Center court at RTC

Early in the morning, SL and I headed out to E@RTC. This was my first drive with working catalytic converters and I was anxious to know if they worked to reduce the exhaust smell. I'm happy to report that they do seem to work. SL drove behind me in his 360 and he said that the stinky smell was gone. Hurray -- just what I was after.

However, having operational cats brought on another problem. Every now and again under acceleration, the 1-4 bank slow down light comes on. When I back off the throttle, the light goes out. I seems like some unburnt fuel is passing through one of the cats and it's getting too hot. I'll need to do some work to figure out what's happening here.

Today was a special event at E@RTC. We were expecting a Bugatti Veyron and a Lexus LFA. Sunny Saturday and center court at RTC means lots of cars and people. We were at one end of the road with Ferraris on one side and Lamborghinis on the other. As VT said, "boys on one side, girls on the other." I'll let you decide which is which. We set a record too at over 250 cars.



Here it is, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport



Here's something most people have never seen before -- a Lexus LF-A. I must say, I was not terribly impressed. I mean, it looks like any other Japanese sports car. And really, who would pay $378K for a Japanese sports car? For that money, you could get two Ferrari 458s.



This is unusual. It's a replica vintage Ferrari race car. I don't know what's under the hood, but if the clear hood bubble covering the 8 Weber carburetor throats were any indication, I'd say it was a Ferrari 250 V12. I heard a rumor that it was for sale for about $200K.



Here's something truly rare. A 1957 Aston Martin DBR2, chassis number 2. Only 2 of these were ever made and this one belongs to Greg Whitten.



There were lots of other cool and unusual cars including a 1960s Ford GT40 and other old race cars. Here is something that caught my eye. I actually have no idea what it is, but it's very cool. It's got an air suspension and when parked, it sits right on the ground and you can't even see the wheels. I wandered over just as the owner was about to leave and saw the car rise up a few inches, then float away.

Catalytic converters -- part 2

I thought that I was done with one catalytic converter. I was wrong. When I fitted it to the car, I realized that the threaded nipple for the thermocouple was in the wrong place. Because space is really tight at the back of the car, the cat had to be installed at a very specific orientation. Turns out I welded in the fitting 120 degrees from where it needed to be. Oops. I wish I would have realized this before welding it in place. I well, out with the grinder to make a small modification. I cut the fitting back out and put in the correct place. I then had to weld a patch to fill in the old hole. My welds are no stacks of dimes, but I think they'll do.



Here's how the new cat looks compared with the old. Because the new cats are oval, and the old one offset, the main challenge is how to orient the new ones so nothing touches anything else.



Here's the dry fit that I should have done earlier. It fits pretty well so on to cat #2.



Doing the work on the other converter was pretty straightforward. However, I had to be much more careful with the orientation to make sure everything fits.



After a bit of final welding, new exhaust donuts and tightening bolts 1/8th turn at a time, everything was back together. I started the car and the first thing I notice is that the exhaust note is different. The car used to have a really deep rumble at idle and now it's not quite as deep. Just as I'm about to head out for a test drive, it started to rain. Guess my drive down to E@RTC will be the test drive.

Mission: Eliminate the Stink

My mission, whether I choose to accept it or not, is to try and reduce the rich exhaust smell. I realized that while I love driving this car, I don't really love the smell from the tailpipe. That rich exhaust smell wafts up from the back and just gets into everything. After a drive, my clothes and hair smell like exhaust. I think this is part of the reason TK doesn't really like to ride in the 308.

So, how to get rid of the smell? I figured I can start with the catalytic converters. Rather, my lack of cats. That's not entirely true -- my cats are still there but they just don't work. Somewhere in the past, they've been hollowed out rendering them useless as a catalyst device. Putting in some cats that actually work should help.

The OEM cats are NLA so I have two remaining choices. There's a company called Hyperflow that makes high performance direct replacements. However, these are REALLY expensive ($800 EACH!) The other option is to get some universal cats that are about the same size as the originals (less than $100 each). I can't justify spending almost $2000 on cats so needless to say, I chose door #2.

Here's my starting point. I got two Magnaflow 94103 stainless steel universal cats. These are pretty close to the same size as the originals, although they are oval vs the original offset egg-shape.



