Welcome to Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for April 14, 2020
April 14th, 1927 Jakob’s Birthday
Jakob’s parents were Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, oh and Jakob was a car. Specifically, the Volvo produced.
It was produced in the Gothenburg factory as designated as OV4 and then properly named Jakob.
It was constructed of a wooden frame made of ash and beech wood. The body was sheet metal and you could it only in dark blue. I was powered by 28 hp inline 4 cylinder with side valves displacing 1,944 cc, with 275 produced from 1927 to 1929.
You could also get the truck version.
On a sad note!
William Ernest Carter bought his 1912 luxury Type CB Coupe de Ville Renault during his Grand Tour in Europe to ship back to the US. Unfortunately, he chose to book the car a place on the Titanic’s fateful trip. The doomed car was powered by 12 CV, 2,614 cc L-head four-cylinder engine 12 French horsepower (about 40-50 hp today), four-speed manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, driveshaft brake and two-wheel mechanical brakes. It was almost 12 feet long – wheelbase: 143″
I read an account, on Facebook siting TMZ as the source (yes there are 3 problem there, first it’s on Facebook, second it’s TMZ and third it’s TMZ), that the guy driving Kevin Hart’s Cuda is suing Kevin and in turn Kevin is suing SpeedKore for not having enough/proper safety equipment. Specifically, that the car didn’t have airbags or safety harnesses.
The post goes on to lament the concern that this case may lead California to require that all classic cars be outfitted with current safety equipment. Should that be the case then classic car collecting and driving would become affordable to just about everyone. Unfortunately, that might not be that much of a stretch.
This brought several thoughts to mind that I’ll share.
I’ve raced my cars, my 1970 Mustang appeared in several charity drag races. Both of my Corvettes were auto crossed informally (car club sponsored and in SCCA events. ) One of the keys is understanding the ability and power of the car and your driving ability!!!
At one event a fellow car club member had just purchased a C6 Z06 Corvette with 600 plus hp. He was a newbie when it came to Corvettes and horse power. In his first auto cross he lost control of his Corvette and drove through a fence at a well known race course/school here in Arizona. He had no idea the power of the car and turned off the traction control, something newbies should never do.
Now, I don’t know the driving experience of the guy driving Kevin’s Cuda, nor do I know what driving skills Kevin Hart has for such a powerful car, but I guessing very little for both. At least not enough to request a proper harness be installed. Of course, if you have the money, you can spend it on anything your “heart” desires, but should you? Should you by a powerful device without the proper skill set to operate it? I’ve owned and fired weapons before, I guess purchasing an armored personnel carrier with a .50 caliber M2 machine gun and a 40 mm Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher should be fine. I can drive a truck and have fired M16s….ya…I’m good.
Point is you must understand the car’s capabilities as well your skill level and respect it’s power and what that can do.
My second thought is related to regulations restricting the equipment and driving for classic cars. There is a continued eroding of protections for the hobby and the industry. With knuckleheads like Kevin and his friends we could be doomed.
There are small organizations out there lobbying to protect/preserve the rights to own, collected and drive this cars. But I fear that they are too small and under funded to mount a long term fight.
Kevin, you are very funny guy and I enjoy your shows, but this is not funny.
After taking the #ProjectSportsRoof out for a power test and having the distributor die, I discovered that the head gasket on the left side did not hold.
So in this video I’m attempted to re-torque and see where that takes me. Oh and then there was a small issue upon restarting.
The other day I was reading, yet another list of cars that someone had owed. Of course that always makes me think of my past rides (in some cases losses). I’ve recently lost my C6. Long story. Short version – catastrophic transmission/clutch failure (while racing) and a small fire in the rear. So the C6 is added to my list of past rides.
Today as I was running some errands in my red Ford Sports Trac, I was trying to recall how many red cars I’ve owned. So here the list of cars and colors.
1. 1966 Chevy Impala Vert, 283, automatic – Red
2. 1969 Dodge Dart, 318, 3 speed manual – Blue
3. 1970 Chevelle, 350, automatic – White
4. 1971 Buick Skylark – 350 automatic – White
5. Two Toyota Celica – blue/silver blue
6. 1974 Ford Torino, Cobra Jet, automatic – blue
7. 1984 C4 Corvette – 305 Crossfire, Automatic – Red
8. 1970 Ford Mustang – Bored .o40 302, 4 speed manual – White
Valve gasket installed, zinc added and now it’s time for quick power test. I have yet to get the pedal to the floor and now it’s time and I took the captured the fun….and…well…take a look:
You can hear how awesome the SR73 sounds and power was substantial. Of course the quick trip ended in a less than optimal way. The first effort of the power test was successful, that wasn’t captured. I turned the phone on for the second and you can hear that. I had intended a third power sprint but SportsRoof had a different idea. I could feel it start to surge and then nothing. There was no noise, a brief sputter, like perhaps it flooded (entirely possible as the carb is a bit bigger then it should be). I coasted it to the side of the street.
