Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

May 2006

5/7/06 - This weekend was primarily about the brake system. The last week in April I initiated the flow of brake fluid into all 4 brake calipers but did not get any air of out the MC. I ordered a pressure bleeder from Motive Products and received the unit before this weekend.

The Motive pressure bleeder is a simply caniser pump/pressurizer as you might see for spraying insecticide. It did have a pressure gauge mounted on the side and the hose leads to a rectangular block of plastic and rubber. the solid rubber side has 2 holes for pressurizing the front and back of the Jeep MC that I have. The solid plastic side has a series of nothces for the moutning hardware: 4 "J" bolts, 4 thumb screws, and 2 chains; to install this, you simply center the block over the MC and use the hardware to help clamp down the block firmly.

During the initial pressurization test, I continually had leaks front and rear on the block despite adjusting the thumb-screws on the J-bolts. After 20-30 minutes of getting nowhere, I decided to use a pair of Qwik-Clamps on the leaky areas and sure enough, it stopped and held pressure!

We (my neighbor Chris stopped by to help) filled the canister with 2 quarts of DOT3/4 fluid and pressurized the system to 15 psi but it seemed rather "slow" to bleed out the air. Chris suggested we both the pressurizer plus pedal action method for evacuating air out of the MC. Of all 4 corners to bleed, the worst by far was the furthest line, the passenger rear. It took over a quart of fluid to flush out all the air bubbles. We had to make 2 trips to the auto store to get a total of 3 quarts on top of the first 2 quarts I had started with! As it turns out, I utilized only 3.5 quarts in all. It was worth all the work as there was so much air in this system, there was times I swore I was holding a jar of beer with a nice foam head on top!

The brakes aren't exactly what I was expecting to feel but they should provide some good braking. I feel I could probably work on bleeding the brakes a little more on the rears to get a better feel as I found weeping of fluid on Sunday after reviewing the brakes again with a couple of solid jabs on the pedal. I had to crank down the bleeders another 1/8 to 1/4 turn to stop them from leaking. The pedal firmed up some after that.

I have also mounted the e-brake cables on Sunday as well. This took a bit of work since the coil spring on the hand brake was pretty tough to pull towards the cables. The cables were routed below the 4" round cross tube. I coated the area with some lithium grease I had handy but will likely try to put some teflon material on that spot later. I tested the handbrake and it seems to look from a mechanical standpoint (the mechanism could be seen working as I moved the handbrake up and down.)

I reattached my power supply to the I-Squared Power Controller and everything still works but this time, I had hooked up the electric choke; looks like that works as the bimetallic coil got VERY hot but it opened up the choke plate as it should. This was the only hookup I didn't have during my initial dash installation.

With the dash pretty much mounted for the last time, all of the wires were connected, tie-wrapped and ready. I did have 4 holes drilled into the dash for mouting on the hoop. It's currently clecko'd into place.

This week, I want to concentrate on a few areas to prep it for it's maiden ignition! Yes, this coming weekend is slated for the engines first breath of air and it should be a moment to remember. For this to occur, I really wanted the brakes to work and that's been done. Now all that's left is to button up the cockpit aluminum, install the seat belts, install the steering wheel, fill the radiator/engine with water (initially; will have Water Wetter for the final fill,) add in a few gallons of gas and attach the battery cables (no more power supply.)

5/9/06 - Over the past two days, I've spent some time on the interior. With the tranny leveled out a bit more and the e-brake completed, there was no longer any reason to leave the top of the tunnel open nor the inside corner piecess near the end of the tunnel so I riveted in the last 4 pieces of the driveshaft tunnel area! Afterwards, I mounted the Simpson seat harnesses. I didn't do the submarine strap at this time. No good place to really anchor it. After doing some final adjustments, it was on to another little detail: the door limiting straps. I didn't take pictures of this but the holes have been drilled into the 2x2 uprights and the straps riveted to the frame. I will probably take some time to paint the hinges themselves this weekend if possible, or else next weekend.

The only other things I've done were the rear bleed screws. The driver side and passenger side were weeping a lot the day after the initial pressure bleeding was completed. So I cranked both down about 1/8-1/4 of a turn. The following day, still a little weepeing when I applied pressure so again, I cranked it another 1/4 turn. Today when I got home, the driver side appeared dry but the passenger side was "just" still weeping but at least it wasn't dripping. So again another 1/4-1/2 turn. I sure hope this does it. I really don't know how hard to crank these things but if I mess up the bleeders after this, it's not a big deal bt on the next bleeder, I'll use some thread sealant.

5/13/06 - Today was a fairly big deal for me. I had planned for this day for some time and a lot of things were revealed and much will be still delt with in the coming weeks.

