1973 Volvo P1800ES on MX5 chassis with Ford 5L V8 conversion

[bjornagn]

May 2, 2019 20:19:56 GMT Alpina99 said:

Please take this the way it's meant, is there anything you can't do ??
Seats look superb as does the whole project.
Please keep going, brilliant,
Nigel

I will take that as a compliment. Thank you.

This has been one long learning experience and besides enfing up with a unique vehicle, I get to keep what I have learned. Not done yet.  Anyone know how to rope in a front windshield?



Pete

[bjornagn]

Bit if a clown-car color mix-wise, but the solution to that will have to wait for a bit as the focus is now on getting the car on the road so I can shake down any driveability issues. For now, it is enough that I have a place to sit while doing so.

[strikey]

vinylcoat would sort the dash colour.

[bjornagn]

Another one of those jobs that I have been dreading as "Beyond my skill level"  is off the list. We have a windscreen!




ately I had hepled a friend rope in a windshield for a Mustang not long ago and it took some of the scary out of the task. The reality is that it takes longer to do the benchwork of putting the rubber around the window and the rope in the groove, than it does to locate the windshield in the hole and pull the rope. Kinda cool how it just sucks the window into place as the rope goes around the perimeter. This is a good example of a job that I would have contracted out a few years ago thinking it was beyond my skills.



Now, if I can just figure how to get the trim on there, I will be happy. If not, it wont stop me from first drive.

The insurance company wants a picture, might want to clean the old girl up a bit before I send that in...to much "Barn Find" dust on her.

[georgeb]

May 8, 2019 11:11:16 GMT bjornagn said:

The insurance company wants a picture, might want to clean the old girl up a bit before I send that in...to much :Barn Find" dust on her.

But surely it's worth a lot more like that?

[bjornagn]

Apr 13, 2017 3:48:10 GMT wraith666 said:

Nice work so far. Got to say though that exhaust cross over is a disaster. It's going to cause a major restriction.

Crossover Design

Been carrying this around since April 17 of 2017. Always been a niggling voice in my head that you were going to be proven right. 

The engine is running now and truth be told, not running all that bad in the shop. No road test yet.

The thing to note is that the vacuum reading is very low, like under ten inches of vacuum. Not retarded  timing and not a vacuum leak that I can find.  Waiting on some new fuel fittings and then I am going to do a clogged exhaust test with the vacuum gauge to see if it explains the low vacuum.

[blackpopracing]

Valve lash correct? Cam timing correct? How tall is the cam?

[bjornagn]

May 9, 2019 15:26:25 GMT blackpopracing said:

Valve lash correct? Cam timing correct? How tall is the cam?

Cam timing is the only one I have not checked yet. Since it requires tearing the engine down.


It is a pretty mild ford e-cam. On the internet the e-cam  is despised almost universally. My buddy who has built maybe 100 Ford 302 engines worships the cam. So, I feel a little stuck in the middle of the argument not having taken the time to devote my life to  Ford 302 cam selection. Last might we hooked a vacuum gauge up to my friend's latest e-cammed engine and it pulled a solid 16 inches of vacuum.

The engine is down for a bit till some new fuel fittings arrive this weekend, but I will next do a vacuum test to check for plugged exhaust and see what that says.

On a more positive note, last night I finally got the rear deck buttoned up. Had been waffling back and forth about bolting it in place or spot-welding. Ended up with 71 weldnuts in the Miata subframe and bolted the sucker in place. Painted with rubberized undercoating for minor sound damping.  Starting to piece all the interior pieces in place to see where that wants to go.

[blackpopracing]

Is the throttle closing properly? another place to look.

[bjornagn]

One (3) bite at a time...

HVAC controls in and working; air blows when and where it should.
Radio in and working
Console in and fits.



Was 51 items on the list last night, now down to 48. A lot are very simple like "Tighten steering wheel" or "Install Glove Box".

The other thing that started last night was a comprehensive list driven nut and bolt check of the entire car. If it is on the list it gets checked and if it is tightened but not on the list it gets added to the list.

[bjornagn]

With all possible venues of vacuum leak checked for and nothing found, I turned my heat gun on the suspect exhaust crossover. There was a 140 F degree drop from the upstream to the downstream side of things. Hmmmm that is fishy. So here we are.

Going to replace what I thought was an elegant piece of fabrication with a simple proven H pipe build and see what that does for me. If this does not find my missing 10 inches of vacuum, I will start tearing the engine apart since I have verified with 3 other engines that have the same cam and pull 16 inches or more of vacuum.

[07lilredwagon]

if not in the exhaust stream...(mufflers, cats, crossover, manifolds), then valve timing?.....if not valve timing...then intake?

can you verify good performance before the crossover?

strange...I would not think, that unless the crossover was causing a reversal of flow, that it would be a problem?

hmmmm

JP

[bjornagn]

I would not think, that unless the crossover was causing a reversal of flow, that it would be a problem?

I think that is exactly what is happening. 140 degree temp change from one side to the other is trying to tell me something?!

I COULD just toss the abbreviated exhaust back on and test to see what happens,  but since it needs a crossover regardless, might as well do it and be done with a simple proven H  design.

If this does not solve the issue, I will be at a loss and have to start tearing the engine down looking for the cause.

[blackpopracing]

Easy check, run engine without the exhaust system and see what the vacuum is.

Then do a compression check, see if valves are leaking.

[bjornagn]

May 13, 2019 17:00:41 GMT blackpopracing said:

Easy check, run engine without the exhaust system and see what the vacuum is.

Then do a compression check, see if valves are leaking.

I did actually fire it up without the O2 sensor  ( It is in the downpipe)  and what I noticed is that it was rock steady at 10 inches at 600 rpm where as before it bounced around a lot. So maybe there is more than one thing at play...crank up the rpm to 750 rpm and adjust timing for the new back pressure reality, and see where it all lands.

The steady vacuum reading gives me some confidence that the valves are sealing.

[mylittletony]

^^ the open O2 bung would alleviate possible funny back pressure from the crossover, which might explain what you're seeing.

If you're removing the exhaust to change it anyway, a quick fire-up to see if it's improved will put your mind at ease that you're going up the right path

[kevins]

Is it a brand new engine?

If so the extra friction in the bores until it has run in a bit will also reduce the manifold vacuum, personally if all else seems well I would be inclined to run it in for a while before worrying too much.

[blackpopracing]

^^^ totally agree with the above.

[bjornagn]

While I still think that the exhaust mods will be for the better, after a bit of research, I am going down another rabbit hole.

The Fitech makes a very loud sucking sound when the car is running. The sound comes from the Idle Air Control opening. Not knowing anything about this product, I thought that it sure made one hell of a sucking sound. Kind of annoying really.And boy does it ever sound like what a big vacuum leak would sound like.

But, not knowing all that much about Fitech and only enough about EFI to be dangerous, I figured that since it is a new part, it should be good right. Maybe not. So now I am looking into how to diagnose and replace an IAC valve on a Fitech. Or maybe its just a firmware setting? You see where this gets fun?

[blackpopracing]

That sounds like a better place to start. Can you block it with a finger while someone watches the vacuum gauge?