Back to......VANagains NEWest 65 Chevy SportVan Deluxe

Finally, a real good test drive!! Don came to the rescue! Like he told me, things were going the wrong way, getting worse instead of better. And there were too many variables, so we started eliminating some.

We checked the plugs and two broke in half as we took them out! Bought a new set and left them with the gap they came with: about .045".

We then put on a Carter carb. They are much simpler than the Rochesters. It ran good but we couldn't test drive it because my tranny's throttle valve cable wouldn't hook to it. We then tried a different Rochester, a newer model than mine. Funny thing, it had a bracket that was easily adapted to hook the TV cable to! We had to Mickey Mouse the choke and a couple other little things that allowed us to take the test drive.

I'm a happier camper now! Now I've got a lot of things to tidy up. Springs, clips, and wiring to do right. And this week I've got a brand new exhaust manifold coming, so I might try putting my old carb back on just to make sure it was the culprit.

And, now that my brake light switch is fixed, I was able to hook up the relay that disengages the tranny's torque converter lock to allow it to come out of overdrive when slowing down. It too worked fine on our test drive. One more thing I can check off the list!

What/whose exhaust are you goin with? You changin out the intake too?

No way serious? Bill

That would look over the top on a early

Hey....what happened to 'stock'? heh Thats gonna look so cool on there.

This would look really cool, having 3 carbs on a straight six! But that would be overkill. I've got enough trouble tuning one carb! We took that photo because we were juggling 3 Rochester carbs: my original one (that was acting up), Don's loaner (that cleared up my problems), and a rebuilt one I bought on eBay, which is really a beauty:



Got if from a guy who goes by carb_ologist on eBay. The card that came with it said Mike's Obsolete Auto Parts. I don't know if this carb had been sitting around in this old-time box for years or if it was recently rebuilt but the engine fired up right away and didn't really have to make any adjustments. We took a test drive and it was the best one yet! Lots of power, idles nice, no backfiring. I'm a happy camper!

The new exhaust mainfold was also a big help. Nice and quiet in the doghouse, finally! This guy still has some like it for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140400905304

It's clever how you can use two or three bolts to hook up the exhaust pipe. My only complaint is that it looks like the heat riser will not drop open with gravity once it's warmed up. But we noticed that higher RPMs will push it open.

Since the manifold was all nice and clean bare metal, it was a perfect opportunity to give it a nice coating to prevent rusting. I read a lot of good things about POR-15's manifold paint so I went with that. The guy at my local auto body supply showed me the POR-15 catalog and they show three colors to choose from. There's black, gray and a light silver one that would look like aluminum. Their photo was a little deceptive, showed them all lighter than they actually are. But the gray turned out exactly how I wanted it. Looks just like bare cast iron! And it will stay that way, no rust!



This is what I used:

http://www.por15.com/FACTORY-MANIFOLD-GRAY/productinfo/FMGG/

And all you need is the 8 ounce can for $18.75. That will actually be enough for two coats on two manifolds. Their instructions are pretty good be leave out a few things. This is what I did, based on what I read from them and online:

• Washed the manifold with a degreaser.
  
• Applied an metal prep, anti-rust solution that has phosphoric acid. Did not rinse with water but washed again with degreaser.
  
• Stirred the paint instead of shaking the can (which creates bubbles). And I stirred it before each dip of the brush because there is a lot of metal flake that likes to settle to the bottom.
  
• Taped over the lip of the can. They say that if you put the lid back on with this stuff in the lip, you'll never get it open again!
  
• Used a small foam paint brush to apply it. Less brush strokes. Put on one heavy coat instead of lots of light coats. Dabbed any runs away. I did all this work at noon out in the sun so the metal would be hot, might help if its pores are open, plus it may have helped it set up and not run. I painted everything except gasket surfaces.
  
• Left it out in the sun for the rest of the day.
  
• Second coat 24 hours later.
  
