Fitzy

No apology needed: driving a Corolla is like driving a fridge - just an appliance but if you want an appliance where you simply jump in, twist the key and wake up at your destination, a Corolla is the appliance. I'm sure the Bronc will serve her well - basic old truck that will simply lope along the highway.

Looks I had to learn how to do upload a video through YT. Thanks to Ringo for stepping in and deleting my prior attempt. Today I checked the oil, filled up with coolant and dribbled some juice into the carb float bowls. De-isolated it, flicked the kill switch, said a quick prayer, double checked everything and gave her a kick in the guts. Fired right up, no strange noises, no leaks and sounds as good as it ever did, hence the very short video. Drove it gingerly around the block and took her home and forensically inspected it for any sign of leaking. Will take her for a bit longer drive tomorrow. Now pass me that well earned beer!

I can't delete that video - it's not working. Ringo, if you're out there, can you delete it for me? I'm too stupid to upload a short video.

These illustrations are from the factory Body manual. Unfortunately, I read through the text and there is no mention of how they are installed and the pics are pretty basic but I THINK the metal piece goes to the front - it looks like it might be an attachment point.

I am immensely enjoying this saga of German cars. I agree wholeheartedly with Dwight - overcomplicated for no good reason. In Australia, only the brave venture into Euro territory when purchasing a car - we subsist predominantly on a diet of Jap stuff which have been proven to be durable & reliable. Toyota rules the roost here and we are all thankful for it. You know how I keep banging on about Corollas? Buy her a Corolla and just keep it serviced and it'll probably outlive her and the rest of us.

You may as well check the brake booster vacuum hose too - another potential (but unlikely) source of a leak, although having said that my old booster diaphragm was shot and needed to be replaced. Whilst shot, I still had power brake assistance but the trans wouldn't shift of it's own accord. You say you have a new distributor? Mine is a Cardone brand - unfortunately like everything else is made in China. The crummy points & condenser that came with it were no good. Your reported voltage scenario sounds very strange. The 12V to coil at ignition 'ON' is fed from the starter motor contact, and the running voltage is fed from the ignition switch. Why you don't have 12V for a start is a mystery. You need to check for a good solid connection from the starter terminal to coil first.

Thanks Andy - I could never figure out why that hole was there, but now I know! And thanks to Wrongway too. Yeah, it looks neat. Let's see if it actually runs. I shall report later. A quick note: that bloody RTV spread further than I anticipated so it ended up a bit messy. I shall fiddle with that and clean it all up at a later date. There seems to be a higher visibility of intake gasket with the new manifold, hence the sight of gasket goo everywhere.

When you are running points, this is what is supposed to happen: 12V is routed through the ignition switch when you start the engine. Once it's running and you release the key, it springs back slightly to the 'run' position which now uses a different contact on the back of the switch and sends voltage to the coil but through a factory 'resistance wire' which drops it down to 6V or so, to allow longevity of points. Constant 12V to points will make them burn out quite quickly. So, with engine not running and ignition 'ON' you should have 12V at coil + terminal. Once it's running, you should have 6 or so. I suppose it'd be prudent to check that your earth lead from coil to distributor is also in good condition. A good earth is vital. If you ever peered into your engine bay and wondered why GM fitted so many little earth straps, they are all there for a reason. If you happen to ever go to electronic ignition, then you'll need constant 12V to the coil + which means running a nice new wire from the ignition 'START' feed so as to ensure 12V. Phew!

Right - Ames order turned up so straight into it. This time I ordered Edelbrock intake gaskets - apparently you need to use a softer gasket when bolting aluminium to cast iron. Get this: I had to trim (quite extensively) those gaskets just so they would fit. I had to trim the underside edge to clear the valley pan and had to lop off one end because it was too long and was going to foul the heater hose takeoff on one side and on the other it served no purpose at all. Heed my advice: if you are also going to fit an Edelbrock manifold, stick with Mr Gasket gaskets which have always been a perfect fit for me. Fortunately, the Edelbrock ones had an exhaust crossover plug in each gasket, but not as neat as the Mr Gasket ones, I thought. So, after fiddling about, I glued them onto the heads, test fitted the intake, smeared a litte RTV on it's faces and whacked her in. You'll see from the pics that I neatened my old aftermarket temp gauge sender unit arrangement and this time plumbed it directly into the manifold - something I couldn't do with the stock intake. I also modified the PCV intake and it's now snug & neat. I also ordered a remanufactured alternator and new regulator so bolted those in too. Everything looks nice - can probably try and start it tomorrow and see if it runs!