I started by building a jig out of wood and bolting the original cat to it. This would ensure proper alignment of the flanges on the new cat.



My plan was to cut off the original flanges and weld them on to the Magnaflow. I also had to cut out and weld in the threaded nipple where the "slow down" thermocouple attaches.



Next came the chop saw to cut off the original flanges.



Lots of grinding was needed to remove the excess metal around the thermocouple nipple.



I had marked on the jig the location of the nipple on the OEM cat. I transferred my marks to the new cat and drilled a 1/2" hole to accept the nipple.



Ok, looking good so far. Here's the Magnaflow bolted up in the jig with the old flanges. This model has an 1 3/4" inlet and outlet, which happens to be exactly the right diameter. The old flanges slide perfectly inside the Magnaflow pipe. All I had to do was to trim off about 1/2" off the length.



After some welding, here is the final product. I have one day left to get the other cat cut and welded and the exhaust put back together in time for E@RTC on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll make it!

Over a month of updates

Shame on me. I've been driving the 308 for over a month with no blog posts. 30 lashes with a wet noodle. We had a string of sunny weekends (which ended last Sunday) and I've been able to get out and about. I haven't had much of a chance to do any long drives so it's been mainly a few hours a week at E@RTC. Here's a brief photo diary.

April 22nd, All Italian Car Show at the XXX Root Beer Drive-in. Weather started off cool and cloudy with not a lot of cars in the early morning. However, by late morning the sun came out and so did the people and cars.

An old Fiat 500 next the the new Fiat 500. I had never seen an old 500 before and this was pretty cool. It's amazing how much the new 500 looks like the old 500.

Old Jaguars at E@RTC

Maserati Merak SS

Citroën 2CV with a roll top. I had no idea they only had three lug-nuts per wheel!

Here is a car I saw for sale locally a while back. The it's got the most unusual color combo I've seen on a 308. The outside is called Chiaro Verde and the inside is beige with red carpet. I can't say I'm too fond of the color, but no denying that it's very unusual.

Early 1970s Saab Sonnet III. What the heck is that? I've never heard of this car. With a V4 engine too!

Yeah! 1957 Cadillac convertible with a fairly young guy driving it. This thing is so big you can play half-court basketball on the trunk.

Ahhhh, one of my favorite cars of all time -- a Ferrari F40. I've seen several of these in collections and shops, but this is the first time I've seen one "out in the wild." The owner (who has an Enzo and a 599 GTO among others) was good enough to bring it out so we could drool over it.

KTM's reply to the Ariel Atom -- The KTM X-bow

Have an extra $110K laying around? How about this electric Fisker Karma? Check out the solar cells built in to the roof panel.

Porsche 356 racer

The obligatory shot of me in "Ferrari Row"

Series I Lotus Esprit

Finally, me coming back from the local propane distributor to get my propane bottle re-certified. Who knew that they needed re-certification after 12 years?

Now where did I put those keys?

Where else would I put the keys to my Ferrari 308? Why, on my Ferrari 308 key holder of course! There's an interesting story to this key holder. An FChatter was looking for a Ferrari key holder a while back. He couldn't find one, so he made do with some other key holder. In the meanwhile, his wife contacted a guy who made these things and convinced him to make a "Magnum P.I." key holder. Now the 308 holder is part of his inventory, all thanks to this FChatter's wife. It's been available since last year, but somehow I never got around to ordering one until now.



My first impression was holy smokes, this thing is huge! It's much larger than other key holders we have and bigger than I expected. The guy who makes and sells them is jd-knight on eBay. They come up for sale every now and again. A perfect gift for any 308 enthusiast!

The old "wet paper to remove the pilot bearing" trick

Back in March of 2010 (2 years ago!) when I replaced my clutch, I had a tough time removing the pilot bearing. I tried the grease trick, but all it did was make a big mess. I ended up using a puller to get the bearing out. I had hear after the fact that a pilot bearing can be removed using a punch and some wet paper. Well, I finally had the chance to try it out. I'm getting ready to put the SBC back in my GMC pickup and I needed to replace the pilot bushing before putting the new clutch on.



