Been on fabo a while but never started a thread of my ride. Its a 65 valiant convertible my brother and I bought back in 2006 from a guy in Idaho. Original 273 auto car, dealer ac, pretty much bone stock but rust free. We flew out and drove it home to Maryland in three days with the top down the whole time. Not without incident of course... 2 front tires due to a front end in dire need of a rebuild 50 miles into the trip, overheating in pittsburg and many red bulls later, we made it. Good times.
Fast forward 6 years... Converted it to a 4 speed, took out the tired 273 and replaced it with a stock la 318 with 340 cam and 4 bbl intake. New radiator. Installed a 8 3/4 sure grip, new seat covers front and back, disk brakes, new suspension bushings. 14 in ralleys and good radials.
The 318 was a placeholder for the 5.2L magnum i picked up locally a few years ago. I've wanted to delve into fuel injection for a while but was always intimated. After a lot of reading in the past year, I decided to slowly teach myself how to do it. That's where megasquirt comes in.
Right now I have megasquirt loaded on my laptop in data logging mode monitoring coolant & air temps, rpm and wideband o2. This way I can become familiar with the code and optimize the Afr with the carb. Next step is to install my junkyard Chevy TBI on my eddy intake and an inline high pressure pump. Here ill learn how to setup fuel and enrichment maps, and enjoy turn key cold starts. Next I'll learn how to control the distributor spark and advance through megasquirt. If I get ambitious, I may install an edis ignition system and eliminate the distributor. Once I get comfortable with this I'll be ready to install my magnum and enjoy the benefits of a port injected, computer controlled ignition that is adaptable to variable conditions.
Still more mechanical work to do too: rebuild the calipers, install new torsion bars, install my hellwig front sway bar as well as finish the interior. It never ends!
Should be a rewarding journey... Progress is slow on the cars with two small kids, but my wife is very cool and gives me time to chip away at it.
Here are some before (as purchased) versus now. I know, i know - i'll be painting the engine bay body color when i pull the motor out!
ops:
Fast forward 6 years... Converted it to a 4 speed, took out the tired 273 and replaced it with a stock la 318 with 340 cam and 4 bbl intake. New radiator. Installed a 8 3/4 sure grip, new seat covers front and back, disk brakes, new suspension bushings. 14 in ralleys and good radials.
The 318 was a placeholder for the 5.2L magnum i picked up locally a few years ago. I've wanted to delve into fuel injection for a while but was always intimated. After a lot of reading in the past year, I decided to slowly teach myself how to do it. That's where megasquirt comes in.
Right now I have megasquirt loaded on my laptop in data logging mode monitoring coolant & air temps, rpm and wideband o2. This way I can become familiar with the code and optimize the Afr with the carb. Next step is to install my junkyard Chevy TBI on my eddy intake and an inline high pressure pump. Here ill learn how to setup fuel and enrichment maps, and enjoy turn key cold starts. Next I'll learn how to control the distributor spark and advance through megasquirt. If I get ambitious, I may install an edis ignition system and eliminate the distributor. Once I get comfortable with this I'll be ready to install my magnum and enjoy the benefits of a port injected, computer controlled ignition that is adaptable to variable conditions.
Still more mechanical work to do too: rebuild the calipers, install new torsion bars, install my hellwig front sway bar as well as finish the interior. It never ends!
Should be a rewarding journey... Progress is slow on the cars with two small kids, but my wife is very cool and gives me time to chip away at it.
Here are some before (as purchased) versus now. I know, i know - i'll be painting the engine bay body color when i pull the motor out!
ops:
