Ownership Log – ERA#2124

[xb-60]

Allen - I checked back to a post of mine, #54, when I said "leave it black". I'm glad you took no notice.
You really have made this car your own now. Congratulations!
So....what's next?
Cheers,
Glen

[Fullchat289]

Thanks for the positive response, guys! It's truely much appreciated. It's been quite a joy doing all these things over the past 5 months to get it to the point it is currently and I'm really pleased with the way it is coming out.

Tim:

Getting in and out isn't that bad. You just go in head-first, grab the down-tube of the roll bar, and swing your butt down in the seat and pull the other leg in. Getting out is the reverse.

Glen:

Thanks very much. There were a number of others who suggested leaving it black, but it has definitely added a more "finished" aspect to the look I am after with this car having painted it the body color.

As far as what is next? ...just detail stuff I think...that is if someone doesn't fall in love with it at SAAC37 and want to buy it.. who knows. There's a few chassis-related things I'd like to do to get it to handle exactly as I think it should. Most of that is alignment-related...I might also play around with another set of sidepipes I have.... All in all, the to-do list is getting quite a bit smaller..

- Allen.

[wolf k]

Hi Allen, Looking good, did you open up the vent cut-out on the side of the roof or is it a simulation only?
Have you been able to tell a difference between your IDA's and IDF's yet?

[Fullchat289]

Hi, Wolf. Hope you are getting some miles on your beautiful car!

No, the indents on the side I elected not to open up. I've seen cars running in the Masters Series both ways, so I decided to just leave them closed. I have holes in my rear plexi window, so any pressure build-up is vented back there rather than filling most of the back of the hardtop up and venting out those side vents...

I haven't really driven the car much since installing the IDA's..it definitely breaths better up top and zings the whole way up to infinity all the while the fuel gauge does this rapid counter clockwise rotation at a rate never before experienced..lol. As far as power/torque goes, I'm not sure there is much noticable difference between my 44IDF's and these 48IDA's....there might be 20HP there..but to me it's not noticable. Jim Inglese is to be up at the SAAC 37 event, so I'll have him look things over and get his butt dyno impressions.

One of the set backs has been my loss of coolant..I thought this was due to a leak between the front water port and the #1 & #5 cylinders, but after removing the carbs/intake and replacing the Fel-Pro gaskets with a thicker intake gasket, I realized that my new handy-dandy water pump bypass modification from the Comp water neck was allowing the full force of the water pump to push coolant back into the Harrison tank, over power the rad cap spring pressure and vent out the overflow hose onto the ground. After a 40 mi drive with some short bursts of high RPM throttle, I was having to put 1/2gallon of collant back in the tank... So to combat this, I used some "Right Stuff" permatex and spliced a restriction in the tube feeding back to the water pump bypass circuit - which amounted to a 1/4" flat washer for the sake of what-the-he**-let's-try-this convenience. So after a trip to Autozone for a 20lb rad cap, it appears to have slowed to a stop. After these freakish afternoon hail storms and torrential downpours subside, I'll take it for a drive and see how things go.. Here's a pic of the restriction I added:



- Allen.

[ceslaw]

Allen:

Regarding the coolant issue:

1. Would you suggest that one use perhaps a 1/4 inch line for the bypass return if duplicating your system? That would keep the pressure down. Perhaps 3/16 would be sufficient.

2. Alternatively, would a 1/8 to 3/16 inch hole in the thermostat (permitting some coolant to flow when closed) accomplish the same goal? My impression is that one wants to even out the temperature in the system by keeping some flow of coolant at all times. A hole in the thermostat would accomplish that. (I used that trick on the GT and it worked well).

Did some head scratching to understand why that happened. My impression is that with a conventional setup the pump is drawing the bypass coolant directly from the block so there is no pressure in the expansion tank with its separate feed from the water pump. But when both the expansion tank and bypass are combined the pressure from the pump through the bypass causes the problem you noted. Makes sense now, but would not have thought of that before your discovery. Now one can see why Ford put two separate inlets on the water pump rather than "T"ing just one.

That top looks absolutely marvelous. Really sets the car apart. And your execution is excellent

[xb-60]

Chuck and Allen - don't forget that force and pressure are two different things. If you have too much pressure then adding a 1/4" restrictor definitely will cut down the flow volume and the force at the restrictor, but it won't cut down the pressure. The pressure will be the same (except for losses, and when the thermostat is closed) everywhere in the cooling system.
Cheers,
Glen

[ceslaw]

Glen

Good point. But if the volume is reduced the force would also be reduced even though the pressure remains the same, which would hopefully solve the problem.

[Fullchat289]

Good points, Chuck and Glen...but yeah, I think the key was slowing down the flow that was coming from the main impeller of the Water Pump. I think that when the T-stat was closed, there was quite a lot of flow coming back through my bypass hose and adding the restriction got things under control. As far as using a 1/4" hose..I would assume that would work OK considering the hole in the center of the washer is about that...more like 5/16".

