Really quick though, when I went to fuel up, I noticed something....
Oh well, I LIVE TO LIVE DANGEROUSLY, or stupidly. One or the other....
Anyway! A few things are coming down the pipeline, let's hit them up in order here.
Future Stuff!
First; I'm getting a new headliner installed. I'll have another post for that, so stay tuned for that stuff!Second; I'm going to get the column shifter working and rip out that floor shifter, once and for all. Final Answer. Once that is out, bench seats go in and a new carpet that I've been sitting on will be installed. Of course, I'll have an update for that when I get to it.
Maintenance
So I have some maintenance to do on the engine. I haven't re-torqued the heads or the air intake since the break-in. After a few hot-cold cycles; probably best to do that, right? Here is the thing though, NOTHING goes according to plan. Ever. It's why I don't like going to the doctor; if I don't go, then they can't find anything wrong with me....right?....right??Anyway, in order to get to the head studs, I need to take the rocker arms off. No sweat, fortunately.
No, that isn't a cup of booze; it is where I was storing bolts, nuts, etc.
I tighten the driver side head down; most of the bolts were still torqued to the ARP's recommended 140 ft-lbs but there were a few that had almost a quarter turn on the wrench before hearing that satisfying "click". I'm glad I did that.
What I'm not glad about is my lifter-preload situation on that head. On BBFs and with hydraulic lifters, you don't set valve lash, you adjust for zero-lash, then another 1/2 to 3/4 turn to set proper preload on the hydraulic lifter. Only one of my lifters had any give. The rest were as if they were stuck. This was after sitting for a bit too. Not quite sure what this means honestly. If the lifters were collapsed, I would expect noticeable engine sputter or even a smoked lobe. Maybe the lifters weren't bleeding back down...*sigh* So, after a few hours of stressing, reading forum posts, researching; I finally gave up. I obviously drove my car here; it sounded great, it ran great - so I'm going to just adjust for zero lash, and tighten everything back up.
I threw the valve covers on, started it up and....
It sounded and ran just fine. No ticking, nothing.
If I was racing this car and putting it through the ringer on a daily basis, I would probably pop the intake and examine the lifters but for now, I'm going to enjoy the summer until I need to do more under the hood. If worse comes to worse and I smoke the cam/lifters; *shrugs*, so be it. I'll crack her open and replace everything.
Moving on; I also tightened the intake down which it needed. So now, things are torqued properly. I'll hit the passenger side up next weekend.
A "blip"
One more thing; The car has cut out, exactly 3 times now. Two of them were so quick, that the engine continued running; it just did that quick stutter. The other one time, it died - where I was able to restart her without any issue. It feels exactly like I am either losing power for a brief moment or as if fuel was temporarily cut off.
All three times occurred when taking a corner or coming to a stop; so it feels as if momentum is involved. I'll try to spot the voltage when this occurs; just in case power is blipping off for some reason. Loose wire maybe?
Always something!
Anyway, I'll keep anyone who reads this posted. Plenty of stuff coming down the line here soon, so stay tuned.
