What have you done to your square lately??

DoubleDingo · 2024-10-01T21:17:51-0400

BRetty said:
I agree. Somehow, even though I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, reading manuals or even looking at diagrams about carbs makes my eyes glaze over.

The linkage has a couple tiny studs on the end to keep it on the cam, it looks like I have to un-hook the tiny cotter pin from the other end, pull that end out, so I can rotate the thing 90deg to slip it through that curved slot. Then re-attach the lower end.

Notice you didn't actually say *what it is*, just where stick it in... ;-}

Linkage rod?

bucket · 2024-10-01T22:08:50-0400

Bloodhound1981 said:
Here's what I did to my square lately...I attempted to make a spirited 1/4 mile run in a fairly remote area. After stomping the go pedal, the truck suddenly went to idle only. Well, I ripped the Lokar throttle cable out of the ferrule on the throttle body of my First fuel injection intake. Clearly due to my gas pedal not being adjusted properly. I was just barely able to get a couple strands of cable into the ferrule to limp all the way home. I was half considering making a shoe string throttle haha. Good times.

Wait, you have a FIRST intake? As in, TPI? If so, how do you like the setup? Did you buy it new or used?

Bloodhound1981 · 2024-10-02T00:05:48-0400

bucket said:
Wait, you have a FIRST intake? As in, TPI? If so, how do you like the setup? Did you buy it new or used?

Bought it new, and it's AWESOME, in my opinion. When I first frame-off built my truck in the early 90's in high school, I put a 350 TPI out of an IROC in it, with an Accel computer. That was kinda high tech at the time. The truck sat and rotted from around 2001 to 2012. Spent the last 12 years doing it all over again, but better. I wanted TPI because that's what it was the first time I built it, but that intake can't breath past about 4K rpm. And no way I was LS swapping it, had to keep to it's roots. So I bought the FIRST intake and put it on a new roller crate Vortec 350 (the SP350/357 to be exact) with a Holley HP ECU, and it does everything I want it to do. It's TPI as GM should have made it, all the torque and it can rev pretty good too. I keep saying I need to make a build thread.

Don't judge the pic too hard, things are cleaned up since taking it. Still need to route a cold air intake though.

bluex · 2024-10-02T01:12:53-0400

Bloodhound1981 said:
Bought it new, and it's AWESOME, in my opinion. When I first frame-off built my truck in the early 90's in high school, I put a 350 TPI out of an IROC in it, with an Accel computer. That was kinda high tech at the time. The truck sat and rotted from around 2001 to 2012. Spent the last 12 years doing it all over again, but better. I wanted TPI because that's what it was the first time I built it, but that intake can't breath past about 4K rpm. And no way I was LS swapping it, had to keep to it's roots. So I bought the FIRST intake and put it on a new roller crate 350 (the SP350/357 to be exact) with a Holley HP ECU, and it does everything I want it to do. It's TPI as GM should have made it, all the torque and it can rev pretty good too. I keep saying I need to make a build thread.

Don't judge the pic too hard, things are cleaned up since taking it. Still need to route a cold air intake though.

Love it man! I have a standard tpi with a voretec lower I'm going to put on mine soon an run with a terminator.

When I do my 383 I have a super ram with the tpis lower.

ChuckN · 2024-10-02T15:02:00-0400

I love it when I find an easy solution to a problem…the lower rad hose “leak” I thought I had turned out to be operator error- I thought I’d tightened the radiator cap but it still had another couple mm to go before it stopped. I found the bottom lip of the cap a little damp, and I just needed to give it a little more oomph. It was leaking inconspicuously down the side and leaking out on the bottom of the hose. I love an easy “D’oh” moment and one less thing to do.

1lejohn · 2024-10-02T16:00:56-0400

bluex said:
Love it man! I have a standard tpi with a voretec lower I'm going to put on mine soon an run with a terminator.

When I do my 383 I have a super ram with the tpis lower.