What? Whaddya mean inappropriate?

Paul - are you using qualiy points & condenser? My mechanic changed the garbage Chinese supplied items that came with my brand new distributor because he said he 'couldn't get a good spark.' For the record, he has put Bosch ones in and also a Bosch GT40 coil. Use NGK plugs. There seem to be numerous quality issues with everything these days. As Kiwi suggested, be methodical. Start with fuel (the simplest) and check everything - all components. Then move to electrical. Are you getting 12V to the coil? You're using points like I am, so voltage should drop to 6 or so once engine is running, due to resistance wire feeding the coil, or you might have a ballast resistor. Vacuum leaks are notorious for poor running. A possible telltale of a leak is the engine not idling properly - speeds up and almost dies, then repeats. Any timing 'flutter,' where if you observe the timing marks as the engine is running, are they stable? Might be a dodgy vacuum diaphragm. As simple as old engines are, they will all drive you crazy with the most irritating symptoms that are seemingly unfathomable to diagnose. Good luck.

Take some binoculars! Is it Robbie's Wheelchair Tour?

Of course I'm biased, but I reckon stacked headlight Ponchos are the goods. Even in that pic minus all it's front end trim, it looks mean as hell.

Picked up newly machined intake manifold yesterday - the machining cost almost as much as the damn manifold...this is going to end up a very expensive exercise. But that wasn't the end of it, no, no, no. After bringing it home and test fitting it (fits nicely) I thought I'd make sure all the necessary fittings were indeed going to fit. Welcome to the murky world of BSP adapters. We all know about different threads, right? How to measure BSP: you measure the distance between (or across) the threads and then minus 25%. Honestly, who thought this one up? The new intake comes with an assortment of plugs and fittings to cover MOST scenarios, but not all...even though it has 'Performer Pontiac' clearly embossed upon it. I won't go into too much detail but in order to fit my PCV fitting and temp gauge sender, I needed adapters. No point going into the shop with a piece of paper with measurements on it - you need to take the manifold in and make sure what they sell you is going to thread in. At the end of the day - everything is threaded in and sealed with a light coating of RTV on the threads. I recleaned the intake to get the machinist's grimy fingerprints off it and am now waiting for new gaskets to arrive - prolly Tuesday if I'm lucky. Oh - I told machinist that I was cursed with a batch of faulty Mellings lifters. He said there are plenty of bad lifters out there. He said someone had recently fitted some Crow lifters and they failed and wrecked his engine - after the third day after installation. Tread carefully if you are shopping for lifters. I would have loved to have gone for solids, but that means new cam and apparently solids are hard on the valvetrain as there's no hydraulic cushioning. They mitigate this with a more gentle ramp on cam lobes. No wonder I don't sleep at night.

Retirement is for much older people than me. It's my newest saying. I think I felt an obligation to retire since I reached a particular age, but that's crap. I now know I cannot and will not retire...yet.

Fitzy's Rodeo is back! Had a rest from El Poncho today and instead decided to pull my finger out and install some sound deadening insulation onto the floor of my old ute - damn thing is HOT which you don't need in the tropics. I thought "this'll be easy - one bench seat, a coupla seat belts, pop out some plastic trims and there you are." That is essentially how easy it is. The ute is 33 years old and in prime condition. A coupla teeny weeny surface rust specks on the floor, so I cleaned those up and sealed them and then set about measuring, cutting and positioning the self adhesive fancy pants space age silver backed insulation. What I DID notice was that whoever had mucked about with it before neglected to reposition the big heavy duty rubber gearlever surround properly, which meant it had been just sitting atop the floor thereby allowing hot air, noise & fumes into the cabin. The gearlever aperture edge was a little beaten up so I straightened it out and that allowed the rubber cover to seal against the floor - I helped it along with some adhesive. I then replicated the torn up old upper seal out of modern thick high density foam and then put everything back together. I also insulated the entire floor and firewall - something the factory didn't do in 1990. Am yet to test drive it, but I reckon it's going to be considerably quieter now. Machinist called today and intake is ready for collection. Just need gaskets to arrive and I can then whack everything back on.