The day actually started off at Dublin, CA where my friend Chris and I went to Athen's Burger to get some breakfast and see a bunch of Cobra's with a GT350, a Sunbeam Tiger and a topless Viper thrown in. We chatted with "Jester", "ChrisH" and "HankL" and all wished me luck by the time we left. Once we got back to Sunnyvale, we took two trips to the gas station to fill up my 2 gallon fuel bottle. With 4 gallons of gas in the tank, the next thing was to test the fuel pressure. We hooked up the battery and powered on the fuel pump. We discovered no leaks in the back half of the system (pickup, fuel pump, fuel filter). But up front, all 3 AN-to-NTP fittings on the Mallory fuel pressure regulator was weeping fuel, as was the two float fittings from the Holly fuel feed tubes. So after 15 minutes of torquing down all of the hardware, the system was completely sealed.

Next up, we needed to get some water into the radiator and block. When we got to the top of the T-Filler, I noted the Ron Davis radiator was weeping some water on the top bleeder bung; apparently I didn't put any teflon tape so I've noted that for later on; this by the way, was one of four water leaks noted. We checked the firing order and some initial timing that I "thought" was right. We then double checked the wiring, taping up any loose ends so they don't accidentally ground out. Then with everything in place, it was time to light her up.

And now for the BIG MOMENT (drum roll) - on the first stab of the 'Start' button, I got a backfire!!! Didn't acutally scare me but was surprising. We went over the timing again and noted I wasn't 10 deg. advanced but more like 10 deg. retarded. After setting the timing again, we had another go at it and we got the engine to start and stay alive for a little while. The 2nd start was fairly quick; just a few turns of the mini-starter was all it took, however, it wasn't able to hold idle very well and it did "sneeze" some fuel a few times restarting. A lot of smoke of course emanated from the exhaust pipes but particularly from the 4 hole gaskets between the headers and the pipes. We adjusted the idle and both floats and finally got it stablilized to some degree. Since I did not have the radiator fans hooked to power yet, the engine did get to 210 deg. F. after a more lengthly run of the motor. We figured we better shut it down and check the radiator a bit but then I heard "sizzling" from the motor. I discovered two of the head studs were weeping water out of the thread. Cylinder 1 and cylinder 7 both had a weeping ARP stud. All the others were dry.

We got a garden hose out and cooled down the system; Chris started the motor as I sprayed the radiator to cool it down; the temperature held at 180 deg. F now. But we noted that the initial oil pressure (cold) was 50 psi but is now only about 10psi at idle; it just makes 20 psi when running at 2,000RPM. I believe someone on the forum noted that as a rule, 10psi per 1,000RPM is acceptable so I guess we're ok. I reviewed a post from Kouros and it seemed the same thing happened. We pulled both valve cover plugs to confirm we were getting oil into both valve heads. So I'm guessing we're ok.

One thing we noted though is the engine seemed to vibrate way too much regardless if at idle or at 2,000RPM. This may be my fault for thinking that the crank was truely zero balanced. I believe it was balanced but for a system with counter weights. The harmonic balancer I purchased did have a removable 50oz. counter weight so I will probably need to put that back on, however, the flywheel will need to get replaced. :(

This is part of the deal I suppose. I really was hoping I got it right but it goes to show, you should double and triple check something like this; now the engine will probably be yanked to fix the flywheel problem; the only good thing that comes from this is the ARP studs will be easier to seal with the engine out. Still, this will gobble up a lot of time.

I did take a chance and go-karted the car for the first time also. I can tell you I did NOT do an adaquate job bleeding the brakes; that or I have the wrong bore Jeep MC. It was mushy and took all the pedal travel to slow it down to a stop. I'm not happy with this right now. And still the cover leaks fluid. :( Going to have to reevaluate this situation. Still, since I could get it to stop, the go-kart was somewhat of an amazing experience. It tooks some getting used to NOT to hit the throttle when I went for the brakes. Steering is good as long as the car is in motion but boy it's a pain at a stop!

So the day ended with the task of draining the water from the block and radiator and begin removal of all attached items on the motor so I can remove the block and add in the proper flywheel and the counter weight in the harmonic balancer.

5/17/06 - After a few days of mulling over the past weekend and talking with others on the forum, I reached deep down in my gut and began the process of taking care of business. Over the course of this week, I've removed the cylinder #1 head stud and re-sealed it using a teflon paste recommended by HankL. I had to remove the driver side header to get to the #7 cylinder stud but that's now taken care of. The paste (Harvey's TFE Pipe Thread Compound with teflon) reports it can withstand up to 600 deg. F, and 10,000PSI liquid pressure. More than enough for my needs but only cost a few dollars for the tube so what the heck!

Since I am using the Stage 8 locking bolt system, and the fact that the locking tabs are all custom fit to each bolt in their respective positions along the header, I labeled the tabs so I can reinstall them in the correct locations.

I also removed all 8 spark plugs and inspected them. Generally speaking, all are burning and none have any oily residue. Colors varied from a perfect tanish/grey, to a little darker grey. This is to say all 8 cylinders are firing.

My next move I believe, it to actually hooking everything up again, and test for water leaks one more time. If it proves I got everything, I want to invite locals to listen/observe the motor and determine if in fact, the problem with the vibration is a balance issue.

