44 AND COUNTING

In the spirit of friendly awestruck competion (jimSVO--congrats on your impressive stable!), I've decided to post some of the 44 vehicles that led to my screen name on this Forum. Most of these I've wrenched myself, from frame-up and frame-off builds to oil and filter changes: In addition to the aforementioned supercharged V6 Sunbeam Alpine, I've enjoyed 2 (two) low-mileage Citroën SMs. One sparked a LONG narrative on construction, specifically hydraulic and electrical systems; no reposting of that wordiness here. (No interest and no surprise at that!), 27 VW Beetles (I used to co-own a VW woodie kit car company back in the '70s); a lovely Diplomat Blue RR Silver Shadow from the "chrome bumper" era; an '85 Maserati Quattroporte--a real beast, Italian-Argentinian redefinition; several FIATs, two delightful Porsche 356s, an "A" and a "C", both coupes, and the Money Pit Trio, two 914s and a 924. Five 1955 chevy Nomad wagons, from a record-setting G-Stock drag car (my first car ever, in 1968) to a show-winning Coral and Shadow Gray restoration, in 1983. (Take a breath...) Two 1960 Chevy sedan deliveries that were parts runners amd semi-beater 6-cylinder reliables; two '64 Corvairs, of which one was a Monza Turbo COUPE; a pride-and-joy, mint restored '54 Ford Crestiline Skyliner glasstop; a gorgeous one-owner '65 Buick Riviera; one each '49 and '50 Mercury woodies--I love flatheads--and my first Jag, a '99 XJ8L in deep Amaranth purple. Those are all kinds of "highlights" that led to my career in auto design and fabrication, especially exterior design, fabrication amd full-sized clay modeling. I taught this when I established and then headed up the fabrication workshops in a university transportation design program for a dozen year prior to my retirement in 2014. All in the Past... Currently in my garage and on my street in Modena are my Final Selection, because I'm 76 and have cancer (in remission, they say...) are my '08 Maserati Quattroporte GTS--the last and only of the Ferrari-V8'powered sedans, faast and utterly reliable since I purchased it in 2014, and my wife's gorgeous BRG 2003 Jaguar X-Type 5-speed, purchased from the non-smoker OO with 40K miles on it, in 2022. I was not fond of X-Types until I bought my first one in '19 after driving it, and, soon after, selling it because the cigarette stench proved impossible to eradicate. These semi-Jags drive beautifully, are reliable and economical, and as everyone knows, they are Fords with better specs and builds, and lavish leather and burl interiors. Then there is my '06 Jaguar S-Type R in Metallic Red. Its supercharger makes it a bit faster (though a good deal quieter thanks to a stock exhaust system), than either QP. Last purchased is the '89 factory-built Westfield with about 21K that transports me here. if you've made it this far, thanks for sticking it out. Thanks to jimSVO for motibation ( "motibation" is a hybrid of "motivation" and another "m" word that I hesitate to use in an automotive Forum, (though we all should know that playing with cars is merely a sublimation of "the m" practice, with more satisfying and permanent results). Before I finish, can anybody on this Forum tell me why, with all of the implied and actual experience hinted at above, I can't get the 1600cc FF dual DCOE motor in my S7 to fire on more than 1 cylinder, since installing a pricey 123+ electronic Bluetooth distributor? Yeah, new coil, primary and secondary wires, tritium plugs, new blueprinted carbs fuel pump and regulator, to cover the obvious. Full workshop, of course. ANY AND ALL help is appreciated, and thanks to all! (To moderators--do I have to start a new thread on 123+ distributors?

Thanks!

Sorry, guys, for going off topic; didn't realise the etiquette here. Anyway, I said "K&N when I meant "B&M"...

CAUTION: ONLY PARTIAL 7 CONTENT! Twenty-five years ago I built a 2.6 for my Sunbeam Alpine. The only aftermarket parts available back then were cams and pistons. I had the block bored out to 3.0 or thereabouts. My shop was across the parking lot from Ed Isky's son's custom cam shop, so I gave him a core and he ground a custom cam for me. I had another friend who was an engineer who worked in development for Shelby, and he scored me a prototype shorty K&N blower. I machined a 19mm T6 plate to adapt it to a hogged-out stock intake manifold. This was topped with a rejetted 650 Holley. The blower ran at 2X crank speed. A local shop welded up a set of custom headers. Finishing touch was a scratchbuiilt nitrous setup that ran into the intake ports. First time I hit the button it made an unearthly roar and dumped coolant all over the road! Taught me the necessity of copper head gaskets...which I had to scratchbuild, too. Then it was crazy fast for a V6, though I never dynoed it. I wish I had this setup in my Westfield! Next chapter--photos of the faux V12 DOHC cylinder heads and distributor casing that I made with 6 actual and 6 dummy spark plug leads. Everything visible was finished in black wrinkle... The Cologne V6 had to have been one of the UGLIEST motors ever made, hence the cosmetic mods. When I took it to its first outdoor show, the "experts" were crawling all over and under it, scratching their heads. Maybe this was because of the raised aluminum "Isotta Fraschini" script that I inlaid into the cam covers... Stay tuned for more non-7 posts on this topic. I promise no more after this... Pre-digital photo. Sorry for bad quality.

