Advice opinions please

[AndrewA]

Haven't sorted the heater box yet, but had her on rolling road yesterday mainly because I wanted to get carb and timing set up spot on.
These guys plumbed in a lambda sensor rather than just the pipe up the exhaust and identified and fixed a number of issues - leak from gasket where carb meets inlet manifold - replaced with insulator gasket- slightly bunged up vacuum hose (replaced) - followed by much twiddling of distributor, different metering rods and so on until we reached as good as it was going to get.
Car is now running much sweeter/smoother and has more get up and go and appears to be more economical.
For those that are interested in the numbers, she made 165 bhp at 4,300 revs at 94 mph and 255 ft lbs of torque at 2000 rpm all at the wheels.
Next weeks jobs are to get the heater/ventilation adjustment sorted, lower the seat a touch and change the gearbox oil and filter. I can't see any record of it being done and it's something that often gets overlooked on cars of all ages IMHO.
Am eating up my 5000 miles a year allowance on the insurance quite rapidly - approaching 2,500 miles already so will have to give that some thought before too long...

[AndrewA]

For those that are interested, thought I'd post a brief update. Heater box now properly in and working as it should. No more heat soak btw! Spent some time tracking down water ingress in torrential rain - main culprit was seals where wipers go through scuttle. Now have new but suitably subdued radio/cd in dash and new speakers in the old places - overhead and one on the parcel shelf. It works well enough and I didn't want to start cutting door cards.
Seat now at a height that suits and I got the paintwork detailed - it came up well for a car that was last painted 20 odd years ago.
I'm now on something of a mission to get the handling as good as possible and I admit it is getting a bit obsessive. Re bushing the front end will happen early next year, and I'll replace the shocks at the same time. The power steering box has a small leak and a bit of play so will attend to that and refurbish or replace the pump and hoses at the same time. The axle has a whine only I can hear - might just be bearings but will get that looked at and do the rear shocks and any bushings that need attending to when the axles out. Nearly forgot, car is back on original size tyres which fill up the arches nicely, lighten the steering and give a bit more feel.
Thanks to those on here for all the useful advice so far.
Andrew

[AndrewA]

Well things haven't gone precisely to plan! After the last post I started poking around at the cills - last done 20 years ago. Once uncovered properly they definitely needed attention - not horrendous but in another year or two they would have been. Also took the opportunity to clean up the underside and catch a few other minor issues that would have become problems with time. The leak from the power steering box has turned into a flood so that's now top of the list.
I intend to send the pump and steering box off and get them refurb'd and new lines made up.
The challenge at the mo is removing the steering box which is reluctant to come out.
Having spoken to most power steering specialists, I'm going to go with Kiley Clinton who knew immediately what I was talking about and are normally able to turn things round quickly.
We shall see!

[AndrewA]

For eagle eyed readers / those that are interested..Kiley Clinton seem so far to have done an excellent job and I am now leak free on the steering front. Putting it all back together was a lot quicker and easier than taking it out - just under a couple of hours.
As noted earlier, the cills have been attended to but the aluminium covers were beyond saving so am having new ones made up by a chap who seems to be taking an age. He's doing them to the precise shape and so on of the original ones so hopefully not too much fettling will be required.
Have booked car in at end of June for the rumble at the rear to be investigated - hopefully nothing major but I won't know until it's apart.
That's all for now.
Andrew

[David C]

Did the power steering improve noticeably with the newly fettled rack? I always thought your car was under assisted and wasn't sure if it was wear or adjustment.

[AndrewA]

Difficult to describe precisely - bit like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears it now seems "just right"!
Head gasket(s) now given up ghost(s) so expect questions/request for
suggestions as to improvements to heads and possibly cams in near future.
The rumble at the rear will have to wait...
Andrew

[David C]

Regarding heads etc, I think there is a good chance that you already have a slightly hotter cam than standard as I think the parts for the rebuild would have come from the American Car Care Centre who were offering a mildly improved profile as standard at the time. Check cam bearings in the block and make sure the heads have suitable inserts for unleaded along with the right valves.

The heads themselves were pretty good. The breathing was let down by the inlet and exhaust manifolds. The single best improvement for my money would be a Weiand 7503 intake if you can find one. The original cast iron inlet forces the fuel / air mix to make a very tight turn immediately after it leaves the carb. The Weiand is about an inch taller and sweeps round. With the Edelbrock replacing the Carter carb the combined height is very similar to original.

I don't know what is currently available by way of exhaust manifolds but I thought I heard that SLJ had found someone to make an improved version although there is very little room for this without modifying the chassis rails. That was a bit of an extreme option for me.