Thread: My new baby arrived today

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United Airlines

Jerry,

My union, Masters, Mates, and Pilots had always told its membership that we had parity with our flying counterparts. I play tennis with a pilot and back then airline captains made 50% more than merchant marine Unlimited Tonnage captains. But I'll have to admit MM&P must have had a crystal ball because today our compensation is much closer. Did you retire before the salary "adjustments"?

Nice power to weight ratio Bob, I played your video, right away I reconized the road, had to go back and look at your location.....Welcome neighbor.

Hi Rich, that was hwy 88. I get down near your area for some tennis at Laguna Del Sol, outside of Wilton. There is a once a year hot rod gathering in Plymouth at Speed's Diner I go to, when I know the date for this summer I'll let you know. If I forget, it will be posted here....
Tbuckets Forum

Cool, Thanks Bob...

A Cushman stake bed truck, electric Smart Car, and my hot rod scooter that will beat my Corvette to 40 mph.

How sweet it is. No oil or coolant leaks, and proceeded to gain some more experience for my 3rd drive in it. Headed off to a girlfriend's home who lives at the edge of the valley downhill from me on 2 lane, smooth mountain roads, 100 miles round trip. Stopped for gas to see what my first mileage numbers were during what I will call "testing phase", of more full throttle romps than I can remember. Easy numbers I didn't need a calculator for, 82 miles on the first tank, pump clicked off at 10 gallons, so 8.2 MPG. I would have liked better, and I'm sure with more normal driving like I did today and the engine breaks in, it will be above 10 MPG. With my 15 gallon tank I'll now be filling up as often as most others and their 10 gallon tanks.

More driving impressions. First, and what really stands out is the handling with the new front tires. I knew rotating mass on our light cars, when changed to something different would be noticeable, but had no idea it would be this much with nothing more than 2" taller diameter, same thread width, but thread pattern now matching the rear tire, as they are both M/T Sportsman Radials. Steering is much less effort, both slow in a parking lot and at speed on the twisty mountain roads. One hand or one finger steering through turns is sweet. As to the skid plate, it gets used a lot but is built for it. The difference from 320 HP to 526 HP for passing is huge. If I can see 400' ahead, I can easily complete the pass even if a car appears at that distance as I just begin passing the rear of the slower car. It allows for most all of my mountain road driving to be done with no traffic in front of me, and be able to enjoy the turns at the speed I want. The only and major drawback is the area of the torque curve being 1600 rpm higher than the 383. As I'm geared so tall in 5th, about the slowest I can use 5th is 70 mph and the engine prefers at 70 in 5th that the road is a little downhill. 75 mph in 5th will be OK for level road cruising, but at 65 on the mountain roads the engine is happier at 2500 rpm in 4th than 1600 in 5th. Much happier, only if the downhill is steep will I be in 5th at 65 mph.

All in all, had I known the improvement in steering and handling my new tires give, I would have replaced them at the very beginning, not waiting for needing more ground clearance to go to a taller tire. The front tires I have been using and had plenty of thread were recommended by the Lotus Super 7 group, and since their front end is as light as mine, I went with their experience. The added power is still something that keeps my interest. I'm sure FatPat can identify with driving a mid 9 second street car, it is a great feeling for a gear head.

Old front tires.....


New tires.....

Soooooooo, just what did they do to fix it???????????

Just what Shafiroff's people said, clean bolt hole with brake cleaner, let evaporate, allow silicone sealant to skin over, run the bolt back in and let set for 2 days.

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Just what Shafiroff's people said, clean bolt hole with brake cleaner, let evaporate, allow silicone sealant to skin over, run the bolt back in and let set for 2 days.

Bob,
Perhaps I'm overly dense, but can you explain exactly where the silicone sealer was applied before being allowed to skin over? I'm having a hard time understanding how your oil leak could be from a threaded blind hole in the block, if that's what you're saying.

Originally Posted by rspears

Bob,
Perhaps I'm overly dense, but can you explain exactly where the silicone sealer was applied before being allowed to skin over? I'm having a hard time understanding how your oil leak could be from a threaded blind hole in the block, if that's what you're saying.

From the gasket to either block or pan seal.

Originally Posted by deckofficer

From the gasket to either block or pan seal.

So they removed the bolt, cleaned the hole & surrounding area with brake cleaner, and then put a layer of silicone along the outside edge where the pan abuts the block, let it skin over, installed & torqued the bolt, then let it cure for two days?

Bob, I'm glad the oil leak worked out to be a relatively easy fix. Keep an eye on it for potential seepage from the bolt hole but I think you'll be OK.


PS: Bob, rather than pollute your nice and interesting thread and distract from your intentions, I'm just going to post my updates in my thread. Please feel free to come over and post comments or any cool and interesting info you like. Thanks, bud. A log of my updates on my '32 Brookville highboy

Took the Track-T out for a little romp, hwy 50 halfway to Tahoe so I could experience the passing lanes. All I can say is this kind of hp in a car so light, it is just too much fun. Traction for most all of my spirited driving has been excellent. First off, the blown '55 Ford could NEVER pull this hard, and even with a fraction of the pulling, traction was hit or miss. 1st gear still need to soft pedal, but 2nd gear is seeing some full throttle if I go into 2nd at 30 mph, then the engine is at 2200 rpm and doesn't produce enough in that low rpm to be a problem, so can be full throttle. As I hit 60 mph in 2nd, depending on road surface, I have 3 choices, if really good surface, keep my foot in it at 4400 rpm and accept some tire spin, if not an outstanding surface either roll off some or short shift. 3rd gear is good on most all surfaces except a road peak type undulation that causes un-weighing of the rear wheels, and that spin is has the highest pucker factor because of a much larger speed differential between road speed and tire speed. I know my local mountain roads well, and know where every un-weighing peak is, so no surprises.

Filled with gas again so I could check mileage. Maybe 10 full throttle romps on this tank, the rest was highway cruising pulling the grade to Tahoe and the grade from the valley back home. Drum roll................
12.9 mpg, almost broke into the teens. As the engine seats, and I've mellowed out on pushing deep on the loud pedal, mid teens should be easy. I know the engine is still tight because when starting hot it grunts a slow 1/2 of a crank and lights off. When cold, the starter spins the engine and it quickly lights, much quicker than the 383, but that is probably from the ignition upgrade more than anything else.

Thanks for the update, Bob. I'm using your reports as additional motivation to get mine done. Your driving reports are nice and graphic so I can almost feel what you're talking about. I wasn't expecting any kind of good gas mileage and I'm sure mine will not be as good as yours since mine weighs 500 lbs. more than your Track-T.

Can't wait to get mine on the road although it's still a bit too early in the season around here. It snowed and sleeted here today, got super slippery on the roads in late afternoon but then it stopped and the ice disappeared by early evening. A few more days and everything should be done on mine except I'm not sure about the bomber seats padding; I have to talk to that guy on Monday.