Don't forget to re-torque the head and lash the valves before you recheck the compression & make the final running adjustments...
Glen
--Previous Message--
: Had a HUGE weekend on the Franken-6.
: First: we successfully got the chassis
: and power train down the ramps from the
: loft without killing anyone. This is
: NOT guaranteed! Second: “IT’S
: ALIVE!!!!!” (To quote my mentor and
: idol, the venerable Dr. F. himself).
: Of course, this was not without some
: misadventures (When the Hell do we do
: ANYTHING without misadventures?!).
:
: First there was no compression. A
: little history: Months ago after
: prepping the engine for "First
: Fire", I had the horror of seeing
: coolant leaking out from all around the
: cylinder head. Why? Because somehow a
: late MK3 head gasket with the raised
: lip had been installed in a MK2 engine
: (sigh). Of course, prior to that, all
: the valves had been adjusted with
: atom-splitting accuracy. Did I
: re-adjust the valves after the proper,
: thinner head gasket was installed?
: Why, of course not. So none of the
: valves were closing – at all! (just
: shoot me).
:
: OK, valves got adjusted. Did another
: compression check. Pretty scary – they
: ranged from 115 to 65(!) PSI. But it’s
: a completely rebuilt engine, so I’m
: hoping after things seat a bit, the
: compression will come back up to where
: it should be.
:
: Electric Fuel Pump - ON .... Leaks all
: over the place! After obvious
: tightenings and a liberal use of Teflon
: tape we were down to one carburetor
: float valve. Fixed that, and then the
: "other" two carbs started
: taking turns at who’s float valve would
: leak next. Apparently they were
: playing musical float valves amongst
: themselves, and since the leaks were
: not much more than drips that fell onto
: nothing hot, I said “screw it” – let’s
: go.
:
: Ignition - ON ..... Poof! There goes
: a Jacobs high performance coil – up in
: smoke. This was odd, since the system
: had been previously energized to static
: time the distributor. Oh well, I was
: never sure if the Jacobs would work
: without the associated Jacobs computer
: box. So on went an Accel High
: performance coil.
:
: Ignition - ON ..... POOF! The Accel
: goes up in smoke as well and blew
: molten epoxy all over my brand new,
: custom fitted, 8.8 mm, pretty yellow
: Accel spark plug wires. I was never
: sure whether that coil was a 12 or 6
: volt variant so I thought that might be
: the problem. However, it turned out
: that the little ground wire inside the
: distributor had shorted against the
: points output to the condenser. So
: after blowing-up $100+ of HP coils, off
: to the parts store I went to buy the
: cheapest friggin’, plain old 12 volt
: coil available and a new condenser
: (just in case)….. (and it “was” the
: case – just amazing).
:
: All that sorted out, and the engine
: still wouldn’t fire. It seems some
: Rocket Scientist (yes – I have a B.S.
: in Aerospace Engineering) had the
: ignition wires 180 degrees out of
: phase! I can't tell you how many times
: I hand-turned that crankshaft, watching
: all the little rocker arms going up and
: down to "positively" identify
: the #1 compression stroke. (....groan).
: I'm going to join Opus Dei so the
: self-flagellation won't get me thrown
: in the looney bin.
:
: Hours and hours after we started this
: effort .... the Franken-6 springs to
: life! And to tell you the truth,
: despite the triple CD150s, untried S2
: cam and 6-into-1 header, she runs
: pretty damn good too. It takes a
: little longer to sync 3 carbs; the
: ignition still seems a bit too
: advanced; and she needs to be leaned
: out some more, but all in all I am
: ecstatic! Especially when you consider
: that she was built and modified from
: parts out of five separate cars from
: THREE different manufacturers!
:
: Dr. F. would be proud, ....awwww
:
: In two weeks, the tub goes on. Oh
: my.....
:
: Thank you for all your help, over all
: these years!
:
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