Devo's 65 Chevy Page
Initially it will be a work truck, and then when I don't need a work truck,
I'll really restore it.
What is a good blue/purple color for my truck... very dark. -- Actually I
think I found it.
Sheridan Blue found on old Ford pickups. There
is a Jaguar Blue that looks good too. Hey now I've seen a good blue on
Chevy's and VW's too! :-)
New Plan Jan 2005:
Current Status Jan 10, 2005:
Don't know why I waited so long.. but the 4bbl carb is on and we'll it's got an exhaust leak because the intake and headers don't play well together. (see note on Offenhauser above) Been driving the truck infrequently for the past 1.5 years. A couple 300 mile trips in there. Had some oil leaking, from time to time, haven't found the latest one yet. Now I have a knocking sound which may be similar to the May 2, 2003 issue. I'll work on that issue after the tranny and rear-end are replaced because those components make so much noise it's hard to tell what problems the motor might or might not be having.
Current Status March 2, 2005:
I've got the rear-end all rebuilt (by Central Coast 4 Wheel Drive in
Santa Cruz) with new bearings, new yoke
and complete new brake parts. Cost me a fortune, but it's done
EXCEPT for one little thing... the parking brake cable.
Let's review: The Dana 70 rear end with the nice 3.73 gears came out of a .... 1972 Ford F350.... which means that the parking brake cable has to go through the backing plate at a 48degree angle... and of course the cable doesn't exist according to the dealer and parts houses. You have to find a junk-yard donor is what they tell me... I call Lokar as I decided to get the Lokar transmission mounted shifter and brake lever. And they said their brake cables would work with the Dana 70 rear end no problem. Apparently they didn't know about this funny 48degree angle that is necessary. Not to be discouraged I found a diagram of the cable end diagram on the "Felsted" page. After calling their distributors (the companies that MAKE the cables for Felsted). I found a fabulous company in San Bernardino:
United Transmission Exchange
24147 E 6th Avenue
San Bernardino, CA 92410
PHONE: (909)384-8140
FAX: (909)384-8145
(speak with Donny)
that said they would make me the cables. So at this moment... the truck is at the transmission shop (Scotts Valley Transmissions) with the Classic Performance Products transmission cross member, and Lokar shifter parts (and brake cable that doesn't work!) And hopefully before they install all the parts, the cable housing will be here! Next week I should have a highway cruiser! Oh... the Tranny will be a 700R4 so I'll have a good low 1st, and a .70 final "over-drive" with Lock-up.
Update March 9, 2005:
I received the brake cable housings and they look great...
I should be in business. Special thanks to United Transmission Exchange
for making these so quickly.
Update March 11, 2005:
The REAR end from a 72 Ford F350... has 9/16 lug nuts as opposed to
the 1/2" on the 65 Chevy C30... So the "stock" lugnuts won't fit my
aluminium hubs (I knew I needed new lug-nuts) but... the other ODD thing
is that the left side of that rear-end has LEFT HAND TREAD lugs... so
one more thing... we'll now be replacing the lugs on that side, then
my wheels should fit.
Update March 17, 2005:
Could anything else go wrong? The return springs on the Lokar
cables are 3 inches too short for the rear-end. So I found a
"pair" of springs that I can put inside one-another to give a
stiff enough and long-enough spring. The other issue is that
the hydraulic line for the brakes in the ford should connect on
the LEFT side of the differential... And the line in the chevy
is on the RIGHT side... So the "hard line" on the axle (that
I just had installed) will have to be replaced. Each day
is an adventure... What's next?
Update June 19, 2005:
Just before the Transmission Shop was done with the truck, I get a call...
it won't start. No spark at the plug... Jim (at Scotts Valley Transmissions)
had called around and figure out that the module under the distributer was
probably the culprit, so he installed a new one and bingo fired right up
with no problems.
The Truck got finished last Thursday and now it's got the 700r4 transmission,
new two-piece drive shaft, and Dana70 rear end with 3.73 gears. Big
holes where the Lokar shifter and lokar parking-brake come up through
the floor. It also has a new mounting plate between the Holly and the
Offenhauser so the carb is mounted 90degrees from how Offenhauser intended.
This makes the throttle linkage really simple and clean. Now the truck
drives so much better. When the lock-up kicks in on overdrive, the truck
gets really quiet. The speedo is reading about 10mph fast so 70 is really
only about 60. My impressions of this setup are:
Update Oct 2, 2005:
I've got a few hundred miles on the truck now. The rear-diff fluid has been changed, Broke and replaced the motor mounts! Still need to adjust the shifter so I can get all the way down to 1st...