Wow we are back in the mid 90's with all this TPI talk. There was group of us with Camaros that ran all around the Houston area street racing. We all built them differently. One was a Accel super ram, one was a SLP type ( I can't remember the name), I had the Arizona speed and marine runners with a ported GM bottom and plenum. They all had 58 mm T- bodies, different headers, 700R's with converters. I ran a best of 13.2 with the stock heads and cam. I graduated to a 383 and a TPIS Mini Ram before the car got stolen. We would run 3 wide on Westheimer road. We also ran out on 10 west.

justhorns · 2024-10-02T17:03:10-0400

I picked up my 350 SB at the machinists shop (#1), and took it to machinists shop (#2). Number 1 is going out of business and laid off everybody with zero notice. "pack up and get out" he told em. One guy had been there for 24 years. My Friend,Bob, who was doing all the work on my engine is shop #2 and he will help me build the final kit that I will assemble into the finished engine. Bob has lost his lease twice recently which is why his new shop is not really up and running. He was using income at shop 1 to survive till his new shop was ready. So we will press in a new liner into one cylinder, do all the needed machine work left, and then I will take over and assemble. I expect this to take a year or two. Then, the engine will go into my 81 "Ralph". I'm going to need a 4 speed to go behind this engine. and fuel injection? maybe and and and..

HotWheelsBurban · 2024-10-02T18:04:59-0400

JamesSam said:
Was bummed about the Dawgs losing to the elephant tide but I'm a C Tigers fan so...see you later?

Teams getting into the postseason for several years in a row...that can make teams complacent. Just saw the Astros drop two to the Tigers; they haven't been in October baseball for ten years, we have been for eight straight seasons. Oh well, were we in the playoffs, my brother's Wednesday night gig would have been cancelled anytime there was a game. So better for us ....

Bextreme04 · 2024-10-02T18:19:20-0400

BRetty said:
I agree. Somehow, even though I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering, reading manuals or even looking at diagrams about carbs makes my eyes glaze over.

The linkage has a couple tiny studs on the end to keep it on the cam, it looks like I have to un-hook the tiny cotter pin from the other end, pull that end out, so I can rotate the thing 90deg to slip it through that curved slot. Then re-attach the lower end.

Notice you didn't actually say *what it is*, just where stick it in... ;-}

The piece you have to connect it to is the choke pull-off. It gives a restriction to the secondaries and choke opening while there is a high vacuum in the manifold(idle). When you floor it and the vacuum falls off, it lets the gold arm extend and allows the secondaries to open slowly instead of slamming open. You are correct on how to connect it, or you can unbolt the pull-off and rotate that to slide the rod in the slot.

rockriver · 2024-10-02T18:56:12-0400

Daron58 said:
I just put a top cover kit and a new reverse light switch in my SM 465 and replaced the shift forks for L-1 and 2-3 hopefully will get the slack out of the shifter , thanks to a video from U tube on the install of the top cover without that would have still been outside trying to figure it out, pretty neat little trick,can’t wait to get it back on the road

Where did you get the reverse light switch?. Can’t find one anywhere.

bucket · 2024-10-02T20:56:50-0400

Bloodhound1981 said:
Bought it new, and it's AWESOME, in my opinion. When I first frame-off built my truck in the early 90's in high school, I put a 350 TPI out of an IROC in it, with an Accel computer. That was kinda high tech at the time. The truck sat and rotted from around 2001 to 2012. Spent the last 12 years doing it all over again, but better. I wanted TPI because that's what it was the first time I built it, but that intake can't breath past about 4K rpm. And no way I was LS swapping it, had to keep to it's roots. So I bought the FIRST intake and put it on a new roller crate Vortec 350 (the SP350/357 to be exact) with a Holley HP ECU, and it does everything I want it to do. It's TPI as GM should have made it, all the torque and it can rev pretty good too. I keep saying I need to make a build thread.

Don't judge the pic too hard, things are cleaned up since taking it. Still need to route a cold air intake though.

Awesome! I've got an '86 350 TPI Camaro that I need to get back on the road again. Years ago I did aluminum heads, an old Crane CompuCam, Accel injectors, etc. I ran out of budget and always had the intent to swap out the intake setup. It's a very stout street engine, but of course there's no top end at all. But mostly I quit driving it due to MAF and/or harness issues. I really want to buy a First manifold for it, but also run cam and crank sensors and a Holley Terminator along with coil packs. That way I can easily have someone do a proper dyno tune on it, since it would be about like tuning an LS. But still be the proper looking TPI small block.