What is a "beater"? Just kidding; former Chicagoan who left after the '78 blizzard and never dealt with another rusty bolt again. (I'm a geezer, so I can brag a bit...)

Just a status update on this install... The Westfield with the stock coil, newly-rebuilt FF head, tweaked 40DCOEs, and old silicone wires (off-brand; came with the car) was a pussycat, I realized. It ran fine, was quick enough to satisfy my street driving needs, and was altogether agreeable with no bad habits but one annoying "feature": At idle (about 900 rpm), it had a "chirp" or "wheeze" that sounded like an old air-cooled VW with a bad valve. I've had tons of experience with these old VWs, and this was irritating. Pulled out the compression gauge and found a warped head. Not bad enough to leak except between cylinder pairs 1-2 and 3-4, hence the teplacement with the blueprinted FF replacement head. Still a bit of an odd exhaust note, but slight improvement in power. So, here the saga of the bluetooth 123 began, as described above. Now everything is happily bedded in and dialed up and having the Iphone app is a gas! It's running new 8mm silicone wires and a new set of Champion FF plugs. Followed directions to a T and it fired right up. Did a tiny bit of conservative tweaking to the centrifugal advance curve (no vac on this one) and have been taking it out for brief spins of 5-10 miles. The car is transformed. It fires right up, no misses or flat spots, and runs right up to 6K rpm as quickly as I can nail the pedal! It really accelerates like never before. There is no more "kitty wheeze" at idle. Indeed, the exhaust sound on acceleration--fairly reasonable in the past--is now a loud ROAR. Note that I have done nothing to the intake except carb dialing-in, and the exhaust tract remains as before the install. I suppose I should chalk this ROAR up to more efficient combustion due to the 123, but it's new to my experience. Does anyone else share this issue?

Everything was set up correctly except I was not getting the green LED. Once I turned the ignition on and rotated the distributor until I got the LED, I had it running in five minutes. In other words, there was no power to the distributor to tell the LED when to light up,

I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to everyone who replied to my query with their helpful himts and experiences! The crux of the matter could be captured in one four letter acronym: RTFM ...which I did, but skimmed over some vital information. Suffice to say that once I realized that the green LED was the key to the entire setup, it was a twenty-minute task to get things set up once I got that LED to light up. Now it's down to the fun of fine-tuning the timing and getting those 40DCOEs to work well with the new electronics, tying the wiring back, and heading for some open Italian lanes. This thing is simply amazing!

I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to everyone who replied to my query with their helpful himts and experiences! The crux of the matter could be captured in one four letter acronym: RTFM ...which I did, but skimmed over some vital information. Suffice to say that once I realized that the green LED was the key to the entire setup, it was a twenty-minute task to get things set up once I got that LED to light up. Now it's down to the fun of fine-tuning the timing and getting those 40DCOEs to work well with the new electronics, tying the wiring back, and heading for some open Italian lanes. This thing is simply amazing!

This greenbLED thing seems to be the key to static timing pre-loading any software. If so, I will begin again from the very beginning...Thanks!

In the installation manual, they instruct you to rotate the didtributor body until a green LED shows through one of the slots on the rotor plate. This never happened no matter what I did, so I proceeded with the installation without this step.

This may be my sticking point--the ignition curve! How do I load it? I thought the engine has to be running in order to load the curve? Yes, I've got the app loaded on my iPhone 11 with its latest software. Sounds like this could be my hangup? Thanks very much gor your reply!

I'm having a world of issues with the installation of this unit. I have lots of practical experience (55 years...) and a machine shop, but I'm obviously missing something here. New 8mm silicone wires, correct firing order, timing light, strong spark. Everything done according to the manual. It's not 180 degrees out. I never got the green LED on installation, BTW. 1600 crossflow, twin 40 DCOEs, FF head and valves. Ran well before I swapped distributors. Now it just randomly backfires. Repositioned wires in cap. At TDC the rotor is at 1:00 pm. Tried twisting the distributor back and forth a few degrees each way at a time; just random backfiring. Old distributor had centrifugal advance only. This one seems to have a brass fitting which could be a vac port? Should this be blocked? Completely puzzled right now. Factory website is no help...