Update Oct 27, 2005:
No body work yet... but I did do a fun experiment.
I took of the fuel pump inlet line, and caped it temporarily, and ran
a fuel line from that pump inlet to a bottle of 185 proof ethanol. And
once the ethanol had made it's way up and into the carb.... the engine
died...
But not all was bad, I was able to start up just fine, and if I pumped the gas pedal, the truck would keep running. So I'm almost ready to run on my still output. Just need to make some carburetor adjustments, and I should be all set. Of course if I advance timing I should get better performance so I'll play with that after I get the carb adjustments done. I've got a support question in to holley (support@holley.com) to see if they have simple instructions on the mods I'll need. I know the stock 390CFM carb I have has #51 jets, and I think I just need to bump those up 4 sizes to #55's. I don't know if I need to make other changes so I hope to get good news from their support folks.
It's going to be really cool running on fuel I make myself! Note: you need an ATF permit before you can produce Fuel Alcohol... and you don't want to drink this stuff as none of the "nasties" are avoided in producing it.
perhaps the next update will be body-work related!
Update Nov 20, 2005
Ethanol Update...
Holley tech support is completely useless. They said I couldn't
make it work, and I'd have to take the carb to a shop that could
"Flow" it. The useless tech-support guy on the phone couldn't even
explain the steps that would be necessary... Duh!
SO: Time for some testing... I tried the #55 jets, and that didn't
help any... I got smart and read the info at:
http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me2.html
and
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id26.html AGAIN... and
I paid attention this time...
Doing the calculations i found that a 40% increase from the #51 jets
was a #70 jet.. (the local shop only had the #69 which I thought was
close enough).. The other thing I did was bump up the accelerator
pump nozzle from .025 to .035. The Test results: If I kept about
1/4 throttle (or more)... this worked
fine with 185proof ethanol... Pretty cool...this is progress, but
not good enough. The engine died when backing down to idle. Back
to more research and testing.
It's running.... how'd I do it? I read the page at:
http://www.hardtail.com/techtips/alcoholconversion.html
and decided that the idle circuits needed to be modified... That
page is describing a more severe modification for higher
performance than my motor. Since I found the Jet sizes that work
(the truck ran at 1/4 throttle) I decided that I didn't need
to drill out the "WELLS" or put holes above the jets, or muck with
the air-bleed holes... All I wanted
to do was open up the idle circuit... That article suggests using
#53 drill bit to open up the idle circuits, and of course while I was
at the hardware store I forgot which number drill... so I guessed!
#58... I knew I was in the ball park... and I knew if I was a little
small that would be Ok! Got home and realized I did get the smaller
drill (higher number is smaller) and so I decided to try it anyway.
Off came the float bowl, Off came the metering plate, with a flashlight
I could barely see the orifice down in the brass plug in the idle
circuit (thank goodness for the pictures on that hardtail site!).
With the #58 drill bit in the drill press and my holding the plate
by hand on the drill-press table I carefully drilled out the orifice
and was surprised by the amount of metal shavings for such a tiny hole!
With that done, I cleaned up the shavings as best I could. And
reinstalled... I set the idle-mixture screws (gently seat them, then
back out 1.5 turns) and then backed them
out another turn each... and though the motor started, it wasn't
quite idling, and definitely not smoothly... Ahh!... turn up the
idle speed screw (1 full turn) ... I did that and BINGO its running!
There is still hesitation when floored from idle (I think it would
die if I didn't let off the throttle) so I think I may need to go
to a larger accelerator pump nozzle (which would mean upgrading to
the 50cc pump too) By the way I tested my ethanol and it was only
180 proof!
Switching back to gas with these settings, the truck runs, but it's
VERY rich... As the guy at the shop said when I asked about running
on gas after modifying the carb, he said "More smoke and noise."
Summary:
So to convert a Holley R8007 (Model 4160 390 CFM) Carburetor for
180proof ethanol. Increase Main jets from #51 to #69, and drill
out the idle circuit with a #58 drill. And switch the .025"
accelerator pump nozzle with a .035" nozzle. These should let your
vehicle run, but I'm certain they are not optimal, and some change
to the secondary side of the carburetor is certainly necessary but
I haven't gotten that far yet! The Holley Catalog does show the
"secondary idle feed restriction" on page 79 of their catalog, and
lists the various secondary metering plates available. Maybe
I'll just get part 34R9716-6 (secondary metering plate) and hope
it's good enough!
