Accidental SVO

[dynoguy]

This is the story of my 86 SVO.
The car is the Accidental SVO because I accidentally bought it when I was visiting another shop in town. I popped in to the shop next door while I was there and well ... you know. Come to think of it there was also an accident in my truck that helped shape the project too. More on that later. I got it so cheap I'm embarrassed to tell you. Then the DMV decided to crap on my parade .

Now I have this SVO and I have to figure out what to do with it. I spent the afternoon troubleshooting the no start condition and had it running by the end of the day. Good so far. The test drive didn't go so well. There were all kinds of weird problems with this thing. I spent the next year and a half discovering a multitude of problems, at least half related to the previous owners mad wiring skills.100 ft of wire, 2 weak fuel pumps, a misguided electronic boost controller install and a box full of crap pulled off the car later, I had something to work with.

Once I sorted out the issues I started driving the thing on weekends and to work on the odd Friday. Everybody thought it odd that the 40 something year old dyno tuner guy was driving an old 4 cyl. My thought on that is "any dumbass can make 400 horsepower with a V8". I had it running pretty well and started carving up the back roads between Clayton and Brentwood. This was a lot of fun. I started making this drive at 6 am on Sundays to get a clear track..er road. I should have realized I was getting out of control when I started taking the 35 mph turns in 4th gear. Needless to say I had a real close call. Turns out at 45 years old I was still too immature to be driving this thing on the street. It was time to go back to the racetrack. After my wife got done rolling her eyes, I took it to a track day at Thunderhill.

The car ran pretty well. Turns out the suspension had been worked over by Maier Racing down in Hayward back in the day. It came with 800lb springs up front, 325lb out back with Koni yellows. Yes it was a bit rough on the street! The stock brakes completely sucked of course. After a few hard laps I had to cruise for a lap to cool them off, so all the guys i worked so hard to pass just cruised right on by. On the way home the car just didn't feel right. Just before getting on Interstate 5 for the 100 mile trip home I decided to pull over. The right front brake was stuck and the wheel was smoking hot. I pulled into Walmart and wandered around for an hour while it cooled off. Then I pulled it apart and beat the ever loving crap out of the caliper while squeezing the piston with a huge pair of Channel locks. No problem, just drive the 100 miles home with the e brake.

to be continued after I read the rules for posting images...

Chris

[86svo9l]

Sounds like an adventure! Time to get some new calipers and get that thing back on the track, most likely that caliper along with a few other issues could be causing the bad braking. The rear calipers can be real bastards if the car sat for any amount of time.

Post them pics up!

[Gyrhead]

Stay away from the stock Phenolic (plastic Bakelite) caliper pistons. Spring for the SS ones. I know Cardone rebuilds them and I've had decent luck with the. P/Ns 184151S and 184150S $23 each

[8T6 SVO]

Your not to far from me - back in the day, the only dyno tuner was in Walnut Creek. You know - a recurve of the distributor, rejetting the carb, etc.

I know the Clayton to Brentwood roads well...I'm from the east bay originally and am close? to your age. I have a hard time letting my foot up too - which is why I finally got traction control.

Keep up the stories and you might want to hook up with Bob Holmes (Mr. blow it up, turbo 4, bad boy) at Thunderhill.

[dynoguy]

Your not to far from me - back in the day, the only dyno tuner was in Walnut Creek. You know - a recurve of the distributor, rejetting the carb, etc.

I know the Clayton to Brentwood roads well...I'm from the east bay originally and am close? to your age. I have a hard time letting my foot up too - which is why I finally got traction control.

Keep up the stories and you might want to hook up with Bob Holmes (Mr. blow it up, turbo 4, bad boy) at Thunderhill.

I think it was called Reese's Supertune. I'm hoping to see Bob run at T Hill some day. I'll bet he does too!

Made some progress on the car today, Hope to update later.

Chris

[dynoguy]

So here is the car a while after I bought it. It doesn't look this good in person, its a true 30ft special.

4-3-2011 044.JPG4-3-2011 045.JPG

Its up on the scales in these pictures. Here are the readings with 1/2 tank of gas. scale resixe.jpg
Just about as advertised. The car came with a Spearco FMIC and a Blitz BOV.

...

[dynoguy]

After the brake incident I did in fact get the rebuilt calipers with the steel pistons. Put in some Hawk HPS pads and new hoses too. Flushed out the brake fluid with some good stuff as well. The brakes performed better but still not up to snuff.
SVO track 12-small.jpgSVO track 9.jpgHere are some shots from Thunderhill up in Willows CA. If you are not familiar it is a 3 mile road course owned by the Nor Cal SCCA. This track is fast, fun and doesn't have much to run into.

I had been having some oil leak issues so I put a check valve in the PCV system with good results. Car was fun but no where near fast enough to run with the "A" group (of course I'm probably not either).

I continued to tinker and even put on some full length sub frame connectors. As I pulled up the carpet prior to welding them in I discovered that the floor was already cracked by the driver seat. Speaking of the seat I sectioned the seat tracks about an inch at this time to get my helmet off the roof. I'm 6'4" tall. The car felt different with the sub frames connected. In fact I can see in the pictures about a degree more positive camber now that the chassis isn't as flexible .

This gets us fairly current. Next I decided that weight removal is the most affordable way to reduce lap times (well the easy stuff anyway). I pulled off the front bumper with the intention of making a new one out of aluminum channel. After doing some fab work at the shop one day I just happened to have a plasma cutter in my hand ... I laid out and cut a number of rectangular windows in the bumper. This resulted in an 11 pound reduction. It came out nice. In fact its still plenty strong enough to run on the street. Sorry but I can't find a picture of the bumper. I'll take a new pic soon.
Svo step 1.jpgNose off for bumper reduction surgery. This is just about the time scope creep sets in.