First, I shredded some newspaper and soaked it in warm water. I stuffed some in the pilot hole and used a piece of rebar (which was about the right size) as a punch. I alternated between hammering on the rebar and pushing more paper into the hole. Amazingly, it was working! I could feel the bushing get pushed out of the crankshaft hole. After what seemed like a lot of paper, the bushing fell out. Wow! I'd seen this done in a Youtube video, but now I'm a true believer.

On to more electrical stuff

Ok, on to some other small things I've been meaning to do. In the 308 dash panel, there are warning lights at each corner. These lights are in black plastic holders that are held on by plastic tabs. Over time, the plastic tabs get weak and can't hold the lights in the dash panel. All four of my lights were like this. I wrapped electrical tape around them, but it didn't really work that well. I found out that fellow F-chatter "sigmacars" owns a plastic molding company in Canada and he is reproducing these. They are exact duplicates of the original and they are cheap. So cheap that I bought a bunch of them in case I broke a few.



Installation is a breeze. Pull the old light holder out, pop out the colored lens and put the lens in the new holder. Reinstall the light holder and voila! Warning lights that actually stay in the dash!



Now that the weather is getting better and I'll be driving more, I decided I should finally install my keyless entry so I have a way to lock and unlock the car. As you'll recall, my original system flaked out and I bought a new Spal door lock kit and Viper keyless entry system. I installed the door locks a few months ago, but I didn't have a chance to put the keyless in yet. As it turns out, the Viper was a dud. The system is supposed to produce a negative pulse along one of two wires to trigger the power locks to lock/unlock. I bench tested the system and got no negative pulse. After futzing with it for a while, I tossed it aside and went back to my original Commando keyless entry system. It actually works fine with the Spal power door locks. Hurrah, now I can lock and unlock the car without using the key. Yes, the key does work, but not very well and I only want to use it as a backup in case the keyless fails.



After hooking everything up, I checked my current drain again. With the ignition off, my sources of drain are the clock, the stereo memory, power door locks and keyless entry. These add up to 28.6mA . It's a little more than my target of 25mA, but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Come on Sun, I know you're out there!

After being rained out for 6 consecutive weekends, we finally had our season opener of E@RTC two weeks ago. It was still overcast and darned cold in the morning but when the sun came out, it was glorious. What a turnout too! At one point, the organizers counted 180 cars, the most for a season opener. They reconfigured the parking as well so most of the cars are closer to the shopping area. I think they figure that people will show up early to see the cars, then stay to shop before leaving. Seems like a win-win for the gather and the shopping center.



There was a strong showing of 308s -- 4 total and a 328. Not in this photo was a late-comer '77 US model. I spent a lot of time talking to the owner as I had never seen a '77. It was a GTB which made it even cooler. I really like digging into the little details that change throughout the years and I learned a lot about the '77s.



I spent so much time hanging out on the Ferrari section and didn't get much of a chance to see the other cars. However, I did get to see 2 things many car guys have NEVER seen. How about a bright yellow Vector M12? Only 18 ever made (and one of them was recently destroyed in a fire).



Not impressed? How about a McLaren MP4-12C? That's some 627hp V12 goodness right there.



At the event, my buddy SM was getting a group together to go for a little drive. I had other things to do around the farm, but darn it, I needed to drive! GM, the owner of the Giallo Fly (that's yellow to normal folk) 308 decided to come along as well.



Turns out that this was a Ford Mustang crowd. We had 7 Mustangs of all years, 1 Chrysler 300, 2 308s and a Maserati. It was wonderful spending the rest of the day driving around in the North Cascades.

Last Saturday was rained out, but this weekend is looking ok. More sun! Less rain!

March is almost over

Yes folks, March is almost over and guess what? I haven't been able to drive my car since the middle of February! We've had wet weekends for the last 6 weeks! No longer though. The forecast for tomorrow is partly sunny and 57 degrees. E@RTC was supposed to start a month ago but has been rained out this whole time. People have been chomping at the bit to drive so we should have a great turnout tomorrow for the E@RTC season opener.

