5/4/09

Remember how I said that fifth gear was useless under eighty miles per hour in Shichi now with the combination of cam and carburetors we have on there? Yeah, I couldn’t even get the thing to maintain over eighty in fifth last night. The torque required to push that brick through the air at those speeds is more than the thing produces and it just slows down. I either need a shorter gear in the rear axle or… well, yeah, that’s really the only solution. I'll just drive it like a four-speed for now and we’ll see how that works out. John suggested fuel injection, which I'm not against, especially since I did drop over $1,500.00 on a Simple Digital Systems fuel injection system when this was going to be turbocharged. I'd have to swap front pulleys with George since his has the flying magnet installed. I'd have to install the magnetic pickup hoozis to the front cover. I'd need to swap out the distributor for that gutted one I made. I'd need another MSD 6 spark box, but I would like to replace the one in George for one with a boost retard function so that is actually a good thing. The big question is: “What would I use for manifold and throttle body(ies)?” The SDS harness is set up for those dual Weber ICT manifolds I built (had someone build) for the turbo project. The problem there is they are small, round-port manifolds. I don’t know if they are center bolt or not, but they are definitely round-port. I'm not sure if there is enough meat to hog them out to oval-port size either. I doubt it. So that leaves me with the option of individual throttle body injection. But even there I have a choice. Do I go with the dual SU throttle bodies and run only two injectors? SDS didn’t like sharing injectors for multiple cylinders back when I bought this stuff. I think some of the SU throttle bodies have provision for dual injectors but I'm not sure. Then there are the DCOE style throttle bodies. They would use the correct number of injectors for the SDS but the harness I have is all wrong. I do have a couple dual DCOE manifolds for that engine, as well as a pair of Mikuni DCOE knockoff carburetors if I want to abandon this idea straight away. In fact, the idea of fuel injection is beginning to look like a bigger pain in the ass than I had originally thought. The only thing I'd “need” for the Mikuni swap would be a new bonnet (hood) for the car. John thinks I could sell the dual SUs for enough to buy a new bonnet. I guess I need to check with Dick Brink and see what a bonnet goes for. Feh! I don’t know what I want to do. The Mikuni setup isn't going to make any more torque than the SUs, in fact it may make less, so the fifth-gear issue will still be there. I guess I'll stick with the SUs for the time being and see what happens. There is still the possibility that I'll put a ludicrous price on the thing at the June swap meet and get it. Being out of debt again sure would be sweet. Well, this is getting me nowhere. I think I'm going to shut down for a bit. Ok, I'm back. The more I think about it, the less I want to mess with fuel injection on Shichi. I'm giving more though to swapping rear end ratios, or perhaps the whole rear axle. I'd like to get a measurement of A) width and 2) bolt circle on a Toyota Corolla GTS (AE86). If it has the right width and uses the same bolt spacing, I'd have a limited slip with something like a 4.30:1 ratio. Ok, I don’t remember what the AE86 ratio is, but I know that Legends Cars use that pumpkin and have all sorts of ratios available. Before you even ask, I'm not considering a Datsun axle because I don’t want to have to buy new wheels. I kicked around the idea of looking at making it an IRS with Chapman Struts. I'm thinking that I could find a set of front wheel drive struts with the right bolt spacing, I could adapt them to the rear and use an R-160, R-180, or even an R-200 differential in the middle. Then again, I do have that Miata rear suspension in the small storage unit. I wonder how much work that would take to install. Hmm. No, I think if I'm going to redesign the car around IRS then Chapman Struts, FWD McPherson struts used in the rear, are the way to go. Then again, I could just drive the damned thing like a four-speed and live with it. Yeah, that’s the most likely thing to happen. I do want to check and see if we have a vacuum leak in the rear section of that manifold. I don’t really trust the gasket I wound up using. I'd like to change it out for an oval-port gasket and perhaps put a dab of sealant on it this time. Then again, Juan can’t use silicone on the intake because gasoline just dissolves it as if it weren’t even there. Anything that will put up with gasoline will be a bitch to get off in the future too. Hmm. I just don’t know. Hopefully we’ll get to go to the shop next Saturday and it won’t be raining. I'll drive it down there and we’ll have us a look-see. Well, I guess I've wasted enough of your time. I'll tell y'all about the weekend’s activities tomorrow.