On-Board Diagnostics at The Fun Run

[C9]

The Route 66 Mother Road Fun Run takes place every spring.
This year, May 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
   
We had in excess of 800 cars this year from I understand.

First day, Friday, sign-up if you haven't done so already, an all day party along with a little show & shine and a sock hop in the evening.
This part in Seligman, Arizona about 65 miles east of Kingman.

Saturday, the cars starting in Seligman cruise Route 66 to Kingman.
Lots of cool places to stop on the way, more than a few BBQs going, but probably the most interesting place to stop is at the Hackberry General Store where they have a rock & roll band, BBQ, some great old cars to look at in the General Store area along with all the folks who drive out to meet some of the cars coming in as well as watch the cars cruise along on their way to Kingman 25 miles away.

Kingman has a good car show, more than a few food vendors and a few other vendors selling stuff . . . not necessarily car oriented, but the girls like it and if they have to put up with hot rods for a few hours having shopping right there is ok with them.
There's another sock hop at the WhataBurger Saturday evening, but after spending all day in the sunshine we're pretty much done.

There's a little more to the story, but the bit alluded to in the title, on-board diagnostics and the like has to do simply with instrumentation.

I realize that a lot of folks like minimal instrumentation, but growing up, I saw more than a few roadsters and coupes, many of them built by GI's who spent time around aircraft and most of these cars had quite the dashboard.

Henry Gregor Felsens book, Hot Rod circa 1950's had quite an affect on me and I figured when I had a car, any car, but eventually a roadster, it was gonna have a bunch of Stewart-Warners in the dash and other places if necessary.
To that end, I have nine instruments in the car.
The usual plus tach, vacuum gauge, trans temp and fuel pressure.


So aside from a little story about the Fun Run, a short piece about on-board diagnostics, how they can save the day, keep you from tearing your hair out and in general make life easy.

My little roadster is a fun car and I drive it at least every other day.
It's just plain fun to drive and I never have understood guys who want a nice little hot rod and never drive it anywhere.
Granted, they get dirty and most of the dirt seems to get on the car a few days in front of an event, but it only takes a half hour to wash it and dry it off with a little "Wax While You Dry" - an Eagle 1 product that works well.

The car has more than a few rock chips in the paint along with a small chip in the windshield that hasn't grown any larger than it originally was when I got hit by a rock that took a small chunk of paint out of the hood top just about dead center and skipped up into the windshield when running the LA freeways at 80 per during our little 8-9 car caravan on the June 2000 Haute Cuisine and Hot Rods tour.

The car is hanging in there, always a pleasure to drive and the only problem that brought it to a halt was when the Holley electric fuel pump burned up on a 100 degree day in Visalia, California summer of 2001.
My fault entirely since the fuel pump was supplied with a long run of wire that dragged the voltage down about 1.5 - 2 volts under battery voltage.
A relay fed from a 10 gage wire close to the battery source - the main cable in fact, where it terminates to the Ford starter solenoid under the seat - and the under seat relay is physically close to the fuel pump and fed with a short run of 14 gage wire.
Voltage at the pump is the same as the battery.

And I have to admit the fuel pump is close to the left side FlowMaster muffler.
There's a lot of heat there and I do have aluminum sheet metal heat shields, but it appears these could be improved.
I'm thinking of covering the bottom area with a combination underneath the fuel pump aluminum sheet metal shield that has an airscoop that will pick up fresh air and direct it at the bottom area of the pump and the cooler air will probably flow up and around the fuel pump motor.

A couple of pics of the fuel pump and heat shields as viewed from fore & aft.
The more astute among you will no doubt see that the fuel pump is bypassed.
That's a small part of the story as well and explained further down the line.



   
So we'll see what happens there.
One thing about hot rods, besides being a small exercise in engineering is you learn a lot of stuff along the way and not all the improvements are visible to the casual bystander.

To back up a bit, back to Summer of 2001 and after the electric fuel pump failure I installed a new Holley electric pump where the old one had been.

For some reason, after doing a bit of swapping and buying parts for different projects I ended up with four new Holley pumps.
And then, for some cotton picking reason or the other I bypassed the Holley electric pump and went to a mechanical pump.
There's advantages and disadvantages with both electric and mechanical pumps, but I did miss the convenience of shutting down the electric pump and running the gas out of the carb & fuel lines so I could fool around with the fuel system without having to worry about gas all over heck and gone when I cracked a fitting open.
A bit of a moot point since I have a shut-off valve so I can swap fuel filters without getting drowned.  (You can see the fuel filter in both photos above.)

