Chapter 8, Engine
Woe/Getting Even, continued
August 2010
Going Deeper
Also worth noting is
the different oil pan here. Ebay
has gotten a little better for 440 parts.
The Chinese are hungry and the Chevrolet stuff is already fished
out and saturated, so someone has turned to fabricating Mopar items
(valve covers!) and the deep 7 quart pan here.
The original Milodon pan was not correct for my car and the drag
link in the steering was touching it, so it got removed pretty quickly
in favor of the stock pan. I
failed to note that earlier (it sure did look MEAN), and it also went
away because the pan dropped down about 4 inches below the K-frame.
I was worried that I'd do all sorts of work to keep the pan and
then rip the bottom off on a rock or curb or who-knows-what.
GONE.
In
addition to the pan, which has a small baffle around the top of the
cavity, I added a windage tray. It
was $25.00 and I know that it becomes more important with high RPM (this
car probably won't ever exceed 4000), but I wanted it there anyway --
only cost me an extra gasket after I paid for the plate
Alarming Developments
I put myself through
college managing bicycle shops, and did a fair amount of riding and
racing before I discovered motorcycles and how much more fun they are.
I watch the Tour de France and have made the pilgrimage to watch
it in person twice now. I
understand cycling and love the sport.
What I don't
understand are the people in the sport who think that they can ride
three abreast on a narrow winding back road and who feel entitled to
take up a majority of the space. These
people ruin it for the ones who understand that cars are scary, deadly
missiles driven by people who generally don't care that much, or are
not very good drivers in the first place.
For these people, I
have installed the cyclist warning system, which consists of an electric
siren mounted in the belly of the space in front of the radiator.
It joins the 4 metal vintage electric horns already there.
This is a one-two
punch for the obnoxious road user, be it on legs, two wheels, or more.
The siren is sounded
by a switch on the center console, and is great for sending out a bloop
of noise when you're still far enough away for whoever you are
signaling to do something about. The
horns are kept in reserve, and are about as loud as any electric horns
you'll ever meet. They're
designed to startle the shit out of anyone who is ignoring the siren and
subsequent sound of the engine.
There is a split in
the freeway near here where the three fast lanes go straight, and lanes
4 and 5 curve off to the right. Traffic
backs up in the straight lanes, and while you're at the limit in lane
4, don't you just know that there will be some jackass who comes to a
complete stop, puts his left signal on, and then waits in the open lane
to cut into the clogged-up lane because he didn't plan ahead?
I met such a person in
a green VW Bug. He jammed on
his brakes and started to creep over.
Blast of the horns at
him and I saw him literally jump in his seat and then turn and start
screaming hard enough that I could see spittle coming out of his mouth.
Mission accomplished.
Don't
get mad. Get even.
When I brake hard, the
car's front suspension tends to squirm a bit, causing modest changes
in alignment and occasional pull from one side to another.
I have two solutions
for this.
First thing I found
out was that the strut rod bushings on a 1970 Challenger are the same as
on a 1970-73 Imperial. BINGO.
I now have some dense polyurethane bushings to replace the rubber
bushings that are on the car now, and are obviously flexing.
Long term plan is to remove the upper control arms.
I can see that the new bushings that I put in there are already
starting to separate and come apart.
I'll replace them with machined Delrin, which is a super dense
plastic that is self-lubricating and is a racer's trick for firming up
the pivot points on a car's A-arm and control arm.
That will be some work, and I'll save it for after the other
projects are all done.
Braking is just OK.
I'd like it to be better, and perhaps
have access to some semi-metalic or ceramic brake pads that are more
modern than the ones available to the owner of a stock Imperial braking
system, so I started trolling Craigslist.
My search netted front
and rear rotors, master cylinder/booster, and front calipers from a 2003
Dodge 2500 truck. I still
need to find the rear calipers and whatever assembly they use to mount
em to the rear end. I
foresee fabrication, as well as re-machining the discs to the larger
stud pattern that I need for my wheels.
I plan to put the entire, well engineered brake system, minus
ABS, onto the car when I have time and money to do so.
I'm in for $200 so far, and figure another $300 might do it.
I would like to take a
moment and pay homage to the fact that this car does not have ABS, but
that it WAS available as an option -- a first in automotive history, as
far as I know. Mercedes
started putting similar solutions onto cars in the later 1970s, and
earlier vehicles had something on just the rear axle as far back as the
mid 1960's, I think, but Chrysler was first, and the system made its
debut on Imperial as seen here:
/Articles/71RoadTest/index.htm
Brakes are one of the
cheapest ways to make the car safer and more controllable, although I
really can't complain too much about the stock system.
Never had fade, boil, or anything.
I'd just like additional bite when going fast.
