Tag Archives: AutoBlog

SCCA Event 4/25/2010 Auto Cross Part II

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So the other cost I mentioned will be in the area of tires.

In this event I just ran with my street tires 255/50 ZR 16  BFG GForce Sport and stock rims (only chrome). There was a lot of tire spinning and some smoking.  The surface of the track was…well lets just say less the optimun..ok…fine…it was horrible.  (You could toss in a few cuss words in front of horrible and you wouldn’t be over dramatizing.)  It was black top, cracked, uneven and there was grass and weeds growing on the far end. The tires looked rough when I finished the 10 runs.  Too many more events (this was the second auto cross on these tires) and I think I’d have to replace them.

So that really means that to protect the street tires and the chrome rims, I really ought to have an other set of tires and rims.  Now you are talking money that many of us average guys aren’t going to spring for.  This is true for vette owners..tires are not cheap for the older vettes. Not so for my co-worker running his Civic, they are reasonable. 

Take my C4  the tires and the Wheels are uni-directional.  Not unusual for tires, but my 1984 C4 rims only go one way and are labeled left front, right front and the same for the rear.  I do have the original set of rims that I will eventually restore to the factory aluminum and clear coat, but right now they would for auto crossing.  But the rubber can run upwards of $700.00 and if I put racing rubber on it, according to SCCA rules it will change my class.

The last cost is the “I broke it cost.”  They could be just about anything on a car that’s racing.  Anything mechanical, brakes (oh..they will wear out a lot faster in auto cross…or at least the way I do it!!!!), undercarriage,  right down to the dreaded “cone damage”. (yeah…yeah….I know you aren’t suppose to hit them…I know the object of the race..but man did I kill some of them ‘good’..no doubt!!!)   I did no damage to the vette but I did see a Evo that took out a portion of his front air dam.

In fact the vette performed flawlessly, only problem was the driver.  I’ll get to that next blog.  You’ll laugh and I’ll give you my times and points and we’ll talk about PAX times and classes.

Thanks for reading.

SCCA Event 4/25/2010 Auto Cross Part I

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The name of my blog includes “racing”.  This isn’t meant to be watching on TV and reporting back, it’s meant to be my events.  My blog title also includes  “Average” and includes budget as well.  (You might as well include ‘time’, as in average amount of time to spend on the hobby.) 

I just finished running a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) event.  It was a blast!!  I’ll get to my times in a bit, but first, let’s talk about cost of this particular event. 

Straight up to join SCCA there is the yearly fee for the national membership and there is the fee for your regional membership. Total cost here was $80.00.   Now the events are not free.  In my regional club which run events in the Tucson areas and Phoenix as well, they have to offerings.  They have a round for points and time and they have the time only round.  There are separate prices for each. 

Today when I showed up (you can pre register and save ..I think…$10.00) filled out all the paper work and went to pay.  The fellow taking the money asked if I wanted “time only” and  I’m thinking…do I only want to be timed…so I said “No.” and he said “That will be $30.00.”  So I paid. 

Now I have co-worker who talked me into joining SCCA and he attends regular events at the local drag strip – the auto cross is held in the huge drag pit/parking area.   He cleared up my misunderstanding and said if I wanted the “full” experience I need to go back and say yes I wanted the ‘time-only’ round as well.  That cost me another $10.00. 

So putting this together we are at 120 big ones this month to race.  Not too bad, I’d have to say. 

There are more costs and I’ll get to that in next portion of this subject. 

SCCA Event 4/25/2010

Wrenchin’ Tip – Fuel Line Threads – Comment from A reader

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I replaced all the fuel lines and brake lines on my 65 a few years ago, and I used this flaring tool and the thread seal that comes in a tube.  I have never had a leak, and I have never used the teflon tape.  You don’t need a real expensive flaring tool to work on these old Mustangs.

Flaring Tool

  

Soaring’s ride: 

1965 Mustang

  

1970 Mustang – Update and Next Mini Project – Pillar Moldings

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My '70 Stang

The last I blogged about my Mustang I had finished up the installation of the new dash pad and replaced all the bulbs and cleaned up a few years of dust.

If you recall (well you don’t have to,  just go back and read the posts) I talked about planning and how I could have saved time by waiting to put new dash pad on (not cap, pad) until the pillar molding came, but I decided not too.  The molding came in today….so out with the old….

Old cracked and broken

And in with the new:

New
Mustang Unlimited

I have pretty good luck with Mustang Unlimted’s parts and service. I recommend them.  (No I don’t get paid for plugs or compensated.)

These will have to be painted which is very common with interior parts.  I even had to paint the replacement arm rest.  I have the paint and I’ll post up the entire process.

