Project Boondoggle (or, so I went and bought a Z!)

[Patcon]

I wouldn't try to remove the sludge, but that's me. If you dislodge some of it could cause issues.

[charliekwin]

Sludge stays, then.

 

Doesn't the intake have to be open somehow? On carbureted carbs I believe you hold the throttle open so the butterflies don't restrict the intake of air.

 

I had my wife floor the gas while she cranked it.  I think that's good enough?

 

My old engine had worn valve seals that leaked oil in to the intake runners.  If you're looking for work, new seals might clean up emissions a bit.  I still passed though with my old seals.

 

More work?  I'm just hoping to get one project finished without it creating two new ones!  ::

[charliekwin]

Turns out that Pep Boys' crummy loaner was missing an o-ring, which explained the miserable compression test.  For $19 out the door, I got my own from Harbor Freight.  Much more appropriate results the second time around (bottom set of numbers is with some oil in the cylinders), at least in the neighborhood that I'd expect for a 37 year old motor:

146 -- 145 -- 148 -- 145 -- 141 -- 145

160 -- 165 -- 171 -- 182 -- 175 -- 162

 

The plugs, from 1 to 6.  I replaced the plugs maybe 6 weeks ago, so they have a few hours and barely any miles on them.  Obviously I'm running rich, and 3, 4 and 6 look like it.  1 looks the best.  I'm not sure about 2 and 5?

 

 

And, FWIW, here is a video of the car idling.  There's a tick that I'm not sure if it's supposed to be making, and it has a kind of ...syncopated... sound to it, more easily noticeable in the exhaust note.  

[Patcon]

Much better numbers. I would think with the first numbers you had the car would have barely moved

[charliekwin]

A big thanks for all the help! The official test is wrapping up, but now I can finally get it registered and titled and actually drive the thing. Until it gets taken apart, that is [emoji4] It's beer time!

[Captain Obvious]

Congrats! And those numbers look fantastic!

 

I saw your other thread where you throttle position switch was out of adjustment. Glad that was the only serious issue. That was an easy one!

 

So now that you got the WOT switch working properly, can your nose tell a difference? Is it less stinky?

[charliekwin]

Absolutely. The smog tech actually said he thought it would pass right after I pulled in to the shop, since it smelled so bad the first two times.  (Hat tip to the tech, who was nice enough to drop the $30 pretest fee today, which was a nice gesture.  He was asking questions about the car and what I'd done to it; I think he liked having a customer he could talk shop with.)  Plus, no more headaches after being in or around the car for 10 minutes. Carbon monoxide is no joke!

 

I think all the changes actually ended up leaning it out about one click too far, so I'll play with it a little more this weekend to see if I can get it dialed in "good enough" for now.

 

Also decided to wait on interior for now in favor of re-doing the suspension.  It needs it.

[Zed Head]

Nice.  Even when the things that should work, do work, it's still a surprise.  Those are low numbers.

 

Consider the coolant circuit potentiometer tweak for adding a little bit of fuel, if it's lean.  Many of us use it,

[charliekwin]

It's beer time. [emoji29]

[hr369]

Absolutely. The smog tech actually said he thought it would pass right after I pulled in to the shop, since it smelled so bad the first two times.  (Hat tip to the tech, who was nice enough to drop the $30 pretest fee today, which was a nice gesture.  He was asking questions about the car and what I'd done to it; I think he liked having a customer he could talk shop with.)  Plus, no more headaches after being in or around the car for 10 minutes. Carbon monoxide is no joke!

 

I think all the changes actually ended up leaning it out about one click too far, so I'll play with it a little more this weekend to see if I can get it dialed in "good enough" for now.

 

Also decided to wait on interior for now in favor of re-doing the suspension.  It needs it.

 

That cracked thermostat housing would be my top priority. Epoxied aluminum + so cal summer heat= not good.  You can pick up a good used one or a new one on ebay.

[charliekwin]

Small update, here in the middle of re-doing the whole suspension.  Took both front and rear off the car two weekends ago and found some good and bad.

 

Bad: one each of the tie rod ends and ball joints had torn boots, so they're all getting replaced.  All four shocks were completely blown; no rebound at all.  The strut mount insulator bearings were covered in some kind of severe nastiness.  Spindle pins were in bad shape, but at least that made it easy to beat the heck out of them.

 

Good: seems like all the bearings are in good shape.  A previous owner had already replaced most of the bushings fairly recently, so getting those off proved easy.  Aside from consumable parts like the ball joints, everything else was actually in pretty good shape and I didn't have to facepalm once when taking things apart.

 

After getting everything apart, it's been a lot of cleaning and paint prep.  Started with a wire wheel, then made my first go at media blasting with a $20 siphon-feed gun.  Not really knowing what I was getting into, I made this -- uhh...crude -- little "setup" thinking it might keep the mess down.

 

It didn't.

 

So I did a little scrounging around the house to come up with something a little more sophisticated.  Still made a mess, and wasn't without some difficulties, but it got the job done well enough.

 

Still have a little cleaning up to do, but hoping to get prep finished by this weekend so I can move on to paint and then get everything put back in two weeks.  My stack of parts going in: Vogtland springs and Stagg shocks, Suspension Techniques sway bars, poly bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, and a bunch of miscellaneous hardware.

 

Only thing I'm not sure about is how to deal with the rear struts.  Blasting and then painting the whole assembly seems like it would be a bad idea: too likely for abrasives and other stuff to get where it shouldn't be and muck up the works.  I supposed I could remove the rear hub, but everything I've read makes me think I never want to do that.  So for now, I'm planning on just cleaning and painting the strut tube and leaving the rest -- rough thought it may be -- as is.  Is there a better option?

[Red7]

Really enjoyed reading this thread, keep up the good work

Edited June 10, 2015 by Red7