The New Project: Part Deux!

[jbsides]

Tim,

When you say NAPA is the same as Gates, do you mean dimensionally? Or does Gates manufacture NAPA belts?

The reason I ask is that I have been having a hard time getting Gates belts. Is there a business relationship between the two?

JB

[njsteve]

I use rockauto.com for all my random tune up stuff. They sell all the various makers' belts. Lots of Delco stuff, too. I even got my gas tank and radiator from them. The shipping was really cheap on their large items, like the gas tank.

[napa68]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jbsides</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tim,

When you say NAPA is the same as Gates, do you mean dimensionally? Or does Gates manufacture NAPA belts?

The reason I ask is that I have been having a hard time getting Gates belts. Is there a business relationship between the two?

JB </div></div>

The NAPA belts are Gates. Surely, they do not run two separate production lines for the product (especially v belts when you consider the popularity of them today ). Gates does all of the rubber product for NAPA as well as the water pumps.

I also suspect Delco is all Gates as well. Mind you, Delco makes nothing. They are no more than a repackager of product today.

[njsteve]

Did some finagling today and it fits much better.

1) I trimmed around 2 inches off the radiator end of the radiator hose. That pulled the hose bend away from the air cleaner.
2) Added the thicker carb to intake gasket. It's about 1/8&quot; thicker than the previous one.
3) Used a couple of air cleaner to carb gaskets and used a 1/2&quot; section of 5/8&quot; heater hose for the top vent grommet.
4) Rotated the driver's side elbow to fully ride up against the heat riser valve. I also was able to rotate the clamp 180 degrees to fit in behind the heat riser valve.
5) I removed 2 of the 3 washers that I had under the two mounting points of the rear A/C triangle bracket, leaving only one washer to space the bracket up just enough to barely touch the valve cover.
6) I squeezed a permanent dent into the passenger side corrugated hose in the area that it passes over the unique cut out in the A/C triangle bracket.
7) The valve covers are using the correct 1/4&quot; thick 455HO valve cover gaskets so they can clear the oil deflector cages. The regular gasket is 1/8&quot; thick on the D-port 400, 455 engines.

Here are some photos of today's fun:

[njsteve]

Here is how it sits now, with the bevel on the valve cover.

[Donnie]

real nice! you need one of those see thru hoods [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[StealthBird]

Looking great Steve! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

I hear ya about trimming the upper radiator hose. The 69's are the same way, and need a good 2&quot;-3&quot; lopped off the end that goes into the radiator.

[njsteve]

Fellow member BRUCE from up in Alaska sent me a pair of BE rods for the Formula. Not only did he send me the rods for free, he cut down a tree, carved out a hand-made, secondary metering rod protection box with his chainsaw and then mailed the entire thing to me. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

Take a look at this contraption!







Man, you guys sure are inventive up there, North of The Great White North. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

I've been doing a little bit of carb tuning the past few days. I ended up using the same recipe of jets, primary and secondary rods that I used in the 1972 T/A project. This recipe was passed along to me from other far more knowledgable people.

The end result is the following for my original 7042273 carb: 74 jets, 44 primary rods and BE secondary rods. The 1972 7042273 carbs were way too lean from the factory and definitely need more fuel than the emissions lean factory setup, if you want them to run right. A lot of it can also be attributed to the fact that gasoline today has 10% ethanol in it which makes for a leaner, fuel mixture. The Formula is running the stock 068 cam, a four speed, and a 3.42 rear gear which is the same driveline I had in the T/A.

I gotta tell you, the car really comes alive with this setup. When you hit the sweet spot in the power band at around 3,000 rpm, the rear tires break loose in first gear, regardless on how angrily your foot is positioned on the gas pedal. I'll post some video when I can figure out how to drive, shift and film at the same time.

I sent the carb to Cliff's High Performance and he did an awesome job. The carb ran great when tested on the &quot;seat of the pants dyno&quot; in the prior mismatched cam/high compression state but once I did the engine overhaul, I noticed the carb was little lean on the top end for my post engine rebuild combination. (since we didn't know what was inside the engine at the time, he tuned it to what he thought best).

Here are the measurements for the combination of parts I had in my tool box at the time:

Jet/Rod...Cruise area...WOT area......Secondary Rod
71/43 = 2.5070..........3.4283..........CR .0550 S (72 T/A 7042273 stock configuration)
73/42 = 2.7999..........3.6545
73/43 = 2.7332..........3.6545
74/47 = 2.5659..........3.7699
74/44 = 2.7803..........3.7699..........BE .0413 S (72 T/A tuned configuration)
74/43 = 2.8486..........3.7699..........BE .0413 S (Formula tuned configuration)
72/39 = 2.8769..........3.5406..........DA .0443 M (Cliff tuned configuration)

At the moment I have the 43 primary rod in the carb and it's a touch richer than it would be with a 44 rod, since it is a new engine I dont want to lean it out too much. If I do my math correctly, the &quot;tuned&quot; setup listed above is around 10% richer than the stock setup which looks like it somehow offsets the 10% ethanol content.

Once the weather clears I will play some more.

[njsteve]

Spent the day doing my mid-winter, out of hiberaton, engine start up.

It was a nice day so I got the hemi charger up and running for the first time in a year. She started right up, so I took her out for a slow ride on the 40+ year old bias ply tires that the original owner installed back in the day. Sure rides different than the Firebird. :-)

There's nothing like modern radials on a second gen Firebird. They ride soooo nice!