• It has to dry for another 24 hours before heating it up. It has to be cured at temps of 300 degrees or more. Some guys talk about putting it in the oven but most just put it on the engine and run it. This curing process removes any brush strokes that didn't go away. (I don't see any.)
  
• Screwed in all the studs and attached the automatic choke. Choke mounting holes had metric threads.
  
• Attached to engine, put everything else on and ran it for about 5 minutes. It really smoked when it got hot! Later I drove it a little, and it still smoked. But the next day when I started it no more smoke. Looks really nice!

I've been using POR 15 products for years and swear by them. Used them on my Jeep CJ7 restore in 2003 and still holding up great. Using them on the 66 G10 as well. GREAT STUFF!!!

Huh oh! An update on the POR-15: it's already pealing off my new exhaust manifold!! What could I have done wrong? It's not big flakes yet but a lot of small cracks where it's starting to lift off.

Metal "Has" to be clean!!!! If there is "ANY" petroleum residue at all of any kind it will crack and peal when it heats up.....

So what's the best way to clean steel for painting, especially cast iron that's all bumpy? The paint on my engine block started pealing right away too.

I didn't use engine degreaser. I've been using PPG DX330 Wax & Grease Remover on every part I paint. Has always worked great except on these cast parts.

I just read this on a web site: "Use Dawn dishwashing soap to remove the oil and grease on your parts." That sounds like a good idea! Scrub it real good with a brush to remove any oils from the rough parts. Blow it dry afterwards. Then use my degreaser as a final cleaning.

I drove my van to the DMV this morning. My longest trip in it yet! When you bring a vehicle in from out of state they need to see it in person. I got there before they opened but the line still extended way out into the parking lot. (Yes, I did try to make an appointment first but they were scheduling about a month out!)

I didn't have to wait too long to get to the visual inspection:



They checked the VIN number plate, peeked at the engine, and filled out the form. Just like that, I was through the tough part! The van, bill of sale, and title were all in order!

Back inside I waited for my number to come up. (Thank goodness I had my iPhone!) Three hours after my arrival I handed them a bunch of money and they gave me my California license plates! 14 years later the old van is legal again!!

Its good to see your progress! Legal is a big deal, as our vans are definitely not 'off the radar'!

Congrats!!

Copenhagenfiend, that is quite a wicked van drawing you've got as your icon!

Today I took on a little task that snowballed into an all-day job: clearing everything out the back of the van! As I've said before, I love how we are able to store all our spare parts in the back while we work on the project. But now that I can drive the thing, it was time to clear out that mountain of stuff. I made these piles: parts yet to be installed soon, spare parts, parts to sell or give away, and trash.



About halfway through the day I got to the bottom. This is the first time I've been able to see the entire floor! I crawled in there with a leaf blower and blew out the accumulated dirt.



I then spent the rest of the day rounding up other parts from the garage and then really got an inventory of what I've got. Better late than never, I've now got things really organized and should have a lot more luck finding things when I am ready for them. (Plus it helps that a lot of the big stuff has been actually put on the van!)



I made a new to do list (and a to buy list) and made sure all the parts I'm going to need in the near future are close at hand. These will be some fun and fairly easy to complete tasks.

Shazam! Clean floor front to back,Passenger seat mounted,no parts Don can fall into in the back.Now you can look back and say,wow look at all that room.
It's easy to fill it up as a parts storage though.My downfall is about 1/2 my tool box ends up in the van,and don't return where it's suppose to.
Looks good back there.Your on a roll.

Vanagain looks great and alway good to hear another back on the road. Nice job have enjoyed this thread

Don, I appreciate the opportunity to test the fit of a Cavalier/Sunbird seat, especially considering you unbolted it in triple-digit temperature! (That is one nifty digital dash!!)

It was a nice day for a cruise. Don got me motivated to leave all the projects at home and hit the road! This was my second long drive in my van, the longest one yet. But I knew Don would be there if anything went wrong. And good thing too -- when I went to pay for my lunch I realized I had left my wallet at home! Luckily Don was there to bail me out!!





Here are two cruising videos from my vantage point:

Short Video
Long Video