The Great Rolling Dyno engine rebuild

[ostaylor]

Amazing! Can't wait to see it Keith.

[bertvorgon]

Morning World!

Yesterday I went to the shop to finish installing my methanol system and air filter intake pipe to turbo.

At the same time, Andy wanted to check the timing, where, he found the distributor is somehow out! At the same time, we noticed fuel spitting out of the primary booster venturi, symptom of high float level. Something has gone adrift after sitting for 1.5 years, as it never did this before.

I left Andy to let engine to cool down and then he was going to drop oil pump to maybe see if the new gear for the drive had maybe moved!!?? Crap. Weird, the timing was ok but the distributor was almost off the pedestal where the locking 10 mil is.

Today I will also put new foam around the transmission/shifter opening, helps with a bit of noise abatement.

The exhaust noise has increased a bit, as expected with a larger turbine housing, hard to tell in the echo chamber of the shop.

Today I will be taking my "carb" box and put in a new needle & seat and new top gasket.

I cycled all the lights, horns, turns, etc, gauges all ok so that was good.

Gotta love the Gremlins!

[bertvorgon]

Morning World.

Arriving at the shop yesterday had Andy telling me the timing issue was sorted, nothing major, so that was VERY good.

The carburetor issue still needs to be sorted, as it appears that the float level is ok. It keeps dripping even when the fuel pump is shut off...a high float level would stop if the case. Andy suspects the power valve is maybe the culprit, so, today I am taking my almost new Weber 32/36 to possibly pillage for parts. A new top gasket will go in also, just to make sure there is no vacuum leak for the power valve.

I also re-did the foam I have around the shifter hole. This really makes a difference to transmitted sound up through the hole cut in the transmission tunnel. I re-lubed the steel shifter bushings and pin, then the plastic bushing at the bottom of the shifter. I siliconed the circlip in place to make sure it never pops out!

Close now for TD.

[bertvorgon]

Morning World!

Yesterday, upon arrival, Andy wanted to double check the timing. He has had, in the past, the drive gear on the distributor shaft actually spin, throwing the timing off.

So, we fired engine and at one point, got zero degrees advance!!!?? To eliminate the gear issue he clocked the motor a TDC with the plug out, then checked the distributor and where the firing tab was...ALL OK. WHEW! We fire engine up gain and check the boost retard with a small amount of air pressure, that is a bit hard to do and it seemed a bit off.

Bottom line...it appears that his TIMING LIGHT has died...go figure!

I got the inter-cooler re-installed, the grill on, and took the tow hook off, as it might interfere with the air dam. I will correct that at a later date, in case I ever do need a tow out on the Great Rolling Dyno.

With my fans running to keep car cool when we were running the motor, it appears that my battery is also dead! I have a credit at Edmond's battery so will be grabbing a new one today. At least it died in the shop. It is 6 years old and it has sat for 18 months with no charger/maintainer attached.

TBC.......

[icehouse]

Keith, why don't you run carpet in your car? The difference with or without in my tan car was huge. I only pulled mine out because of the water ingress issues I was having. Seems like that would help the noise along with that foam you run. My Apple watch has a decibel meter on the face. If I look at the screen it will show me the decibels and give a color depending on level. If the watch shows yellow a car is fine to drive long periods in my opinion. If it hits the red wow does that car get old quick. It doesn't take that many racecar upgrades to get it into the red. I'm trying to quite a couple of my cars down but not loose the fun of driving them.

[bertvorgon]

Morning!

I have thought of that, but, have not really felt like hacking up a carpet to fit over my shifter console or cover my Aeroquip line. Let alone no seats or rear interior which does not help either..I have worn ear plugs for decades, a tip that was given to me when I was hillclimbing. That just mutes things down so nicely. Really helped me when racing, got rid of that frantic sounds of EVERYTHING.

I do like that visceral sound and feel......If I want quiet I get into my luxo sled, the G35.

I guess too, I am stuck on my "race car" feel and look of the car.....brings on the great conversations at stops and car shows.

I picked up a new battery yesterday and need to hit the insurance place for a months insurance, ready for a TD.

[RONSLYCHUK]

Hi Keith. Looks like you will have some nice sunny days to drive around in!

[icehouse]

Gotcha. Racecar are cool!

[bertvorgon]

The Test Drive

OH My God....it lives!!!!

I was so nervous yesterday heading to the shop for the first test drive with the new motor.

I had not driven the car since I parked it in the fall of 2021, so virtually 2 years.