I finally got the exhaust manifold taken care of (I didn’t do it). But apparent when I had the custom exhaust with hooker headers created and installed, they didn’t use locketight and they loosed up with the vibration of daily and drag strip racing. The right side had to be replaced and the left side was just tightened.  Oh she sounds so much better.

Thanks for reading.  I’ll get the pillar molding replacement pretty quick.

Tim

C4 Vette Valve Cover Replacement CLOSURE

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Closure for all the blog readers. 

Finished this up today.  Here are some pics.  (Yeah..I know..forgot to take them before I put the air cleaner on…but you get the idea.)

Only issue..the thickness of the chrome covers was less than the originals and I had to get a shorter set of chrome bolts.  I have got quite a collection for chrome bolts now!!

THE END.

C4 Vette Valve Cover Gasket Replacement Part VI

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Ok..let me finish up blogging to you on this  event.  I had a read ask if it has really taken this long and the answer is No and Yes.  (I’ll explain the YES in a bit..it ain’t pretty!!!!)       

After find the correct bolts, wrestling the covers back into place was, I bolted them down.  Installed they looked pretty good.       

Check it out.       

Left side painted and installed. Still missing the emblem..right now

 

The only difficulty was aligning the holes in the cover and the gasket and the engine. Due to the lack of room to maneuver I wasn’t able to keep the gasket and cover holes aligned while wrestling them into place. I used two (small enough to slide into the threaded holes without damaging) phillips head screw driver to help keep them aligned and put the bolts in.       

Errrkk……whatever you do tighten them carefully…..let me spell that for you  (Mickey Mouse Club tune playing in my head)  C…A….R.(because you care about your car)…E…F….U…L…L…(cause you want to keep the oil full)…..Y…(because if you tighten too much on the 1984 C4 magnesium valve covers you’ll crack them and they can’t be welded, JB or other wise, and then you’ve got to find used ones, because aftermarket aren’t all that great)….Ok…end of Mickey Mouse Club song…and the end of one of the original valve covers….       

And in case you didn’t get the between the lines intention of the above Errrkkkk…I broken one.       

I wasn’t sure at first, my mind refused to process the sound so that I could be sure..it might have been a crack, or maybe I just crunched one of the plastic tubes covering a bundle of wires.  Yeah..that’s it…I sure (it might have been a crack though….crap!!…let me spell that for you…oh…never mind….just invision huge font type all in upper case, bolded and underlined.)       

I inspected the cover while it was in  place and I couldn’t see anything and said…ok.average guy.. with average skills and average budget..you have above average luck…at least today…at least that’s what I thought…or hoped.       

When that  happens the only way to tell is to either take the cover back off and inspected…that wasn’t going to happen…or let her run and build up the oil pressure and see what happens….that is what you’d normally do any way after replace the gaskets.       

Here she is running:  (includes bonus views of the injectors…I think they are pretty cool to watch.)       

<embed width=”600″ height=”361″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowFullscreen=”true” allowNetworking=”all” wmode=”transparent” src=”http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/MVI_6967.flv“>  

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6967.flv 

Covers don’t look to bad…but they aren’t going to stay…because..there really was a crack…but it didn’t show up  by leaking on this run…it should up the next day when I took the car to work.  I checked it when I arrived (about a 15 minute drive) no leaking…drove it home and she started to run poorly and had no power…yeah….it was leaking…on to a spark splug….got home and a little puddle of oil formed under the car and…well lets just say as I replaced the tightening episode in my head the crunching noise…sounded a lot more like a crack..in fact it was very clear on the replay!!!! The little referee in my head….said ‘After reviewing the play..the ruling in the garage is over turned, and Tim is charged a time out and $400.00 fine for cracking the cover and the vette gets parked until the parts get here!’       

Here is the pick where the crack occurred.       

Yup...cracked!!!!

 

That was Monday (4/5/2010) fast forward to today new cover have arrived (chrome) and they’ll be installed today or tomorrow.  So Yes it was finished and now No it’s not.       

Thanks for reading.       

Tim

Auto Factoids for 4/03/2010

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Later than usual in  the week, but I’ve been busy with the valve cover work.  So here ya go.

4/5 /1923 Firestone inflated the production of balloon tires.

4/9/1957 Lotus’ first single seat race car

Thanks for reading.

Tim

C4 Vette Valve Cover Gasket Replacement Part I

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When I advertised this project I blogged that I didn’t understand why GM, given how hot the 1984 C4 ran, would use cork as the material for the valve cover gasket and how I wouldn’t replace them with cork. So I called a popular Vette parts supply house and ordered Ultra-Seal.  I did check locally. ok fine, I checked one place, the Checker Auto down the street, where, through some extremely ineffective communication (the guy didn’t know what he was talking about or what they had in stock), the employee said, “All we have is cork.”;  to which I said, “No, thanks.”; to which he said, “I can order something else.” to which I said, “So can I.”   (There… that bit of typing is for you grammar-sensitive types.)

