The Bridgestone Project 1: The Dual Twin

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Are you ready for this????    New project.  Code name: The Bridgestone Project.

1965 Bridgestone Dual Twin.

Take a look:

Let’s get ready for some specs!!

The Bridgestone Project..your mission should you decide to accept to restore this mess!!

The Bridgestone Project..your mission should you decide to accept to restore this mess!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

bridgestone motorcyclebridgestone motorcycle

1958 Ford Ranch Wagon- Control valve rebuilt

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http://ranchwagon.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/control-valve-rebuilt/

Posted: May 13, 2012 in Uncategorized

So I spent Friday night dismantling the control valve, in order to soak it all overnight for a Saturday morning rebuild. It all came apart relatively easy. After having it all soak all night in some super clean, I cleaned it all up an then soaked all the internals and housing in some power steering fluid. I rebuilt the valve with a rebuild kit and a new ball stud kit as well. Then I coated the spool valve spring and nut with some white lithium grease and installed the end cap.

I then painted it in some chassis black semi-gloss and installed the stud boot and retainer. All done!

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

Mustang II Diaries 2

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Engine Work–Part I

When I first got the car, it had to warm up forever or it would stall. At stop lights, I had to be careful to feather the gas pedal to keep it from quitting on me. I enjoy an occasional adrenaline rush, but not at every intersection!
Anyway, our first order of business was to get the car running better. This would end up taking a while as we troubleshooted/fixed/replaced/fiddled with different parts of the engine over several months.
First, we ordered a rebuilt carburetor and my dad and I installed it. With the new carb, the car ran strong on straightaways with no hesitation but ran rough at slow speeds. After that, we did a tune up, replacing the spark plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor.
Next, I drove the car to my brother’s place and he adjusted the fuel/air mixture, fiddled with the vacuum advance tubing, and reconnected the kickdown rod. The hesitation was 99 percent gone after all that. When I drove home I got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic and the car never stalled or overheated. Yay!
The last piece of the puzzle was the fuel pump, which was going bad. As soon as we replaced that (only $30), the car ran better than ever. Now I can drive it without worrying about being stranded (although I do have roadside assistance through my insurance so I can get a tow home if that happens).
Update: Even though the car is more reliable and runs smoothly now, the engine leaks oil, and could use a reseal. I’m hoping to get this done in September/October 2010 (more on this later).

Posted by Denice at 11:22 AM

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Engine Line Up – 1957 Dodge Part I

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Fins and Wagons w/2 or 4 doors, pretty much sums up the style for Dodge in 1957.  With wheelbases ranging from 112 to 124.4 inches  and curb weights of over 4000 lbs what the heck did they power them with?

Dodges were available in three flavors, Coronet, Royal and Station Wagon series with the Coronet and Royal coming in 2 and 4 door configurations and each had a convertible available and the wagon had 2 and 4 door versions.

57 Coronet 2-Door Coupe….Tell me you don’t like the fins!?!?!??!?

Here is the Custom Royal Lancer Convertible

The smallest engine available was Dodges in-line L-Head 6 cylinder.  This was an iron block that displaced 230 cubic inches and had a bore and stroke of 3.25 X 4.8525 inches. It sported solid lifters and four main bearings.  This managed to produce a compression ratio of 8.0:1  and topped off with a Stromberg one barrel carb (WW3-159) it made 138 hp.

The popular V8 was the Red Ram.   This too was an iron block with overhead valves, displacing 325 cubic inches.  The bore and stroke was 3.69 x 3.80 and compression was 8.5:1.  Five main bearings, hydraulic lifters.   In the Coronet and Royal series it made 245hp.  In the Custom Royal it produced 260 hp.  Why the difference?  It might have been the carbs.  The lower hp cars had the Stromberg Two barrel (WW3-149) and the 260hp cars had the two barrel Webber (WCFB-2532S)

325 Red Ram engine for the 57 Dodges

So that a nice couple of engines.  But Dodge had a D-500 series which really wasn’t a separate series, just a set of high  performance engines.  Those are coming up next.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

1991 Camaro

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What We Drive – Jon’s ’91 Camaro

from:  Prestolite Performance   http://info.prestoliteperformance.com/111-what-we-drive-jon-s-91-camaro.html?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Automotive+Newsletter+7_26_12
Published on Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:55

What We Drive Volume 1, Jon's CamaroMeet Jon, one of our engineers here at Prestolite Performance. He is the focus of our first installment of What We Drive, our series of stories about the cars of Prestolite Performance employees. Jon got into cars when he was about 13 years old. His first car was a 1986 Ford Tempo that he worked on, but never got it to the road. His college car was a 1989 Chevy S10, which he beefed up by replacing the original 4 cylinder with a V8.

How Jon’s Camaro Went From 230 hp to Over 700 hp

Jon had been looking for a ’91 Camaro for some time, finding it difficult to locate one that wasn’t a rust bucket. In 2000, his search paid off and he purchased a nearly bone stock ’91 Camaro with only about 57,000 miles. The only performance upgrade on the car was a Flowmaster exhaust. Originally, the car made about 230 hp and 300 ft. lbs of torque.

