martybose

That's it! The limit on tire life is particularly true for RV's, which by their nature tend to be running at 90-100% of their rated capacity. The rule of thumb that most tire manufacturers use is that regardless of the mileage, RV tires should be replaced after 5 years of service. Also, the use of nitrogen would not significantly change this, as most of the damage to the tire is UV damage to the outside ..... Marty

You don't have to put on the new shock mounts, although having done so I would recommend it. The gotcha in the Fatman spindles is that you have to convert to front disk brakes to use them. I managed to install mine with stock drums, but it took a lot of unexpected work and leaves you with a much larger turning circle; not advised at all!! Marty

A universal replacement unit will fit just fine; I've got one in my car for my GPS unit. Marty

No, it just means that you have to know who to order from. Mine, for instance, were purchased from http://thenightprowlers.com, who had the correct width , the correct U-bolts, and from 1-1/2" to 3" high, if memory serves. Marty

if memory serves, it should be between 6.8V and 7.2V. Marty

I guess you missed the part where I mentioned that I don't have a thermostat installed; my water circulates through the radiator continuously. It probably wouldn't be a good idea if I lived up in the frozen north, but it works fine in California, where I've never even turned on the heater. As far as the water going through the radiator too fast, I guess you haven't noticed that most modern engines are using much higher flow rates than they used to, and they cool just fine. I am using Evans NPG+ coolant, and they recommend high flow rates. Marty

Yes, and if you follow it, it feeds to the center of the impeller, as the large port you are mentioning is actually the exit for the water from the pump. Marty

The only difference that I see in your pump photo is that the left one has the older 2 paddle style of impeller, while the one on the right has the later cast 6 blade impeller, which works much better; I don't see any chamber. As to the second comment, in my external bypass housing the bypass goes around the thermostat, not through it. This might be one of the variations in this housing that you mentioned. As to the third, what we both said is that we started with dual bypasses, then we each closed up one bypass (his the external, mine the internal), and in both cases the engine ran cooler because less water was bypassing the radiator. My current setup runs no bypass and no thermostat, and once I recalibrated my temperature gauge (which had been WAY off), it runs 160-170 with no engine fan and a thermostatically-controlled electric pusher fan setup. YMMV. Marty

I'd suggest that something is wrong with the filter or filter adapter. I'm using a different full flow setup that takes oil externally from the oil pump, runs it through a spin-on filter, then it goes through an external oil pressure regulator (which dumps excess oil back into the pan) before it goes into the block. On a cold start I'm seeing about 80 lb. on the oil pressure gauge, which is feeding off of the usual location at the back of the block. I've no idea what the filter is seeing, but I'm sure it is more than that, and I haven't had any problems with the filter leaking. Marty PS I just read the thread on the other forum that was referred to, and it mentions that the oil filter had unscrewed to cause the initial problem, then the filter was overtightened and caused the O-ring to roll over so that it couldn't seal. He did mention an earlier problem with the oil lines themselves to/from the filter adapter getting plugged, which would concern me a lot.

When I pulled the backing plates off of my waterpumps, the internals were identical. If you look closely at the thermostat housing, the bypass section does not go through the thermostat, so it will always be open, and since there is more restriction going through the radiator than there is from feeding directly into the suction side of the pump, water will always be going through the bypass. As Don says, it's your motor so you can do what you want, but if you have a bypass head installed and use both, Jim's post is probably correct. I had the same problem as Jim with my original iron head, which ended when I installed my non-internal bypass Edmunds head. Marty

I left my car as a 6V for a lot of years, even had a 6V alternator and 6V halogen headlights. But I gave in and switched to 12V after my third attempt to make the stock fuel gauge work failed. Since my fuel tank was in bad shape anyway, I installed a replacement tank with a modern 12V fuel level sender in it (along with the necessary gauge, obviously) and haven't had a problem with the gauge since. Marty