A quick troubleshooting proved that the car was still getting fuel but would not start. After setting for a bit still not firing up. I suspect distributor. When I have time I’ll dig into.
Maybe one of the worse task to tackle on a car is the heater core. In particular on some older cars. In most cases you have to remove the entire dash. I know this because when the heater core sprung a leak in my 1974 Cobra Jet Torino, I didn’t …
This is the last post related to prepping the 351 Cleveland in #ProjectSportRoof for removal. Originally, I had planned to lift the engine out with the carb still attached. However, after the first test fit to see how the Duralast leveler (I’ve never used one before – last engine I pulled …
Welcome back to Project Sports Roof (#ProjectSportsRoof). The struggle is real!!! You saw in the last video my replacement of the linkage that was lost by the repair shop (along with my new battery and started). This repair shone the light (as often happens with older cars) on a previous …
In the two videos below I talk about valve cover gaskets, the current lack of experts at your local parts store, and online “No Help” clerk and a recommendation for the Mustangs regular dosage of Zinc – not in table form for the Mustang’s 351 Cleveland!!!
If you look back at #ProjectSportsRoof post you’ll see the condition engine bay. During those videos I mentioned that I was going to clean it up and hit it with a rattle can. Again this isn’t going to be a concours restoration, it’s going to look nice and it’s going …
Thanks for checking on #ProjectSportsRoof. So here is the last set of initial questions. Here is an image of the current set up: Any diagram I find has the hose vacuum from the Distr going to the Valve assy. The Valve assy has nothing attached which is located on the front …
Ya know, one would think that as you get older there’s more time for leisurely things. But as second year teacher (at the age of “past 50”) and coaching our school’s basketball team there is no slowing down. That’s my only excuse for not working much on Project SportsRoof. Ok there’s one more….we’ve had a colder and wetter than normal winter. This episode is purely due to “Spring Break” and having our taxes done (almost).
If you’ve followed along (did you know you can find Average Guy on YouTube as well?) you’ll know it’s been a long road with my 73 Mustang. Multiple starts and stops, often caused by me exceeding my ‘Average Guy’s’ skill set and man power and even my car disappearing for a couple of weeks (but I found it). Oh and don’t forget the tow truck driver that “broke” my front end!
Now SR73 (not SR71 the blackbird aircraft) or #ProjectSportsRoof is back on the road. Having only driving about 30 miles since the engine rebuild, I noticed a lifter noise. Not something you want to hear after all the time and $$ spent on it’s 351 C, in fact it’s a bit concerning.
The best place to start troubleshooting is to make sure the engine is getting the oil it needs. That requires pulling the valve cover and running the engine. Since I put the heads together myself, it’s a good idea to check the torque on the valves. What better time to check that than when you have to take the valve covers off anyway?
Here is my quick video recap. There are a couple good tips in this one and here is a one more great tip. I can’t take credit for it because was shared with me sometime back. Should you have an old set of valve covers, cut the tops off to make viewing possible. That way when you let the car run (it’s the easiest way check if oil is flowing) the spraying oil is somewhat contained. You won’t see that in these videos….but you will see the mess it makes when you don’t use them!!!
Don’t forget to drop a comment, if you are so inclined. Oh, if you have an event you’d like to tell other car peeps about, let me know and I’ll post it up!!
Follow Up: Reusing the old gasket!!
Thanks for visiting our site. You can find us on Facebook (search groups for Average Guy’s Car Restorations and Projects) and YouTube.
I’ve done all the clean up and all the adjustments necessary to get a good reading on the health of the ’72 351C engine in my 1973 Mustang. The next step is to check the compression. First up was to warm the car a bit and then pull the plugs. Here’s what the …
This is the wrap up on the compression testing for the 1973 Mustang w/ a 1972 351 Cleveland power plant. You’ll might have notices that I referred to the remote tester, which is my code for remote starter…yeah…that’s it!!! All of these tests were dry test and I should have done a …
Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted a compression test on all the cylinders. The 351C was running rough (to put it mildly) and smoked like a pile of tires on fire (only the smoke …
I thought I’d take a minute and catch the readers up on #ProjectSportsRoof. I wanted to touch up some of the engine bay components, horns, vacuum canister and battery tray. I didn’t want to alter some of these too much, I like having the numbers, logos and other info visible, not …
Over on Facebook one of the groups has a Then and Now series of posts. That consisted of folk posting the cars they were driving 10 years ago and now. I thought that was cool so I put quick clip together for my rides then and now.
For sometime now I have a Mustang Corvette combo, my ’70 Mustang/84 Vette combo and my ’73 Mustang/’07 Vette combo.
