Good Guys: Southeastern Nationals 2010

I went to the Good Guys show at Charlotte Motor Speedway for a few hours this weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect, and there were plenty of great cars there.

The Good Guys shows always have rows of high-caliber cars so it's fun to stop by and check them out as a spectator when the show is nearby.

>> Check out my photo album (238 pix!)

Spring Cleanup

I had the Quick Fuel Technology carb off the engine recently and decided to add a return spring. It's a pretty impressive looking contraption, and it's a safety measure worth having.

When you install the kit you will need to buy a longer carb stud, or a bolt, which is what I did, to install the holder to the carb base...

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Electrified

With the upgraded alternator I added some time ago, and the recent mini starter, not to mention the electric fan, I needed to clean up the wires. I'm using an Orbital battery, which is similar to the Optima but it's black to blend into a classic car engine bay a bit better. This battery has top posts and side posts.

I added Taylor battery terminal covers #20670 to clean up the top of the battery.

I also added some Monster Cable side terminal bolts. This allowed me to use them to install the starter, alternator, and electric fan wiring to the positive post. And an extra ground cable to the negative post. I had to cut the extra-long bolt a bit. If the item you are installing does not have a big draw this should be Ok. You wouldn't, however, use these side posts to install a winch for example.

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May the PowerForce Be With You

After returning the defective Romac balancer, I was in need of a replacement. I had heard some good reports concerning Professional Products balancers (or dampers) in the forums and had seen their products on some magazine engine builds. This new PowerForce 80006 unit is not SFI-rated for racing, unlike the Romac, but my usage probably won't require this rating. In fact, balancers that can spin that fast are probably calibrated for engine speeds north of 6500rpm anyway, making them less than ideal for street use. It weighs about 9.5# vs. 6.5# for the old 289 style and 10.5# for the Romac 0209.

This unit fits a '68 302 without a spacer, but they are available if needed. One downside is that the paint on the unit comes off pretty easily, particularly with carb cleaner, is not clear-coated, and the timing marks are not etched, just painted. See where I'm going with this? :-) So I bought an MSD timing tape for about $5 to replace the timing marks I wiped off...


The price is great though. The usual mail order places are selling the 80006 for about $100. I paid $76 at Amazon with free shipping a few weeks ago. Sold! (The price has fluctuated though in the meantime...)

I believe I had spun my last balancer by at least 4 degrees, so checking and replacing balancers might be a part of maintaining a custom engine.


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Balancer Blues...

When I realized that the engine block in my car was sourced from a 1968 302 rather than a 1966 289, I decided to replace the lighter 6.5-pound balancer (painted blue in the foreground above) with a heavier duty 10.5-pound unit. I bought a Romac 0209, but unfortunately I didn't have any luck with it.

The Romac arrived with some junk in the clearcoat, which surprised me, but I was willing to deal with that since it wouldn't be noticed much, except by me. But the real problem was the lack of timing marks from 0 through 30... Oops!

Intake Resurrection

While the intake manifold was off the engine I decided to give it a coat of silver engine paint. I also added some stainless bits from Performance Stainless (www.performancesst.com), including a new thermostat housing, and vacuum plug, to add to a 90-degree water fitting I already had. I also added a pair of stainless fittings to the top of the Edelbrock water pump.






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