You do realize that the only difference between an internal and external bypass water pump is the addition of a single hole in the backing plate, don't you? And why would you want to run both an internal and external bypass? Doing so just gives you twice as much water that never gets to the radiator, which isn't a really good idea. Marty

I don't have the part number handy, but the new waterpump that NAPA sells is an internal bypass pump which has both a threaded hose fitting and the provisions for the two bolt top casting for a heater connection. On my motor I swapped the back plate for the external pump plate off of my old pump. Marty

Welcome; it's nice to see someone on my side of the Bay for a change! Marty

Norm, I would suggest that you carefully check that nice fuel hose to see if it has any markings. If, like the hose I bought, it is marked "FDA approved", I would throw it away. My so-called fuel hose turned out to be a food-grade plastic tubing that had the interesting habit of swelling up with today's gasoline. I spent two weeks chasing leaking connections before I threw it away and switched to a fuel grade reinforced hose. YMMV. Marty

The thing that most people forget is that to run (using your figures) 124 MPH at 4200 RPM, you have to be able to run 103 MPH at 3500 RPM, assuming that you don't have a real close ratio transmission installed. If you don't make enough horsepower at 3500 RPM to run 103, it won't ever accelerate to the theoretical 124 MPH top speed. You'd be surprised at how many cars run into this problem! Marty

The only way that would work electrically is if you had a starter switch that could pass something like 500 amps of current; not likely! Also, mecahnically you would have the starter gear permanently engaged, which would lead to spectacular but catastrophic failure the first time you revved the engine! You really need a later model starter designed for a remote solenoid. Marty

Yeah, it's definitely an acquired taste! I went with my mechanic, who had been an old funny car pilot and drag racer, and I had crewed for him for years. He built the roll cage for the car we went with. So the driver makes the first qualifying pass and reports that the 6 cylinder went to 5 cylinders about half way through the first mile. Cecil and I whip off the valve cover, find a broken spring, start taking apart the valvetrain to fix it, then we look around and EVERYONE ELSE ON THE CREW IS GONE! This all happened at 10 AM, and Cecil and I were used to thrashing to make the next (dragracing) round in half an hour or so. The rest of the crew were Bonneville veterans, so they knew that we wouldn't be able to run the car again until the next day, so they took off to visit friends, look at cars, whatever, then they came back for lunch, THEN they set to work to fix the motor. Had it fixed by 3 PM, buttoned it up, went visiting, left for dinner, qualified for a record run the next day, set a record the day after. It was HARD to slow down to that pace, but we managed! Marty

My mechanic said that it is there to aid in fuel vaporization. Most of the Edmunds manifolds have rather long runners, and since there isn't any exhaust heat riser connection, the manifolds are rather cold. It just helps you get a good air/fuel mix into the engine. Mine is hooked up with water from below the heater control valve, then back to my non-stock thermostat housing; most would return to the fitting in the top of the waterpump housing. Marty

I sent a stock piston, a set of rings and a requested bore size to Venolia and they made me a very nice set of custom pistons. This was quite a while ago, however. Marty

I had noticed the little scoop in the beginning. I've said before that Bonneville is really the worlds longest dragstrip; I hope you have a gearbox that has the two highest gears close enough together to optimize acceleration. Marty

My OD works great with a 3.9. In fact if I ever get to the point of changing rearends I would probably go for something like a 3.7 ratio. Marty

having watched the video, i would think that just providing a sealed air inlet to the carb (and subsequent rejetting) would get you the record back; running with the air running past the carb couldn't be working too well! Marty

Harassing the dog? Marty

If your car is hopped up in any way you'll probably find that the OEM kickdown switch is more trouble than it is worth. A lot of people (myself included) mount a manual switch on the shifter to perform this function, which also gives you the option of doing things like making it a 5 speed (the gearing is such that using 1-2-2OD-3-3OD is actually spaced better than 1-2-3-3OD. When getting on the freeway I often use 1-2-2OD-3OD, as 2OD is a great gear for getting up to freeway speed! Marty