As you may know during the holiday season Maximum Motorsports has a "deal of the day promotion". A certain part will be 20% or so off that day.
Here is the funny part. I can buy there stuff at wholesale any day of the year but I got caught up in the damn deal of the day. Its like a REALLY expensive game of Bingo. I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one who has drunk the Kool Aid on this deal.

more to come

Chris

[86svo9l]

Looks better than most SVO's I have seen, a new set of headlights and markers can go a long way in the looks department. Plus you are using it for its purpose. Good luck on all the upgrades and don't let scope creep take over this project.

[TheSVOTrust]

1979/80 Turbo Mustang Front Bumper support is all Alum.

Mark

[Gyrhead]

1979/80 Turbo Mustang Front Bumper support is all Alum.

Mark

Mark, if you can find em'. I use the Aero Mustang fiberglass ones. They're pretty light and by the time you get done butchering it up to make it fit the fascia, it's a lot lighter. If you do, wear gloves. Ask me how I know.

[dynoguy]

Mark, if you can find em'. I use the Aero Mustang fiberglass ones. They're pretty light and by the time you get done butchering it up to make it fit the fascia, it's a lot lighter. If you do, wear gloves. Ask me how I know.

I know about the Aluminum bumpers. That is where I got the idea for the aluminum channel. I know how fun bare fiberglass is - no thanks. For this round of mods the cut version will do fine.

This past weekend some progress was made. Saturday I unplugged the video games and got my 9 year old out in the garage to help pull the engine.

dad & jackson pull engine.jpg leaving us with this no engine.jpg




On to Sunday I removed this stock k member.jpg to put in this MM k member-1.jpg

Maximum Motorsports claims a 38lb weight loss from their k member and control arms. I measured exactly 40lbs difference on my scale. The other interesting thing I found was the front struts. They were Koni Orange but have been modified by ProParts. They now have a valve on the bottom.
I'll have to do a little research on these. I've already purchased the MM struts, coil over kits, 450 lb springs, caster/camber plates and LCA's for the car. I'm going with 3/4 forward for the time being. I need to trade my 94-95 spindles for some 96 + and I'm ready. At this juncture I need to make some decisions about how much time and effort and $ to pretty up the engine bay.

Sure have a bunch of old parts to trip over now. Just what I need more stuff in the garage.



Thats about it for now. Today I had to go to work to tune up Bubba's 47 Ford for Hot August Nights. Bubba's car below.

bubbas motor 1.jpg bubbas motor 2.jpg

Bubba (yes his real name) had some high rpm fuel pressure issues so we stopped playing at 398 hp @ 5,000. Not bad for 10 psi on 7.5:1 compression.

Chris

[Bob Holmes]

Nice. As my buddy John Beck always says "Chicks dig blowers."

[dynoguy]

Nice. As my buddy John Beck always says "Chicks dig blowers."

Yes but the chicks didn't have to calibrate the dual Edelbrock carbs. Once past the Chevy in a Ford thing, I rather enjoyed it.

Chris

[8T6 SVO]

I think it was called Reese's Supertune. I'm hoping to see Bob run at T Hill some day. I'll bet he does too!

Made some progress on the car today, Hope to update later.

Chris

Yeah - Reese's Supertune - WOW - that was 30 years ago. I had a "Tri-Valley Machine" built, 289 shelby race motor with a ultradyne solid cam and he told me to "get rid of the cam". In a 75 Mustang II - the thing flew.

Nice to see that you're drinking the 2.3 kool aid. Keep it up and keep the pictures coming.

Greg

[dynoguy]

Greg,

Tri Valley is still there. We just had them re bush some spindles for a king pin job. They built many many hotrod motors back in the day.

I should have a short update soon. Family stuff is preventing much work this weekend. I hope to get some clean up done in the engine bay and then start seam welding the front rails and strut towers soon. I'm still going back and forth on the amount of cosmetic work to do in the engine bay. Also need to fit the MM K member and see how muck work its going to be to set the engine back a couple inches.

Chris

[MikeFleming]

Maximum Motorsports claims a 38lb weight loss from their k member and control arms. I measured exactly 40lbs difference on my scale.

That's very interesting as the stock k-frame only weights 50 Lbs by itself. For me the MM frame with the rear brace, was 18 Lbs less than the stock SVO K-frame. There is more weight loss in the MM a-arms though.

I'm going with 3/4 forward for the time being.

You know that the MM k-frame will move the a-arms )axle end point) forwards by 3/4" with the zero-offset arms, Yes? Adding the MM 3/4" offset a-arms to the MM frame moves the axle centerline forwards by 1.5" - you will have fender clearance issues with that.

Just be sure you plan for it.

[dynoguy]

Mike,

Doh forgot the brace.

I weighed the stocker complete with A arms (and a pound or to of dirt, grease and grime). I weighed the MM with the A arms on laying top. This was on a bathroom scale at home not a exactly a highly accurate piece. I'll have to truck all the parts including struts and springs down to the shop one day for a precise measurement of the whole set up.

Good point on the A arms. I made very sure to specify 3/4 total offset when I ordered the parts.

Chris

[dynoguy]

Sorry for the lack of progress guys. Almost out of the blue it appears that I may be moving soon.
God thinks its hilarious when we make plans...

Chris

[Bob Holmes]

God thinks its hilarious when we make plans...

I've come to the same conclusion.

[fess40]

Amen brother!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2