Ok, so some of you may be asking, "what about the replacement for the diaper?" We, I'm ashamed to say...not much. Because my fiberglass mold was not that good (not to mention my fiberglassing skills), I ended up with a pretty rough part that needed lots of finish work. I'd say it's about 60% done. Since my last post, I've been on holiday for two weeks and I've been working on trying to get my Chevy 307 V8 back together and in my pickup truck.



All things in due time I guess. I do need to get this engine done so the diaper will have to wait. Even though I don't want to, I will most likely put the original diaper back on for the drive tomorrow.

Getting rid of that darned diaper

A few days ago, I found out that the 2012 season of E@RTC begins this Saturday. Great, but as of today, there's 70% chance of rain. Somehow I doubt that it will happen.

As I was thinking about detailing my car, my thoughts turned to the ugly, rusted, dented piece of metal surrounding the exhaust under the rear bumper -- the thing affectionately known on US 308s as "the diaper." People call it that because that's exactly what it looks like -- a saggy, low hanging diaper. On US cars, there's a lot to hide back there. There are 2 catalytic converters and the massive OEM thermo-reactive exhaust. The diaper is an equally massive piece of vented sheet metal to cover up everything. Euro-spec cars didn't need the cats and thermo exhaust and therefore had less bulk to cover. They had a svelt rear valance under the bumper and gave the rear of the car a nice clean look. On the other hand, the rear of the US cars all look like a baby that had just taken a big dump.

The Stebro exhaust was a lot smaller and lighter than OEM, plus it was stainless steel and could be polished. I decided to try and replace the diaper with something smaller and more euro looking



Here's my starting point with the diaper removed. The Stebro doesn't hang that low and i'm going to a panel to cover just the top half of the exhaust and fill in the space under the rear bumper.



I mocked up my panel using cardboard. It's secured to the car using the same mounting holes as the diaper. The new panel will come down from the rear bumper to about the centerline of the exhaust tips and wrap around on the sides to blend in to the underside louvered panels behind the rear wheels. This leaves the bottom of the exhaust exposed and will look really nice when I polish the stainless. A little bling in the back, but not too much. I also added a "mail slot" to break up the solid part of the panel. I think this looks pretty good for a mock-up.



A metal panel would have been good, but I'm not exactly experienced nor set up with the right tooling to do this in metal so I decided to do it in fiberglass. I transferred my cardboard template to a piece of wood, then used a router to cut down the openings for the slot and the tailpipe openings. I didn't have any mold release compound, so I used candle wax and smeared it all over the wood. This is a shot after three layers of fiberglass. When it hardened, I was able to pop it off the wood without damage. After some filler to smooth off the surface, I'll trim this piece to fit then start working on the side pieces.

58 degree weekend in February!

January was rough. In the middle of the month, old man winter hit us hard. We had a storm that basically shut down the region. Power outages, trees down huge piles of snow. Fortunately, snow like that usually doesn't stick around very long and I was glad to see it go.



Back to my carb adjustments (still). I tried different screwdrivers to get to the idle adjustment screw for the right front carb, but I couldn't find something to work. My buddy SL had a great idea -- take something like a welding rod and just flatten the end into blade. I didn't have any welding rod, but I did have some 1/4" all-thread rod. A few minutes with a ball peen hammer and file and voila! A long thin screwdriver.



It works amazingly well. As you can see, that screw is waaaaay in there and is barely visible. I had to wait, but this was finally the day to take to the road and dial in the idle mixture.



The 308's been sitting a while and I foolishly disconnected my batter tender. The battery didn't quite have enough juice so I needed to use the booster to start the engine. As it turns out, I made the idle mixture a little too lean and it was really hard to start. After making the mixture a little richer, the engine fired right up.

What a great day for a drive. I didn't really have a destination in mind, so I just drove North with the snow covered North Cascades in the distance. After the engine oil was up to temperature, I was able to put my foot to the firewall and let the engine wail. It did stumble just a bit so I made a stop in a parking lot to richen the mixture a little more. The engine runs great now, although I don't know if all my tinkering actually had any affect. The exhaust is still a bit smelly, but it does seem a little better than before. Winter's almost over so I guess I'll need to put off the other projects like suspension bushings until next Winter. Let the driving season begin!