First a nice pic:
Highlights include the 230/236 @ .050 Roller Cam which sounds very nice and pulls well above 2,500 RPM and the shop assembled fully balanced and blueprinted motor.
I finally got around to buying a rebuilt Transmission from Manny Troveo - I went with a Switch Pitch unit and that has been very useful due to the aggressive cam I installed. It idles, but it likes the high stall position much more than the low stall position which made the S/P trans well worth it.
I am working with an Engineer at MSD on some issues that arose at low RPM from my choice of Stainless Braided lines for the fuel line. It turns out that there is a known hammering effect that this introduces (the car surges at low engine speeds) and we are trying a new bypass routing that may be a simple solution. I may still have to replace the 12 or so feet of stainless braided line that runs under the car with Aeroquip AQP hose to provide some flex in the line that acts as a damper to the hammering. The first thing we are going to try - after I rerouted the return to comply with the current recommended design that places the regulator after the throttle body - is to Tee off from the loop instead of sending the loop through the throttle body. There is a very real chance this will work, and if so it is simpler than replacing the line under the car. Above all I am very impressed at the willingness of the MSD team to put me in touch with an Engineer. This speaks volumes about their dedication to customer support and really makes me inclined to buy their products again in the future.
Once we get all that sorted I will replace the MSD distributor and resume using the EFI for timing control. I hope to get it done this week if all goes well!
I also had one of my steering boxes rebuilt by Red Head Gears here in Seattle and I cannot say how much that improved things. Much more effort and now I know when I am turning the wheel - previously it was all too easy to drift if you were not paying attention completely.
I also finally managed to get some sort of stereo installed - not a final install, but good enough for now. I was using computer speakers powered by an inverter and using my phone as the audio source, so having an actual car stereo installed with a subwoofer is a big step up. Sound quality is not yet up to my desired level so I will have to revisit this over the winter.
I cleaned up the rats nest of wires that was living on the passenger side inner fenderwall by installing a fuse block over the heater core and routing the fan wires and main power feed under the fender itself. This results in a much cleaner underhood space.
I also went with steel braiding for hose covers or with steel braided hose. It definitely looks much better than it did before.
Finally I splurged for the Offenhauser Cast Aluminum valve covers. This had two purposes - aside from the obvious aesthetic aspect it does vastly improve the seal around the valve cover due to the massively thick flange. My Edelbrock stamped valve covers never sealed well due to flexing of the flange. These new valve covers completely eliminate this resulting in a good seal.
Driving the fully balanced and blueprinted motor is a real pleasure. It will wind out to 5000 RPM effortlessly with no fear of anything breaking. It is smooth at cruise, and sounds fantastic when being spanked - the kid I bought the car from took some videos of me screaming by in second and it just sounded wonderful!
Suffice it to say I am a happy camper indeed. We are taking the car down to Portland Oregon in August for a Covered Bridge Tour with my local car club and I hope to have some nice pics to post.
). The Vacuum Modulator with the black and red stripe made a huge difference. It allowed me to shift under most circumstances with a firm transition and only occasionally really gives it much of a whack and even then it is nothing like when I first started driving this setup.