Phils GA Galant

[75wagon]

Got a little bit done today:
A question came up on the forum the other day about whether or not GA/B's had chrome strips on the front of the bonnet. Well, here's the answer.

[75wagon]

Things are looking up.
A full day spent on the car yesterday (by gaPhil and myself) saw the leak from the rear of the motor finally fixed

Now the race begins to get the car back on the road in time for the cruise.
I fitted the front mudguards tonight, I'll get some pics up tomorrow, but when you see them, you'll see there's still plenty to do.

Dave...

[davetrees]

A full day spent on the car yesterday (by gaPhil and myself) saw the leak from the rear of the motor finally fixed

What turned out to be the problem in the end ?

[gaPhil]

Leaking from around the rear main housing and sump joint.

Took it all off and used silicone. Seems to be good now.

[75wagon]

I've been a bit slow uploading pics, but here they are.








It needed a place to mount a return spring for the linkage set up, so I made one.
I started my usual way, made a template from a Crownie carton.

[75wagon]

Well, after all the hours put in, it's damn close to being ready, still a few things to do, but things done today:
- Bonnet painted and fitted
- tailshaft bolts all in and tightened and adjusted
- blinkers hooked up and working
- reverse lights sorted
- gasket on weber for fuel inlet renewed
- tacho hooked up and remounted
- wheels cleaned/polished
- bonnet chrome strip finished
- battery clamp fitted
- washer bottle fitted
- front cross member painted black
etc...

Still to do:
- connect wiring for oil pressure warning (extend and fit plug)
- fit and test head lights
- fit front bumper
- fit air filters
etc...
All little stuff now, should be ready for exhaust fit up, wheel alignment and blue slip for rego

[davetrees]

Looking good !

Could you take a couple of pics of how you have mounted the throttle cable onto the linkage, and to the top of the rocker cover ? I'm still not 100% happy with the way mine is yet - looking for ideas to improve it !

[gaPhil]

Just a quick update, will make a full post on the progress later.

After various hiccups, some more serious then others, the galant passed a blue slip! So happy!

Massive few days from 75wagon (Dave) with help from 77galantv6 (dean) and Dan.
Unfortunately I missed helping Dave a bit due to moving house over the weekend, bad timing!

I'll post some photos up of the mount for you later Davetrees.

[yno26galant]

thats good to hear ! awesome

[75wagon]

I only managed to get 2 of the progress pics to upload (my computer is having issues).

Just after the bonnet was fitted after being painted.


Just after it came back from a successful rego inspection.


The car is currently rego'd

Now to fix the couple of small glitches with the car (the ones only only find out when you start driving it as opposed to having it running in your garage, or a sneaky lap around the block).

[A112H]

Great job guys

[yno26galant]

looks heapps good cant wait to see these cars in person!

[gaPhil]

So the car has been on the road for a week now. After a few minor hiccups with the alternator failing big time and one of the socks on the carb sucking into the motor and choking two cylinders.

This week i have been sorting a few niggling issues like earths etc to get the electrics ok. Everything seems to be working ok now. The headlights are pretty bad but that will be a job for later.

The motor overall is running ok and has pretty good pull to it, however it has a weird hesitation/surge at around 4000rpm and sometimes under heavy throttle. Upon checking the plugs, cylinders 1 and 3 seem to be running fine, cylinders 2 and 4 were very black.

Thinking its a spark problem we have swapped out plugs and leads to try and fix the problem, this worked to some extent but only temporalily. Next ill try swapping the dizzy cap and perhaps the entire dizzy (as it is the dizzy from the 1300 that is on it at present).

If this fails I will look more into the carby as it was sitting around a while before it was put in.

I did a compression test on the cylinders and they were all between 130 and 150.

[gaPhil]

So this morning the problem got worse again.

Barely idling, little power at all and wont rev over 3500 rpm. Basically running on 2 cylinders.

Tonight took the plugs out and cleaned them, same thing cylinders 2 and 4 black as.
I checked the dizzy cap, swapped it and still little or no difference.

I drained and checked the bowl on the carb, there was some crap in the bottom but nothing major.

No difference at all. I'll need to wait until the weekend where I have more time.
My gut feeling is its something electrical, but between Dave and myself we've almost swapped everything out with no major improvements.

Got me stumped for now!

[davetrees]

Are you running one of the "crossover" inlet manifolds, where 1/3 and 2/4 are paired ? Just wondering whether one barrel of your carb isn't working properly .... jetting or blockage issue ?

[gaPhil]

I think it is a crossover type, it's a lynx manifold, there are a couple of photos a few posts up. It looks like the manifold directs the left throat of the carb to the two middle cylinders, which are the ones giving me trouble.

I pulled out the main and idle jets today and they looked ok. Sounds a bit novice I know, but where in the carb is likely to be blocked?

There was a problem when I first drove the car when one of the socks wasn't attached properly and sucked inside the left ram tube. I've had this in the back of my mind, but I can't find anything obviously wrong. Maybe I need to have a good look in the throat of the carb?

Dave and I have been fiddling with the electrics because it seemed to change every time we changed something, in saying that we haven't ever got rid of the problem.

[A112H]

I think I would be pulling the carb off and checking for a chunk of sock inside. Definitely sounds like flow is restricted somewhere along the line.

[gaPhil]

Yeah i think I'll pull the carb off tomorrow and have a look.

Hopefully it just needs a clean up..

[davetrees]

You didn't accidentally move one of the mixture screws or something while working on the engine ? Or somehow moved one of the butterflies so they aren't opening in sync ? The 2 throats may not be balanced properly. Also, make sure the progression holes/circuits etc in the carb aren't blocked.

How did you manage to suck a sock into the carb ? Not running them without springs inside, I hope ......

