Off season Aspen projects have begun

[Oldiron440]

Try that race gas additive it is supposed to work great with regular unleaded.

 

[Aspen500]

I have been eyeing that stuff up.

 

[Aspen500]

Think I finally figured out a spark plug that's a heat range colder than an NGK XR5 (or Champion J12YC.) They don't make it easy to do that. Ended up about the only plug I came up with is an NGK BR6S. It's a heat range colder than the XR5's in there now. All the other plug manufacturer's I looked at didn't make a plug that was colder and that would fit. I looked at their heat range chart, got the range number and then searched for a plug, and came up zip on all but NGK so,,,,,,,,,,,,,NGK it is I guess. The BR6S is the same 14mm thread and 1.25mm pitch, same .380" reach and same hex size. Funnily enough, that plug is for, among other makes engines, the '48-'68 Chrysler 230 cid flathead six. Whod'a thunk it?
Also got some 110 race fuel coming. One of the guys at Advance Auto Parts next door to work said he was going to Oshkosh this weekend and passes right by a station that sells 110, and if I wanted him to pick some up for me to just say the word. I said "word" lol!

Then all I need to do is change the plugs. Driver's side, not a big deal. Passenger side,,,,,,,,,,,well,,,,,,,,,,,a picture is worth a thousand words. The biggest trick is getting the passenger side access panel off without scratching anything. It must come off or no spark plugs, lol.

 

[Aspen500]

Changed the plugs and hope they work because I'm never changing the passenger side plugs ever again. I must be getting old

There's a visible difference between the old and new as far as the insulator length. If there weren't clouds topping at 40,000 and rumbles of thunder in the distance, I'd take the car out for a ride and also fill up with fresh gas. It'll have to wait.

 

[Aspen500]

Got the car out this morning and took it for a ride. Topped the tank off (9.5gal) with fresh premium and drove to a hill where it always pinged, even when it was 40 degrees out. It goes from 1,100 feet to 1,600 and back to 1,100 in a about a mile or less so it's steep. Speed limit is 35 so it also puts the engine under a big load. Air this morning is ping inducing, already being 78, both temp AND humidity. Engine up to full temp (center of the gauge), A/C cranked leaving a trail of condensate, 35 mph in drive and,,,,,,,,,,,,,not a peep. Cautious optimism is running rampant Preliminary results are good.

The engine seems to run better and the exhaust sounds smoother somehow with the different plugs. Not sure yet if it's only my imagination though.

 

[Justwondering]

Happy for your potential solution!!

I thought of you this morning....as I was again left stranded by the golf cart.
I also have a brown tipped spark plug (only one and very easy to check).

Plenty of fuel in the tank but dry in the carb..... mess with the fuel lines (and I have a MAGNITUDE fewer than you do...lol)... and it starts again.

Got back to the house and checked the lines again and the return line port from the carb just came out of the spacer housing.

So I'm guessing a little JBWeld and a new fuel filter are in my future.

I'm going to ask you to share a little of your good karma so I can call this project intrusion done and get back to the Chrysler 5A.

JW

 

[Aspen500]

Good karma has been sent!

Oh, by the way, thanks for sending your hot, humid Texas weather up here.

 

[Justwondering]

woohoo ..
cart is running fine now!!!
JBWeld worked like a charm and the new filter does as well.
I drove by the Chrysler twice today but it was 98 with a heat index listed as 108 on accuweather and 116 on weatherunderground.
So I drove my husband to the white barn to get two grease guns for his tractor, threw out 3 bags of trash, dropped off groceries for my older brother and we came home.

I'm thinking Sunday is looking like the day for Chrysler fuel issues.

And you are very, very welcome for the change of weather. Least I could do. Would you like me to send more heat there?

JW

 

[80mirada]

please, no.....

 

[Aspen500]

No thanks JW, we've got plenty of our own! In all seriousness, it is actually nice to have a real summer finally. The past few have,,,,well,,,,,,,,,sucked. I think this is the longest stretch in at least 5 years that I've had the furnace switched off (about 1 1/2 months so far). Previously the longest was MAYBE 2 weeks in July, a couple years back.

Now, if it gets to a point where it isn't going to rain or storm every afternoon during the week, I can take the Aspen to work and really know for sure if the pinging is gone. Might get it out at some point today and go for another test run but first, I need to spend some quality time with the lawnmower and string trimmer.

