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SBCA96

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Posts posted by SBCA96

  1. If its the line I am thinking of, then its best to keep it, mine rusted away about 7 years ago and started

    to leak all over the street. I JUST now replaced the line about a month ago. I have it run under the car,

    but I havent hooked it back up yet. Its a pressure return line for the fuel pump, and a common thing on

    new cars. I wouldnt remove it. I bought lines from Napa, and spliced them together under the car. It

    wasnt overly difficult to do, but time consuming doing the bends by hand. It runs next to the larger main

    fuel line on the outside of the frame rail on the drivers side.

    Wayne .. you see the pics of my Avanti? B)

    Tom

  2. Here is my reply to your post in the 63-64 area:

    Depends what you mean by "plain", I would NOT put a basic Studebaker

    engine into an Avanti, simply because it will look "wrong". An R1 would

    be an OK way to go, but if you HAVE a way to make it "correct" it will

    always be worth more either "original" or with more accessories. So I

    would put the R2 engine in if you can.

    Tom

  3. Depends what you mean by "plain", I would NOT put a basic Studebaker

    engine into an Avanti, simply because it will look "wrong". An R1 would

    be an OK way to go, but if you HAVE a way to make it "correct" it will

    always be worth more either "original" or with more accessories. So I

    would put the R2 engine in if you can.

    Tom

  4. Your pics were nice before too. The latest ones are sharper and the black comes through a nice jet black. That low pic of the front looks like calendar material. Okay, so it needs a little photoshop magic on the front bumper license plate area . . . Awesome pic though.

    Thanks! Yah .. its weird how well it photographs .. whats funny is EVERY time a friend of mine sees the car

    he asks me "when you gonna get it painted?!?!". Everytime I tell him .. its good enough for now, I wont be

    painting it until after the engine, trans, suspension ... etc .. are ALL done .. you dont paint a car, and then

    pull the engine!! The paint is all cloudy now from being in the sun. The laquer only stays nice for about a

    week and then it starts going dull. From the right angle, I can make it look better then it does, but I like

    this camera even more since it somehow gives the car a great paintjob! (but it doesnt rechrome bumpers) ;)

    Tom

  5. Did you buy more pixels?

    You got it! I finally broke down and replaced my ancient digital camera. I got a Canon

    Digital Rebel XT 8 megpixel camera. The above shots are actually reduced to 25% of

    the original, so I dont get complaints on the page loading. ;)

    Good guess on the mirrors ... but I got those a few years ago .. they need some work. :D

    Tom

  6. In case you missed it ....

    Here is a picture I took of my Avanti during my last Gtech runs. Its

    with my new Canon Digital Rebel XT camera. I reduced it for 1024x768.

    Preview :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_thumb.jpg

    Right click save as :

    http://hometown.aol.com/sbca96/images/Gtec...esting_day2.jpg

    I have reduceable pictures of each on this thread, but only the last

    set from day 2, the first set is with the old cam :

    http://www.aoai.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=452

    If any are interested, I will take more after I wax it, the laquer is

    getting "cloudy" again .. thank goodness for a cloudy day! ;)

    Tom

  7. Went out to play again today, 8 more runs on a different stretch of road. I

    guess one of two things happened, either that first stretch of recently oiled

    road was not the best choice (duh), or my pads wore in. Either way todays

    results were MUCH better then last week. I wasnt at all concerned with my

    0-60, so I only took off fast enough to trigger the Gtech. My best 60-0 this

    time out was a MUCH more respectable 148.1 feet. Thats what I figured it

    would do, and its about ballpark when compared to those two 65 Mustang

    fastback road race cars that Popular Hot Rodding tested :

    13 Baer brakes front / 12 baer brakes rear - 155 feet from 60

    brakes not listed though planned Cobra upgrade - 144 feet from 60

    So 148.1 feet was the best, the worst today was just over 160 feet & that

    was with one rear wheel locking for a split second. This time it was the

    passenger side wheel, must be catching something in the road. Here are

    a few pics from the outing today :

    Getting ready, some shots of the brakes :

    Passenger front :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_001a.jpg

    Drivers front :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_002a.jpg

    Drivers rear :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_003a.jpg

    Passenger rear :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_004a.jpg

    Waiting for the Gtech :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_005a.jpg

    The audience :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_006a.jpg

    The road :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_007a.jpg

    The Car :

    Gtech_Testing_day2_008a.jpg

    So can anyone guess yet, what I bought last week??

