posted @ Monday, March 20, 2006

I took the truck down to A&K Machine Shop in DeSoto over the weekend to get some expert work done on the Holley Truck Avenger carburetor. Austin, the owner of A&K, showed that he had the right stuff when it comes to carbs. After removing the carburetor from the engine, Austin quickly tore it down and installed a 50cc accelerator pump, replacing the 30cc pump that came from the factory. He also installed a new squirter, changed the vacuum secondary spring from black to plain, installed a 3.5 power valve and installed smaller jets, dropping the front down to 65. After months of frustration with the engine performance, Austin’s work finally got us on the right track. It was most aggravating when the engine would stall and die when starting from a complete stop. It turns out that the 30cc pump does not deliver enough fuel to satisfy the big block and it ends up starving before the power valve can kick in. After taking the truck out for a test drive, the change was amazing. I could actually feel the vacuum secondary system kick in at about 2,000 rpm and from a complete stop, I no longer had to feather the pedal to get it to go.

Now it was time to swap out the distributor. But there was a problem. The engine was still loping badly and after pulling the plug wires, one by one, we found that the number eight cylinder was dead. We ran a compression test and found almost zero compression. Then we tried a leak down test and found air bleeding by the valves. This was not what we wanted to hear. However, Austin is the first mechanic we’ve met that has his act together and offered us a no holds barred diagnosis as well as a solution. So now it’s time to pull the heads back off of the engine block and let Austin work his magic. We’re going to have him install stainless valves and high end hardware. I want this engine to be working at 100% and I don’t intend to skimp by on this one. So stay tuned and as we muddle our way through this quagmire, I’ll keep you up to date and post some great news in the next few weeks when the truck is screaming down the road like a banshee on fire.

Link: Engine to be torn down

posted @ Thursday, March 16, 2006

You may or may not have noticed that I took the truck to Quincy a few Ieks ago for their Home Show. I had been invited to take the truck up to bring some extra attention to the show at the Quincy convention center. I had the truck parked out front Saturday and Sunday with the led’s, strobes and outer rotators energized. The truck got a lot of attention, especially with the new wheels and tires that I had just installed a few days earlier. The question I heard most frequently is “how do you get up there?”, referring to the height of the truck and being able to climb up and in. The kids loved it and it was a lot of fun to watch their reactions when I’d poIr up the Q-siren or blast the stuttertone air horns.

The drive to and from Quincy was smooth and uneventful other than the short stretch on a two lane highway from Washington to Foristel. It turns out that the new larger tires are too much for the single steering stabilizer and that I am going to have to convert to a dual stabilizer set up. It was a white knuckle ride for those few miles as each big bump would pitch the truck left or right depending on which side the bump was on. Once I was on the interstate, the ride was much less demanding.

I did have a small glitch pop up late on Sunday while at the show. The Xantrex inverter shut down about an hour before the end of the show. The remote display showed an error had occurred and the manual did not offer any support. So I fired up the engine and just idled for the rest of the show. A call to Xantrex on Monday informed us that there is a reset procedure available but that’s been put on hold since it requires accessing the battery compartment. Since I need to replace the starting battery anyway, I’ve decided to wait for a week or two until I can accomplish both tasks.

Overall, I had a very nice time and the stay at the new Americas Best Value Inn & Conference Center (http://www.abvi-quincy.com) was great. Especially since it’s just right across the street. I’m planning on staying there again this fall for the Tin Dusters car show. Quincy is a very nice town and the folks there Ire very friendly. I had a great time as Ill as an excuse to get the truck out on the road a little earlier than normal this year. I have a lot of events scheduled and it’s going to be a very good year.

Link: Quincy Home Show