Edelbrock tuning...

I have always fancied Edelbrock carburetors and I've got one on my 350 engine. Now that I have driven her around 3800 miles and the average consumption is around 19 litres per 100 km(~12 MPG), with mostly in highway. That seems to be just a little bit too much even for a 40 year old engine. So first thing that I thought was to tune the carburetor and see how's that goes. I started to read about tuning and such from the net, and I found one thing that might explain consumption. Vacuum advance for distributor is taken from the carburetor and there are two ways to take it, so called manifold vacuum and ported vacuum(also known as timed vacuum). I've searched lots of threads and pages about it and founded that manifold was in used before energy crisis and emissions. After that they made this quick-fix, where they take the vacuum advance from ported, which is located just above manifold vacuum port. Other thing that I've founded was that ported is also used when you have manual transmission and manifold vacuum is in use if you have automatic transmission. So, I had mine set on the ported.



Ported one is on the left and manifold is on the right.

So I tried to change that, but the vacuum hose was to short and I had to buy a new one, which wasn't expensive and that was done. At first I've noticed that idle is little bit higher now, but engine seems to be responding much quicker and better. Second thing is that I noticed that air filter is quite dirty, which could also explain risen consumption also. But I thought that first I just drive around with the old one and see how that vacuum advance thing works out, but then again...

I have ordered new filter and I am about to put Kelly back to garage for the winter and there is still few hundred miles to drive before that and saving every drop is always better and you can drive for further.

Summer went by...

40000 miles on odometer!

...and lots of things happened. Just before my summer vacation was about to start, Kelly's water pump broke down. She sat for two weeks on the streets and then when the new long water pump arrived, just in time, two days before we went for a road trip around southern Finland.

Since I took her out of the garage we have rolled over 3800 miles. All that in 5 months. Then when the weather got colder we started to have a problem with the battery. Few weeks in and I bought a new one. It has 750CCA and starting isn't so much a problem anymore. And a third major "upgrade" or fixing that I did was re-connecting heater hoses. I tested the heater core's condition by pouring water from one hose and when the water level from another hose settled, I waited and noticed that water wasn't leaking and then I just reconnected the hoses and Vóila. We have a warm cabin!

Here is a link to pictures from the road and cruising's.

little things...

Tailgate cover.

...makes you a smile. Yesterday when I was waiting for a friend to help me load El Camino @ Lauttasaari, I did screw back plate on a tailgate. Small thing that I could have done months ago, but cargo space haven't been much in use, until now that I am moving in with my Muru.

And I did get that weatherstrip from www.entisointi.com. Now I'll just have to find a little time to take out the old and put in the new. There is much to do elsewhere and those are right now first priorities.

To do list...

Helsinki Market Square.

So far I haven't done anything, except mapping whats need to be done.

-Replacing front bumper turning lenses, to orginal yellow lenses(which I have).
-Reconnecting heaterhoses and having so heat at the cabin.
-Changing lights switch knob to orginal(which I have).
-Changing steering wheel for about close enough year(which I have).
-Fixing turning light returning spring on left(which I have).
-Fixing powersteering, problem is that in low rev's it doesn't have much of power to turn.
-Fixing or changing wiper motor/switch to one that has this delay/mist fuction as well.
-Fixing fuel gauge. It's stuck in full position, out of sight. Bad ground?.
-Changing weather seals on doors. (just ordered from www.entisointi.com).
-Changing speedometer to km/h(which I have).
-Changing whole dash to better one and making some modifications to it.(which I have).
-Adding noise and heat insulation to c-pillar(or is it b-pillar) and roof. (Dynamat?).
-Adding headliner and sunvisors(which I have).

I'll guess there's my little list of to do's...

Spring is here!

YAY, finally spring is here and I have taken Kelly out of the garage. Yearly inspection went as flowing water and clean papers and approved-stamp on it! So, this summer is all about cruising. 45€ for a stamp, it's now days quite normal price, but back in the days, it was around 80mk-100mk(13€-17€). Okay that was almost two decades ago, but still.

I have been ordering few things from the ebay, and seeking a garage where i can do little bit of restoration and such. As I did get her late in the summer, well in the autumn, and had very little time on the road, I am going to make this year count! I have been mapping what to do and in what order. Few things I need to do, before taking any longer trips is to replace door weather seals. Not as much as keeping the rain out, but keeping the wind out of the cabin. Second is to reconnect a heater hose's and ensure there is hot air blowing.

We were on a photoshoot last week, just days after I had pulled Kelly out of hibernation.



Photo: M. Ylhäinen www.ylhainen.com