Note: Updated to correct mis-Identification of this parking-lot find. It is in fact a 1955. The main details that denote the difference is the placement of the Chevy and BelAir badging and grile.
So I’m lucky. I live in a place where there is not prone to any type of natural disasters, we don’t much rain and it only snow when it’s a cold day, you know where.
It’s also a place were you don’t have to put way your collectible set of wheels, you can drive the year would and a lot of folks do.
Here is my latest parking-lot find.
It is a 1955 Chevy, 2 door Belair. Yeah, I know it’s a couple years before the super wonderful 1957’s came out, but I like these shoe box cars, with their very clean lines especially the 2 door version and I particularly like the lines of the BelAir convertible. It reminds me of the clean lines for my 1966 Chevy Impalaconvertible.
Love the red and white. Fantastic chrome.
Wheel aren’t ordinal but I think that are great for this car.
All Belair came standard with a 6 cylinder with about 353,00 produced, not counting convertibles.
The 6 was an overhead value, cast iron power plant with a displacement of 235.5. With a 3 9/16 x 3 15/16 and a compression ratio of 7.5:1
these cars knocked out a whopping 115 hp. The would breath through a Rochester one barrel Model 7007200 carb or a Carter one-barrel Model
2101S (for the Powerglideauto transmission) and a Rochester one-barrel Model 7007181 for the standard shift.
As you know, the US government asked and eventually forced the auto industry to contribute to the war effort. This series is to highlight some of the major contributions and first up is Crosley.
Crosley produced cars from the 1930s until the 1950s. Interestingly, before Powell Crosley produced cars, he was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds. Their first car, what we would call a subcompact these days, was a convertible.
1939 Crosley Convertible
For the war effort Crosley supplied its power plant the four-cylinder CoBra. CoBra was short for Copper Brazed and often refered to as the “The Might Tin” it was used aboard PT boats and and the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers mainly to power generators, refrigeration compressors, etc., and were widely praised for their successes in the war effort. The engine was made from sheet metal rather than cast iron like most other engines.
CoBra Block – the thin walls reduced hot spots.
Crosley CoBra this one was set up for vehicle use
Crosley stayed in business after WWII and eventually closed up in 1952. Their last attempt to save the company was to production a utility vehicle called the Farm-O-Road which was used on farm and ranches.
Checking the vacuum on your old car is an important part of a thorough, but most of the average guys don’t bother, or don’t have the gauge. Most often if you do have the gauge, you might not be exactly sure what the reading might be. For the recorded I’ve never had a car where the readings were stable. Normally you’ll get a fluctuating reading that move around. Below are a few ‘ranges’ and what they may indicate.
Standard Vacuum Gauge
These are for V8’s only:
– A good reading will be between 15 and 22 in. hg (a steady needle). Closing the throttle you should see a 5 notch drop and reopening it should settle back previous span (15-20).
– If you get a reading where the needle has a swing 4-5 in. hg ethier side of normal, you are looking at a possible simple carb adjustment.
– If the reading is higher than normal you need look at replacing your air filter or check to ensure your choke is not stuck.
– Low reading would be fairly steady reading around 5 hg will have you looking for a vacuum leak on the intake/carb area. Look for poor connections at the carb or any “T” or “Y” or straight though connection. Baring that look for cracked hose. You know I hate vacuum leaks. I recently restored a 1984 corvette with the Crossfire injection set up. Rather than chase down a single spot, I just replaced them all. That was a lot of vacuum hose and tucked in some stuff spots. But you are working on something bit older, like my 1970 Mustang, replace it all, it’s going to go back sooner or later, especially with the kind of temps we have out here in the Southwest.
– If you get a reading that between 8 and 14 you are looking at a timing issue at the least to leaking piston rings at the worse. Do a compression check for the leak and use your timing light before you tear it apart.
– If the needle is swinging (unsteady) between 14 and 19 hg that indicates valve guide problems. That going to be a valve guide problem.
10/12/1950 Kaiser-Frazer Built their 500, oooth car.
There ya go...the 500, 000 th
On 10/13/ in 1902 Packard Motor Car Co. was formed from the Ohio Automobile Co. Of interest: In September, 1900, the Ohio Automobile Company was founded as the manufacturer, while the cars were always sold as Packards. Since these automobiles quickly gained an excellent reputation, and there were more automobile makers that produced — or at least planned to — under the label “Ohio”, the name was changed soon: On October 13, 1902, it became the Packard Motor Car Company.