Problem with the mechanical pump was, when the car sat for a couple of weeks in rainy season, fuel would evaporate out of the float bowls and it would take a bit of cranking to fill the bowls so the car would start.
A lot easier on things to spin the electric pump for a short bit and once fuel pressure was observed on the gauge, light er off.

I liked the mechanical pump ok, all except for startup after the car sat for a while.

About three weekends back, we spun out to Rosie's Café on Hwy 93 which is a north/south four laner between Kingman and Hoover Dam.
The café, good eats, interesting place and a popular stop for many, especially the Harley runners usually had a pretty good pinstriper on the premises.
We'd stopped in there the weekend previous - getting confused? - on the way to Viva Las Vegas and talked to the pinstriper.
CK, who owns the bulbous white 46 Ford sedan was the one doing the talking to the pinstriper.
The car has a nice flame job on it and he wanted some pinstriping on nose & deck to finish things off.

CK's 46



On the way back from Rosie's Café we stopped at the wrecking yard with the old cars.
(I posted a bit on this along with pictures after the trip to Rosie's.)
When we left CK nailed the little 302 in the 46 and pulled out pretty hard.
I entered the road and realized I better nail it as well since it was a busy day and lots of traffic.
When I hit third gear the engine stumbled and I noticed fuel pressure was zero.
Backing out of it brought the pressure back up, but it wasn't running 4 - 4.5# like it usually did.
It hovered at 3# or so and no other problems on the way home.

I thought perhaps the fuel filter could be getting clogged up, but it didn't seem like it should have since I'd just changed it 10 months and maybe 2000 miles back.
Most times it gets swapped at the three year and 9000 mile mark.

Pulling the filter and inspecting it showed no problems and in fact it looked brand new inside.
With the mechanical pump running lower pressures than usual and looking like it was sliding down the hill toward failure I decided to go back to the electric pump.
A job made easy since the lines for both the electric pump and the line from the frame bulkhead fitting to the splitter were in the car it was a reasonably easy swap.

A pic of the left side of the engine showing mechanical pump and the splitter which mounts to the left head.



The Holley electrics have an internal regulator and it settled out at 5#.
No capacity problems, it kept the big Buick engine well supplied with fuel during a short full throttle run through the gears up to 75 mph - which is the freeway speed limit here.

You'll note in this pic the small fuel pressure gauge isolator,
You don't want to run a pressurized fuel line into the cockpit of any car and the racing organizations especially don't like it.
Plus - it's beyond stupid.



Along with the fuel pressure isolator you'll need on oil pressure safety switch that cuts power to the fuel pump when oil pressure is zero.
Don't forget to install a spring loaded primer button so you can pressurize lines and fill the carb float bowls with the engine off.
The two terminal 48 or so style Ford starter button works well in this application.

Along with the diagnostic instruments - in this case, the fuel pressure gauge is the main one, but the vacuum gauge is handy since you can see the engine start to die before you can feel it.
Most times it's enough to catch the engine going down and keep it running instead of getting into a restart with mucho starter cranking.

I'd planned to wash the car on Wednesday before the start of the Fun Run on Friday.
Turned out to be cold with a north wind so I put it off until Thursday since we had planned to pick up our goody bag with the car show stuff and have a Friday afternoon BBQ.
All that was done after washing the car was to fire it up and drive it into the garage.
No problems there.

Saturday morning, the gang was headed down the hill to meet up at my house, drive out to Truxton which is on Route 66 a little ways past Hackberry and check out one of the Fun Run stops.
When I fired the roadster it was running bad, but would clear up at 1500-200 rpm and I figured the ignition was probably damp.
Never had that problem before, but everything looked ok and I decided that driving the 25 miles to Hackberry then on to Truxton the engine should clear up ok.
Probably within the first few miles.

It did, but a little ways past Hackberry it started running rough again and I noted the fuel pressure was now at 5.5#.

Some time back I'd installed a bypass style fuel filter and it worked well with the electric pump in the car at the time, but it was bypassing too much fuel so I made up a pill holder that worked similar to the pill holders in mechanical fuel injection setups.
Basics on those are, the eight individual stacks carry butterflies only and have no provisions for jetting.
Air/fuel ratio changes are accomplished by swapping pills - similar to carb jets - with a bigger pill to lean er down and a smaller one to richen the misture.
Sounds backwards, but when combined with the pressure changes due to the mechanical pump and considering the pill is in the return line, it's easy to see why it works the way it does.