    Tom

  8. The rotors came friday night, a welcome surprise. I havent checked the

    hub clearance with the set of unmodified hubs yet, too many other things

    in 'normal' life get in the way. But I took some pics this evening.

    Judging from THESE pictures .. can anyone guess what ELSE I bought this

    past week? Friday night to be exact. The hint is its not IN the pictures. :wink:

    Front rotors :

    cobra_rotors_001a.jpg

    cobra_rotors_002a.jpg

    Rear rotor :

    cobra_rotors_003a.jpg

    Front and rear rotor :

    cobra_rotors_004a.jpg

    PBR Caliper on front rotor :

    cobra_rotors_005a.jpg

    cobra_rotors_006a.jpg

    A little comparison between the factory rotor and the Cobra rotor :

    cobra_rotors_007a.jpg

    cobra_rotors_008a.jpg

    Opening the boxes made me say "oooooooo , aaaaaahhhh" kinda like you

    hear when people are watching fireworks. With the zinc plating, they dont

    have that gooey grease on them to keep the rust off like the Autozone GT

    Mustang rotors I bought.

    Tom

  9. Tom, did you check the accuracy of your tstat? 140 seems too cold for the motor ....

    Drove the car to work yesterday, the temp stayed between 140 and 150 degrees regardless

    of speed. Never exhibited any of the usual signs of running hot. I dunno. My Avanti is a

    freak of Studebaker maybe? :unsure:

    Tom

  10. I purchased the other Saturn deflector ( PN# 21030181 - $5.52) and installed it to see the difference.

    I do believe I like it better, if you remove the body screws to the lower radiator frame, it will slide right into place with no modifications needed.

    I have over 7 inchs of ground clearance, thats with 2 inch drop spindles. It also hides the lower radiator frame on my '87 Avanti while dropping down about 3 more inches into the air stream.

    Jim

    Sounds really good, I like the "no mods" part. I wonder if it will fit the Studebaker frame also??

    Tom

  11. Tom,

    Do you know for sure there's a tstat in your car? :blink: There are people that think the car will run a lot cooler with NO tstat at all, so they remove it. (previous owner?)

    You know .. I dont know Dan, I have never had that apart, the only thing I have done on

    the engine in this car is valve seals and spark plugs. It runs "good" though, I mean as

    well as a stock R1 with 103,000 miles can. :P I wouldnt recommend removing the tstat

    since its really needed, I have read about overheating problems FROM removing the tstat

    and the water moves too quickly through the radiator. :unsure:

    Tom

  12. Tom, did you check the accuracy of your tstat? 140 seems too cold for the motor to be very efficient, and definitly too cold for an Avanti. I have heard that the tstat and guage may fail after a while. Just curious...

    No, I have not confirmed the accuracy, but given how the car runs, I dont have any

    reason to believe that it IS running much hotter. Usually when they get up there in

    temp, you can smell the water getting hot, and the engine tends to run poorly. I dont

    have any answer to why it seems to run about 50 degrees cooler then other Avantis.

    I am running straight water and its even got a leaking core plug or two! The gauge

    starts out at 0, and moves up slowly to 140, it tends to just hover around 140. (maybe

    I am thinking 160 - I need to look at the gauge again - but its still very low temp). I

    drove it arond for hours on sunday, driving it VERY hard, it wasnt pinging, which you

    would expect with the compression of an R1, and the gas we have today. My tach got

    stuck at 3000 rpm during the testing, and my gas gauge stopped working a few years

    ago, so anything IS possible. The temp, Alt, and oil pressure are the only gauges that

    are still working to any 'dependable' degree. ;)

    Tom

  13. In traffic, or real hot days, w/o fans, temp goes to almost 200 degrees. Turn on the fans, (I have a manual switch to two relays, don't trust the after-market thermostatic switches) it drops to 185.

    Wow! When doing my Gtech testing for a couple hours, with time sitting and idling while

    TRYING to figure out the settings, my Avanti never got over 160 degrees. As a matter

    of fact, if memory serves it was at 140 most the time. It never felt, or smelled hot. :unsure:

    Tom

  14. Your experiences with the G-Tech are like what I have heard others say. Its just a tool, it can't make your car any faster or slower. 10+ seconds for 0-60 sounds about right for what you have.