On arriving at the shop Andy had already installed the air dam and installed the airbox. I checked how tight things were and then set air pressure in the tires. Being fully aware that the pavement had frost on it in a couple of spots and that my tires are really old now, I knew I needed to be careful when hitting the throttle.

I strapped myself into the bucket seat, instantly feeling like I was putting on a nice, well worn set of walking shoes.

The engine lit with half a turn! I brought the revs up to 2,000 RPM to warm the motor; Andy had taped off the oil cooler intake to help get the oil warm on this 6C morning.

Andy was my riding mechanic as we idled away, ready for a small burst of throttle, which came soon.

1st gear……2nd gear…roll on the throttle to 3Rd…the rear tires light up…opposite lock….car hooks and open the secondary…Holy Mother of God….off the throttle…..

Temps look good, hang a U-turn to head back…roll on throttle….2nd gear…3rd gear…roll on and then open secondary…..wham….4th gear 5th gear…boost heading to 16 PSI…too much…off throttle. Ballistic acceleration.

Wind boost control knob back one revolution….U-turn and roll on, then hit secondary in 5th, really load the motor…12 to 13 Psi boost…full load…no sound of pinging or detonation on what is now 2 year old Avgas, but then no real sustained load or heat at this point.

Andy asks what was the A/F reading…”I dunno, I was watching the boost gauge!”

U-turn and nail it, A/F is in the 15’s on the secondary…WAYYYY too lean!

We do a few other passes checking a few things and then back to the shop….I forgot what this thing is like, and now with about 10:5 to 1 compression and the larger turbine housing, I will need to re-learn some driving as to when this thing “hits”. The test drive made it tough as we were loading the motor at low revs, that would NOT be my normal way of exiting a corner, where I would be ready for the boost…to be continued.

I would say it will not be much of an issue and when it does start to charge…hang on!

Andy is pretty happy at this point arriving back at the shop, I’m still kinda shell shocked.

I pulled out my log book and back in 2017 I did lean out the secondary, 2.38 MM down to 2.1 MM. Funny to think that at the height of the Knox Mountain hillclimb, my secondary jet was 3 MM!

I will also if I can watch the exhaust temp under full boost in 5th, to see where it is heading.

I will be able to test this when I drive the car back to my daughters, hopefully on Wednesday next week.

I did not have the methanol spray working, as I did not want methanol sitting in the brand new solenoids for another 5 months. I can test them at a later date but they should be good to go as everything is new.

For whatever miracle happened the clutch master was ok…I have no idea what went on there, as Matt and I put 3 cans of fluid through…with NO pedal. It worked fine for Andy and was ok on the TD. MAGIC!

I had gone to ICBC for my temporary permit, been a long time since I ever had gotten one…it was CHEAPER to just put 3 months insurance on it, so I am good till the end of February. Who knows, if there was a nice day, not too cold and any salt washed away, might take it out for a run. I need to burn up that old fuel before the heat of summer and a long trip.

I still have one goofy thing going on with the carb, so Andy has an idea to actually fix it, so later in the spring we will remove the carb.

I will also have to get new tires in the spring, my backs are worn out and they are basically 6 years old..DONE!

So, I will look forward to the spring (and maybe a couple of Td’s while insurance on), car shows, some drives, etc. Andy wants me to fire car up every 2 weeks to ensure no rust building in the cylinders, after what he saw on the old motor. I have the same “Ring Package” as Tracey has in the Miata, they are really THIN!

Keith Law November 25, 2023

[RONSLYCHUK]

Sounds like you are going to have too much fun Keith.

[ostaylor]

Congrats Keith! Must feel great to have it back on the road.

[Byron510]

Well Keith, I tuned up the Bronze quite a bit for Driver training in the latter half of 2021. It got maybe 2 hours use this past year, but it shouldn’t take much to get it back into shape. I’m ready for a good driving season - good to have you back!
Lights, maybe?
Byron

[Pista_510]

Excellent result on the rebuild, Keith...thanks for taking us along on the journey!
Looking forward to any further driving impressions, on the trip home?
Fantastic car!

[icehouse]

That's so cool your rig is back on the road! I want to head over to Andy's shop with you one day!! Boost is the best! I just still can't imagine you back in the 70s putting your first turbo kit on. Dang that must have been nuts!!!

[bertvorgon]

Hey Jeff & All,

It was an amazing time in that early 70’s period, in what is now 50 years ago to 1973. I was 23, young and full of excitement as the Japanese car scene really started to bloom here.