Pretty much the same for me.
The pill holder on my 32's 462" Buick engine takes Holley jets.
You may wonder what a Carter/Edelbrock guy is doing with Holley jets, but they were what was available at the speed shop at the time and all I wanted was a restriction device so no problem for me to use Holley jets - except for having to buy a 1/4-32 tap which isn't locally available most places.

A pic of the pill holder which is easily accessed.


The Holley jet is inside and pulling the fitting on the big end allows access with a screwdriver for pill swaps.

What enters into the equation here is; as noted, the mechanical pump couldn't supply enough fuel with the bypass holder in operation and I'd blocked it off with a Holley jet that was soldered shut.
That worked well for quite a while, at least until the run home from Rosie's Café as noted above.

It was obvious the bypass had to be back in operation to get the Holley fuel pressure back to reasonable.
5# - 6# pressure seems to be the make/break point for the Carter/Edelbrock series of carbs and it was pretty obvious the needle was coming off the seat due to excess pressure.
I realize a lot of guys run these carbs without a regulator - as I did with the mechanical pump - with no problems, but with an electric pump you need a regulator of some kind.

Deadhead regulators like the Holley regulators that most guys use are reasonable in price and work well.
They are a little bit hard on the pump in my opinion since they're always pumping up against the top limit of the pumps pressure capabilities.
A bypass regulator is a little easier on them since the pump isn't up at its top pressure limit.

Keep in mind the Holley electric pumps have an internal regulator and these can create other problems.
I had one stick at about the ½# level, but driving easy I made it the six miles home.
Disassembling the pump and pulling the Teflon piston and spring along with polishing the bore with some worn 400 grit wet/dry did the job.

A lot of story so far, but what I want to point out is, with the fuel pressure gauge on board and realizing what was going on in the fuel pressure system made for an easy fix.
A couple miles past Hackberry I pulled over and after explaining to the gang what was going on, Sweetie got into the back seat of CK's roomy 46 and they took off for Truxton.
I did a U-turn and ran the 2 miles or so back to Hackberry where I met another member of our gang.
He was meeting with some friends from Flagstaff and they were going to wait there until we were all there then we'd go to the car show together.

It took about 15 minutes of easy work - the hardest of which would be very familiar to Dr J - was finding the 9/16" wrench.
I yanked the blanked off Holley jet out of the pill-holder and after reassembly the fuel pressure floated between 3# - 3.5#.
The engine ran fine and 3# was more than enough to run the 60 mph back to Kingman and the car show.

Here's a few pics on the way to the car show while waiting for one guy to show up with his car.


This is a British Scout Car complete with - deactivated - 30 caliber machine gun.
Powered with a Rolls Royce inline six, four all wheel drive all the time with 5 forward and 5 reverse gears with a maximum speed of 35 mph.
Some ask, why would you want to go 35 mph backwards?
Seems to me the answer is simple, if someone was shooting at me, maybe 80 per in reverse wouldn't be enough.
The Scout Car garnered more attention than any other car at the show and there were some good ones.
Nice write-up in the Sunday paper as well.

This pic shows this years Fun Run license plate . . . cool part about Arizona is no front plate required and you can run what you want up there.
Best plate so far, flamed and matches my black roadster quite well.


CK with an unrestored 58 Vette behind his white 46.


The Vette.


My favorite car at the car show, he passed us on the way to Hackberry.
Cool little car.



Since the last day of the three day Fun Run is on Sunday and part of it is to the small tourist town of Oatman on Route 66, famed for it's friendly burros and the re-enacted gun fights in town, not to mention ice-cold amber colored beverages, that was a fun break on the way to Topock down by the Colorado River crossing from California to Arizona below Needles.

Geez, one of the gunfighters was carrying a pair of 45's, one in a regular gunslinger rig and the other in a cross-draw holster.
Then I saw that the bad guy was carrying two 45's in a similar rig, plus a shoulder holster/cross draw kind of rig with another 45.
Three guns total and he used em all . . . very skillfully as well.

No pics in Oatman proper, but here's a few on the way out of town.

The Colorado river side of Oatman looking N/E although it's another 20 miles or so to Topock.


Waiting for the gang to catch up, this is where the above pic was taken from.


Abandoned and falling down house right across from where we stopped.