Today, I did receive extra wires from I-Squared. I had requested 7 wires of about 4 ft. each of specific colors that were falling short to the front power wires ( fans, horns, headlamps, signals, and parking lights.) But Chris at I-Squared not only gave my the 7 colored wires, he gave me 12 more, all with terminal connectors crimped on and all 12' ft. long! He had essentially shipped me a full harness! Thank you Chris for taking care of your customers!!!!!

At this point, I hope to wire up at least the radiator fans this weekend to get the car running again and make some additiona tweaks (carb floats are WAY too high according to the instructions on the Holley Street Avenger manual. Secondar floats are nearly full to the top of the site window and the Primary float is 1/2 on the site; Holly recommends they both be set to just above the bottom of the site but below 1/2 way (1/4?).

More to come this weekend.

5/20/06 - From the 17th to today, I worked slowly but surely on completing more of the wiring harness. A lot of little things kind of add up to a lot of time. I wish I could know how many wire-loom clamps I would need for a given project because it always seemed like I'm running out! This killed a lot of time on Saturday but over all, it was a very productive day once I got the additional 3/8" and 1/2" vinyl coated clamps.

I had finished the soldering of the extentions on Thursday. Today, I started with drilling a hole at the trailing edge of the F-panel along the 3/4" top frame tube. I split the aluminum and bent it just enought to allow the grommet and harness to pass through, then bent it back. Then I proceeded to crimped a few spade connectors and hooked up both horns and radiator fans. I Also split-loomed the remaining wires and anchored them down along the top 3/4" frame around the F-panel, and split off the driver side wires and horn wires along the top of the radiator. Thankfully, Ron Davis uses a LOT of allen head bolts in key areas so I was able to mount a number of clamps along the top. For the fan wires connections, I also used a few of the allen bolts to secure the wires.

As you can see in the accompanying photo's, this harness isn't going anywhere!

5/24/06 - A few things occurred over the last couple of days. I decided to try out the radiator fan with a SPST switch. I flipped the switch and both fans began to build up speed but within 2 seconds both fuses on the I-Squared Power Controller blew! These were 20A fuses. I posted the results on the FFCobra.com forum and Chris @ I-Squared was contacted soon after. I indicated the fans come equipped with the Ron Davis radiator so Chris called Ron Davis to find out what the draw on each fan was. It turns out they draw about 19.2A but at startup, they draw a bit more upon startup. Based on an industry average of approximately 20%, the startup draw is about 23A. While a fuse is actually rated at 125% of what it's rated for (this would make a 20A fuse a 24A max.), it could only endure that spike for a very short period. Appears 2 seconds is not engough and this is why the fuses eventually blew.

I bought 25A fuses and tested them about 5 times now from a dead start. No problems at all! All is right again.

Next I tackeld a simple issue. I had accidentally put the PCV tube from into the vaucme line for the power brakes. I switched it to the correct tube now; not sure it makes a huge difference but I figured I better do it right!

Afterwards, I decided to start on the weather packs. For some odd reason though, I cannot find (2) of the 3-terminal weather packs! Don't know what happened to them or if I didn't count right but I looked everywhere and cannot find the missing pairs so I'll have to go to Pep-Boys to get the other pairs. In the meantime, I finished at least the headlamps.

5/26/06 - Took some time to finish up the front weather packs for the headlamps and signals. Afterwards, I tested the left signal, right signal, four-way, headlamps and high-beams/flash-to-pass. Everything worked as expected!

Used some remaining split loom to cover up the pigtails on both the headlamps and signal lamps. Looks pretty good so far.

I'll be hard at work tomorrow with HankL to get the engine vibration issue sorted out as well as the oil pump pressure. I've obtained a mechanical oil pump as verification of absolute pressure and remove possible "electrical" issues (real or imagined.)

5/31/06 - The last entry of the month won't be much to talk about. On Saturday, Hank and I went over everything and while we did find an over tightened intake valve on cylinder #5, everything else was pretty much as we had it before. Hank readjusted the floats again (both are about 1/2 way on the window) and fired up the motor again but his assessment is what we feared: motor is not balanced with the correct flywheel and harmonic balancer. I was able to get a hold of the person that sold me the engine (as opposed to the actual engine builder) and his assessment was the original builder (now retired for about 2 years) would not have balanced the engine for 50oz so it leaves it balanced at either neutral or 28 oz. and since I have 0 oz. on both ends, I've called Mike Forte for some help. He will be sending me a 28oz. bolt-on weight for the flywheel but the HB will have to be ordered in whole.

Before I had called Mike after the long weekend, I was already taking hoses and electircal apart in anticipation of removing the motor but today, Mike had some encouraging advice: don't remove the engine - just remove the started and slip the weight though the starter hole and bolt it in! Well, I removed the started but I can't really see how this is going to work. Maybe I'm just not seeing it but I'm hopeful. But even if it's not doable, I'm still ready to yank the motor anyway. As of yesterday, the only thing I haven't removed was the shifter.

Because of the timing, I got a hold of Ken Pike at SRP and had him delay the paint shoot until the end of June. That should provide me with time to apply the FatMatt on the cockpit and carpet at least the rear firewall panel. June is going to be a very busy month!