I also tossed a query on the forum for the Vette group I belong to, and a couple said they do still use cork, and a  couple highly suggested Fel-Pro.  Funny, they said they got them from Checkers.

Yesterday, I received the Ultra-seal (made by Mr. Gasket) I ordered from the Vette parts place. The Ultra-seal…was cork!!!!!! So much for the description on the web.  So I got on the phone to the Checkers down the street and I got an employee that actually knew what they had in stock.  They had every type: rubber, rubber with metal, liquid, metal, and cork.

So when I got there, I picked up the set of the Fel-Pro and Mr. Gasket’s rubber gaskets.  I hear my inner critic say “Hey, average car guy!!!  Yeah…I’m talkin to you, Mr. Average budget!!! What do ya think ya doin’?!!”

Here’s the deal.  I’ve never taken the valve covers off the Vette before, I’m not sure about the clearance, or the angle of the plane the valve cover sit..yadda..yadda.  Plus, I kept the receipt so I can return them…and I will!!!!  Promise!!!

So the Ultra-Seal looks like this:

CORK…BAD!!!!

Sorry about the pic ..didn’t open them because they have to go back.

The Mr. Gasket I purchased from Checkers was metal covered with thick rubber:

Mr.Gasket Rubber and Thick Metal

They are very similar in thickness and shape as the Ultra Seal.

The Fel-Pro are the ones I’m going to put on the car.  They are metal covered with thin rubber and the holes are re-enforced with metal washers and are grooved.

Fel_Pro grooved and will hold better during installation.

So that will be next up.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Wrenchin’ Tip – Hose Installation 3/31/2010

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Often if you get the right size radiator or heater hose it will be a tight fit(eerrrkkk….don’t tighten the clamp first!!!!….just kidding…eeerrrkk) getting it over metal fittings.  You can buy them bigger but you are asking for leaks!!!!   Here are a couple of tips.  One I’ve used and the other I haven’t tried yet.

1.  I live in Arizona, and it’s hot here and normally if you are going to have problems it will be from over  heating in the summer time.  I’ll take the hose and leave it on the concrete driveway for a while in the hot sun.   That often softens it up enough to slip on.

2.  This one I have not tried.  If you have clear wire-pulling  compound, you can rub a light amount around the inside of the hoses and it will slide right on.  Here is a link where you can find some.  http://www.twacomm.com/catalog/dept_id_608.htm

Thanks for reading.

Don’t forget our project car contest.  $100.00 online shopping gift card to your favorite auto parts web site.

Tim

Next Project Corvette C4 Valve Cover Gaskets and Paint

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So if UPS has its act together I should be getting a set of valve cover gasket and engine paint to repaint the Valve covers and installing them all on Saturday and part of Sunday if necessary.

I could have got the gaskets locally, but only in cork.  What I’ll never understand is the thought behind using cork in cars where the average engine coolant temperature is over 200 degrees.   Yeah..really.

The spec book on the 1984 C4 Crossfire engine has the thermostat requirement at 195 (degrees).  That means the engine has to reach nearly 200 degrees before the thermostat opens and allows the coolant to flow.  What more the Crossfire engine is came equiped with an electronic fan for the radiator and the is factory set to come on when the temp reaches 223 degrees. 

Now that’s pretty hot for an engine.  Rarely does my corvette digital temp gage find it’s self under 200 degree during while operating, it normally round 210.

So knowing that,  Chevy still put cork valve cover gaskets on the car.  If you’ve ever worked with those, you know that if the engine runs hot, they will eventually “cook” on and dry out and leak.  So I went with…. errrkk…. cut/paste “Ultra-Seal material provides a positive seal through controlled swelling of the gasket once exposed to hot engine oil. The polymers used in Ultra-20 also ensure gaskets will not harden and fall apart like others can. Gaskets are coated with an easy release material which helps prevent tearing when the valve covers are removed.”…end errrk and cut/paste.

The painting shouldn’t be a problem, it’s just to spruce them, but I’ll need to prepare them.  They are textured magnesium and can take a lot of heat but they do stain easily.  I’ll show close-ups of the before and after. 

Actually you can see some of it here.

errrkkk….Normally my engine isn’t this awful looking.  But it’s been a wetter than normal winter and I haven’t kept up with it like I should.  Plus I haven’t been too worried about, know that I had to do these gaskets and hopefully, soon, I’ll be putting on the newly designed Crossfire intake.

Hey..don’t forget the Project Car Contest $100 online gift car to an auto parts house.

Thanks for reading.

Tim