The "Whatever" Project

[DanStokes]

bobs my friend, not my uncle...... well, closer to
a brother than my ACTUAL brother, but you get the drift...
wait--what were we talking about?

[fatguyzinc]

bobs my friend, not my uncle...... well, closer to
a brother than my ACTUAL brother, but you get the drift...
wait--what were we talking about?

[SuperBuickGuy]

And I just realized something else. Way back in the modifieds days I had to silicon caulk around the bases of the tubes to keep dirt out of the engine. It was a messy time consuming process, that had to be done every time the injectors needed to be tweaked. For those who have never played with injection on methanol, one thing that is a constant concern is throttles sticking. I still have 4 rolls of 0.001 feeler stock used to set the plates.

The procedure that I learned was to put a strip of the feeler stock down each throttle body throat, loosen the butterfly screws, disconnect the cross body linkage so the throttles would close on the feeler stock, and gently tap on each throttle plate with my finger setting them snugly against the feeler stock. Then carefully tighten the throttle plate screws, making sure that the plates didn't shift. Once that was done, the cross body linkage connecting the 2 sides was adjusted so that the center to center distance of the heim joints matched the distance between the two throttle shafts.

At that point the linkage arms were set against the idle stop and the linkage tightened up. Then there's a procedure for setting the initial barrel valve position. Once that is done, connect up a leakdown tester and leak the barrel valve to 9 to 12 percent, I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but it was in that range. Then and only then we'd start the engine and go thru the final tune. Once the engine is up to temperature, final adjustment of the cross body linkage was done. This required 2 people, 1 doing the adjusting, and 1 standing 15 or so feet in front of the car listening to the exhaust. As the cross body linkage was adjusted very slowly and slightly, the person out front could hear the exhaust beat from side to side and would signal which side was working. The effort was to get the exhaust note the same.

Then on to the barrel valve. It was adjusted longer or shorter by no more than a flat on the hex link to get the throttle response instantaneous when cracked open fast.

So here's the good news: it wasn't a weekly task. Only when something was changed on the engine that might affect the injectors. Which was a good thing, because it was a little bit time consuming and couldn't be rushed. In general the weekly maintenance was just pull the nozzles and soak them in acetone to clean them up. And with the hex cap screws out, carefully blow out any schmuts. Of course there was/is a procedure for pickling the engine on gasoline after a race night. That also was time consuming, but necessary. And we did it before loading up to go home. Of course in those days waste fluid disposal was a lot simpler. But we won't get into that...

So back to the beginning, and sealing up the tubes. Now this design will allow a gasket under each tube pair. Cut them out from velumoid gasket material and Bob's your uncle.

Bob's a good guy

[DanStokes]

Had a friend many moons ago who ran Hilborns on a SBC in a (IIRC) '60 'Vette. He street drove it some and I'm pretty sure he added a bit of castor oil to the methanol. Lubricity of methanol was way less than zero. Just a fuzzy memory.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

And I just realized something else. Way back in the modifieds days I had to silicon caulk around the bases of the tubes to keep dirt out of the engine. It was a messy time consuming process, that had to be done every time the injectors needed to be tweaked. For those who have never played with injection on methanol, one thing that is a constant concern is throttles sticking. I still have 4 rolls of 0.001 feeler stock used to set the plates.

The procedure that I learned was to put a strip of the feeler stock down each throttle body throat, loosen the butterfly screws, disconnect the cross body linkage so the throttles would close on the feeler stock, and gently tap on each throttle plate with my finger setting them snugly against the feeler stock. Then carefully tighten the throttle plate screws, making sure that the plates didn't shift. Once that was done, the cross body linkage connecting the 2 sides was adjusted so that the center to center distance of the heim joints matched the distance between the two throttle shafts.

At that point the linkage arms were set against the idle stop and the linkage tightened up. Then there's a procedure for setting the initial barrel valve position. Once that is done, connect up a leakdown tester and leak the barrel valve to 9 to 12 percent, I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head, but it was in that range. Then and only then we'd start the engine and go thru the final tune. Once the engine is up to temperature, final adjustment of the cross body linkage was done. This required 2 people, 1 doing the adjusting, and 1 standing 15 or so feet in front of the car listening to the exhaust. As the cross body linkage was adjusted very slowly and slightly, the person out front could hear the exhaust beat from side to side and would signal which side was working. The effort was to get the exhaust note the same.

Then on to the barrel valve. It was adjusted longer or shorter by no more than a flat on the hex link to get the throttle response instantaneous when cracked open fast.

So here's the good news: it wasn't a weekly task. Only when something was changed on the engine that might affect the injectors. Which was a good thing, because it was a little bit time consuming and couldn't be rushed. In general the weekly maintenance was just pull the nozzles and soak them in acetone to clean them up. And with the hex cap screws out, carefully blow out any schmuts. Of course there was/is a procedure for pickling the engine on gasoline after a race night. That also was time consuming, but necessary. And we did it before loading up to go home. Of course in those days waste fluid disposal was a lot simpler. But we won't get into that...

So back to the beginning, and sealing up the tubes. Now this design will allow a gasket under each tube pair. Cut them out from velumoid gasket material and Bob's your uncle.