A little further down the road and we spotted a few of the Oatman burro herd.
They weren't too impressed until they saw the kids get out with baggies of carrots.
Once they spotted those, the rest of the herd came in.


Note the vertical stripe above the burros front legs.
One of our group told us that it was a mark directly traceable to the burros from the herd that Mary rode on her trip to Bethlehem.


Running down the hill and across some more desert to Topock the fuel pressure gauge showed ½# to 1 ½#.
Not sure at the time what was going on, but we were running about 50 mph and keeping up ok.
I'm guessing that the pump was bypassing internally with its own regulator.

Made it to Topock ok, even with the gauge registering zero a couple of times.

Once the car was parked, I felt the underside of the fuel pump and it was pretty hot.
Probably due to getting heat soaked by slow running and the hot desert highway.
Along with no restrictions in the bypass line so a whole lot of fuel was being bypassed.

After the car sat for a couple hours at the Topock show & shine and trophy presentations along with a couple of sodas and a cheese-burger the pump was found to be cool.
We took off ahead of the gang cuz Sweetie was tired from three days of too much fun and I wasn't far behind.
I figured if the pump started acting up and pumping low pressure we could run at 50 mph or so and we wouldn't be holding anyone up on the 55 mile drive home.
Darned thing held 3# - 3.5# at 80 per so no problems there.
Even so, I'll do a few things in an effort to get some airflow to the pump and protect it a little better from the hot muffler that's nearby.

Long story, but there can be a lot to say on a three day hot rod weekend.

Here's our Corvette guy trying to find that imaginary noise we all hear when we get out of town a ways.
Nothing found, good running little car.



The end . . . in more ways than one....

[Bib_Overalls]

C9, yr a born story teller.   );b(

[Crosley.In.AZ]

quite the event .  I usually deal with  different gas pressure levels my self.

thanks.

[C9]

Thanks.


This sentence above the Jag-Suspended A coupe, "My Big Sexy the car show, he passed us on the way to Hackberry." wasn't written this way and I don't know where it came from.

Should have read, "My favorite car at the car show, he passed us on the way to Hackberry."


I tried to fix it this morning, but you're only allowed 60 minutes to edit.

[enjenjo]

wasn't written this way and I don't know where it came from.

It's Fatcat's net nanny. Type the word with spaces between the letters.

[C9]

Net Nanny must be a bashful soul.

Here's another try at the correct sentence:
My f-a-v-o-r-i-t-e car at the car show, he passed us on the way to Hackberry.

[enjenjo]

I could explain it, but then  I would have to kill you.  I have brought it to his attention.

[rumrumm]

Holley electric fuel pumps have a tendency to puke out if you do not run a return line--too much heat. When mine died, I replaced it with a Mallory which does not require a return line. The guys on another site recommended those. Just in case, I built a stainless heat reflector that fits between the pump and the muffler. So far, so good.

[Leon]

C9, sorry I missed you, we went this year after not going since 1997.  We camped at the KOA in Seligman Friday night, it was cold and I think I had a touch of something.  I started to feel something like food poisoning Thursday evening at the campground in Laughlin on the way to the fun run.  Saturday was nice, great weather for a cruise, car ran great, people loved the teardrop.  I even had a couple people talk to me about the 54 Chevy (It looks bad since I've started customizing the body but the drivetrain looks good).  We had to leave Sunday morning to head home so we didn't get to run the final leg of the run, maybe next year.  Was great to meet up with a few people we don't get to see much, including the bunch from the Canadian Rt66 Association.

[C9]

Leon, did you park between the tracks and Route 66 (Andy Devine Blvd)?

There were several Teardrops and tow vehicles parked in the parking lot right behind us.

I was about 4-5 cars south of the British Scout Car on the east side of the street - the side the tracks are on.

Me:



The Scout Car:

[ArizonaBear]

I had to smile when I saw that one pic of Dunton's; I used to work in that exact same building back in 1989 when it was the location of the Mohave County Motor Pool.

So; yes, seeing the above series of pics brings back mostly pleasant memories  

I am presently in the Phx area; but, that may be subject to change.

[phat rat]

Nice story. For those who have never seen the Hackberry Store here's a pic. It's a neat place in a good area for a drive. I take it whenever I out that way.

[Leon]

I was on the corner of 2nd street on the north/west side.  I think those other teardrops were a couple guys from Phoenix that didn't want to pay the entry fee so they parked off the street.