6/30/10

I cannot believe we are halfway through this year! It boggles the mind. Boggles it, I tell you! So, I mentioned something about Nadine's plan the other day, right? Well, here’s what we’re thinking at this juncture. The Prince of Darkness, AKA Lucas Electrics, will be totally exorcised from my car, save for a few items like taillight lenses and other non-electrical gee-gaws. The Hot Rod Wires wiring harness arrived yesterday so it will be going in, probably starting Saturday. OK, probably not since I still have to remove the last of the PoD equipment first. So now we’re down to “what is going to power this thing?” Obviously the Hoyt-Clagwell tractor engine would make the purists the least unhappy. I don't reallly have a problem with the engine, I know I can make the HRW harness work with it and the mechanical gauges are actually kind of cool. No, my biggest problem is with the Laycock/DeNormanville overdrive unit. Sure, I could find an unused circuit in the siring harness and hook it up through a new switch, but I still don't have any faith that it will work. Besides, the shifter in the transmission seems to be stuck. No, unless some miracle occurs to sway me back to “stock,” I think we’re going to go ahead and “bastardize” this car with a Datsun engine. I'm leaning towards an L-20b because it looks like the right vintage for the car, more or less. I think that with a set of SU carburetors on there, it could pass for some kind of homologation special, or something. The other option we are considering is the Z-20 from the Chickenhawk. Either one of those would give me more torque, more horsepower, and more RPM than the tractor motor. OK, I've been away for a few hours and in that time I think I have come to a decision. I am going to use the Z-20 from the Chickenhawk in Nadine. Here’ why: the L-20b needs to be rebuilt, the Z-20 was rebuilt just a few thousand miles ago. The only thing that might be a stickler, I don't know if the cam was “installed” or just “stuck in there.” You see, that isn't the bad ass cam I used to run in the Chickenhawk. That is a stock cam someone put in there when the bad ass cam was sold to Marty. I don't remember if it was me or someone else, and therefore do not remember if it was timed and stuff. Crap, I don't want to pull the front cover off of that engine. Well, now I don't know what I want to do. I just sent John a text asking if he remembered who swapped the cams. Oh wait, you can't just “stick it in there,” those cams only have one alignment hole. If it didn't slip time on the chain it ought to be fine. Never mind. I guess I ought to text John that revelation. OK, with that out of the way, I think I'm going to use the Z-20 from the Chickenhawk in Nadine. I decided that no matter how good my bullshit back story is on the L-20b, no one is going to believe it is a period correct homologation special. I might as well go whole hog on the bastardization. Oh, I might mill off the “Nissan Z” from the valve cover and install a “Triumph” badge just to see who questions it. We'll see. Well, I'm bored with talking to y'all. I think I'm going to go do something else.