1902 Packard Model F
An Ohio
The very next day 63 years later Oldsmobile debuts the Toronado (10/14/1965).
1965 Toronado I want one of these
On 10/15/1945 Oldsmobile began creating producing per war cars.
And 1924 on the 15th of October, one of my hero’s was born. The proud Poppa of the Mustang and savior of Chrysler Lee Iococca was born in Allentown, PA.
I had previously added a can of Techron Fuel System Cleaner. This was the first treated tank. Today the Vette need filling up and I recorded the incident.
In the second video please excuse the legs shot.
This first is the status as I pulled in to gas up.
I haven’t done much writing about my C6 Corvette, mainly because it has really been a great car (still is) even with the technology glitches.
However, as you might have gathered from the title there is an issue that I thought I’d jot down along with some possible causes and some preventive measures.
I recently had the problem with my gas gauge flopping round and kicking off the low fuel warning. Interesting enough it only happened immediately after filling up. It is an immediate reaction when I turn the car on. During this most recent incident the gauge remained flat-lined for what seemed a bit longer then it has in the past. I’m talking 20 miles or more with 3 stops full and shut down. It was accompanied by the engine light, which remained on after the gauge went back to normal and the low fuel warning stopped.
The Vette ran perfectly during the event so I’m not too worried , but still you don’t want to have to call the flatbed.
So I dropped a note on my corvette clubs site ACE (Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts) http://www.arizonacorvetteenthusiasts.net and to see what they thought.
Most swear by Chevron gas with its Techron cleaning agent and some were thinking it might be a sending unit and some said it is a common problem with C5 ( the previous generation of Corvettes).
Here are some comments:
—“Use some Seafoam (Autozone, Checker etc.) per directions on the bottle. Techron works also.” My NOTE: Seafoam is tough stuff, you have to be sure to change your fuel filter shortly there after.
—“Same thing would happen to me with Roxxane II (c5). It would show empty when I filled her up. I would use 2 bottles of Techron and then one bottle at every fill up for the next 4 tanks. Problem went away for a while. Then I would use one bottle every 2 tanks and that kept the demon away.”
This one was exteremly helpful……”Well, stop putting gas in it, maybe the problem goes away.”
—“It’s a level sender issue for sure. If Techron doesn’t solve it, you’ll either have to learn to live with it, or replace the faulty sensor. Do you have any way to check the codes to see which sensor is unhappy?” ( I don’t so if it acts up again, I’ll have to take it in.)
—“Two possibilities…. sulphur build up on the sending unit or the sending unit going out. I understand they are a biotch to change.”
—“My C5 had the problem unless I ran Chevron gas in it. About the second tank of non Chevron the gauge would go crazy. I would switch back and the problem went away.”
—“This was a common occurrence on the ‘early’ C5’s. It usually happened when high sulphur content fuel was put in. Some of the fixes were switching gas to adding a bottle of Techron every once in a while. The real ‘fix’ was a reflash at the dealer. Apparently the sender was a bit too sensitive, so they slowed it down.
I had the issue occasionally on my 99, but when I put a 2002 Z06 operating system into the computer, it went away.
Since you have a C6, I would expect that the issue isn’t a reflash. My guess would be that maybe you got some high sulphur content fuel or your sender is acting up in some way, maybe a poor or intermittent connection somewhere along the line.
—“You could try a treatment with Techron and see if that ‘cleans’ it up. ”
—“I was using the Techron trick in my C5. I switched to Gumout Regane Fuel System Cleaner. I t seems to help, although my gauge still jumps to E at times when below 1/3 of a tank. Good luck. It sucks to not really know how much fuel is in your tank. Although a Vette is light in comparison to other cars, I just can’t see myself pushing it into the gas station.”
So there you have a round of discussion on the topic.
Now the fuel leveling sensor is used because the C6 had two tanks and this keeps the tanks level. Which is important especially if you are running auto cross. Here is area a couple of graphics from http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com:
So you can see that it would a chore to replace. So I’m going to try the Techron and hope it works. I’ve been cautioned that I need the Fuel System Cleaner – not the injector cleaner. Here’s a pic:
Get the Fuel System Cleaner.
I’ve used my first 12 oz can and I’m currently at half a tank. I’ll fill it up again in a couple of days (Yes..when you normally drive it like you just stole it you tend to have to fill up – now and again..mostly..again!) and I’ll try to capture the event on my trusty Android.
Stay tuned (up). {someone please say they get that}