 

[Justwondering]

80mirada ...
I would never send this hot, steamy weather to anyone.
Just an empty threat...
I did have the ponds cleaned up and a welder put in a new fishing dock with a roof, so I'm thinking its just time for a hammock and a cooler and a light breeze....
JW

 

[Aspen500]

Our humidity pretty much went away for the time being (only 29% right now) and the chance of rain was less than 0% so,,,,,,,,,,,,,took the car to work today. No pinging this morning, although it was only 53 degrees out and I had the heater on. On the way home, no pinging either and it was 86 degrees with the A/C cranked. I'm a happy camper!

Edit: I'm a happy guy, not a happy camper. I hate camping, lol!

 

[Aspen500]

Seems I have a little off season Aspen project that I didn't plan on. I dumped some Sta-Bil in the fuel tank, since I forgot to do it earlier. Went to start the car to back it out, and let it run a while and,,,,,,,,,,,,crank for ever and not even a pop. Checked for fuel from the pump squirters and all was well. Looked for fire and there was none. After dinner I'm heading back out to see if I can figure out what the bleep died in the past couple months, while the car was just sitting in the garage with the battery unhooked. Coil, pick-up coil, module, rotor,,,,,,,,,we'll see. At least it happened in the garage and not away from home somewhere. No rodents in the garage, never has been and hopefully never will be.

 

[Duke5A]

If it makes you feel any better mine did in fact start for one last outing this season, but dropped a pushrod out from under the rocker. Looking like a collapsed lifter. Got a thread on Moparts about it in the race section. Tomorrow the intake comes off. Remind me why we love tis hobby so much? lol.

 

[Aspen500]

Turned out to be nothing serious. It was a poor ignition power terminal at the module. Why it decided to cause a problem now, all of a sudden, who knows? A little crimp of the spade terminal to tighten it up and fired up instantly, just like the old days.

Why do we love this hobby so much? There are times when I wonder the same thing

 

[Aspen500]

After starting the car and backing it out of the garage yesterday, verified a new wideband sensor fixed the A/F gauge. Then I noticed the idle a/f was shaky, varying between 11.5 and 14.0. Off idle and it went to 10:1 (lowest the gauge goes) and the engine was noticeably rough. Every time I took it off idle and back, the idle a/f was different. 11.3, then 14.1, then 12.6............. Also the ever present tip in hesitation that no amount of tuning or changes does anything to change it, among other things. I upgraded to the 50cc pump, tried larger squirters, different pump cams and nothing I did made any difference at all. I've been reading about the Summit 750 I have and turns out, there's a lot of people that have the EXACT same problems. Great carb (aside from the hesitation) out of the box but a couple years later, all goes to crap. Loose throttle shaft that leaks fuel (and vacuum), the aforementioned unfixable tip in hesitation, extreme lean condition at part throttle under light load like up gradual hills, (mine goes like 17:1 or higher) and jets, air bleeds, etc have no positive effect. I suspect to keep the price down, corners were cut on materials and manufacturing tolerances.

So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,in a few days a Quick Fuel Brawler Street Series 850 mech secondary carb will be at the door. Had more than one guy recommend it and 99% of the reviews look good. I'm kind of exited and at the same time, hope I made the right choice. Guess time will tell, right? LOL, needed a really big crow bar to pry my wallet open and hit "submit order" before I changed my mind

On a minor note, last month I checked the lights and they all worked. Yesterday while I had the car running in the back driveway, walked around and both right side markers were inop. Bulbs burned out. Strange. Have to remember to get a couple bulbs tomorrow. There's no number on the bulbs but I think they're #1895's.

 

[Oldiron440]

I'm looking forward to hearing about this carb, I'm thinking about the 750 for my Fairlane.

 

[Justwondering]

Just that picture of the carb .... my oh my....
I'm pretty sure you will drive farther and faster cause it just plain looks awesome!

JW

 

[Aspen500]

I can't wait to get it bolted on and try it out. Wondering how close the calibration will be for my engine. The specs look to be about what I have in the Summit carb for jets, idle air bleeds, etc. Of course, the Summit carb is "faulty" also so, who knows. The less screwing around with tuning, the better! It's always so much trial and error. Change one thing, and it affects some other thing, change that and it affects something else. Time will tell. Looking forward to also not having fuel stains on the intake under the carb from the leaking throttle shaft. It just looks bad.

JW, you may be correct. If it runs better, it might get driven more. IF, by chance, the mpg's improve, that'll also make me drive it more.

I'm wondering if the carb may have something to do with the spark knock problem. It always did run lean on part throttle, light load conditions and no amount of tuning changes helped.

 

[Sub03]

Noooot good. I've used the Summit 600 (Holley 4010 copy) on my Magnum for a couple of years now. Not noticed any problems with it yet, but now I know the quality isn't all that good. It can be expensive to buy cheap in the long run I guess.