Chapter 27             Most of 2003

9/30/03 I’ve been working rather steadily on the Bonneville car, but have had some time to get out in TurboStude after the weather warmed up. Got her ready again for Back to the 50’s and again had a lot of people milling around the car in disbelief…. Played around some more with the carbs and went back to some bigger jets/needles on both sides. TurboStude has always smoked a bit more than I’d like. Attributed it to an old turbo, but in fact it was partly because there was not a small enough restrictor to oil flow into the turbo. Check with the Corky Bell book I think on this. It should be something like .060" I think! Anyway, it slowed down the smoking for a bit, until later this summer, when it began to smoke to the point of embarrassment. Figured I’d stop driving it until I figured out whether I had a water leak somewhere or a blown oil seal or what…

All the plugs looked the same, but sooty. The water looked ok as did the oil. I noticed that the carb hat had started to melt. You may recall that it is made of pvc and JB weld, now held together also with hose clamps where it was starting to split from the boost. Well, further inspection revealed that some of that "goo" had started to find its way into the high speed air jet on one side, and that the ball bearing just below the accelerator pump nozzles was stuck closed. Remember the wire I put into the air jet orifices? Well, make sure YOU use stainless steel or maybe brass, since it had managed to develop enough rust to further obstruct the air jet, thereby causing further richness (and perhaps the bluish white smoke I have been seeing….). Anyhow, It seemed like a good time to redo the air-hat and fix issues near the carb top-plate.

The mouth of the Edelbrock carb will accept a tube with an inside diameter of 5". At the steel yard, I found that only schedule 40 steel pipe was the right size (and I wanted aluminum….). I bought a 6 inch length for $3 and turned it down to about 5" long in the lathe. Used a hole saw of two different sizes and a cut-off tool to make a hole similar to the type I had made in the pvc, and mig welded my old input tube on. This was mostly successful, though I needed to solder up some leaks. Made a new plexiglass cover with a similar design to the old one, and am now working on a newer model air flow straightener. It seems that the gas industry has been using such a device and have worked out the ideal formula for a simpler sieve plate with bigger holes than I used before. My device will have a fine screen made out of a soup strainer right beyond the inlet, and then the sieve plate with some space between that and the top of the carb. It should not be any taller than the last one, but should perform better…..

And it doesn’t melt……

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