Getting the 73 Back on the Road

[SteveJ]

Yesterday I tightened some loose bolts on the intake, so I decided to fill the tank and see if I got rid of the "tick". The tick was still there. When I parked the car in the garage after filling the tank, I thought I smelled fuel. I popped the hood to sniff and look. No leaks there. I walked around and found gas leaking from the left vent hose, and an pretty good stream, too. I pushed the car so the leak was hitting the driveway, and I started siphoning the gas out of the tank to drop it below the vent hose. After a while, I went to remove the bad end. The rubber had completely broken down, and turned gummy. Imagine that happening with only 11 years sitting soaking in gasoline turning into varnish. I capped the vent hose and ordered parts to run the replacement hose any way I need to get it to match up to the intact upper part of that vent hose.

The other problem that is lurking is that there is loose rust in the tank. I pulled some out when I was siphoning the tank.

[ETI4K]

At least the problem with the leaking hose gave way to discovery of a time bomb problem.  Imagine if you'd found out while taking a nice Sunday afternoon cruise and your fuel filter got clogged. 😬

[SteveJ]

I know to add a fuel filter to the driving spares for the car.

[SteveJ]

I finally decided to replace the gasket for the intake & exhaust manifold today. I also found some clues as to why my previous effort to tighten the intake didn't work.

Among other things, I got a really good view of where about 17 years ago I found that a stud was missing near the #6 exhaust. I just didn't have the skills back then to take things apart and put in a new stud.

I also found the nut was missing under the #5/#6 intake runners. More on that later. I also had one stud around the exhaust come out with the nut attached. Fortunately, I had spare studs already on hand.

After working everything loose, I removed most of the old gasket. I had to scrape off only a little remaining material. I thought it was clean enough for the new gasket.

I worked the new gasket into place relatively easily.

Before putting the intake back in place, I took a quick look at it. There was definitely an exhaust leak at #2.

Also, there were signs of a leak below the #5/#6 intake runners. I did wipe it down a little. You can see the smears below the intake.

Anyway, I got the intake and exhaust cinched down nicely, and the carburetors are back in place. Tomorrow, I will re-balance the carburetors since I hope I have rid myself of all of the leaks around the intake and exhaust.

 

[SteveJ]

So, I thought I try some experimenting in the garage today. The wife agreed to join in, too.

We generated some heat, and thanks to the baby oil, I found both holes. I felt very satisfied.

Now I need to fill the holes. I'm man enough to do it. 

If I can't remove the old fittings, I'll probably use my cheap wire welder to fill in the air injector.

 

[siteunseen]

Boy oh boy! That's NSFW (almost).

I must congratulate you on walking the wire, tip toeing around there. Excellent job Steve!

Edited September 26, 2021 by siteunseen

[SteveJ]

7 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

Boy oh boy! That's NSFW (almost).

I must congratulate you on walking the wire, tip toeing around there. Excellent job Steve!

Is there a different way of describing the use of a smoke machine to find exhaust leaks?

[SteveJ]

15 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

Is there a different way of describing the use of a smoke machine to find exhaust leaks?

I used this video as the basis for my design. 

 

I modified the design to use valve stems for the air inlet and outlet. I removed the valve out of the outlet valve stem. I also used a towel as the wick and soaked the towel with baby oil.

I used 1/4 ID vinyl tubing from the outlet stem to the engine with the plan being to use a compression tester hose in the spark plug hole. I forgot that the compression tester hose had a one-way valve pointing the wrong way, though. That meant I needed a small length of 1/2 OD tubing to go over the 1/4 ID tubing. That provided a seal around the spark plug hole that was adequate for the task.

With the cam holding open the #2 exhaust valve, I used the soldering iron to heat up the towel. The wife was good enough to operate the tire inflator to supply the air to push the smoke into the cylinder. It didn't take long to see the smoke pouring out of the holes in the air injector.

[ETI4K]

Great vid. 

Smoke is also a brilliant way to locate leaks in the body that allow exhaust fumes an ingress path.  I learned this somewhere, but cannot recall to give credit where due.  I've located several holes at the rear of the car that I was never able to find previously using this technique.

[siteunseen]

1 hour ago, SteveJ said:

So, I thought I try some experimenting in the garage today. The wife agreed to join in, too.

We generated some heat, and thanks to the baby oil, I found both holes. I felt very satisfied.

Now I need to fill the holes. I'm man enough to do it.

 

Okay I'm a pervert, I'll admit that but I apologize for going to the dark side after reading the above. 

Would someone please agree with me? Steve is my hero and I don't wish to upset him.

[SteveJ]

5 minutes ago, ETI4K said:

Great vid. 

Smoke is also a brilliant way to locate leaks in the body that allow exhaust fumes an ingress path.  I learned this somewhere, but cannot recall to give credit where due.  I've located several holes at the rear of the car that I was never able to find previously using this technique.

I can't take credit for the video, but I agree that it's great. 

[Captain Obvious]

2 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Okay I'm a pervert, I'll admit that but I apologize for going to the dark side after reading the above. 

Would someone please agree with me?

LOL. I think everyone agrees with you. Steve should never admit it in public, but it's just all way too well done to be "coincidence".  

3 hours ago, SteveJ said:

Is there a different way of describing the use of a smoke machine to find exhaust leaks?

No. Absolutely not. That's just about perfect.     Maybe the only thing that could have possibly been a tiny bit better would be if you decided that the tire inflator was risky because it generated too much pressure, so the wife had to resort to something a little more gentle. Like blowing into a tube or something.