Restomod Racing

As I had stated before, I wanted to get the noise as low as possible.  I made the plates with 3/4″ holes as I had mentioned a few days ago and insterted them between the racing mufflers and the tail pipe.  The end result was disappointing 86 dba at idle (-2 dba).  It was just a sleight improvement over the plate with the 1″ hole placed in the trumpets.  Unfortunately I will have to keep the insert in the trumpet because of the small improvement with the new plates.

Did I mention that all of the measurments were taken from around 13″ from the trumpet at a 45 degree angle?  So I have 4 mufflers and 4 plates with small holes in them.  I guess 86 dba is not bad when compared to the sound level of the racing mufflers only.  Running through the Hooker Maximum Flow mufflers nets me an approximate dba of 100 dba at idle.

One of the commitments I made was to mount the Innovate AF Ratio meter and the boost gauge on the

pillar.  As it has turned out no one makes a gauge pod for the 71 Mustangs….If you know of anyone, let me know!!  I did the next best thing, I purchase some fiberglass and florist inserts.  I carved a dual pod out of the florist inserts and layed fiberglass over it.  Needless to say I spend many hours on it to no avail.  It was not appealing to the eye!

I’ve decided to by a dual pod for a 79 Mustang and see if I can make it work. I sure hope it does…

Its been a couple of months since we discovered that the ABS Actuator on Project Turbo Supra was bad.  The

good news is that Luck was on our side.  It has been determined that the ABS Actuator for this car was on recall so I can get a new one at a substantially lower cost.  The part should be coming in soon with in 4 weeks.

I called the Balance Shop to see how things were going with machine work on Project Cleveland.  I found out

that the engine had not been correctly rebuilt the previous time.  The builder added new pistons but failed to balance the crank assembly.  This caused abnormal wear on the main bearings due to vibration and apparently caused a couple of mains to be out of tolerance.  I have decided to have the block aligned bored to correct the main tolerance.  Also the presence of knocking was apparent based on the abnormal rod bearing wear and the wear in the ring grooves.  Hopefully the machine work will be completed Tuesday.

I completed the tailpipe inserts.  The car is still loud even with the inserts, but the dba at idle is 88 vs 94 before.  At

2000 rpm it is 95 dba vs over 100 before.  I can tell there is major restriction (backpressure), but it has definitly helped reduce the noise level.  My finished product is a 1″ hole choking off my 2.5″ exhaust system.  I placed a plate in front of the 1″ hole to further reduce the sound.

I just came up with a new idea.  My tailpipe is bolted to my racing mufflers.  I will make a plate with a 3/4″ hole and place it between the muffler and tailpipe.  I then will remove the insert that I just installed.  The insert is not pleasing to the eye.

The exhaust on Restomod is much too loud even with four mufflers.  I’ve decided to fabricate an insert for

the tail pipe.  It will be a flat plate with a 1″ hole and be placed in the exhaust trumpet.  It will cause backpressure but my concern right now is to make the car quieter.  When the power is needed, I can always  turn to my trusted electric cut-outs to free up some horsepower.

A few months ago, Shane bought an 89 Turbo Supra.  We found it in Craigs List.  The guy selling the car stated that he had bought it for his son but he didn’t want it.  The guy said he worked for Toyota when he lived in Canada.  The Supra was supposed to be mechanically in great shape.  We test drove it and it seemed good.

On the way home we stopped at a gas station.  We then noticed that the car smelled like the clutch or brake was burning.  We walked around the car but could not identify exactly where the smell came from so we filled her up and continued on our way home.

We continued to notice the smell so we set out to find the source.  As it would turn out, it was the passenger side front brakes locking.  The only way to unlock it is to loosen the brake line and let fluid out.  A guy at Toyota said that the Supra has a recall on the ABS unit located on the passenger side of the engine compartment.  It appears that the valve acts as a one way valve and won’t allow the brake fluid to return to the master cylinder.  I ordered a new ABS unit to see if it will in fact correct this problem.  It will take a few weeks to receive.

I had a long standing problem with Restomod.  She would shut off for no apparent reason.  You’d be driving along and suddenly the engine dies.  What I noticed was that the car electrical seemed to shut off for just a second.  It was enough time to kill the engine.  Over a couple of years the dying became closer and closer.  Last week it would die several times in a couple of miles.  

I finally got tired of it and started to analyze the situation.  It appears that the electrical suddenly shuts off and then restarts.  I looked at all of the wiring that I installed over the years, but all appeared to be good.  I then checked my battery shut off switch (required by NHRA for relocated batteries) and it appeared to be good.  This took a few hours but I could find nothing wrong.  I decided to replace the starter switch although it showed no signs of being bad.

I drove the car around the block a few times and the engine has not shut off.  Hopefully this has resolved the problem.  Time will tell.