stupid me I forgot to write down your shipping info and I understand why it's gone. So if you can one more time please? I'll keep watch and let you know when I have it! My mistake!

360, I will get this sent out this coming week! You are most welcome!

You guys are to kind, but thanks! Justa being a good brave, that's what the chief (Pontiac) would want! 

Glad to help, really what good is a timing light setting on a shelf doing nothing?

360 I just need to know where you want it sent, shippings no big deal. Besides after seeing what bitch Irma did to you, that's enough to take care of.

it might be old, but it is a good one.

Actually I meant isopropyl, but you are correct the will wash the assembly lube away , but so will anything you pump through, even oil! You'll have to make a decision. If there is enough water, and it won't take much,  it will wipe the bearings, oil or not. If you decide to use the alcohol and the oil, when you're done, sorry I know it's a lot of work,  loosen the rocker arms, take out the push rods and lifters re-coat the cam through the lifter holes, then the bottom of the lifters. Then before you put the intake  on pour STP over the lifters. This will protect things during break in. 

Your other choice is heat the to 300f and circulated the oil at 300 till the block reachs 300. This should boil off the water. You'll still have the same issue withe the cam pre-assembly lube though.

360 if you need a timing light I have a spare and I don't use either anymore since, as I've explained to Justa, the wife's allergies are why to bad to go back to the older ones, she needs cabin air filters. 

So if you want I could send you one, there good units. Battery clips and mag pickup.

That's a good idea Two lane, but first you should run alcohol through the system! Motor oil won't mix with the water and the water will actually, for the most part, stay in place because of surface tension. 

After the alcohol is circulated through the block a few time drain it, let it dry a while, then run the oil through it to clean it up. Replace the filter each time like Two lane suggested.

6 minutes ago, 31pontiac said:

No , not in PA.  They are all in Maryland!

Ok! Maryland! 🤓

400!? 😳 No wonder I can't find one in Ohio! They're all in Pa.!😭