    Yah ... but I think that the RPM's were off, I need to figure out how to check it.

    My tach died during all the fun, its stuck at 3000 rpm. :blink:

    Tom

  15. I no longer have the order guides and specifications to the late great '94 - '96 Impala SS's and various police Caprice variants. I do know that the last police '96 Caprice sedan, with the LT1 and not the L99, that I delivered had the mechanical fan....but I'll leave that debate to a non-Studebaker forum, maybe it wasn't a 9C1 car - I don't know.

    The mechanical fan was not a standard option for a 9C1, but it could be ordered with it. I would bet

    that the car you delivered was going to used for towing by the department, maybe to move those

    signs around? At any rate .. I was only correcting that not ALL 9C1s got a mech fan. Using a dual

    fan gives you more flexibility, since you only use both fans when you REALLY need it.

    Tom

  16. Actually Jim, it is worth noting that in the heavy duty applications of the LT1, like in the 9C1 police Caprices (the general platform for the performance based Impala SS of '94 to '96), they all had a mechanical fan and fan clutch setup. Check it out, its not driven off the water pump because of the LT1's camshaft driven water pump.

    This is not true, the 9C1 and Impala SS both had only two electric fans. The only

    LT1's that got the electric & mechanical fans were station wagons with tow package.

    I have a 95 Impala SS clone in my driveway built from a 95 9C1 CHP Caprice.

    The guys on the Impala forum remove the mech fan when they build up wagons.

    As to airflow at idle and city driving speeds - I haven't seen the specific cfm figures. However, I would note that virtually all applications with a fan clutch have much larger fan diameters and blade sizes than any electric fan.

    This is true, which is why many dual electric fans are used for extreme use. Our 86

    IROC only has a single fan, later 350 versions got dual fans. I would go with the

    dual setup, and set them to go on at different temps.

    I really have nothing against Mark installing electric fans on his Avanti, but the idea of moving the radiator to make space for the electric fans seems like an obtuse solution for a simple matter.

    I agree that moving the radiator can cause new problems.

    Tom

  17. Finally got out to play with the Avanti today. I used 3500 as my weight, &

    stuck to 0-60 60-0 runs. I not sure if I had everything set up right, but I

    wanted to get out and use it, then figure out what I did wrong. Instructions

    for the Gtech give a LOT of info, but without USING it, they dont make a

    lot of sense. :blink: Here is the Gtech mounted in the car above the mirror :

    Gtechtest03.JPG

    The process just to get it setup took about 20 times longer then they said

    in the manual, of course, the next time will go quicker. The results, as all

    have said, not what I was hoping for. Also, I had trouble getting out of the

    hole without wheelspin, and to do a 60-0, you have to do a 0-60 to start

    the test. My first attempt at the 0-60 60-0 went poorly, literally slamming

    on the brakes!! Needless to say, the rear does lock up, but I should not

    have chosen a recently oiled road :o (duh). Also found out was that

    the drivers rear caliper is not grabbing the disc correctly, the rotor is not

    completely "cleaned" of surface rust left by rain. A friend thinks that there

    might be a little air trapped in that caliper, causing that wheel to lock (the

    other side did NOT lock). After a few runs I was getting better at dealing

    with the excitement of vrroooom-stooooooop! My speedo is off by 10 mph

    with a real 60 mph not being acheived until indicated 70 mph. A few runs

    did not record a 0-60 (this thing is REALLY cool). The Avanti held up pretty

    well in the couple hours of driving around beating on it, here it is sitting on

    the side of some oil-free road taking a breather :

    Gtechtest04.JPG

    The fog started to roll in after a hot weekend, so the road was getting a bit

    too damp for really good take offs/stops :

    Gtechtest05.JPG

    Here comes the fog monster!! :

    Gtechtest06.JPG

    Shes kinda dirty and tired :

    Gtechtest07.JPG

    Gtech mounted to the windshield :

    Gtechtest08.JPG

    A shot from the drivers door :

    Gtechtest10.JPG

    A shot from the back seat :

    Gtechtest13.JPG

    You are probably wondering "just how bad did it do?", well my best time

    0-60 was 10.679s. Thats a stock R1, crappy pinched exhaust, 3 spd truck

    trans, 3:31 axle, and my amateur shifting. I bet Ted could have squeaked

    out low 9s. ;)

    My best 60-0 was 169 ft, which was surprising. I think that I could have

    done a LOT better on a different road, that oil was slick. I also wish that

    there was a way to ONLY do a 60-0, doing a 0-60 first makes more work.

