martybose

My Edmunds setup had a cleanup cut on the head, a mild cam, cast iron headers into full dual exhaust, an Edmunds intake manifold with dual Carter-Webers from Langdon. It runs really nice with the out-of-the-box jetting from Langdon. It came out just over 9 to 1 compression, and does have to run 91 octane gas to cut down on the pre-ignition. Marty

Helicoils are not standard, but are not uncommon by now. I used Timeserts on my Edmunds head. There is no special cam for this head, you can use any cam that works with a stock head. Please be aware that the stock head uses a 3/8" reach sparkplug, while the Edmunds head is set up for a 1/2" reach sparkplug, which are not too common. Marty

Just buy a gasket set and use the manifold gasket as a guide. Marty

When I did my external oil filter setup I made a custom setup that deleted the stock oil pressure plunger and used an external sprint car oil pressure regulator with a bypass directly to the pan. Still had a stock oil pump, just the version from a hydrive car that originally had the regulator in the oil pump housing; we took out the regulator, brazed the holes, and installed a fitting to take the oil feed out to the external oil filter and regulator. The first time we fired the engine with this setup we had almost 150 pounds of oil pressure because of the initial setting of the sprint car regulator. Shut it down immediately, backed the regulator setting down a bunch, eventually having about 60 pounds cold idle, 15 pounds hot idle with 10w-40 oil. Marty

From his first posting he has already replaced the original radiator with an aluminum one, so I don't see any reason to restrict yourself to just a 4 pound radiator cap. Marty

The only thing I see missing from your list is the interrupter switch on the bottom of the transmission; did you replace it? Just be aware that if you take it out while in the car there is a little metal plunger that will fall out when you pull out the switch which is an absolute bear to get back in. There is a special automatic transmission assembly grease that is used to hold check valve balls in valve bodies that you can use to hold it in place while you get the switch installed. Have you checked to make sure that you have full travel on the cable to the shifter? I had a problem there until I changed the cable routing and secured it better. Marty

There is now a company that makes a system that uses GPS to determine the speed and then drives a box that turns a mechanical speedo cable at the correct RPM to give you the correct reading. That's nice, because it takes both the transmission and the tire size out of the equation. Marty

I worked in the Dodge San Leandro plant in the late 60's/early 70's when it was owned by International Harvester and built Class 8 semi tractors. They closed it in the mid 70's and it stayed vacant for a while, then Caterpillar bought it to manufacture diesel fuel pumps for their engines. They closed it again after a few years, and it stayed vacant until the building was converted into retail sales location for a bunch of smaller companies. If you look carefully there are remnants of the prior uses; the shed is still alongside the main building that contained the chassis dyno that we ran all of the semi tractors on back in the day. Marty

When I got my Chrysler Marine electronic tach I just plugged the sensor line into the tach connection on my Langdon HEI and it worked perfectly. Sometimes you just luck out in spite of the challenges. Marty

I think the issue with the radio only applies if you have changed to an electronic oscillator; when I switched from positive to negative ground with the original radio it kept working just fine. Marty

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the accelerator pump yet. Soaking the leather piston in oil and reinstalling cured the hesitation back a hundred years or so ago when I had the stock carb on my motor. Marty

No it doesn't. I was pleasantly surprised when I changed my car from positive to negative ground that the starter was unaffected. Marty

One thing to remember is that these cars came standard with 30 watt bulbs, with wiring and switches to suit. I put 55 watt 6V halogens in my car, and had to add headlight relays because both the headlight switch and the dimmer switch started heating up due to the extra wattage. Marty

Doug, this is exactly the way the water tubing on my old car is set up. Marty

.... or you can just get the OEM steering box rebuilt with all new parts. It ain't cheap, and shipping is a pain due to the attached steering shaft, but it can be done. Midwest Remanufacturing did mine, and did an excellent job. Marty

I agree with Niel; if you need fuel hose, you should buy a fuel-injection-rated hose at your friendly neighborhood auto parts store. Marty

It looks to me that the caliper bleeder valve is down by the steering arm, which means that you have the calipers mounted on the wrong sides of the car. The bleeder valve is always the highest thing on the caliper so they can be used to get the air out when bleeding the brakes. Marty

I just removed the regulator and all of the wiring and used a single feed. It's been so long I don't remember where it was connected! Marty

I used a 60 amp 6V alternator for years, and it wasn't a problem. You could count the number of times it pegged the gauge on one hand; the rest of the time it would be at the high end of the scale for maybe half a minute, then would move down to lower charge levels after that. The battery would have to be pretty dead for it to pull 60 amps. Marty

You only had a 20 degree F difference from the top of the radiator to the bottom. The top reading wasn't bad, but my thought is that the bottom reading should be lower. My thought is that part of the radiator is plugged; has it been worked on at all? Marty

The 6 volt halogen bulbs that I ran back in the day were 55W low/60W high, and were definitely beyond the capability of the generator, the headlight switch, and the dimmer switch. I installed a 6V positive ground 60 amp alternator and a dual pole 6V headlight relay. The idea was to remove the amperage from the headlight switch and the dimmer switch; they only had to switch the relays. Ran that way for several years until I finally switched to 12V for other reasons. Marty

From his initial description, my impression was that what we see is what he found ..... Marty

Those seals were clearly installed by someone who didn't understand how they work. They are supposed to be on the other end of the valveguide, not the valve head end. Marty

Your photo is a classic for what happens when you drive with the wheel nuts loose and the wheel beats up the studs. You could probably run a die down the threads, put the wheel and lugnuts on, torque them down properly and drive off into the sunset ...... Marty

You're a braver man than I am if you would install used lifters on a new cam; my experience is that such a move usually results in highly worn cam lobes. Marty