Mufflers back on

Dad returned last week from a short trip to the UK so we started it up for him. It took about 2 revolutions on the nearly-dead battery before starting. Pretty happy with that. Dad hadn't heard the car yet and was pretty impressed with it.

After that we thought we'd put the old mufflers back on to hear how it sounds. It may also help to keep the neighbours friendly. Here's how it sounds. Sorry for the iPhone sound quality. Sounds pretty crap on this video. It's hard to say, but Tim thinks it may be too loud for roadworthy purposes. We're gonna have to choose new mufflers carefully. We're planning to change the exhaust setup so that the mufflers exit in the centre like they should. Perhaps the 180 degree can of worms manifold may happen in the future, but not just yet.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to run this for long because we don't have a radiator cap! Yep, something that simple... We used a Moroso filler neck installed at the thermostat. I've now tried the 2 standard height caps (22mm and 27mm) and neither of them fit. Damn it! I'll have to order a Moroso cap.

While Dad was over, we got him to test out the pedals. He thinks the position is fine for him, so we'll push on and fit them where they are.

The GT40 comes back to life again!!

Well, for the first time in at least 12 years, the old 350 is back to life and the GT40 has a running engine once again. The starter motor arrived on Friday just in time for the weekend. Saturday rolled around and as luck would have it, Tim was called in to work!! Bugger. Jason, Jim and I were kicking around the garage and so the question was posed "Do you think Tim will mind if we start it?". A quick text to Tim revealed "Yep, I guess, as long as you take videos". So in a flash, the old girl was pushed down the driveway and the jerry can hooked up.

Here's one of the first starts. Jason nearly loses his eyebrows from a backfire.

It was running pretty rough and we noticed the exhaust on some cylinders was cooler than the others. After re-adjusting the valve lash we were in business.

It sounds absolutely fantastic (shame we have to put mufflers on) and I'm really quite happy that it idles and revs so cleanly with very little adjustment to the carby or timing.

So next up is to tidy up the leads, etc, find a fitting radiator cap and move on to the brakes. This next phase has already started with Tim picking these up last week.

They look great, but our main concern at the moment is that they may be too close to the driver. For short arses like ourselves it isn't a problem, but anyone much taller than a midget may have problems. The main cause of the problem is the master cylinders. More thoughts and more sitting in the car required.

It's alive!..... briefly

My Brother-in-law Jaimen brought down a new distributor from Townsville on the weekend, so Saturday we got to work on getting this thing started. The new distributor was on pretty quickly. Backed her down the driveway, crank it over and... damnit. It's doing exactly the same thing as last weekend. Just firing on one cylinder. We soon realised that some cylinders had no compression and put this down to incorrect lash adjustment. So in not time, we readjusted the lash and she fired up... Certainly running rough, but we're definitely closer. Here's a video of it.

After starting it up a few times the starter motor gave up! We pulled apart the starter motor and discovered one of the plastic brush supports had given way and chewed up the internals. Doh! No surprise really. This starter motor hasn't been used in at least 12 years and god knows when it was last rebuilt. The moral of the story... don't re-use old parts without reconditioning them.. Learning the hard way.

Close, but no cigar...

 The past month has been quite hectic, in particular with the birth of our baby daughter, Bianca.

Despite everyone telling me the baby would mean the end of the GT40 project, we've actually managed to make quite a bit of progress lately.

Since my Father-in-law John was in town to see the baby, we thought we'd put him to work. He's been welding and fabricating since before I was born, so it was awesome to get his help. We managed to sneak into the garage on quite a few occasions. A job that takes him 1 hour would take me 1 day. What a champion! 

One of the jobs we wanted to get started was fitting the steering column. The old column was looking pretty ordinary and was not fitted particularly well. 

After a trip around the wreckers with a tape measure, we discovered that a 2007 Toyota Yaris steering column would be a good fit. 

Now, before you flame me for the sacrilege of fitting a Yaris rack to a GT40, allow me to explain. First up, this rack has tilt AND reach adjustment. Secondly, it is collapsible in an accident. Thirdly, as a bonus, it has power assistance. For the grand total of $150 (including the steering computer) it was something we couldn't knock back. When you consider a Yaris weighs 1045kg, but has the engine over the front wheels, it shouldn't be too much stress to steer the GT40 which weighs about the same, but has bugger all weight over the front wheels.

The power assistance will take a bit of work to get it going since the steering computer requires speed and RPM signals sent via CAN bus. This will be a bit of a challenge for me, but is something I'll enjoy doing. Having power assistance is not completely mandatory and the car can easily be driven without it. Therefore, it can be turned on later down the track. No problem.

Fitting the column took a fair bit of trial and error on John's part, but didn't take that long to have it in and welded in the right position.

On to the next hurdle. The cooling system is done! Fortunately, my TIG welding skills seem to have improved enough for me to be able to braise with no filler rod. However, adding filler rod to the equation still leads to ugly welds. More practice needed. I've managed to modify an old sewing machine pedal for use with the welder. This has made the welds much easier to control.

While I was doing the welding, Tim got cracking with the remaining jobs on the engine with the aim of firing her up ASAP. In goes the first oil. We gave Tim a hard time about his very 90s shorts. :)

The engine was then ghetto-wired to an old battery and hooked up to a jerry can. Pushed out to the driveway and attempted to start. The good news was that it cranks, has oil pressure, is getting fuel and fires occasionally. The bad news is that it's pretty much firing on one cylinder only. We tried different coils, checking the timing, checking the firing order, adjusting the carby, but have had no real improvements. In the end, we've put this down to a dodgy distributor. It's still the original distributor, so it's no surprise. Fortunately, John has a brand new one in Townsville that will be here this weekend for our second try. Fingers crossed I have videos soon.