The LB9 305 small block Chevy engine that was stock in Jon’s Camaro was removed to make way for a 355 small block. He hand ported aluminum Corvette heads and installed a Holley Stealth Ram intake with Mr. Gasket Ultra-Seal intake gaskets. Jon also made sure his engine was sealed for higher horsepower with Multi-Layered Steel head gaskets from Mr. Gasket. He made the engine even tougher with a forged ZZ4 crank, SRP forged pistons and a Comp camshaft.

Beefing up the drivetrain was also a priority so Jon installed a 4L80E transmission (built to handle 1000hp), Transgo shift kit, Lakewood transmission mount, SPOHN driveshaft, Detroit locker and Lakewood U-joints.

With twin 60mm Garret Turbos and his ACCEL 1000cfm throttle body and ACCEL Gen7 engine management system, Jon needed a hefty fuel delivery. His 5160FI fuel pump (now under Mallory) along with Mallory filters and high performance regulator provides the elite system needed for such a setup. For ignition, Jon used an ACCEL 300+ box with an ACCEL ultra coil and Extreme 9000 ceramic boot wires.

Now that Jon’s Camaro had been beefed up, he needed to harness the power with Lakewood 90/10 drag struts, panhard bar and control arms. He also needed better braking, so he installed 2002 SS Camaro brakes on all 4 corners.

All said and done, Jon’s beefed up ’91 Camaro now makes 700 hp and 800 ft. lbs of torque. That’s quite the improvement from stock.

See more Pictures

Beautiful Car!

Now that’s some plumbing!!!

Complete List of Improvements to Jon’s Camaro

Engine

Drivetrain

Power Adder

  • Twin 60mm Garret Turbos
  • Custom stainless headers

Fuel system

Engine management

Ignition

Exhaust

  • Custom 2-1/2″ down pipes
  • 4″ y-pipe back single exhaust
  • Dynatech muffler
  • Mr. Gasket ultra seal gaskets

Suspension

Brakes

  • 2002 SS Camaro brakes on all 4 corners
 Thanks for reading.
Tim

 

Mustang II Diaries 1

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http://mustangiidiaries.blogspot.com/

In November 2004, on a whim, I purchased a 1977 Mustang II off eBay. I don’t know the first thing about restoring old cars. But I had one of these when I was a teenager and it’s always owned a piece of my heart.There have been times when I’ve thought to myself–What were you thinking! I’m a mom of twin 6-year-old boys, with no extra money, and no mechanical experience! But I just love my car. Whenever I’m stressed, I drive it around town and I feel better.

Restoring my old Mustang–just keeping it running–hasn’t been easy. For a girl who never even
changed oil before, I had a LOT to learn. Progress is slow and I’m not quite ready to rebuild an engine, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.

A Girl Gets In Over Her Head Restoring a 1977 Mustang II

Friday, July 2, 2010

New Wheels!

Pretty soon after getting my car, I decided to switch out the spoke-y hubcaps for some cooler looking wheels. Looking through an old Mustang II brochure, I saw a white with red stripe Cobra II with white lacy wheels and liked the look. Matching wheels to paint is not a look that appeals to everyone, but I thought that white wheels would be unique and add some personality to my otherwise ho-hum coupe.
I bought a set of 4 vintage white lacy spoke wheels from another II owner, along with four chrome center caps. As you can see from the pic, above, the wheels needed a lot of work. They’d been sitting in someone’s garage for years! I had them stripped down to the metal and powdercoated white. The picture below shows the powdercoated wheels and new tires mounted on the car. They look SO weird without the pinstripe! At this point I was thinking, hm, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.
Locating someone to paint the pinstripes was more challenging than I thought. Apparently pinstripe painting by hand is a dying art. But I did eventually find a guy who owned a sign business (Shane’s Signs) in Manassas, VA who could do it. When I saw the final product I knew I had made the right decision about the wheels.
I might change them down the road but for now, I think they add a lot to the overall look of my coupe.

Mustang Muscle in the Mid 70′s Prt 4 1977

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As it turned  out 1977 was one of the lower sales years.  The average since 1974 was around 180k or more.  For 1977 the sales number fell a bit short @ only 150K.  (Believe it or not that was more than Mustang sales for the 1971, 1972 and 1973 models!!).

There was some excitement for the 1977 Mustang.  For one thing the Cobra II could be had in white with red stripes and if that doesn’t stop your heart the options chrome luggage rack for the ’77 hard top coupe will.

You might be thinking, “Hey wait a minute!!!  Did he say ‘hard top’?  ‘Hard top’ as in there was something else?  Like a CONVERTIBLE?   THE CONVERTIBLE IS BACK?”    Well YES, if you spell it ‘T-TOP‘.

That’s not a bad-looking car!!! Agree?

The huge option for 1977 was the T-Top.  Frankly, I like T-Tops.  I had a Camaro with a T-Top and loved it.

Engine line up was the same as the previous years with the V8 302 (in the Cobra II package) producing 139 hp.

The Cobra package also include honeycomb wheels (or I think they were referred to as ‘lacy’).

Yeah..I guess they are more ‘lacy’ than ‘honeycomb’.

Thanks for reading and check out this blog.  The owner overs some of her issues when restoring a 1977 Mustang.

http://mustangiidiaries.blogspot.com/search/label/engine

Tim