Using the right brew, parts cost blues, wrong crank Cortina and more
Hoo boy, it’s been one of those weeks. As I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently, getting parts for cars at the moment is a real issue. Freight costs are at an all time high and the supply is pretty ordinary. I seem to have a workshop full of cars, waiting for things to arrive.
One of the less troublesome is Ed Guido’s Project VK, the Berlina wagon we’re throwing together with a 355 stroker V8.
As is often the case, just as you look like you’re in sight of the end of the project, there’s still a huge list of details to sort, each of which takes time.
A good example is making up a crankcase of PCV system. It’s all terribly simple on the face of it, but it’s time-consuming as you chase down connectors and pipes that will do the job and still look good. Just little stuff, but it’s worth getting right the first time before we sling the engine into its new home.
And now we wait as various bits and pieces trickle in. Today’s big news was the new fuel pump arrived! That’s one more thing to be crossed off the list.
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Speaking of parts, it’s worth sharing one recent experience. One of my customers has a 2016 Toyota Yaris, which needed the driver-side window fixed. I was quoted $700 for a winder motor (!) and, after making who knows how many calls, tracked down the last window switch left in the country. We refused to be held to ransom for the motor and found a way to fix it, though it still turned out to be a fairly pricey job at $600.
Still, it could be worse. The owner of a late-model BMW was coming over to see us and along the way accidentally put petrol in his diesel car. Not good. It limped to our workshop, then promptly shut down, locking up everything, including the park brake. That made getting it onto a flatbed a pretty interesting experience!
There was a time that if you put the wrong fuel in your car, so long as you didn’t drive too far, you could clean it out and it wasn’t too catastrophic. These days, it’s a big and expensive issue to rectify.
So, the moral to the story? Treat fuelling your car with as much attention as you would crossing a six-lane highway in your birthday suit – concentrate!
Here’s my tip
Numbers game
Every now and then we hear of confusion about brake fluid ratings – you know, DOT 3, 4, 5 etc. The gist is you can generally upgrade your old system from DOT 3 to 4 without issue, next time you flush it. However, DOT 4 and 5 are not compatible. The latter has big benefits in that it’s less hygroscopic (absorbs less water), but you will need to put fresh seals through your system as part of the conversion.
LETTERS
Sick Datto
Knock knock, who’s there? A camchain perhaps
I have a 1981 Datsun 720 with an L18 engine in it. We have done numerous upgrades such as a Weber carburettor and Scorcher electronic distributor fitted.
It was running reasonably well but it was pre-igniting and I thought it could be better so I put the timing light on it and found that the timing was way too advanced.
(We set it at 10 degrees about two months ago but when we checked it today it was at about 60 degrees.)
So we rotated the dizzy to 20 degrees but from then on it only just ran and started a tapping noise seemingly coming from under the rocker cover. I then put it back to approximately where it was, gave it a run and it went beautifully but still knocked.
I also noticed the knocking came and went a lot but if I revved it a tiny bit and let it off again it went away. The engine has also been revving up and down slightly at idle. When we installed the Weber we took out the emission gear (It’s not a road car) and blocked off most extra hoses except for the breather coming out of the rocker cover. Apart from the tapping it is running possibly better than I can remember it has ever been.
Another factor that must have something to do with things is that when we did the welsh plug I found lots of chunks of metal in behind the plug.
Considering it could barely get down the laneway without backfiring just two years ago it really has improved.
Any suggestions on what to do next and how to fix the tapping?
Ben McIver
There’s a lot going on there, Ben. That ute was a farmer’s favourite for years. They’re pretty tough.
My first question is are you using a downdraft or sidedraft Weber and in what configuration? If it’s the downdraft version, they have an idle solenoid, so you control the idle with a needle. If that’s been taken off, you’re then using the butterfly which tends to be too open and can cause the engine to run on.
If it’s happening with the sidedraft, again the butterfly may be too far open and it’s getting too much air.
As for the noises, my immediate thought was an issue with the cam chain and/or tensioner. You’ll need to go back to basics.
