I took this photo the last time I was in Colorado. This van sits by the side of the road on the way up to my folks' cabin. there's usually some sort of community get together or news posted on it. Or sometimes if the news is out of date the kids will make use of the opportunity to remind everyone what a huge marijuana leaf looks like. Anyhow, I liked this particular message, even though I'm personally not too far above sea level.
I screwed up a bit putting the car's motor together, basically I kept asking different people the same question until I finally got the answer I was looking for & then went with it. So the head gaskets were leaking badly, it ran alright despite mostly running on 6 cylinders but it wouldn't pass smog, not even close. So I decided that if I was going to tear the heads off I should at least put some good ones on. Basically everything else (aside from the dents and rust) has gone way off the budget, so might as well finish the motor up proper. Air Flow Research 165s are what I chose, seemed to be the best choice for my 302 from a lot of different folks' opinions. So a little at a time, usually an hour in the evening, I managed to get the old ones off (had been leaking even more than I thought), the new ones on, the valve train set up again, the intake & carb on etc... fired up like a charm. I Let it warm up to temp idling, right now it's cooling down. Once it's cool I'll re-torque the head gaskets and intake manifold & double check the valve lash. maybe tomorrow after work take it for a spin to blow the cobwebs out, then give smog a try. Also, during this time I picked up a set of mopar cop wheels on ebay. The aluminum slots were 14" rims & I think they really look too small on the car. The cop car wheels have cut outs, so they don't really look stock, but they're as close as I'll find without paying to have someone cut & weld me a set of 15" ford steels to make them 7" wide. The light in the latter pics doesn't help show the improvement at all. Also- the aluminum heads must have taken a good chunk of weight off the front because it's noticeably higher than it was. (all three of these pics were taken today with the new heads in) This is good because I'm going to lower the mounting point of the upper control arms for improved camber and that'll lower the front end back down to about where it was. I didn't really want it to look "lowered" I think the back is perfect and the front will be after the mod. I can always cut a coil off the front springs if I want more.
say hi to Norvin too.
I screwed up a bit putting the car's motor together, basically I kept asking different people the same question until I finally got the answer I was looking for & then went with it. So the head gaskets were leaking badly, it ran alright despite mostly running on 6 cylinders but it wouldn't pass smog, not even close. So I decided that if I was going to tear the heads off I should at least put some good ones on. Basically everything else (aside from the dents and rust) has gone way off the budget, so might as well finish the motor up proper. Air Flow Research 165s are what I chose, seemed to be the best choice for my 302 from a lot of different folks' opinions. So a little at a time, usually an hour in the evening, I managed to get the old ones off (had been leaking even more than I thought), the new ones on, the valve train set up again, the intake & carb on etc... fired up like a charm. I Let it warm up to temp idling, right now it's cooling down. Once it's cool I'll re-torque the head gaskets and intake manifold & double check the valve lash. maybe tomorrow after work take it for a spin to blow the cobwebs out, then give smog a try. Also, during this time I picked up a set of mopar cop wheels on ebay. The aluminum slots were 14" rims & I think they really look too small on the car. The cop car wheels have cut outs, so they don't really look stock, but they're as close as I'll find without paying to have someone cut & weld me a set of 15" ford steels to make them 7" wide. The light in the latter pics doesn't help show the improvement at all. Also- the aluminum heads must have taken a good chunk of weight off the front because it's noticeably higher than it was. (all three of these pics were taken today with the new heads in) This is good because I'm going to lower the mounting point of the upper control arms for improved camber and that'll lower the front end back down to about where it was. I didn't really want it to look "lowered" I think the back is perfect and the front will be after the mod. I can always cut a coil off the front springs if I want more.
say hi to Norvin too.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
I'd rather have toes for fingers than to not be ok with acknowledging beauty.
Here, here!!!!
A genius statement if I ever heard, uh, read one!
And I was very disappointed to find out recently that our "mountainside" home in Vermont is only about 200' above sea level...