Hi Gents,
Soooo I have been dealing with a lot of "silly" stress lately. I am four weeks out from semi-finals for Natural Bodybuilding. The contest is on May 26. I hope my coach knows what he is doing, because it does feel like I am way behind in term of body fat loss. This is a drug tested environment. I'll be participating in the "Masters" (=old man) category. Weight class: under 75kg or 165lbs. Last week I weighed in at 79kg or 174lbs.
Anyway, that is neither here nor there - but it is very demanding psychologically and one tends to fatigue very quickly. All that to explain my relative silence.
Vibration
I managed to pry and fix the exhaust pipes away from the body. I'd say 90% of the vibrations are gone. What little there is still seems to come form the rear and not the engine. The engine does, however, feel like it wants a larger damper. I'll need to creep under this weekend to see if there is any other contact anywhere else that I missed.
Horn
The horn button is fixed. Interestingly there was some insulating varnish that had broken down inside the steering column that had led to continuity... in other words, the horn would always blare because grounded. I plastic insulating washer made available a year later cleaned up that issue. It is so nice to drive with a horn button again - the car feels so much more complete.
Cooling
The car does not like standing still for too long and begins to overheat if left that way. Driving 20 mph or more prevents this.
There was a crappy auxiliary electric fan that I tossed out; the only thing that seemed to do was obstruct the draw of the mechanical fan.
I did notice that the steel fan shroud lacked foam insulation between itself and the radiator. The gaps were huge. I filled those gaps with some spare insulating foam that I had to see if that would have an effect. That improved things but still did not solve the issue.
I am not a fan of electric fans (pun intended) because I do not like relying on the added complexity of the thermostat and relay that may fail with me only noticing when it is too late. I'd much rather have the simplicity and reliability of the thermocouple viscous fan.
BTW, how does one test that fan?
On the other hand, on C3 Corvettes, the mechanical fan is
very far from the radiator. Having a 3,300 cfm electric puller with a shroud (Black Magic) is affordable and would probably fix the problem. De Witt high performance aluminum radiators do exist... but they are expensive.
Hmmm
Clutch
I did notice that in my quest to control vibrations that the clutch fork and linkage were rattling. It turns out that a ball stud was missing a locking plate and VERY loose. Tightening it up as best I could (temporary solution) had no effect on the rattle BUT it did
dramatically improve the feel of the clutch. Which bring us to my next issue...
Intake
Swapping in a (free) standard GM 30-30 cam was a no-brainer. However I did lose some top end. 2,500 to 3,500 has good drive. But off idle is still poor. Getting the car going, even despite the improved clutch feel, is still a bit tedious. I am suspecting the first generation open plenum Torker.
With 882 heads and a mild cam, I see little advantage to it and probably disadvantage.
The short block seems in very good condition - my plan for next year is to slap on a better cam with some reasonable aluminum heads and to be happy for some time.
However, one thing that can change in the meantime is the intake.
On C3 corvette, hood clearance is an issue. I suppose I could go with a Performer or a Performer RPM or possibly an Air-Gap would fit. These intakes would also be compatible with newer heads when I get them. But... there are so many expenses on this car... maybe modifying with a divider is the way to go for the moment. I am leaning that way for the moment...
What do you gents think? Add a separating plate? Grind the intake and epoxy? Would that help significantly the off idle, get-the-car-going ?