Phils GA Galant

[Superscan811]

It has a wicked flat spot on intitial acceleration,

If you figure that one out, please tell me!!! (Mine has same. Almost like it's getting too big a squirt of fuel and it doesn't know what to do with it.)

Cheers.

[davetrees]

It has a wicked flat spot on intitial acceleration, may be a vacuum leak or jetting problem. But it has really good pull once you get past that.

That will probably be a jetting issue ... only way to fix it properly will be dyno time with someone who knows their way around the carbs and has a good range of jets etc to try. I know an excellent place in Melbourne (PowerPlay) but they aren't cheap.

Definitely need to fit the GS instrument cluster, it has some problems with lights not working and i have not hooked the taco up, does anyone have info/photos on how the taco is wired in.

I had light issues with mine too - most likely dodgy traces on the PCB, which I bridged with wire. Some of the globe holders needed work too (lightly sand contacts, and bend them a little so they made good contact with the PCB). I diagnosed the issues on the bench by using a spare dash plug , applying 12v & earth to appropriate wires, and working my way around the PCB with a test light until I found the breaks. It was tedious - took me best part of a day.

Tacho wiring is easy - black wire is earth to, yellow (?) is ignition-switched 12v off a terminal on back of cluster, white goes to -ve of coil. (Mine's actually reading high, but I think that's a poor 12v supply - I'm going to try hooking the 12v feed to +ve of coil & see if that fixes it.)

[gaPhil]

This post hass been a long time coming so i will try and fill in the gaps.

Ive been in melbourne about 4 months now, loving and have been very busy with work.

A couple of months after i moved down i flew back up and drove the galant down. I wouldnt say that it was running well but it ran ok and made the long trip with no issues.

I dont really need a car where i live, so the galant sat in the carpark for a month or two with nothing happening. Eventually i sold my forrester as it was just sitting there not doing anything. I then decided to put some effort into the car to get it running reliably.

After some throught, i decided to get a downdraft weber conversion kit. After unbolting the old carb to mock up the weber, i noticed some oil sitting in the bottom of the intake manifold.



I unbolted the intake manifold and starting removing the intake manifold studs i noticed No.3 and No.4 were quite loose and No.4 was pooling oil at the bottom of the threads, a bit hard to see in the photo.



I cleaned out the threads, used some thread sealent and reinstalled. I then fitted up the weber




The weber has been running for a couple of weeks now and has perfmored pretty well. It needs a tune and the electric choke (not hooked up in the photo) doesnt seem to be working properly.

I've noticed a weird overheating problem with the car, the car seems to overheat then drop back down to normal like the thermostat is opening late or something. The motor has had some blowby so i hooked up a catch can and breather a while ago. Upon emptying today i noticed that it seemed to contain water. Thinking maybe head gasket i drained the oil, but the oil seemed ok, not milky at all. I did a compression test and all cylinders seemed ok - between 125 and 140. I took it for a drive and it drove well, needs a tune but seems to give good power. I noticed a small amount of steam coming from the catch can but none from the exhaust.
My thoughts are either a head gasket or intake manifold leak. I had to top up the coolant but i checked the capacity (6L) i initially only put 4 in because i thought it was less then that, So im not sure if i am still losing coolant or if some leaked during the carby swap or something.

I've had some weird issues with this motor - definitely wishing i had spend a little more time and money up front to sort it out. But everything is always clearer in hindsight.


On a side not i have started cleaning and polishing the beathurst MK1 to fit. First job is filing and cleaning up the gutter rash as best i can, then sanding , painting and polishing.

[geezer101]

The weber conversion looks nice and fresh, it should help get the Saturn boogying. The oil and loose inlet manifold studs are a bit of a worry - no signs of cracking inside the rocker basin? In your pic of the inlet port there doesn't seem to be a trail of oil on the bottom of the port that would suggest it was somehow draining back into the manifold plenum (but that could be due to the air/fuel charge removing it before it could build up...)