There's no shame in riding around with a rusty crappy chrome bumper. Just do that until a solution presents itself. I tooled around with my crappy front bumper for 2 years and nobody spat at me.

I have tuned plenty of cars and the instructions always seem to be the same: disconnect & plug vacuum advance hose, set timing at idle, reconnect hose and watch for advancing (timing marks separate) as revs increase. Job done. I am open (and interested) to listen to any variations on this, but this is the only way I know. Interestingly, the instructions with the new manifold detail how with it and headers and cam fitted (which is what I have) may require a slight increase in main jet size to prevent leaning of the mixture. That's another can of worms. I'll check the plugs after a few hundred miles and see how they look.

Yes, absolutely but I know that emission controlled cars used ported vacuum for all sorts of black magic. The US (CA first, I believe because of LA's incredible smog problem years ago) were well before us when they introduced emissions regs that strangled all their cars. In Australia, I think it was 1975 or 1976 that the infamous ADR27A (Australian Design Rule 27A) was introduced locally and all of a sudden, every engine bay was a spaghetti of hoses and weird black bolt on bits that choked the engine, reduced power, INCREASED fuel consumption but apparently made the exhaust a bit more friendly. Thank god for EFI. While I'm here, whilst waiting for the intake to be machined I enjoyed some therapeutic sanding & repainting all the little bits & pieces that are needed for engine to work again: nuts & bolts, brackets, etc. I also painted the sheetmetal that sits in front of the radiator. It's a bit like Christine - each day another bit gets exhumed and tarted up ready to eventually wreak havoc. Honestly, I'll be happy if it simply runs. Jeez - I keep babbling away and sending in pics but I apparently need another ten billion points to get to the next FP level of All Stars. Better strap in - plenty more crap for you to wade through comin' up.

If you were to wirebrush it, it would go to bare metal - correct? That's a mystery. Of course, you could always sell your soul to the Devil and get the thing rechromed, but you'd be in debt until beyond eternity. You COULD do what I did and get it powdercoated but there's no point dancing around it - it'll be nice & shiny but only chrome shines like chrome.

It looks a bit like that black stuff they spray under your car during rust proofing. I can't imagine it being corrosive though. Even thinners won't remove it?

Well, here's a topic that may cause some discussion. As I understand it, manifold vacuum is constant - from idle through to whatever revs you run and ported comes in about 1500rpm. When you set the timing at idle you block the vacuum hose to the distributor. Once the timing is set, reconnect and note how there is now (at least some) vacuum advance, even at idle. Apparently, that's how it's supposed to work. The original vacuum point is from the hollow carb stud, so that'd be manifold vacuum ie. constant but the Edelbrock has blind threads for the carb. I believe (correct me as you may) that ported vacuum is more of an emissions condition - something my car is too early to have. The only components I will have plumbed into the manifold are the PCV system and the distributor advance. The power brakes & auto plumb into the carb base plate. Takes deep breath and waits for 10 different opinions.

I don't know how much US fuel is excised at but if it's anything like the greedy Australian government, it'll be up to almost half. The billions they rake in do NOT go on road repairs. Instead, it ensures that the scumbags who are too lazy to go to work can sit around the house smoking cones, eating KFC and watching Dr Phill. In some places, our national Highway 1 is a narrow goat track in need of constant repair and where trucks pass each other with inches to spare. I'll always remember driving across the US on interstate highways and marvelling at the amount of concrete they must have consumed.