QWKDTSN Posted July 7, 2002 Share Posted July 7, 2002 Well, today was the big day. I picked my car up from the exhaust shop and spent a couple of hours getting the ignition and fuel delivery set up, via trial and error. Finally, I got it running enough to break in. There were a few problems - the temperature hit 250 for a minute or two and required a garden hose on the fan to cool down. I had lots of carb setup problems (understandable, considering I've never touched a Holley before in my life) and finally got the mixture about right. About 12 minutes into the breakin procedure (following Grumpy's strict orders!) two of my beautiful, time-consuming-to-build sparkplug wires caught fire! They were too close to the headers and couldn't take the heat. I had to go pick up a set of $15 wires and rigged them up to start it again; I ran it for another six or seven minutes and everything seems fine - i hope my cam's okay. If it flattens I can get a new one for $40 so that's okay. I'm sure everything else will break in well. By the end of the breakin temperatures were back down around 190 degrees. I will continue to follow breakin procedure after I pick up another couple of oil filters and a couple cases of oil. I have a super strong magnet on the filter and I hope it will pick up a lot of the crud that ends up in the pan. I didn't want to drop the pan to install magnets into the sump. I for sure can't drive the car until I get a functioning welder up to my house - if you guys take a look at the firewall, the brake and clutch master cylinders actually mount to a plate that was welded or something from the factory. The weld has cracked apart from time and when I step on the clutch the plate flexes away from the flywheel significantly. I need to re-weld it back to the firewall and re-bleed the clutch before I can even get it into gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strotter Posted July 7, 2002 Share Posted July 7, 2002 Congratulations on firing it! Quite a buzz, huh? I just got mine running a couple of weeks ago, had the same experience. All those things that *might* go wrong, you're standing there staring intensely at the thing, every nerve on edge, ears straining to hear a rattle or a whine or a squeak, it's growling away, all those hours and hours and hours of work finally coming together - man, that's a moment. Walk proud man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 here's a funny. Mine fired right up and ran fine for 3 weeks....then started to heat up...open the 4 barrel and watch the temp gauge rise....back off and watch it fall. Checked the new 4 row radiator...perfect...replaced the thermostat...no change...put anti-collapse springs in the rad hoses...no change...put on another new water pump....no change...thought it might be electrical...chased down all ground connections...no change. About to commit suicide when I decided to crawl under one last time....found one more ground connection up under rear end....bingo!!!! 2 months and 40 hours later it never goes above 185!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 Yeah, my autometer gauge was pegging out, but I knew that was BS and that it was the gauge, it seems the sender wire was getting grounded out on the sender itself. Anyway, yeah ground wires are mucho important. I had gauges twitching all over the place, it ended up being just a ground wire from the block to the firewall fixed it totally. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QWKDTSN Posted July 9, 2002 Author Share Posted July 9, 2002 What kind of problems are you guys having with your spark plug wires? I've already destroyed my beautiful braided wires that took three days to make because they burned up on the headers. It only took 5 minutes of running to cook the second set of cheap Kragen wires, even though the only heat they were getting was ambient. The plastic wrap around my wires is melting and has 'shrink-wrapped' around them. I went to the local speed shop to check out a set of heat-resistant spark plug boots and OMG! $15 for TWO?? Helllllll no.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 Nion, what kinda headers are you using? I have the Hooker ceramics and during one of my startup and tuning attempts, I hit 220deg. One of the MSD plug boots was too close and melted away. After that the spark would fly out of the wire and create an arc to the nearest header tube. I have replaced these with cheapo Accel wires for the time being. Taylor I think sells wires with ceramic boots. Someone on chevytalk.com was talking about them. As for the fiberglass heat covers, I have some made by Spectre that were like $10 for 10ft. You just slide them over the boot and the wire. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QWKDTSN Posted July 9, 2002 Author Share Posted July 9, 2002 They are Flowtech ceramic coated. When my braided wires melted, I could see the spark jumping the gap from the wire to the header - we had to shut it down. I guess I'm going to look into some of that heat shielding like you mention that comes in a roll of a few feet and you cut it to length because the premade boots are too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Locutus Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 I have been using autozone cheap plug wires on my circle track car. I run in the bomber class. so its only a stock engine but its a Olds 350. A couple of races back I was leading 2 laps to go when I threw a belt and lost the water pump. I figured if I roast the engine what the hell the race is over in about a minute and half anyway(long time with no waterpump btw). When I crossed the finish line the gauge was reading over 300 and I never roasted my plug wires. The manifolds were so red they were almost white. Consequently I am still running that engine. It just needed an hour to cool down before we could get it on the trailer I was sure it was cooked but compression check showed excellant on all 8. Testament to a 73 Olds V8 I guess. Mike PS I came in 3rd a very close race, as the engine heated up I started losing power, just enough to be 3 wide at the finish line. It was decided by a nose literally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted July 9, 2002 Share Posted July 9, 2002 Here's some stuff, I wonder if the 10mm plug wires are really better than the 8mms? http://www.taylorvertex.com/extreme.html Oh, my bad, the ceramics were Jacobs, but I'm sure there's others out there. http://www.jacobselectronics.com/products/sparkplugs/ultraceramic.htm got these from Jeg's, engine isn't running so can't say much yet.... Spectra Fyrebraid Plug Wire Covering Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted July 10, 2002 Share Posted July 10, 2002 I run plain old accel 8mm yellows, they're cheap, they work and the fit (you cut them, they have to fit ) unlike the taylors I had on there before that burnt #8 on the header. A set of cheap looms and the accel's and no more problems, I believe I used the 90 deg boot. *shrug* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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