[gaPhil]

The head is newly reconditioned. My thinking was that some of the intake manifold studs intersect oil ports in the head. Because the studs were removed when the head was reconditioned they probably didn't seal up properly when reinstalled.

Further to the coolant issue, upon looking more into catch cans. I've read some info on condensation in the catch can, this could be what I saw.

I can't say I'm losing coolant for sure. There is no milkyness in the motor oil. The car is running pretty well, good compression.

[gaPhil]

So the motor is running pretty well at the moment. No coolant, oil loss so i think sealing up the intake manifold studs has fixed the issue.

The weber has a pretty good choice for reliability and general driveability. It needs a tune ( i havent played with it at all) and im not sure the electric choke is 100% working.
But these are small issues.

I repainted my grille today in black and have continued work on the globe bathurst rims, filing sanding and polishing.

Only have a car space at the moment so undertaking any major work is difficult. I ride or tram to work so the galant is just a bit of a weekend cruiser now which i like.

[gaPhil]

retorqueing the head after about 2,000km - is this absolutely required?

Are there major risks if this is not done/ is it common not to be done?

[shuggy]

It takes 5 minutes and is required for bedding in.

Just don't back off then retorque because you will snap something like I did. ..

[gaPhil]

I've been putting it off as my torque wrench isn't rated for enough torque, have to buy another one. Just being stingy.

[davetrees]

Just don't back off then retorque because you will snap something like I did. ..

Operator error, methinks ..... ?

Normally you would back of the bolts slightly & re-torque - otherwise you may not be getting the correct settings

[gaPhil]

See photo above, the weber is a dgv with autochoke.

Have many people used these dgv carbs on saturns? Talking to a friend today who said it should be mounted 180 degrees with the choke on the motor side.

I can't mount the carb that way, as it fouls out on the thermostat.

Anyone have more info/explanations?

[unique10]

Sorry to be a bit random but I love this car. Is the colour factory or something custom?

[gaPhil]

Cheers mate, it is a factory colour, definitely one of the better ones.

Further to the above,do saturns need the dfv weber?

[davetrees]

See photo above, the weber is a dgv with autochoke.

Have many people used these dgv carbs on saturns? Talking to a friend today who said it should be mounted 180 degrees with the choke on the motor side.

I can't mount the carb that way, as it fouls out on the thermostat.

Anyone have more info/explanations?

He's got a hold of himself ... the choke should be on the outside .... although it's unusual to use a DGV on a Saturn.

Normally you would use a DFV rather than a DGV, so the throttle is on the other side & rotates the correct way. (The DFV is basically the mirror image of a DGV - primary & secondary barrels are around the other way)

Here's the DFV I used to have on my rally car before I went to sidedraughts :


The secondary barrel is the closest to the head, and the throttle lever is towards the rear - a DGV would be the other way around.

(This carb & manifold is for sale btw, if anyone wants to make me an offer .... )

[gaPhil]

Nice one Dave trees. I didn't appreciate the difference of dgv vs dfv. Which is why I went the dgv option.

Dfv carbs seem to be a bit hard to get off the shelf.

I'll pm regarding the carb.

[VGJONO]

Ive just put a DFV webber on my saturn and had great results, they are a top upgrade IMO, i am curious however geezer, what is the positives and negatives to the throttle rotating one way to the other ?? ive seen both carbs run on saturns now with no problems, just curious to see what is what between the two.

Cheers
VGJONO

[geezer101]

...i am curious however geezer, what is the positives and negatives to the throttle rotating one way to the other ??

Absolutely nada dude. Because the butterflies are opening into a chamber that is shared by 4 runners it wouldn't make any measurable difference. The inlet manifold on most conventional downdraft set ups are a compromise - uneven length runners, weird deviations in air flow (and not awesome quality castings ). You get the air/fuel charge hitting the floor of the manifold plenum and a chunk of air velocity gets wiped off before it even makes it to the end of the inlet runners.

[davetrees]

Only advantage of the DFV over the DGV is that the throttle mechanism is on the same side & rotates the same way as the stock setup .... so it's really easy to install (just put the throttle wheel off the stock carb on it).