Brutus 1982 Chevy Van Click here to see the best 1/4 mile run so far, recorded with my G-Tech Pro RR. |
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This is our hauling-vehicle. If we need to move something we put it in/on/under/hanging out of/whatever this van. It's also quite fast and comfortable as a people carrier, although it has only 3 seats. Recently I've mounted a trailer-hitch, so I can move even more (and different) stuff with it. |
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For some reason I've never taken any pictures of my engine, that's why my engine looks like a small red X <LOL> I've killed the old engine, which wasn't the original one to begin with. I forgot to add oil every once in a while, and my oil-pressure warning light had died on me as well. I was having a lonely christmas eve, I can tell you that much. If I had a book of matches, it would have been a nice bonfire. I had to buy another van to tow this one to my workshop, in which it waited for a year and a half, allowing me to find an engine and new exhaust system (you can find out more about that later). I bought an engine from a salvage yard, depending on luck, 'cause the previous owner had never heard it run.. But if you read more stories on this site you would know by now that buying stuff without seeing it first brought me some good stuff, and this engine was no exception. The only warranty that came with it was that it would not be an 'oil factory' . It wasn't , and I'm happy to tell you it runs better than the previous one. |
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I wanted a new exhaust to match my new clean engine, so I ordered a standard Flowmaster ™
kit for an A-body Chevy, except for the mufflers, which should be 40-series, but I wanted less exhaust noise in normal operation so I opted for
50-series.
I also wanted to be able to drive with the sound of open headers, so I bought some cut-outs that are now shut of by a blinding plate, but will be made
operable from inside the vehicle. I will probably have to build some valves myself, because I think the electrical cut-out-valves are too slow. I had bought some headers from some guy on the internet, but when we tried to mount them we noted that the cut-outs were going to hit the rear transmission mount. We decided the best way to prevent this would be to cut out (pun intended) the shape of the cut-out, and re-enforce it with new metal. All is now as it should be: quite silent in normal operation, loud if it needs to be and always unmistakably a big V8. Because my car uses LPG as it's food, and because the previous owner choose a specific type of mixer, I used an open aircleaner sitting on top of the engine. This is not what I wanted, because the engine-compartment of a van is very hot, so I bought an air-filter cover that now sucks it's air from the front of the car. It improves performance and cancels noise inside the car. Another thing I did to reduce inside noise is installing side-window deflector. These work fine as well. |
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Now my car sounds the way I like it, but I had one litle thing that bugged me: it had somewhat of a scratching sound while cornering slowly.
This worried me a bit, since maintenance is something I don't worry about too much :) this killed my engine remember... So I had a quick look at my front wheel bearings and, while my head was down there anyway, at my brakepads. Everything was worn down to inacceptable except for the disks (I thought), but after a quick measurement, I found out the previous owner had had them smoothed out but the disks were 4 mils too thin. So I bought everything new and cleaned the spindle, packed the bearings in grease and put it all back together. Now all strange noises are gone, except when G-Ice is my co-pilot <VBG>. |
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It once was in use as a taxi, but i do not know where. I bought this car from a fellow car-enthusiast who lives in my village and took reasonably good care of the van. |
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