madkaw

I was trying to decide how to seal up the floor holes since my rubber plugs are shot . I wanted something atleast semi- permanent and I came across this idea that I thought I would share. These dust covers are for breaker boxes and they fit very tightly in the floor. You need to squeeze the tangs a little to get it started in the hole, and a few wacks with the hammer . It winds up being a very tight fit ,and then if you want, you can bend the tangs flat to make sure it stays put. Of course you will want to use some kind of sealant to complete the job. The plugs can be found at any home improvement store for about 35 cents each.

If it's an ebay seller please enlightnen us so we can be forwarned

Like I said 72shark, each year and month seems to have it's own idiosynchrosies. I don't know if anyone could be 100% with out the the original sticker invoice.

Enrique, thanks for the info. I know it was hard to tell from the pic for some folks ,but the hole looked exactly what you would have for another toggle switch. My year car 9/71 seems to have a lot of "transitional issues" because of the build date. The car was originally a CA car which might make a difference. I have read that 9/71 they had pockets for the seatbelts but mine does not. It's amazing how many differences there are in these cars!

Now I see your center console i remember for sure that I had the ashtray in front of the shifter with a lighter, that's what threw me off. It makes sense now-thanks

Okay Mike , I believe you. I guess mine is just a blank and never had a lighter installed .

Maybe there was a dust cover or something that fell out over the years and the hole was not completely punched out for the lighter?

Are you guys sure? That hole, that actually goes thru the dash, is only big enough for a wire to go thru. I'm pretty sure there was a lighter in the ashtray in front of the shifter. ,

hole in the dash was for. This is a 9/71 that was an automatic with A/c. I have no idea what might have been there if someone can tell me.

I called MSA today and asked about there "high volume" pump for 69$. Garrett ,I believe was his name, said that was merely the turbo pump for the manual trans. He said it would be cheaper(49$) to by the stock repalcement and put the higher pressure springs(14$) in because that is exactly what the turbo pump is(excluding the auto trans version). Not a whole lot of savings, but there price is pretty good actually .

Good point john about the maintaining pressure for the bottom end. I was planning on putting a direct oil pressure guage on there also. Like I said before , this is just playing around , I'm not trying to re- engineer the oil system. I'm just glad i didn't just go with the spray bar without checking it out first. I don't know if I would say it is a bad design, but it's an item that should be replaced periodically, especially during a rebuild.I wonder how many cases of badly worn lobes on new cams are caused by using the old spray bar?

Gary, Is that the turbo automatic or manual oil pump, I guess there was a difference. I believe the manual was a "higher volume" pump but not like the automatic.

That is exactly why I am checking this out. I am not saying I am right or wrong but there a quite a few guys who have done this with success.I wanted to see with my own eyes what kind of pressure loss there is with using both.Also Daniel, I will be be buying a stock oil pump to try this with too. Like you said, I am not sure what pump I have ,so I want to start with a stock pump and see how the pressure looks. And I don't think either system is inadequate, obviously the spray bar was used for years with success.This is just my way of verifying some of the stuff that's posted on these sites and I appreciate the feedback

If there was anywhere that i would want redundancy it would be there. There is quite a few guys running both set-ups, but I wanted to see first hand how both systems would work together. From what I have seen thus far they would compliment each other well plus giving the added protection of two oil supplies. Like I said though this started out as a way to verify my spray bar was doing it's job, and it wasn't.

After reading through the archives on cam oiling I thought i would do my own research on this subject. I wanted to prime my engine with oil before starting so I thought it would be cool if i could see this in action plus verify my spray bar is working correctly. When i rebuilt my engine I had the spray bar cleaned with everything else, but I have been skeptical of those little hole getting clean. The cam is an internally oiled, but I was going to use the spray bar also.This was another reason to look at things a little closer. So I found an old oil pump shaft from another car that would work and used a variable drill that had a 2800 max rpm to rime the motor . I used aluminum tape to make a barrier around the head.This actually worked very well to keep the oil in, just make sure you get the head perfectly clean so the tape sticks well to prevent leaks. (pic#1) What I found was that i am glad I did this test. With the plug in the end of the cam the oil shot out of the lobes more then i thought it would.(pic #2) I kept the drill speed low probably 1000rpm and the pressure was always good coming out of the lobes.And with the plug in there was still decent oil coming out of the spray bar. With the plug out, the oil pressure from the spray bar increased but not as much as you would think, and the oil was still coming out of the lobes but not with any pressure.(pic#3) I think a compromise could be made by drilling the plug to lower internal pressure and maintain spray bar pressure The biggest find was that my "cleaned spray bar" was not putting oil out on some of the lobes.(pic#4) So I did what many have recommended and ordered a new one. The oil pump I am using is supposed to be a high volume pump I bought off of e-bay but there is no way of proving this. When I get my new spray bar I will continue this with some more pics . Hopefully this will fix the lack of oil from the spray bar.

I have modified my car so the tire tub came out of my car. This car is rust free so is this piece. Maybe someone who is doing a resto job might want this.I figured i would offer this up before it went to the recycler.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up ezzzzzz. I am contemplating the same set up but never have seena "how to" write up! Did you find a junk yard pump or a new one, how much was the new if that was the case?

Okay , I've realized I have screwed up and now need some advice. I am putting my engine together-fresh rebuild and realized that I put the washers under the head bolts upside down:stupid: . Convex instead of concave down. Should I take the bolts out one by one and retorque as I go or should I remove and reinstall all and to proper sequence. Will this effect the gasket in anyway. This is a new gasket and the motor hasn't run yet. The timing chain is on and timed. You wonder what your thinking when you do this crap!

By the way the head measured out 4.254 inches

I don't think anyone will have the same exact set-up as you so no one will be able to tell you exactly. I would think the machinist would measure the chambers and tell you how much he needs to take off. On my e-88 I put the bigger valves in and unshrouded my combustion chamber and milled .012 off and also took off .010 off the block to clean it up. The machinist c.c.'d the chambers at 41.5 cc which are smaller then the e31 head, but I also notched my block for the bigger valves so my C.R. was figured at 9.55. So for someone to tell you exactly would be tuff.

Then there is titled 71 models that are built late in the year like my 9/71 that have some of the "upgrades" like the curved bar for the easy r200 swap but doesn't have the pockets in the floor for the retractable seat belts. Wether or not i have the better trans "71b" or not is inmaterial because i am putting the BW 5 speed in. I know mine is the best year because it's the one i own !!