For now though, the car is going to sit outside for a bit while I clean up the garage and work on some other things I should have fixed already on other cars.
(Mostly) Successful maiden voyage!
- Thread starter Buford T. JuSStice
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While I've been cleaning out my garage, my room, my late Uncle's room, and the like, I had a blowout on the highway with my daily driver, a 1995 Chevrolet Caprice. Nothing happened aside from the tire being shredded to hell, but the way the car handled it is exactly why I drive that car on the daily. Sure, it gets poor fuel economy, it has it's own problems... but when the tire blew out (passenger front tire) I wasn't thrown out of line, and I never lost control. I pulled over to the side of the road (two lane highway, no room for me to change the tire safely) and called for a tow, so I could change the tire safely back at home.
MASS. EQUALS. SAFETY.
But I looked over to my wagon and man... man I love the look this car has right now. Even with the rough paint it's got on right now, it is absolutely sexy. Probably one of the few times a Century nose will ever look good on one of these vehicles.
MASS. EQUALS. SAFETY.
But I looked over to my wagon and man... man I love the look this car has right now. Even with the rough paint it's got on right now, it is absolutely sexy. Probably one of the few times a Century nose will ever look good on one of these vehicles.
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Okay, finally have time to make an update. Cooling issue is SOLVED. Got a big 20" 9 bladed fan (expensive but WORTH EVERY PENNY) and now it runs at the temperature of the thermostat which is 160 degrees. This means that I can (and probably will) opt for a higher temperature thermostat at some point, but for now I'm happy that the car is not overheating at all anymore.
Went and got the alignment done, and also adjusted the vacuum advance. Started at 6 turns, and then decided to back off down to 5 after it seemed to be running a little choppy at idle. Now it runs nice and smooth at idle, and seems to behave while accelerating. I may make some finer adjustments as I drive it around a little more.
Only issue I seem to be having now is performance related. The carburetor seems to be running great at idle and low RPM but I noticed as I was driving around that the secondaries don't seem to want to open unless I really lay into it and give it greater than half to two-thirds throttle. This resulted in what seemed to be somewhat sluggish feeling performance which at first I was a little disappointed with... until I finally got them to actuate.
Now, imagine this if you will... you're driving around a car you've spent a few years, and thousands of dollars building, and you're just starting to put it through it's paces and you're a little dissatisfied with the results. You think, "Wow I almost get better performance out of the 350 in my bigger car... heck this doesn't even seem much faster than the original V6 I had in here" and finally you get a glimpse... just a peak at it's true power, and it's enough to put a smile on your face. For about 2 seconds when the secondaries opened, the front end of the car must have lifted at least 4-5 inches, the tires chirped in second, and it went from about 30mph to 70mph. I had to let off because I didn't expect it, and because of that it was a little scary but man, oh man it was fun!
Went and got the alignment done, and also adjusted the vacuum advance. Started at 6 turns, and then decided to back off down to 5 after it seemed to be running a little choppy at idle. Now it runs nice and smooth at idle, and seems to behave while accelerating. I may make some finer adjustments as I drive it around a little more.
Only issue I seem to be having now is performance related. The carburetor seems to be running great at idle and low RPM but I noticed as I was driving around that the secondaries don't seem to want to open unless I really lay into it and give it greater than half to two-thirds throttle. This resulted in what seemed to be somewhat sluggish feeling performance which at first I was a little disappointed with... until I finally got them to actuate.
Now, imagine this if you will... you're driving around a car you've spent a few years, and thousands of dollars building, and you're just starting to put it through it's paces and you're a little dissatisfied with the results. You think, "Wow I almost get better performance out of the 350 in my bigger car... heck this doesn't even seem much faster than the original V6 I had in here" and finally you get a glimpse... just a peak at it's true power, and it's enough to put a smile on your face. For about 2 seconds when the secondaries opened, the front end of the car must have lifted at least 4-5 inches, the tires chirped in second, and it went from about 30mph to 70mph. I had to let off because I didn't expect it, and because of that it was a little scary but man, oh man it was fun!
Well, I think I've got just about most of the bugs worked out. It still seems deceitfully sluggish when tooling around, but I've started learning that she's got enough pepper to keep things spicy once you start laying into it. The problem I think is that I haven't been up on the highway yet so I haven't really had an opportunity to open it up really wide.
I tried finnicking with the TV cable and I tightened it up by about 1/4" but driving it around that was obviously too tight because it was trying to kick down the second I touched the throttle, so I went back to where it was and it seems pretty good.
Other than that... I think I'm gonna try re-greasing the Speedometer cable, because I tried hitting it with dry lube and it still jumps around and make noise. The only other issue is that the fuel meter isn't reading correctly. I checked the negative connection and it seems fine, and I knocked the tank a few times with a closed fist in case the float was stuck. So tomorrow when I've got the car up to re-grease the speedometer cable with actual grease, I'll check the positive connection on the top of the tank.
But as far as what it's like to drive... it's hot, the HVAC fan doesn't work (something else to figure out) it smells like gasoline and oil... it's miserable and I LOVE IT.
I tried finnicking with the TV cable and I tightened it up by about 1/4" but driving it around that was obviously too tight because it was trying to kick down the second I touched the throttle, so I went back to where it was and it seems pretty good.
Other than that... I think I'm gonna try re-greasing the Speedometer cable, because I tried hitting it with dry lube and it still jumps around and make noise. The only other issue is that the fuel meter isn't reading correctly. I checked the negative connection and it seems fine, and I knocked the tank a few times with a closed fist in case the float was stuck. So tomorrow when I've got the car up to re-grease the speedometer cable with actual grease, I'll check the positive connection on the top of the tank.
But as far as what it's like to drive... it's hot, the HVAC fan doesn't work (something else to figure out) it smells like gasoline and oil... it's miserable and I LOVE IT.
for the gas gauge issue I had a bad wire in the harness that goes from the left side of the fuse box to the connection in the trunk. To check it I strung a wire from the wire coming from the sender and shoved the other end into the pink wire connection on the left side of the fuse box.
I'll try that. It was working fine before I changed over to the new tank though too so it's even more of a head scratcher. I hope the new tank isn't having a problem with the float, because that'll be very difficult to fix.
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