    The HP and torque ratings are kinda depressing too, but not that surprising

    considering the exhaust on this thing. Best HP is 96.9@3500 rpm, the best

    torque was 203 ft lbs@2200rpm. I am just glad I didnt blow something up.

    I dont think that I ever got the RPM set right, so thats gonna screw up the

    results quite a lot. This was the learning test, I want to do a test in the 95

    Impala next, and then compare to what it should run/stop.

    If Karl has the most powerful Avanti, I have the fattest pig. ;)

    Tom

  18. In response to the questions about Avanti's future existence. Avanti Motor Corp. ......

    Is there any way to confirm this actually came from Avanti Motor Corp? I thought that "Avantidan"

    was the spokesperson for AMC, the post above is the first post for "Avanti-Info". Seems odd. Did

    Dan not work out for AMC? Does it confuse people if I call Avanti Motor Corp "AMC"?... hehe

    Tom

  19. I did some preliminary investigation last night, and I didn't see any real reason why I couldn't push the radiator to mount in the FRONT of the radiator support frame, instead of the rear as it is right now. I'll look again tonight, and maybe I'll see the real reason.

    The concern that I would have is the ducting of air into the front, if the radiator it too far forward,

    then the air forced whiel driving, might want to "go around" the radiator. So you want to make

    sure that it cant do that. Also keep in mind that you will be moving your weight balance even

    farther forward on an already front heavy car. The radiator itself isnt too heavy, but the coolant

    is, so keep that in mind as well.

    Tom

  20. So, in an effort to reduce some parasitic power loss, as well as improve cooling, I picked up a flexalite fan kit. The kit is similar in dimension to the one discussed in the 84-91 forums......Has anyone moved the stock radiator? I would really like to gain a few inches of clearance here. My other option would be to get rid of this fan ($200 anyone?) and get a pusher electric fan for the other side of the radiator.

    Well ... I dont think you want to try moving the radiator, that will create more problems. I am going to be

    doing this same mod when I get to the point of driving the car more often. I dont know the dimensions of

    the stock radiator, but I would assume that a dual fan setup would give you the clearance that you need

    in the middle where the fan motor is now. Both my Impala and my Camaro have dual fans, which places

    the fan motor on either side of the front hub. Chances are this setup is too wide for the factory radiator.

    It IS possible with creative ducting, to use two fans in this manner. As I said, this is something I need to

    look into more. There might be some smaller cars that have two smaller fans. I could measure the stock

    Camaro and Impala fans for you later.

    Tom

  21. A local mechanic told me the engine in my '69 Avanti II is a 307 Olds variety, not a 327 Chevy Corvette engine. He pointed out the long spout at the front of the engine for adding oil, saying that is characteristic of the Old engine.

    Thats a new one on me. I thought that the Olds engine was more like the Pontiac,

    and not a "small block". I know that Avanti ONLY used Chevy engines. That oil

    fill seems to be factory for Corvettes too. You might need to find a new mechanic!

    Also, I think that Avanti engines were purchased from the previous year, here is a

    1968 Corvette engine for comparison.

    engine68.jpg

    topdown68.jpg

    Tom

  22. Pretty cool stuff. If my frame was bad enough I would certainly consider it.

    Since you obviously have great skills, I have a suggestion that you might

    want to consider as a sideline. Two areas of the factory chassis could be of

    interest to you, to fab parts for. One would be to design a 4 link suspension

    that utilizes the factory Dana solid axle, and front leaf spring mounts, and

    adds upper control arm mounts to a bolt in crossmember in front of the rear

    axle. Mounts on the axle could be added to a plate that attaches to the rear

    cover, and goes over the axle to except tube arms, then coil over shocks

    could be used to support the car. This could seriously improve the handling

    of the car, and even the ride control.

    The second area is the steering box, adapting a plentiful quick ration power

    box from a newer car could do wonders to get a Stude around a corner.

    Just some ideas to consider, I dont have the kind of money to afford a frame

    and suspension like you are developing, BUT I could shell out the cash for

    improvements to what I already have.

    Wonderful work though! Will be interested to see how it performs! B)

    Tom

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