BRetty · 2024-10-02T22:06:34-0400

Bextreme04 said:
The piece you have to connect it to is the choke pull-off. It gives a restriction to the secondaries and choke opening while there is a high vacuum in the manifold(idle). When you floor it and the vacuum falls off, it lets the gold arm extend and allows the secondaries to open slowly instead of slamming open. You are correct on how to connect it, or you can unbolt the pull-off and rotate that to slide the rod in the slot.

Great!. I appreciate the feedback -- I really do get lost looking at the combination of 1973 GM parts catalog scans and the tangled webs of 70's carb/fuel/emission systems.

I was just this aftn trying to check my engine with a vac gaunge. I discovered that I need different size/dia vacuum hose for the ports on this carb ... but also noticed the vacuum breaker diaphram there really does some work!

Bretty

Girth · 2024-10-02T22:22:30-0400

Grit dog said:
The Wesco guys in Auburn are helpful and not pretentious.
Red is the most expensive color you can buy.
I’ll reserve comment about spending many hours and $ to get a vehicle ready to paint and then using cheap oil based paint. But it doesn’t make sense for about all the reasons one can think of.
@Girth i know you’re now on short clock weather wise, but reccomend Tamco and with their frequent sales, you could get one of a few different types of high quality 2k urethane red for around $300/gal. Probably be double much that for shop line PPG Omni at Wesco. Pre Covid, it was about $60 for a half pint of maroon metallic single stage Omni at Wesco.
Burb takes alot of paint though! Youd need 2 gallons at least of single stage and probably use every drop of it and be sweating it. Even more if it’s cheap paint. So the Wesco guys aren’t totally wrong from an economical standpoint. You could base coat it easily with a gallon of base and have enough leftover to fix every whiskey dent for the next 15 years. And clear coat is about half the price of red ss or base. It makes sense financially and durability wise to do base/clear.
That financial gap narrows with cheaper colors but the other advantages of 2 stage are still the same.
I’m assuming you just want a bright red or are you matching a factory color?
Another way to save a buck is get some cheaper urethane base or single stage preferably base and basically guide coat the vehicle first so your top coat base or single stage will cover quicker.
Just some thoughts, paint is expensive. Cheap paint is disappointing in the long run but there are ways to save a buck.
For example when I did the blue truck, I “accidentally” used the wrong color base coat on the first panels I “tested” on. Got the wrong shade but went ahead and base coated the the underside of the hood and inside of tailgate and some misc trim pieces. It was close and what I found is the right color covered MUCH quicker. Took one less coat. So when I did the inside of the bed, I burned up more of that leftover wrong shade of light blue. In the end I painted everything but the inside of the cab and underside of the bed (did black). I used Less than 3 qts of base coat. If I’d base coated the rest the wrong color first, I could have probably done the whole truck with 2 quarts of base.

AH... a local.

Yes, knowing I'm soon to be losing the weather is making me nervous. I pulled the trigger last night though, and FedEx already has 3gal of single stage Victory Red (from Tamco) on the way. I was originally gonna do a BC/CC, but after dealing with dust, even tenting my shop..... nah. That epoxy looked GREAT on the hood, until I came back 15min later and there was random junk stuck to it, from god knows where. Being able to do a good cut and buff on the single stage feels like the safer option. Gonna rig up better ventilation for when I shoot the color, so all things combined...... crossing my fingers it comes out nice.

I'd talked to the Wesco in Olympia, they sell Limco and Omni SS, but neither of those has great "reviews". Our painters at work both shook their heads, so that killed THAT idea. I WAS looking at just buying paint through work, as our paint shop shoots Imron usually. (Cue my eye roll over the one guy telling me it's OLD TECHNOLOGY that nobody uses anymore.

Funny, it works great on a multimillion dollar helicopter) $1400/gal though for a red that's "close".

While I could probably do it in a gallon, maybe a tad more (that stuff COVERS like no other, and is TOUGH).... no way. Plus it's NASTY to work with. Like most chemicals, the GOOD stuff is BAD for you. lol I've got a full face respirator and tyvek suits, but still.

So yeah.... have a plan now. Gonna fight the "new" barn doors this weekend, hopefully get them fit right. Block out the hood, and be ready for more spraying next week. Figuring a dark grey/black sealer, then the color. Hopefully I'll have pretty pictures to share next week.

What have you done to your square lately??

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