Posted by Dave Horvath [76.125.248.166] on Saturday, September 14, 2013 at 21:52:07 :
Traveled 80 miles round trip to see John S. in Uniontown today. Truck performed flawlessly at interstate speeds with the 318 poly with high-end performance cam, 4.89 gears and Michelin 11.00 R 16 XZLs with stainless beads. Ran about 2400-2800rpms at 60 mph plus. Climbed the mountains with ease. Very smooth.
Still working out some details. Springs were redone but are overloaded to the point of being flat by the weight of the V8 and flatbed. Uniontown Auto Spring can make a new set, but not anytime soon since they are all backed up with trucks supporting the shale gas boom in our area.
Truck feels tail heavy and nose light. Steering wanders a bit on local roads. Will see how it does after redoing the springs to restore ride height before seeing if it needs shims to add positive caster.
Truck has been really hard to start after sitting for a few days. Nearly wears the battery down. I removed the fuel filter between the tank and the pump in case that was restricting flow. Made no difference.
John and I checked the accelerator pump. It's fine, putting out a nice stream of fuel when throttle is activated. We found the choke wasn't closing all the way. I bent the fast idle cam rod and checked the choke plate position with a drill bit according to the shop manual. Also adjusted the automatic choke spring and rod to halfway between the lean and rich positions. We'll see if that does the trick.
Radiator cap was leaking when hot. The top of the filler neck was not flat so the cap couldn't seal. John showed me a trick for lapping the surface with sandpaper stuck to a piece of flat glass. We sanded the filler neck to a nice flat surface and now no more leaking at the cap. I think I need to add an overflow tank, since it's losing coolant when hot.
Over 400 miles on the engine and the Brad Penn break-in oil still looks new. A tribute to Dan Mininger's rebuild.
Truck gets a whole lot of attention everywhere I go. So far, only one person has said "Nice Jeep"! Life is good.
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