new sweety

[Hardway]

Congrats on the purchase, she is beautiful and worth every penny of $5900. I love that it is so original and still orange and not painted over in another "more popular" color. As others have said before, inspect the fuel vent lines. Seeing that the car is 40 years old and they look good it would be good to go ahead and start making plans to replace them in the near future as they do breakdown and will start to leak. The job is some what of a PITA but totally worth doing as you should not have to worry about them for another 40 years. Again, congrats and we look forward to more updates and pictures as you work on it.

[pacemkr]

Wait a minute... You're saying that this car is more complicated than a 73 you used to own? That doesn't make sense... The 73's had the first year of the flat-tops and all the associated complexity of the EGR and thermostatic air cleaner and CARB can, and and, and...

This car you've pictured should be way simpler!

im not sure but i still think this thing looks alot more cluttered.

my 73 was owned by my brother since almost new, and i think he had removed alot of the hardware over time.

i also had a 71 motor on a stand for a while, it looked alot cleaner too without the water sys, and anti backfire.

since this was a california car, did it recieve more attention for pollution than the other states' cars. in particular, did the other state cars have anti backfire and pump?

thanks guys for all the input.

[MotoManMike]

Thats a good price for that car. Its a solid foundation, very minimal issues to start with. You are lucky to have found one in such shape. Glad it found another owner who will take great care of it. Congratulations. You picked the best color too IMO!! As for the intake manifold, It looks like the smog system has been deleted already. To clean it up further you could get a header or try to remove the header that is on it and remove the tubes on each pipe but most of the time they are so seized with rust its a real fight. Somone has already put the earlier SU carbs on it for you and they appear to be pretty fresh from looking from the outside. They perform WAY better than the original 73 carbs. Depending on how much you want to keep it original many of the things i've said stray farther from it. I really like the way these carbs look with the what I call "euro" style pod filers on them removing the big bulky air cleaner box. Black dragon auto has them. I've got them on my L24 powered Z and noticed a little performance gain with them. Not much I will say but noticeable enough for me to not go back. Have you popped the distributor cap off yet to see if it is still points ignition?

[pacemkr]

actually, just recieved the major tune kit from motorsport auto yesterday in the mail along with new orange wires. you yanks get stuff so much cheaper than we do, that kit would cost 100$ easy here in canada.

anyways, yeah, it still has point/condens ignition. so im loooking forward to installing that stuff.

thanks for the input on the water sys on the manifold. that was a concern of mine. would like to go with the header, but was weary about getting rid of those water pipes.

I'll do a search, im sure i can find a 'how to' on that.

anyways, thanks so much for the input.

[Captain Obvious]

A stock 73 is way more complicated and cluttered than what you have here. If this most recent purchase is a 73, then someone has made a lot of changes to the carbs and emissions controls.

I took a look back through the thread, and I'm not sure you ever mentioned what year this car is... What is it?

[pacemkr]

sorry for confusion folks,\

this car is a 72. looks like pretty original.

was just saying i wanted to simplify the intake side a bit and was comparing to my 73 that i previously had owned.

my previous 73 had been stripped down quite a bit from the stock config.

captain obvious. , i like that handle.

[Captain Obvious]

That makes much more sense for the new purchase to be a 72. And with that in mind, it looks pretty original to me too. There has already been some simplifying of the intake side already done though... When supplied new, you had:

A PCV system.

A throttle opener system.

An evaporative emissions control system (flow guide operated).

An air injection system (the air pump system).

An anti-backfire valve system.

An intake manifold and carb heating system.

Of those, it looks like everything is intact with the exception of most of the air pump system and your anti-backfire valve (which is incorporated into the air pump plumbing). The only thing remaining from the air pump system is the air galley leading into your exhaust manifold and the check valve (that goes nowhere stub of tube pointing at your front carb).

All of this may sound complicated, but just wait... Here's what the 73 looked like new. Complete with flat tops in all thier glory :

In addition to all the stuff you got in 72, you also get an EGR system, a thermostatic air cleaner, an more complicated throttle opener system, a much more complicated carb and intake manifold heating system, separate idle circuit plumbing, etc!

So if you're comparing your current 72 to your prior 73 and the 73 was simpler, then there must have been some serious work done to that 73!

Edited October 5, 2012 by Captain Obvious
Typo

[Captain Obvious]

And.... I've been digressing into the comparison of the 72 and 73 and haven't even yet commented on your car in general...

Congrats! It's a beauty!!

[pacemkr]

. YEAH. . 73 had allot of 'work' but i aint gonna tell ya it was professional

thanks for the time spent with that reply

here's what my ugly 73 looked like.

and heres what my 71 motor that i never got to use looked like.

[Captain Obvious]

Heh. I suspect there are very few 73's or 74's that still have all the emissions stuff still intact.

Congrats again on the new purchase! If that body is as good as it looks, then you got a real nice one there!

[pacemkr]

Heh. I suspect there are very few 73's or 74's that still have all the emissions stuff still intact.

Congrats again on the new purchase! If that body is as good as it looks, then you got a real nice one there!

do me a favor.

i've asked this question already but still have my doubts,, My engine block is stamped on passenger side with 'L26'. what the heck?

is this a motor previosly in a 260? it does have e88 heads, and round top su's as youve seen in the picks.

and yes, body is in great shape, an absolute blessing to find like that. paint job is shiny and pretty, but not the best quality tape job, rubber trim and such has a little overspray. but, it has no rust on rails, floors, other prob spot so im happy. just would really like to figure this block stamp issue out.

[Jetaway]

Is the stamp between the 5th and 6th cylinders, on a milled area, and followed by a five or six digit number? If so, then I'm pretty sure the engine came from or is for a 260. I have a '72 and it has an ID plate on the right front shock tower with the VIN and engine number. I can't tell from your engine shots if you have one or not, it might be a little lower. Also, I was curious about the sticker on the hood. That's a tune-up / emission sticker, isn't it? I didn't think they came out until a couple of years later, but could well be wrong on that. Regardless, what year does it say?

Nice car though. I'm positively jealous over the condition of the rubber and plastic I see in the engine compartment.

Chris