Finally it was not all British and Italian stuff racing. There were a LOT of BRE clones, running B-sedan. Lots of tuning shops and parts places came on stream to service the market, which was huge with 510s then in Vancouver

Before I met Andy at Specialty, I dealt with Bob Stevens, who built and ran his B-Sedan, rubbing shoulders with Pete Brock/John Morton and the likes down south. I also dealt with a company called International Performance Equipment, which carried all sorts of 510 goodies.

When I bought my 72’ wagon, the sales person was running his B-sedan at Westwood and that was my introduction to racing.

This of course I have written about earlier on this site, but here is an excerpt…sorry to bore if you have read it many years ago.

The turbo thing was just the cards coming my way and like most of us on this site, we cannot leave well enough alone and start to “make things better”…ha!

As much as I flogged my wagon, it was not until I bought the sedan that I really took off in modifying things.

With NO INTERNET and few people that understood turbo-charging at the time in Vancouver, it was a very steep learning curve for me.

When you look at the numbers on this original brochure, you can see that the ¼ mile times were pretty damn good for the era, same with my wagons time at the drag strip.

One thing that really helped overcome some fueling issues was a phone call I made to a VERY famous Hot Rod fellow in the States, AK MILLAR. I was so nervous to be calling this GOD in the Hot Rod world, I’m sure my voice was shaking.

It was his fuel system layout that overcame all the issues I first had, when I exceeded the design parameters of the kit. The diagram in the turbo book was lacking some fine details. He was so very patient and described it over a few times while I drew it out.

I started having G-Force issues too, with fuel starvation, and that led me to discover Andy at Specialty Engineering. The only other fellow, to the best of my knowledge, playing with turbo’s in his insane Datsun 1200, in B.C. at the time.

From my Garages Trilogy:

In 1972, with 105,000 miles on my 1969 car, I bought a 1972 wagon from Brasso Datsun. As I had developed a true love of driving, and did very long trips, I started to want more power and handling. I had bought my car from a sales person who was actually road racing a 510, at WestWood, his name was ANDY FIELD. I was introduced to motor sport! A few dealers and businesses in Vancouver were starting to carry performance parts for the 510. I started to check into cams and carbs, suspension, etc. Then one day, a young fellow, who started working with me, asked if I had heard of TURBO-CHARGING. “No. what’s that?” I asked. As most of you local people know…the rest IS history! After a couple of weeks of research, I was pretty sure turbo charging was the way to go. I had found a copy of “TURBOCHARGERS”, by Hugh MacInnes, the first bible so to speak. The problem, in ’72-’73, was turbo charging was in its very early stages of infancy. Where did I go to get more info? As it turned out, Interpart was carrying the Crown Mfg. kit for a 510. Wow, was I stoked. I got the local dealer to bring me in a brochure, which listed the kit at $595.00 USD. That was a LOT of money even then.

I was just about to order that kit, when I heard about a local Vancouver company that was making a turbo kit for the 510. I could not get down there fast enough! The company was called Engine Air. The man who owned the business, Dick Garret, was a bit of a car guy and had a 510 and a Jaguar. The real business of this company was retro-fitting turbo chargers into tug boats, thus keeping them competitive. I went down to see them. I can still remember my first drive in his turbo 510. I was asking him all about it, when he said, “Lets just go for a drive!” After having been around and going for some rides in cammed and carbed 510’s, I was really disappointed that the car was so quiet, idled like a stock car…..I thought, this was going to be lame.

We cruised out to the Second Narrows Bridge, the car never bucking, quiet, felt like MY 510. RATS! Then, as we fed onto the ramp, he leaned on the throttle in second gear. By the time he grabbed third, the grin on my face must have been enormous. We headed over the bridge and up the cut. For those of you non-local people, the “cut” is an up hill, approx.8-10% grade that was a test for lots of cars as to what speed you could maintain. Dick hit the bottom of that hill in 4th gear…and the car just kept accelerating. Accelerating quietly, with just a hint of that turbo whistle! We peaked at about 105 MPH. That was FAST. I was sold! $550.00 CDN.. When we got back to his shop, I could not get the kit loaded into the back of my wagon fast enough. I had that kit installed in three days after I got it.

As a side note, any of the Crown kits that I came across in Vancouver, were horrible. The kit was not a kit. You had to fabricate, scrounge, so much stuff, it should have been criminal. And, no thought was given to controlling the boost! There was not one person that I ran across, who had not blown a head gasket or motor, with the Crown kit. With Dick’s kit, I bought nothing….everything was there. And, as he retained the stock exhaust and intake, boost stayed constant at 15LBS. Plus, being the engineer that he was, gave me that details about boost, octane, etc., that kept everything alive. The Crown kit gave you nothing like that. I wonder how things may have turned out if I had bought one of those kits ?