72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

Did the annual oil change yesterday. I put 1,150 miles on her since April last year. Five quarts of Castrol GTX 10W40 + a can of STP + 3 ounces of Camshield zinc additive.

Changed the plugs back to the NGKs. It really runs a lot smoother with those NGKs in. I had swapped back to the set of Autolites during the ignition trouble-shooting episode a few months ago but I noticed it runs "different" with the Autolites - it kind of surges at a steady RPM. That doesn't happen with the NGKs.

Took her out for another spin today to test drive the new oil (needed an excuse). I'm beginning to like this thing. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Still fine tuning the tuning: [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

I bought a one step colder set of UR5GP NGK plugs to see how they burn. After 35 years of wrenching I'm still learning about stuff, like how to read the electrode and where the burn mark should be.

Here's the UR4GP, burning a bit too hot, as the flame mark on the electrode is closer to the base than it should be. (Too close to the tip would indicate too cold of a heat range).



And the UR5GP burning the preferred area, halfway up the electrode:



And here is the base ring color with a consistent brownish tone, allegedly indicating proper carb jetting/fuel mixture:



Any tuning gurus out there, feel free to chime in with your opinions!




This looked like an interesting article on plug reading:

http://www.wallaceracing.com/plug-reading-lm.html

[njsteve]

In case anyone is still following this insane thread, I started on a new project - my Gramma Rose's Firebird that we've owned since new:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...019#Post449019

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Had a fun time at the Performance Years Open House yesterday in Hatfield, PA. Great bunch of people there. Hung out with a few Performance Years site members. Here's a shot of their 71 and 70, next to my 72.



Also spent some time with Tom D, and his High Performance Pontiac Magazine crew. They spent a good two hours shooting the T/A at a nearby barn, in the early evening. (You have to shoot a white car either first thing in the morning or the last thing at the end of the day, in order to get the exposure right. Here's a sample shot with my point and shoot camera at about 7:00 PM.



The car performed flawlessly. It was only 45 miles or so, so my son and I drove the leisurely hour to get there. The only stop was to rescue a female box turtle trying to cross Route 202 in PA.

The return trip was fine too. Ended up using a quarter of a tank of gas for about 90 miles of travel. We had the A/C going full blast on the way home. It was definitely a hot and humid day. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]