The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

[squirrel]

R4 compressor? or A6?

[TheSilverBuick]

OE R4. The 231 came with the R4, I have the 231 brackets bolted to the 455, so sticking with stock since I still have the original A/C hoses.

[TheSilverBuick]

Fixed up the filler behind the front bumper today. It was annoying me because, it was cracked in half, and every time I looked at it part was hanging down. No more! Five of the six support brackets were broken on top of it being cracked in half.

So I pulled it out, riveted some sheet metal straps onto each support and then riveted the two pieces back together (since I had the sheet metal and riveter out =P ).




It's nice and solid there now.


Also changed out the blower motor switch and CLR'd the windshield sprayers, they were kinda clogged.

[CTX-SLPR]

Also changed out the blower motor switch and CLR'd the windshield sprayers, they were kinda clogged.

How'd that last bet go? Mine aren't running too hot and with the funky motor driven pump I need the cleanest passage I can manage.

Thanks,

[TheSilverBuick]

I've CLR'd several washer sprayer nozzles. Sometimes it's just build up from the washer fluid drying out and sometimes it's scale from hard water. I just put them in a pan with about a 1/3 CLR to 2/3 water and let them sit for five or so minutes, then washed them in the sink to rinse them and watch the water pattern come out the nozzle. One cleared right up, the other after rinsing it real good, still was half plugged, so I blew through it in the reverse direction of flow a couple time, stuck it back in the CLR for a minute or two and that seemed to clear it up.

[DanStokes]

The CLR trick seems like a good one but when I worked at the Buick dealer I just cleaned them on the car with a torch tip cleaner. Much quicker when you're trying to make a buck at it. Never had it not work but Randal's method would clear the whole length of the tube. Each has it's merits.

Dan

[TheSilverBuick]

At work they get clogged with mud and dirt regularly, we use push pins. It wallows out the nozzle a bit though, but with all the mud and dirt that gets on the windows around here, the extra volume of fluid is welcomed. The nozzles probably get replaced about once a year because of that.

[TheSilverBuick]

Made it back to So. Cal. last night. Tons of old cars driving around today

The highlights are the first leg of my trip from Ely to just before Vegas took right at ten gallons of fuel, a new record, I crammed another .2ga in there just to be sure it was full. That's right at 22mpg if it truely was full. On this trip I did play more with some of the fuel settings as well as making significant changes to the Barometric Corrections table. Ironically over all I added fuel across the board, but cured the lean surges which must of accounted of better efficiency? The second leg of the trip from Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga netted me a normal 17mpg, as I drive faster on that leg as well as there being steeper hills. I may of over shot the barometric correction factor, adding too much fuel, for this part of the trip as well since there is traffic and I only really checked it twice. Over 456 miles I averaged 19mpg.

Other than driving home, I'll be making the same trip south in about two weeks again to check the mpg's again. I plan on leaving the tune essentially untouched but I may upgrade the megasquirt firmware to MS2/extra, which will enhance the fuel cut on coasting and I should be able to set a target idle rpm, which will be cool because the car idles at 1100rpm right now, 300rpm higher than normal, in this dense air.

[squirrel]

not bad! we drove Steve's camaro up to Vegas last summer, it averaged about 19. With about 1/3 the hp, if that.

[TheSilverBuick]

Looks like I found a set of 3.42's. Mailing the check off today from someone selling a set on the V8Buick board. That should put me half way between the prior 3.70 gears and the current 3.08 gears. So cruising likely will be in the 2100-2200rpm range. I wouldn't be happy unless I tried them all (I had 3.23's stock)

[SuperBuickGuy]

it's better that you try it so I don't have to.... I'm thinking the right number for the 455 is 3.23 - but 3.42 is my other "choice"....

[Scott Liggett]

What are you going for? Optimum cruising rpm/ mpg? Or, a cruising speed that's in the torque range of the engine?

[TheSilverBuick]

A little bit of all =P

The currrent engine configuration has no issues with the 3.08 gears, pulling a decent hill in overdrive isn't much of an issue, but it may be contributing to a pinging issue I was having pulling steep hills on hot days (added more fuel, seems to of gone away). But the gears are extra long that's for sure, running up to 25mph in first is a piece of cake since 25mph=2500rpm in first. Makes it way too easy to speed around town =P Also I think the 3.42's will set me up well for Drag Week.


And for no overdrive, 3.23's is about as high a gear I'd personally go. Squirrel runs a 3.25's in his and it does pretty well.

[mike343sharpstick]

I have actually been considering a change to something in the 3.42 range for my car. Now that I have T5 OD trans in the car, I'm only at 1,500 RPM (Stock tach. is not necessarily accurate) at an indicated cruising speed of 65 MPH on the GPS. I believe the car currently has a 3.15:1 final gear. It's actually pretty nice on the freeway, but realistically It's a bit 'Lazy' for a small block. That and the motor I'm building may not run the best at sub-1,500 rpm So, potentially no OD at 55 mph??
Problem is, if I go too low in the rear gear, the already low first gear will be useless.

I've yet to do the calculations to see exactly what 3.42 would be at 65 MPH, but I have a feeling it will be about right.
I'll be interested in where your cruising rpm -vs- 1st gear works out if you go this route.

[TheSilverBuick]

I might not be getting to it until July/August. It's just in the plans at the moment, I have a few other things to attend to first.