ucw458

Make sure the EGR is working and make sure the cooling system is working 100%. Running these cars a little hot will cause a NOX fail. Don't get tested on a hot day. Bad vacuum advance or too advanced timing will also make you fail. Not hard to pass smog in CA. My MPI car passed.

At the exhaust shop we used the opposite technique. We turned the welders up as hot as they would go. Made some really nice welds that way. But you had to be fast with the torch. Practice and muscle memory were essential. Hot and fast or low and slow, both work. Low and slow takes less skill so it's a better place to start learning. Once you get good then you can crank up the heat.

Fumes shouldn't be an issue because you should weld in a ventilated area. The aluminum wont cause extra spatter. Aluminum melts @ around 1200 degrees while the welding arc is 6000-7000 degrees. The thin electroplated aluminum is long gone before the molten steel gets there. I welded mig and tig at an exhaust shop for years. Never removed the aluminum coating before welding, never had an issue. He's welding exhaust pipes not aircraft parts. No need to get uber picky about the process. Just slap them together and weld.

Happy Birthday

Flux core wouldn't be my first choice but hey you use what you got. No need to scrape off the aluminized coating, the welding arc will burn it off before the filler metal gets there. A wire wheel on a grinder will help get the flux off your welds. Exhaust shops primarily use mig. It's easier to see the puddle on a mig than with flux core. If you get a mig machine I bet your welding skills will improve.

No injectors, just carbs. Except for gearcase lube, 2 water pump impellers, 1 can of Seafoam and 1 new set of spark plugs this engine has had zero maintenance in 28 years. Runs perfect now. I'm sure Seafoam wont remove burn on piston carbon. Very little does except scraping it off. But as a carb/fuel injector cleaner it seams to work pretty good.

I've used it for injector cleaning in and out of cars. Never noticed a huge improvement. Probably because I was cleaning old SQ injectors. So I never really got a fair test from it. When I took the new boat out for the first time it bogged when you throttled it and took 5-10 seconds to get on plane. Reverse was useless because when you gave it gas it bogged and stalled. I figured I needed to take the carbs apart and clean them. But I decided to try the easy route first. I added a can of Seafoam to 4 gallons of 2 stroke fuel and idled the outboard at varying RPMs for about 40 minutes. It was running in my backyard in a trash can full of water so I didn't really get to load test it. I took the boat out again last Saturday and it performed great. No more bogging when I throttle it and it gets up on plane in a couple seconds. Reverse works too. No stalling or bogging just backs up when I want it to. I'm sold on this stuff now. An $8 can took my outboard from poor performing to running like new. I'm gonna start running the stuff in all my engines once every 10-20 tank fills just to keep them maintained. I was skeptical but it turns out this stuff works great.

4500+ cfm isn't enough? Stock fans keep mine cool in 100+ degree weather.

My guess would be the same 1.5 bar map that MS used.

Map sensor should not be on the TB. It should have it's own larger port in the intake. Put the boost gauge and map sensor on the port below the TB and run the BOV off the port on the #4 intake runner. The map sensor line and port should be larger for faster response. I run 1/4" hose to mine.

As of 2008 if you want to be a pilot or air traffic controller in any country you must learn English. Around 1/6 of the world speaks English. That's native and second language people numbering around 1.2 billion. Most sites only count native speakers. Only counting native gives you much lower results of around 380 million. So there are more ESL speakers than native. 1/2 of the European Nation speaks English. English is not dying out it is growing.

I prefer to use black rtv on gaskets. Works well and gives a cleaner look than other colors.

Yes look for cracks between the valve seats and spark plug hole. Also between the valve seats. Any cracks in those areas and the head is junk. If no cracks then those heads can be cleaned and rebuilt if necessary.

Moving the sway bar end links up or down wont do much. It also wont "pre-load" the sway bar unless you only move one side. But you only want to do that if you're circle track racing.

That's why I mentioned it. There have been studies done on flex vs clutch vs electric fans. Electric fans by far use the least hp. By using less hp they also increase mpg. Studies have proved on commercial fleets that switching to electric fans saved a significant amount of fuel over the year. That's why almost all car manufacturers have switched to electric fans. Better mpg helps on the track as well. Wasting 10 hp on a fan instead of it going to the tires is counter productive. Better mpg also means less fuel stops.

The original Austin Mini was fwd with a mechanical fan back in the 60s.

Not true. Electric fans pull around 0.4 HP by loading the alt. Clutch and flex fans depending on size and vehicle can take 10-20+ hp to drive. A clutch fan wont draw much hp when not engaged but still more than electric fans. In a racing situation you will be making more heat so the clutch fan will be engaging alot. This is why almost every car or truck made in the last decade has electric fans. Even full size trucks.

3/4 is the size iirc. Don't use coolant hose. After a month it will be very soft and sweating oil. Use a quality hydraulic line. I used a nice cloth braided line from napa.

I would but I don't want to mess up all the work I did on the engine bay.

Clutch fans and flex fans take more HP to run then electric fans. Perfect way to make a slow car even slower.

Are you running poly engine mounts and a poly trans mount? If you are I would suggest putting in a stock trans mount. Having all your mounts be rock hard poly can cause trans case flex. Flexing the case can cause issues and failures. I've heard stories from drag racers talking about having solid mounts flexing the trans case when the frame twists and causing failures. Not saying this is your issue but it's something to look into. Then again maybe you just lucked out and had a few bad transmissions. If you haven't already I would look into having a shop completely rebuild a stock trans. I see so many people, not just SQ people, dump $ into the motor and ignore the rest of the drivetrain until it breaks. Anyone looking to add 300+ hp to any car should look into rebuilding or upgrading the rest of the drivetrain. I know that can add significant cost but it helps prevent tow truck rides.

Only turbo pistons are around 7:1. NA pistons are 8:1 or higher.

Cracked manifolds can be welded if done properly. Pre-heat is the key. Grind a groove over the crack for good penetration. Then heat the weld area till it's slightly glowing and weld it.

Turbo cranks may have gotten a better hardening treatment. Turbo rods may be stronger. I can't say for sure. But if you aren't doing a 500 hp MPI car then it shouldn't be a concern.

Exactly how I did it too. Through the wheel well. I didn't feel like dropping a full gas tank.