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Car is looking and sounding great. How do you plan on sealing the slip tubes on the headers?

cjbiagi wrote:Car is looking and sounding great. How do you plan on sealing the slip tubes on the headers?

Its a pretty crude but works method of using header wrap for a 4" section with hose clamps on either end. I havent removed the ones on the passenger side for at least a year and they dont seem to leak at all. Before I used to have to drop my driver side tubes to change the oil filter so I didnt want to deal with a goopy sealer. Ideally I would find some type of stepped exhaust clamp with the right diameters or modify the headers to seal better but until I decide this is a less permanent solution. The hardest tube to do on the Don Hardy headers is the #1 tube that goes around the steering shaft, I've had that one blow the wrap off before, plus its a tight spot to work in.

For the first time in what would be 4 years I drove the car and the engine temperature gauge never went higher than 180deg (180 thermostat) with my fan only on low speed. I think after all this time the problem I had was caused by poor quality automatic circuit breakers, I swapped in a set of high quality ones and they seemed to work flawlessly instead of cutting on/off constantly, sometimes leaving me half-stranded and overheating at 200deg (what happens when you have no fans in traffic).

I seem to have a decent tune-up in the car and its running really well with the crossram, pulls hard on the top end so I bumped my rev limiter up to let me shift at 6500 if I feel the engine still pulling. All I have left to do are a few small things, finish painting my hood and find an exhaust rattle that is driving me NUTS...

Also while I had the car out yesterday I finally got it weighed, half a tank of gas, in full trim, 350 sbc, M21 muncie, 9" rear, s10 swap up front, Aluminum 15" wheels, no weight reductions aside from trimming out the hood for the crossram/dual carbs was 2960 lbs. I was pretty shocked thinking the car might be lighter but this is similar to what other people on the forum have had as well.

was 2960 lbs...I was pretty shocked thinking the car might be lighter but this is similar to what other people on the forum have had as well

I looked up an old post when I did away with the 5mph bumpers and weighed at the local recycler scales and the weight was 2959 with me in it. I weigh 205 lbs...so 2754 lbs.

OK, I ended up taking a small piece of thin sheetmetal and cut it to the width of two hose clamps. Then I wrapped the metal around the joint and installed the two hose clamps one on the larger tube and one on the smaller one. The clamps are strong enough to compress the sheetmetal around each tube and form a pretty good seal. So I ended up with a stepped piece of sheetmetal tightly wrapped around each tube diameter. I turned the clamps so that the screw is barely visible so it doesn't look to odd.

vegastre wrote:

was 2960 lbs...I was pretty shocked thinking the car might be lighter but this is similar to what other people on the forum have had as well

I looked up an old post when I did away with the 5mph bumpers and weighed at the local recycler scales and the weight was 2959 with me in it. I weigh 205 lbs...so 2754 lbs.

I was thinking of doing that next, that would put me much closer to where I would like it to sit weight wise, but in all reality it doesn't matter all that much since its just a street car. Maybe down the road, I would prefer sticky tires first!

cjbiagi wrote:OK, I ended up taking a small piece of thin sheetmetal and cut it to the width of two hose clamps. Then I wrapped the metal around the joint and installed the two hose clamps one on the larger tube and one on the smaller one. The clamps are strong enough to compress the sheetmetal around each tube and form a pretty good seal. So I ended up with a stepped piece of sheetmetal tightly wrapped around each tube diameter. I turned the clamps so that the screw is barely visible so it doesn't look to odd.

Sounds like a nice solution, like making your own band clamp! mine looks a little odd for one tube if you look for it, the rest are all under the car.

If you're looking for a way to seal up the slip joints in the header tubes, Permatex Ultra Copper RTV is safe to 700 F. Much better than exhaust joint sealing compound because it is flexible enough to get the joints back apart. I used it way back on the slip joints of my Hooker 2135's.

Been running around in the vega, getting lots of comments. Mostly about the paint, I dont know why, its all a similar shade of yellow now (you can see the difference in the hood) I just tell them I cant see the color of the car when I'm inside burning rubber. Engine combination is running GREAT once I get it warmed up, cold response is pretty poor but that's normal with such a large plenum.

Not all things are good, seems like my used posi for the 9" isnt holding up well but with used/worn clutches its to be expected, this summer its been acting like an open diff so this winter I will re-build it with fresh clutches and tighten it up again. Its a good thing this wont stop me from driving the car around cause I'm having way too much fun.

Another H-body returns to the streets! Sweet

I'm due for an update!

I rebuilt my 9" posi cause the rearend kept opening up under load and darting to one side. Turns out it has an extra shim but was missing the most important friction plate that meets inside the hub, go figure how it even remotely worked for 4 years under my abuse. Hopefully everything works good this summer.
Just started on a power steering swap. Already running into potential problems! This is a lightweight 600 series CJR box, 12:1, 3 turns lock to lock. I wasnt able to get the boot off the plug but once its tightened up everything might JUST clear. I'll have to see what I can do about fittings/elbows.

Hi Badbowtie,

Can you unbolt and rotate the flow control valve on the steering box so the fittings point off to the side instead of straight up?

Cheers,
Tim

TimMcCabe wrote:Hi Badbowtie,

Can you unbolt and rotate the flow control valve on the steering box so the fittings point off to the side instead of straight up?

Cheers,
Tim

Thanks for the tip, I didn't know they could be rotated. Unfortunately that puts the fittings right into the side of the block. I think I have the fitting situation figured out that I'm going to use an OEM line thats 6-8" long, it has two tight 90 degree bends and the fittings I need. I'll cut the line right after the 90s on each side and braze each with -6an fittings to match my pump side. If that doesnt work I will at least have the right metric o-ring fittings and bring it to a hydraulic shop to get lines made up. The reason being that AN fittings/adapters are too tall off the box.

For the spark plug I'm going to try a shorter plug and/or a thinner boot. I might even have to "clearance" the box a bit

Simple picture update, not much going on while I wait for parts to come in. Not fully committed to cutting the rest of my steering shaft until I know the steering box fittings will fit.

Sparkplug look like it will work a lot better. Accel 0437-S

The power steering hose/fitting I got has the wrong flared end but I found what I need from edelmann 39109/10 for the 18mm end and 29106/7 on the 16mm end. Going to order this week since I have the -6AN weld on fittings ready to go.


On the plus side I got the steering pump mocked up, everything lines up nicely.

Moving along, next step is to paint the front end parts, mount everything up and get power steering lines made up.

I am looking at installing power steering on my car but I have the front plate motor mounts and alternator where yours it.

I am interested in what you used for the pump bracket to mount it on the passenger side. I think that's what I need to do or
have to replace the motor mounts.

Looks like a lot of work but will be worth it when done.

Are you happy with your brakes? I notice you have manual rather than power brakes.

Nice car!