Really appreciated your nice comments, too, Chuck.

For the record, this was my view this morning....first ride to work after 5 Months of labor....sweet reward:



I'll check the Harrison tank here at lunch and see how the level looks. My ride to work is 45mi, so that should be a decent distance to see if there was any coolant loss at all..

Update: Checked the coolant level at Lunch and it was rock solid!

- Allen.

[Fullchat289]

Just a quick update to show how the rear window turned out with the boarder black added, and a pic of the rear latching mechanism on the rear half of the trunk lid. When the T-handle is rotated, the rods extend and pass through holes in the body flange surrounding the trunk opening. Works really well! I used some heim joints left over from my IDF linkage along with some ¼” aluminum rod, then made up some cardboard patterns for the center anchoring bracket and propeller (for lack of a better term), and then had it fabricated out of aluminum sheet.

Rear Window with the boarder black added:



Rear portion of the trunk lid with the latching mechanism:

[mrmustang]

Allan,

That is simply beautiful........As for the ride, yes, a nice cool morning, but well worth the trip .

Bill S.

[RodKnock]

Certainly one of the top builds on this site. Your talent and skills are amazing. What else will you be doing in the future?

[jeffy]

Hi Alan-

I've been away from the site so just recently saw your progress; everything looks great! Quite a transformation!

Have a great driving season!


Jeff

[Fullchat289]

Bill / Rodknock / Jeffy: Thank you so much!

- Allen.

[ceslaw]

Really nice.

How about a report on those new IDAs now that you have some driving time on them? Any issues?

[Pete Munroe]

Your new "truncated trunk"...is beautiful..that is impressive work !

Assuming I have the correct thread...you were trying to use IDF's orginally?

Had thought the point in using the IDF series was they were much more appropriate and adaptable for street use than the IDA series.

What was the problem with the IDF's that made them "un-adaptable" to your setup...the installed camshaft way too inappropriate for the IDF's characteristics...?

A synopsis of your experience with the two different series of Webers, and why the IDF's were not adaptable, would be really interesting.

Thanks, Pete

[*13*]

Looks awesome, did anyone at work notice?

[Fullchat289]

Chuck:

I certainly will give a detailed report on my IDA experiences after my trip up to the Glen. I will keep a log of fuel stops and mileage along with any applicable notes for the outbound and return trips much like the chart I posted for my IDF's. Jim Inglese is to be with the Cobra Automotive booth, so I'll get with him and get his butt dyno impressions and see if he feels there's a need for fine tuning. I know he said he wanted to see the car, so hopefully there will be some opportunity for that sometime during the frenzied three days.

Pete:

Thanks so much for your comments. I can certainly tell you that your car was one that provided inspiration in my early days of dreaming...I remember seeing it on ERA's customer cars page for the FIA and being quite impressed. As far as the IDA vs IDF reasoning, it was sort of one thing leading into another that ended in me just surrendering to my true desire for a "period" looking competition induction set-up. IDA's are what trips my trigger. When I bought the car from the previous owner, it had 44 IDF's on top of the 347. Jim advised that these were sort of small for the engine's displacement after I contacted him with some results of a drag run I performed recently where the engine just seemed to fall flat in the upper rev ranges outside of third gear.. so the thought was just move up to 48 IDF's, but I really wanted to go all the way..which is what I did after finding a buyer for my IDF system. The engine looks better and breaths better, with the former just being personal preference and the latter being fact. But you can decide on the old vs new for yourself:

OLD:



NEW:



Hyde:

I would image several people did notice, but I'm sure you've run into this were the majority of the population just doesn't recognize it or know what it is in the first place...just an old looking car to some....and that's 100% fine with me. I did take a few fellow gearheads out at lunchtime and give them the 5 cent tour.

- Allen.

[ERA Chas]

Allen,
I assume since you got these brand new from Jim, that they are the Spanish carbs and not Italian??
Sorry for the ignorant question from a dual quad denizen. But can you describe anything you know about the differences between them like quality and performance?
Yours apparently run great and they look super-great old-timey look with no bling.

[Fullchat289]

Chas:

Si, these are the Spanish ones. Visual difference off the top would be patina, and maybe studs holding the horns on vs bolts, of course the ID numbers and "Made in Italy" (obvious things) and then maybe on the quality side, I've heard the Italian carbs had better throttle shaft bearings, but that's all I know of that separates the two. Jim also makes his own linkage, which I'm sure use more readily available, yet adequate, componentry..for instance, back in the day they were using aircraft grade heim joints and such. That's about all I can think of at the moment as far as differences go.

- Allen.

[LightNFast]

Beautiful job Allen!

I suggest you at least put some screens on though before she swallows something . Jim has some that look and work really well.

Regards,