As an alternative, have a look at this : http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-x-RAMAIR-C ... 3f238cd3bf

[75wagon]

Not running them without springs inside, I hope ......

The springs are there. It was a problem with the way the cable tie was fitted.

As for the problem, I had the car for a little while, and I had it running correctly until the alternator died (it was running really well in-fact).

I don't believe it's a fuel related problem at all, I think it's electrical.

It hesitates in the rev range at 4100rpmish, and again at 5000rpmish.

I just need to have a decent time to play with it and I'm confident I'll sort it.

[davetrees]

Sticking distributor advance (either the weights, springs &/or vacuum) ?

[75wagon]

Sticking distributor advance (either the weights, springs &/or vacuum) ?

Can't be vacuum, it's not connected as the weber has no provision for it.

It seems like it's a faulty, plug or lead or something like that.

[gaPhil]

What have you got on tomorrow Dave? I could limp it over to your house and we could workshop it possibly.

[75wagon]

Ring me in the morning.

[75wagon]

Well, after mucking with it yesterday and today.
We have found the problems.
We removed/replaced/cleaned and adjusted heaps of parts, to try to remove the hestiation at 4000rpm, and again at 5000rpm (plugs, leads, points, dissy cap) Still couldn't find it.
Pulled the weber down, blew out all of the jets with compressed air, and cleaned everything.still didn't fix anything.
We also removed the weber socks and revealed fuel misting on the outside of the ram tubes. On heavy acceleration a rather heavy fuel vapour. This only meant one thing, cam timing was wrong.
Cam timing was checked, it was 3 teeth out. How did it run so well when we first got it going?
Thing that gets me, Phil bought this motor assembled, and it had been running this way. So did the guy he bought it off run it 3 teeth advanced?
We took the head off and got it skimmed and had new valve stem guides installed, but the cam gear was locked to the timing chain so there is no way that we changed it in anyway.

So the conclusion: Never trust anyone else's work. Check everything.

I'll admit, I did assume that the cam to crank timing would be correct, but there you go.

As the car currently stands it has a stock intake and carb fitted, and is making more power then it ever has before. We have discovered the fuel pump is a bit low on pressure (that will be replaced).

But finally, it's running properly and reliably

Dave...

[A112H]

Good job guys and sounds like a great result

[geezer101]

Good work Dave and Phil, persistence pays Maybe the act of skimming the head was enough to pull the timing out of whack?

[75wagon]

Good work Dave and Phil, persistence pays

Well, I can confidently say we've been persistent. Damn this thing has taken some time to get right.
It does really annoy me some of the small things we've missed along the way that would have saved us from doing things twice

Maybe the act of skimming the head was enough to pull the timing out of whack?

It only got the slightest skim. It could be possible, but I dunno
It is possible the cam timing may have been advanced (by the previous owner), but on TDC the number 4 intake valve was near completely still open, and the exhaust valve not even starting to open.
My Lancer hatch ran the timing 2 teeth of the timing belt advanced. That allowed it rev higher (7000rpm), but no low down torque really at all.
This motor in Phil's car had no top end power at all so I was not expecting it to be advanced cam related. We live and learn I suppose.

I thought it was a fault in the ignition system because the problem came and went. I was thinking cracked lead or plug or something of that nature (I've had this problem before, and it's very irritating to drive a car with that problem). And as I was unfamiliar with side draft weber carbs, I was tending to blame it for the some of the issues (as I could not prove otherwise), so we ended up swapping it out, so that I could diagnose with something I understood (the stock carb).

Compounding problems are always harder to trouble shoot. If it was just one at a time I'd be sweet

The way forward for now seems to be to drive it as is for a while. And let's see what other problems it throws at us

I would still like to refit the weber on the motor to see how it performs now, before we move onto anything else. I have google searched as much as I can on it, and checking the jetting it appears to be right in the ball park for correct set up for a 1.6 (even though it was tuned for the 1300 originally) going on information on jetting set ups for Ford Escort crossflow 1600 motors.

Thoughts are possibly to fit a factory twin carb set up on it. On driving my wagon, Phil likes the way the twin carbs react on the car, and they return good economy as well (something the weber has not been so good at to date). The weber is running 30mm chokes, so effectively, it's running the same size chokes as the stock carb anyway (28/32). I think with correct tuning of the car to suit, I think the weber should be able to get good fuel economy. Maybe just including a vacuum advance off the intake manifold? It has not been running a vacuum advance with the weber at all to date. Vacuum advance is something that really helps fuel economy on a street driven car (not so important on a race car that's generally driven WOT).

Other things that need to happen on this car:
- Fit the 5 speed gearbox before Phil and the GA move to Vic.
- do some body repairs (one small patch of rust and rear damage done when the exhaust caught on the car trailer when going to the exhaust shop).
- fit the GS instrument cluster
- fix the head light situation (needs more illumination).
- get the 13x6 Bathurst Mk1 rims restored and polished and fitted to the car (to fill those guards out a bit more).

Can you think of anything else it needs Phil?

Dave..

[gaPhil]

Cheers Dave,

Definitely a bit of a F$%*k fixing the issues with the motor.

Its running pretty well now, i installed a choke today to help with cold starts. 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.

With 2 to 3 weeks until i start moving to melbourne, i think the 5 speed will have to be put on hold, just because of the amount of work to fit one to a GA and i really need the car to stay mobile so i can get it down there.

Body repairs definitely need to be done, but may have to wait until im settled in and the old girl has a new home.

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 cant see the head light situation changing any time soon, but ill keep searching for a light the same size. I also really like the US twin headlight grill so ill be keeping an eye out for one of those.

Definitely need to fit the Bathurst Mk1 rims.

All in all stoked with how the car is running. We will need to organise another local cruise before i head off, maybe incorporate a few beers somewhere!

[camB]

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.)