And now I’ve just read about the metal behind the Welsh plug. It’s time to take it apart! Clearly, it’s having a go at disassembling itself and you need to get in there and see what’s going wrong.
Wrong Bits
In 1973/4 I ordered a Wild Violet GS 302 four-speed panel van from Murphy Ford, Ipswich. There was a small delay to get the vehicle built and during this time I got a job as a mechanic at Murphy Ford.
Unfortunately during this time the production staff at Ford went on strike for two to three months. Could have been longer. Eventually, the strike ended and a couple of weeks later my van turned up but it only had three-on-the-tree fitted. I was told that there was a shortage of parts on the assembly plant and to get things moving they fitted whatever they had. How things change! I still bought it.
Interestingly I took it to a street drag meet at Surfers Paradise and did a best of 16.9sec. Compares well with times listed for Monaro 327 etc in issue 467 page 59. My van was stock except for maybe dual exhausts at that time. It was sold after a few years. While working at Murphy Ford I was given a 2.0lt SOHC Cortina to pre-deliver. Did all the normal stuff, check points, timing etc.
When finished I went for a test drive. Slow as a wet week. Checked it all again. Nothing wrong. Finally checked tappets and cam timing. Nothing wrong.
Finally did a compression test, and all cylinders were equal in pressure but all very low. Removed head, everything looked fine until I turned the crank over and pistons did not come to within a quarter-inch of top of block. We ended up pulling the motor out and found that it had a 1600cc crank which was not available in Oz! We fitted a new 2000cc crank and it was back to normal power.
Neil Englund
We love stories like this, Neil. All too often, someone will point to a local seventies car and complain that it has the ‘wrong’ bits and they never came with whatever the offending part was. In fact, car manufacturing over this period sometimes resembled the Wild West, and yep there were times when machinery was thrown together with whatever came to hand.
However, I have to say the wrong crankshaft is a new one on me. Then again, I did once come across a six-cylinder engine that was missing a conrod and piston…
Classic Drives
Prem never missesd a beat
I have attached some classic shots of cars I’ve owned over the years, that may interest you. The 55 Cusso was a three-speed manual and fitted with a floor shift that was an upside-down H pattern. First was to the left and up, and to change to second you pulled the lever straight down. It had a valve spring at the base to pull the lever into the second/third plane. The change from first to second was very quick.
It was a rare Canadian model (one-piece bumpers), which I only discovered after I sold it. The OHV 272 V8 was a magnificent engine with a great rumble. The EJ panel van served me well in WA in the early 70s. It only cost a couple of hundred dollars and was a very used door and window delivery van before I got it.
I did nothing to it, except drive it hard. It lasted me well (except gear linkage issues that were solved by using an occy strap from the gear lever to the seat springs to hold her in top gear) until I traded her in for a HK Premier. The HK Premier did a good job across the Nullabor when I relocated to SA in about 1973. The front right-hand door sagged a bit from the miles of dirt road, but apart from that it never missed a beat. The V8 LH Torana was a great car. It was just an S, with SLR dash and four-speed manual gearbox. With a racy cam, extractors, four-barrel Holley and 2.78 diff it was capable of doing 100mph in third gear. These days I am more than content with my VF Series 2 SS Commodore six-speed manual. It is, and will remain, unmodified.
Mick Brophy
What a great line-up, Mick! Not so long ago, Customlines had something close to a cult following, as they were nice simple things to own and had a bit of style. I love the group mates on the bonnet!
Some of the Customlines that underwent left to right-hand-drive conversions here had some interesting shifts if they were column changes. There were rose joints and all sorts of weird things happening. A floor shift would have been.
Trivial Pursuit
Breakthrough
Though they only became universal during the second half of the last century, disc brakes were under development from the 1890s. The first car application is credited to Frederick Lanchester, of Lanchester cars, who had a patent by 1902. Citroen’s DS series was arguably the first mass-produced series that used discs as a matter of course.
From Unique Cars #468, Jul/Aug 2022
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