July 2019 – Pat's Car Blog

Posted on July 30, 2019February 28, 2022 by patman

Keeping it Cool

I decided to get a new radiator and avoid the drama. After some research, I settled on a Cold Case radiator. It’s a stock fit bolt- in replacement with a lot more capacity.

It’s a two row core, but the tubes are very wide, so it has a lot of surface area.

Out with the old one core:

…and in with the new. Fit is good, it bolted up to the stock mount points on the radiator support.

My only slight criticism is that the brackets were about 3/8” deeper than they needed to be, so the radiator body was a bit closer to the firewall than I’d expected. This caused a misalignment at the shroud mount bracket. Not a big deal since drilling a second mount hole isn’t too difficult, but it may matter to other people.

I also got the CORRECT temp sender to work with the idiot light.

I am waiting on the new power steering pump before I do the final assembly.

Posted on July 18, 2019February 28, 2022 by patman

Power steering

My last classic car had manual steering…and at the time I wished I had power steering. Now I have power steering, and kinda wish I didn’t.

The problem is that the pump is leaking for some reason. The fluid level was very low, so I put in almost a pint of fluid. The next day there was a giant puddle of something under the front of the car. You guessed it, nearly a pint of power steering fluid.

Part of the problem seems to be that the engine has a mix of 68 (short water pump) and 69 (long water pump) accessories and brackets. For the pump, it looks like it’s a 68 bracket with some spacers and washers added to make the pulleys line up. That’s not a great plan.

The pump is leaking from the mounting hole on the back of the reservoir. (Next to the ‘notice’ sticker.) I’m not sure, but it looks like there’s a boss inside the reservoir, and an o-ring between it and the sheetmetal of the reservoir. Fill it up above that, and it leaks out there. Not a great design.

The trick now is to figure out the combination of pump and brackets that will work.

Posted on July 7, 2019February 28, 2022 by patman

Made it to the show!

After the ‘overheating’ fiasco, I decided to risk it, and we went to the show at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, NH. It was a decent turnout, probably 200 cars. Oddly…we were the only 1st gen Camaro there. In fact, the only other Camaros in attendance were a 79 Z28, and a 2018. There was a 69 Firebird, and a 73 also, but that was it for F body cars.

Posted on July 6, 2019July 12, 2019 by patman

Still overheating…sorta

The engine in the 68 is a 73 350. The wiring needed some work, and when I got the temp light hooked up, it came on after a few minutes of running.

I figured out that the sender was for a gauge, not an idiot light, so that’s why the light would show dim, and gradually get brighter. I hit the local NAPA and asked for a new sender for an idiot light, and a new thermostat…but the light still came on.

There’s a show on the 6th I wanted to make (castle in the clouds, moultonborough) so I wanted to solve the overheating before then.

Next up on the hitlist was a new water pump. I mail ordered a new one and a few other bits. The parts arrived on the 1st.

I stripped the front of the engine down on the 2nd to discover I’d mail ordered a short pump by mistake. I called NAPA on the 3rd and they said the long pump wasn’t in stock, but they’d have it by 3pm. My wife stopped by at 3:45…to find a sign in the window saying they closed early at 3pm, and would be closed on the 4th.

A 45 minute drive to the nearest place that was open got me a pump. I spent a few hours on the 4th pulling the rest of it, including pulling the dampener and putting a sleeve on, and a new front seal in the timing cover to (hopefully) cure an oil leak. Then it was clean/paint/reassemble with the new water pump, and wait for the rtv to cure.