Just looked at the 122 in the gallery... duh. Not sure where the Tethys came from, maybe b/c I remember Craig doing his wheel repair series on the Tethys and my brain took care of the rest. Two very nice sets of wheels though, now that I know which is which....

With the rear quarter fixed last week and the belt line trim on the car it was time to address the running issues that had cropped up with this car since we put it back together. The OD had quit working sometime in May and I suspected that I may have to swap in a spare tranny that I got from Alex.

Greg and I got busy today and jacked up the car and checked the fluid level - it needed a bit...I also found that the ground was a little loose and it looked like it had been arcing on the solenoid of the M46. So I pinched down the spade tabs and soldered on the ground loop. Took it for a spin in OD as much as possible and it never popped out once. May have this one licked.

Greg was surprised by the relatively poor performance of the RSI NA cam. I had been meaning to correct a little timing issue that Athal had pointed out - the B23E is timed at 5 degrees BTDC - I had it set around 12 degrees as that's what the manual said and the sticker with the information on it was never readable in my car (painted). So we backed off the timing.

Now backing off the timing meant that we had to hammer a putty knife under the distributor to get it a little loose, then get after it with a chisel. After that it still wouldn't rotate without the use of some Channel Locks! And you had to pull/push really hard to make it move at all.

Got it set and got a more reasonable idle as well as better performance! I'm pretty happy. The car now has good throttle response from 2.5K up - it's still a bit of a dog down low in the RPM range, but that's to be expected with that cam.

Overall a good weekend - and this was only Saturday!

More to come as I'm porting Greg's B20 head and getting the 122 hubs ready for next Sunday's cruise!

I've been having some issues with K-Jet, so I decided to build a heat stove for the header and get some warm air going into the FI. Hopefully this works. Not done just yet, but you can see where I'm going with this stove.

All built with 14 ga 6061 - the most fun was building the tube for the front.






I'm going to attach some angle stand-offs to the header then screw this part to the standoffs.

I had to fabricate some little tabs to go on the manifold studs, then cut out the clearance holes for the spark plug boots - three hours later, everything is done and installed. I just need to hook up the tube and see how it works.

that thing looks absolutely boss!

Need to do the same thing for my dads '89 240- he was having all kinds of issues with the car stalling when it was really cold out, but only after he'd been driving for 15 or 20 minutes. I figured it was something to do with the cold air as well, icing the TB and/or idle valve/bypass. There's already a much dumber version of what you've done from the factory, all I have to do is replace the hose, which is long gone, like on most cars.

I had the same problem on my old k-jet car as well, never figured it out, hopefully it works!

Man, I hope this works...I'm going to clean everything else up in the K-Jet system and see what happens. I'll be putting the tube in sometime this week, no rush as the weather is fine. I'll have to fabricate a few brackets as I tossed the original

Little update - I've pulled the RSI NA cam (well Athal and I did it this morning) and am installing an "A" cam for the time being. I just need the car to be a little more reasonable (idle, performance etc) - I just think there is a lot of wrong with that particular cam.

It was a bear to pull the valve cover with all the goop I had put on it to try to get the previous gasket to seal. Sure it sealed - but took almost an hour to get it off. The rusted in distributor also got yanked today. It's suppose to be specific to the "K" cam and has a pile of advance right off idle and an advance curve set for that cam. Anyway - you can see from the picture that I got it out in one piece even with all the rust. Weird part is that it has a 1976 build code! Greg donated a spare turbo distributor to the project and we'll see how that matches up with the "A" cam.



When we put the "A" cam in the engine and checked the clearance we needed to do a little shimming...I was expecting things to tighten up a little as the valves and the seats got settled down post rebuilding. What we found was that most had come up a little leaving me a little tight on clearance (about 14 thou). Cylinder 2 was weird as the intake was really tight (9 thou) and the exhaust was loose (22 thou). At first I thought that maybe I got the buckets mixed up when I built the head - but that wasn't the case when the shims were measured. I don't know how I screwed it up as band as I did, but there's the proof. This should make a little difference in how this thing runs.

I tried a few distributors yesterday after I got it all buttoned up. I first put in a 024 (from a B21FT) then timed it and took it for a spin. Not bad, but not great either. Definately smoother power but overall less of it. The idle is nice and K-Jet likes the cam. So I swap the 017 (B23E) distributor back in (higher compression engine etc) and it was terrible. I timed it starting at 5, 8,10, 12 degrees and it was just not happy. Distributor was checked and is working (advance/springs). Went back to the 024. It's fine - or at least it's as fine as this car can be until I get a more funner engine built.

There is no miracle cure. 2.3L of heavy bottom end 4 cylinder just isn't going to make power no matter how you twist it around, until you start force-feeding it. However, 4.5L of 13:1 c/r 4 cylinder does make power. Look in the yellow pages under Offenhauser...

Mileage on the highway was a little better than before (fuel gauge seems to be sticking at 1/2 a tank more frequently these days) and I like the new idle and it has more power up hills as the cam is making more power at cruse RPM than before. My only issue is it is so much smoother and quieter that I sometimes think it is going to stall when I roll to a stop cause it just isn't rumbley like before

Force feeding to begin sometime this coming summer. In the mean time, It's fine.

If we overlap before next year I'll take a poke at the fuel again.

It's been a while...while the car continues to run well, the rust is back due to my unwillingness to cut the bottom of the doors off and do it right the first time. So now I'm forced to do it over. I've also got an issue with the seam sealer I used on the seam line at the base of the "B" pillar that needs my attention as well as a few scrapes around the wheel arches.

So here's what I'm thinking, I'd like to sell this car but don't really have time to do the little bit of rust repair right now before winter sets in. So as of now, I'm thinking that I'll drive it for one more winter then do the rust repair and respray both doors and do the rest of the touch ups. The M46 is still acting up and I'll probably have to change it in September to remove that problem.

What would a reasonable price be once done, or should I forget about the entire thing? I'd like to see something north of $4K for the car as it stands.

Thoughts?

See Matt's 780 as an example. Unless you can luck out and find a true enthusiast, you'll never sell for what the car SHOULD be worth. Not in such a small market anyway. Make sure to list it in Vancouver.

I would agree and have to disagree with this. For sure getting what it's really worth is always tough with cars like this. But nicely sorted 242's > 780's any day of the week... sorry Matt but there just isn't much of a market for 780's. Look at Pat Dickman's 242 "Badger" as an example, went for $3K earlier this year rolling on steelies, flathood front end optional etc. http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthrea ... ght=badger. That car was totally redone on the outside, suspension, but the interior was nothing special, very clean but stock and a mildly worked over b230. Add up everything on Craig's 242 like 2 sets of Tethys, big brake kit, springs, sways, custom interior, flathood conversion, etc. and $4K doesn't cover it. I see average 240T's, coupes and wagons, routinely listed for $2500 that aren't half the car this one is.

Craig, if you leave the rust till next spring how much worse will it get vs doing it now? If you don't do it and sell I would think you will take a significant hit as most people can't do rust themselves. I guess it comes down to what your time is worth and how much of it you can spare. I know the market is small and includes a lot of guys on Turbobrokes, but there are people out there, think Europe, who will pay for the right car. Biggest issue is yes, it takes time to find a buyer but they're out there.