Good, Great, and Greater Still

The good is that yesterday I left my place of employ after only putting in eight hours of labor – a rare luxury. The purpose of my early departure was to wash Lucy before darkness set in.

The great is that I had time to turn the steering box setscrew hidden under the one inch diameter plug in the trunk. That got rid of the play in the steering wheel. How nice it is to turn the wheel and not have to take up five degrees of slop before feeling the front wheels respond.

Now for the greater still. This morning I received an e-mail from a ‘vair friend, Irv. Last Fall I loaned him one of my racing harnesses so he could participate in the NECC time trial event at Roebling Roads. Recently he acquired a collection of Corvairs and parts and offered them for sale to the Corvair community. I responded to his posting with a wish list that included a set of 140 horsepower heads and matching exhaust manifolds. His e-mail this morning said that he has them, is setting them aside for me, may deliver them to DC in two weeks, AND he’s giving me a “generous deal” to boot. I am so psyched.

An engine with the 140 HP heads installed looks like this:
To accommodate the additional two carburetors (secondaries), I need to re-work the air cleaner, gas lines, and throttle linkage. Since I'm unwilling to spring for a stock air cleaner assembly, I'll end up clamping separate elements to the top of each carburetor with the PCV line plumbed into the base of the nearest element. The gas lines are pretty straightforward. I could give Clark’s Corvair Parts $60+, or I could make them myself from bendable brake lines or rubber fuel hoses. The throttle linkage needs to be progressive, which means the secondary carburetors don’t open until the primaries are roughly halfway to wide-open-throttle (WOT). The following close-up shows how this is accomplished.The small rod to the secondary carburetor’s throttle (bottom one in the photo) doesn’t start moving until the actuator plate (circled in red) is rotated a pretty significant amount. Additionally, the throttle plate for the secondary carb is roughly half the length of the primary so that it opens faster with less rod input. This ensures that primary and secondary carbs reach WOT at the same time. I figure I can put together a mixture of extra linkage parts with homemade parts and replicate the functionality. After my successful engineering of the air cleaner spacers last weekend, I’m up for the challenge.

Oh yeah. Which car is getting this hot setup? I'm thinking Betty is the best candidate, but I'm not ruling out a quick intall in Lucy.

Any Betty Progress Is A Good Thing

After the inspiring plan I shared yesterday, I left work at a decent hour and was able to squeeze out a couple hours of car-time. First thing I wanted to do was go around New Betty and make sure she’s as solid as I believed. With a magnet I went around the entire car to check for the presence of Bondo. The magnet only fell off in a couple of places. Did the same test on Old Betty and the only place the magnet wouldn’t stick is the entire floor. The last check will be putting New Betty up on jackstands and thoroughly inspecting the rocker panels. I’ll need to work that in concert with getting Glinda off the jackstands since I don’t have eight jackstands. Speaking of getting Glinda off the jackstands, Victoria sure is anxious to get her car on the road. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity this weekend.

After my magnet test was completed, I removed the broken window from the driver’s door and vacuumed out the door cavity. Next I went out to Old Betty and removed her driver’s door window and installed it into New Betty. The installation part was quite a chore getting everything to line back up working in a confined space with the minimum amount of access. Add in the sharp edges at each of the door openings, and you have a recipe for a frustrating endeavor. It took persevering through much jiggling and jostling and putting in and taking out screws, but I was able to prevail. The window now goes up and down.