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Ace-Garageguy

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Everything posted by Ace-Garageguy

  1. Everything depends on the era and application you're building. A blown car in the 1960s would most likely run a magneto setup, as coil-type ignitions would be on the ragged edge of not being able to make a hot enough spark to light off a blown engine consistently...but the amount of over- or under-drive on the blower is part of the equation. An over-driven blower on a drag car would need more gutsy ignition than an under-driven blower on a street machine. Cylinder pressure in a racing engine will usually be higher than a street engine, requiring a "hotter" spark. There are a few coil ignitions that could handle it back then, like a Spaulding Flamethrower, or some of the other two-coil rigs. Coils would be external on those. On the other hand, a GM HEI distributor, made from about '74 onwards (and looks kinda like your model) makes a much hotter spark than some of the earlier hot-rod setups, should be able to handle a street-driven blown engine without huge boost, and has its coil inside the cap. It only requires one small wire to power it...no coil wire. The first-generation HEI rigs had some limitations, but GM and the aftermarket quickly solved the problems. People dissing the HEI today are generally just rebleating what somebody else said, and most of 'em don't know what they're talking about. A stock HEI distributor with vacuum advance won't work with a blown engine, because there's no way for it to get a boost reference to vary the timing as the blower blows harder. There are, however, plenty of HEI-look distributors that WILL do the job on a blower motor...and none of the differences would be visible. Again, both the "module" and the coil are inside the typical HEI cap, so you don't need to worry about coil wiring (remove the nipple for the coil wire from the cap). HEI caps are usually larger diameter than older coil-type caps, and usually look like this...more or less. Another popular (external-coil) electronic distributor that will do the job is the Mallory Unilite, and its relatives. Use a separate coil, and wire it like you normally would. There's a lot to getting the right ignition system on a real engine, but the info here should be plenty to get your model reasonably accurate. If you're building an earlier car and want to run a magneto or a Flamethrower, I've got posts that show the correct wiring for all of 'em. Just ask.
  2. Exceptional progress on making what you're missing here. Very nice. Unfortunately, these Pontiac engines are so wrong in many areas that I've done almost as much work to one just correcting things as you have manufacturing much of a new one. Still, I'm sure it'll look great in your model...and you certainly deserve extra points for fabricating what you don't have.
  3. Thanks. I'll be working up through Christmas eve, but thought I might steal some model-bench time during the week before New Year. Guess not. I am beginning to imagine putting all the incompetent morons I have to clean up after through wood chippers. Makes for a very satisfying experience.
  4. The Neon just stripped the timing belt belt at 145,000 miles. The "mechanic" I bought the car from swore he did the requisite timing belt change at 100,000. So either the clown flat out lied, or he buggered the install...very common when chimps with tools try to shortcut the job and force the belt over the sprockets with a prybar. Little car treated me well though, and died in the driveway before I got out on the road. Just bought a good used head and 16 new valves, will build it on the bench, then do the swap over Christmas week.
  5. Complete set of factory service manuals for the old PT Cruiser. Pretty much have factory manuals for everything I own now. Considerably richer source of information than Haynes, Chilton's, etc.
  6. At the shop last week... Nice little plastic '32, in for pinstriping: Very fine all-stock '48, other side was torn off: Very clean and tidy 409 Impala (at the shop next door):
  7. Beautiful work, sir. I missed it earlier. Much as I've enjoyed the real ones over the years, I've yet to even start a model of one. Seeing models like this makes me want to remedy that situation.
  8. What you're actually gonna hear is that tortured front UJ snapping, the sound of metal twisting as those ridiculous shackles pretzel, and the resulting screeeeeeee-thump as she pole-vaults on the driveshaft.
  9. Yeah, kinda like the guy who liked the look of a boat with lotsa holes in the hull.
  10. If that's not a gen-u-wine engineering term by now, it surely otter be.
  11. Pretty much the same runaround I've been getting from Comcast about frequent outages over the past few months. They discourage calls as well, carefully hiding the contact number. So while you're online with Rasheed in Calcutta, the dammed net goes down, and you have to start the whole process over again. My landline also comes in via the same coax as the net, and it fails at the same time as my web connection...naturally. So...I've now run out of cell battery twice while trying to get through to Rasheed and his buds in India too. Everything really is going to hell.
  12. Absolutely outstanding. Real open lovers add immeasurably to the realism of any model. What you've done is to duplicate in scale the exact technique and tooling used in the real world, as you noted above. You must be channeling Gerald Wingrove.
  13. I have yet to achieve that admirable state of maturity. In fact, I often find that a string of imaginative and highly descriptive profanity actually seems to intimidate whatever inanimate object that's aroused my ire into cooperating.
  14. Agreed. And people who built cars that actually worked were every bit as critical of this style of rampant demonstration of stupidity.
  15. Though afx did a very fine job with the kit (and has done a nice fender-flared conversion as well), the basic kit has several shape, line, and proportion flaws. Most noticeable is the odd kink in the rear edge of the sail-panel. The proportions of the front fenders are wrong too. There's more, but it's a great place to start, and just fine as-is if you're not a stickler for visual accuracy.
  16. At least half the population are low-IQ, low-information, easy-to-lead sheep operating in monkey-see-monkey-do mode. Pardon the mixed-species metaphor, but it's the simple truth.
  17. Why? When I did stupidly destructive stuff when I was small, it provoked lots of loud responses from adults. Maybe that's one reason I've always had respect for other peoples' property and boundaries.
  18. Crazy as this thing is, it has good proportions. Unlike some other garbage we've been treated to recently, this is mechanical art built by people with talent and skill.
  19. What Casey said. And I believe you need smaller wire.
  20. That'd be OK. He'd be a fun guy to know. I rather like his engines, and Lampredi's as well. They're all beautiful little mechanical jewels, a treat to work on, drive, or hear them when they're on-song...and lord knows they've made me some money. Still, it's hard to beat an old dinosaur of an American V8 for gobs of instant torque and the reliability of a stone ax.
  21. Damm man...what do you want for a quarter million bucks? Geez...some people.
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