Many of you remember that I was pushing real hard to get the V8 running for my
trip to the Monterey Historic Race. Unfortunately in my enthusiasm to get the
car done "on schedule" I made a mistake which ended in a disaster, I ended up
having to rebuild the bottom end of my Buick engine (I'm not going to recount
the ugly details again, if you don't know what happened ask around, surely
someone you know has heard about it!). My next scheduled trip was to be the MGB
V8 show in Cleveland Ohio, only eleven days between trips, and I had to remove
the engine, dis-assemble the engine, find parts, assemble the engine, and stuff
it back into the MGB; and sort out some "details" that had cropped up. Oh yeah,
I had to schedule a little "real" work during that time too!
The deadline to leave Denver and get to Cleveland by 8:00a.m. on Friday was
about midnight on Wednesday. The car was done about 9:00p.m. on Wednesday.
Done in time to pack for the 3000 mile one week trip. I left at 2:00a.m. on
Thursday; the car was running, but not correctly. It was missing when
accelerating, it would idle OK, and would cruise, but it would not accelerate
without missing. I left anyway. I arrived about 9:30a.m. on Friday. Just in
time to catch one of the first tech sessions.
For those of you who weren't there, or perhaps you don't know about the format
of the V8 Meet/show/session it is two days of education, fun, and burn outs! If
you don't go home from this event knowing more about V8s then it's your fault;
if you haven't driven one by the time you left the show, again, your fault. I
know I drove several cars and several people got to drive my car. I'm sure
everyone had a good time.
On Saturday I set out to find out why my car was missing, I asked a lot of
questions, got lots of suggestions, and solved the mystery. Thanks to all of
you who gave me input. It turns out that I had the wrong coil for my points.
The original coil I used was a Crane high output coil, that worked fine. The
last time I installed the engine one of the terminals broke off the Crane coil
so I bought a new coil. Turns out the first one was a 3 ohm coil the second one
was a one ohm coil. A one ohm coil requires a ballast resistor, my car doesn't
have one. So the points were burning. I took this opportunity to buy a
Pertronix electronic ignition module from Dan Lagrue (Dan was one of three V8
vendors there). Installing the Pertronix and a new coil made the car run
perfectly, except for the oil leaks; oh, I didn't tell you about the oil leaks?
My car used 4 quarts of oil on the way to Cleveland, that's one quart about
every 400 miles. It didn't burn it, it leaked out (that's one way to change
your oil in a new engine). By the time I got to Cleveland, all but 1/2 quart of
oil had been replaced! I just figured it would be necessary to add four more
quarts of oil on the trip home, but an observant V8'er (thanks Al Wulf) noticed
I didn't have the clamps that go on each of end of the valley pan. "What
clamps?", I said. Well he showed me what was missing (no, I didn't build this
engine). Thanks to the generosity of Dan Lagrue he gave me two complementary
clamps. I installed the clamps, that solved most of the leak problem. I ought
to give Dan a plug here, he's a good guy, he owns D&D Fabrication in Michigan,
if you need parts give him a call at (810) 789-2491 (tell him I said hi). The
engine still leaks in other places but I did manage to drive about 400 miles and
use no oil. I'll get the rest of the leaks plugged soon!
For those of you that were there, remember the mystery "crud" on the side of my
car? For those not present, when I arrived in Cleveland my car had what
visually looked like oil on the body just behind all the wheel wells. However
it really wasn't oily, it felt like tire rubber "grindings", or perhaps brake
dust, but the wheels didn't have the same "crud" so it was not likely to be
brake dust. This caused a lot of concern by some present, others said it must
have been something that was on the road that I picked up on the way. Frankly I
don't know what it was, I wiped it off and now after 400 miles of driving I
don't have it on my car again ... so far.
What else? How about the speedo problem? I sorted that out today, a wire came
loose, and the connector from the transmission to the hall effect sender was
broken, two problems, but I fixed them both and the speedo works fine. There
goes my excuse for a speeding ticket!
Last but not least, the steering wheel shake. Most of you know that during the
building of a V8 it's likely you will remove the steering rack. I did. After
re-installing it I didn't have the car aligned. Today I had it aligned, and the
wheels balanced. Smoooooth, you bet.
So is the car finished? No, there is still a lot of "sorting" to do. Is it
drivable? You bet. Is it fun? Most definitely.
If you are a member of the MGCC Rocky Mountain Centre and are reading this, come
to the meeting Wednesday night, it is my intention to drive it there. Remember
I'm still 1100 miles away from Denver, but baring any thing unusual I'll be
there. Come to the meeting to see if I make it home!
I would like to thank the members of this list who so graciously helped me build
my car, both those who "stopped by" and twisted some wrenches, and those who
spent the time to answer all my questions. There are two many to name, but you
know who you are (is this sounding like the Academy Awards?)
Thanks again, see ya in Florida next year for the MGB V8 meet???
Larry Hoy
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