Vauxhall VX 4/90 (FD)

[Low Horatio gearbox]

It should have been a v8 😢 , it would have made a nice 4lite v8 and the engine bay is frankly  huge.    Ha I need to chase the temp sender I ordered it last time I posted here and should have been here 2 weeks ago.  For now no, no projects! Its spent far to much time languishing wnile I chase endless silly little snags. The waterpump is next on the list  - NOS one to go in as its grumbl, but I'm awaiting the acid test of a test drive this weekend and actually using it for more than... 3 miles collectively  before more spannering.

[junkyarddog]

28 minutes ago, Rocket88 said:

What they should have had….

Fuck me!! Are those engine mounts welded to the removable front subframe and the chassis rails??

Good luck with removing the top suspension arm pivot bolts if that's the case. 🙄

 

[PhilA]

The 305 is a remarkably light engine, much lighter than the 3.3 that was basically the Blue Flame Six.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Talk of FD and FE V8s reminded me of this;

 

Legend has it that it got as far as Earls Court in ‘73 and was removed from the stand the night before Press Day. Fitted with a Holden 4.2 it couldn’t have been that much worse than the 3.3 on petrol. My Dad reckoned our Viscount ( with high efficiency 2 speed Powerglide) only ever broke 15 mpg when the caravan was on the back and I don’t rember the manual Ventora I had being a paragon of economy even compared to a 3.0Zodiac auto.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Ventora was one of the coolest car names in the '70s

[High Jetter]

I think Viscount just pips Ventora. Velux is a lovely word though, just not windows!

[Low Horatio gearbox]

I promised the GF I'd do the front pads on the C30 today so the 4/90 had to get out if the garage and move to the car port , 60 feet apart in the garden, a mere  mile  by road.

It paid me back by running ning like crap below 2k.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

39 minutes ago, Low Horatio gearbox said:

I promised the GF I'd do the front pads on the C30 today so the 4/90 had to get out if the garage and move to the car port , 60 feet apart in the garden, a mere  mile  by road.

It paid me back by running ning like crap below 2k.

That picture could be the Partners or Directors parking for an architects practice or firm of solicitors in 1971.

[Joey spud]

I do love a big 70's Vauxhall.

Re the pants brakes is that front caliper with the bleed screw on the bottom still fitted as this would certainly cause air to be trapped as you need to bleed the air out of the caliper via its highest point not its lowest ?

If so try unbolting the caliper from the hub and turning it up the other way and bleeding it again with the nipple now at the top before refitting/trying again.

My Son had a Supra that had awful soft brakes that a ''Jap car specialist'' declared needed a new abs pump and master cylinder and after much head scratching i noticed the rear calipers were fitted on the wrong sides of the car with their bleed screws at the bottom and once swapped over the brake pedal was spot on.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

And 2 more days on the trot fixerating - staring at it sucking teeth,  googling an going off at many tangents.

TL/DR:  vaccum  leak found and mostly fixed.

 

Sucesse was had, I think. The chronic poor running I managed to fine tune down to.

Woukd idle  and run and to about 1500-2k lovely. Above that it was  rough, many splutters and pops

Or it would be dog rough  under 2k but above that sweet. You could drive it but it felt like it would cut out any second.    But not both , so I moved on from he carb fixation to the distributor  and vaccume advance/leaks.

  I pored over and poked the distributor and it seemed in order then  I used a syringe to check the vaccum advance was working which it was,  moving freely and fully.  So I spent an age trying to find hose or gasket leaks and on and on.

  The  blindingly obvious thing was just to pull and check the port on the back of the carb that went to the distributor.  Yep.. just a threaded but blank hole, at a guess the correct pipe is the balance pipe between the carbs on the inlet manifold which had a small  breather pipe from the cam cover attached already. I'll presume it's got re plumbed at some point long ago.    The immediate result is it mostly runs better across the range equally well or badly but there are no obvious dead spots above or below and   8.40pm  is not the time for  an extended carb (re) tuning session.

 

On 6/26/2022 at 9:36 AM, Joey spud said:

I do love a big 70's Vauxhall.

Re the pants brakes is that front caliper with the bleed screw on the bottom still fitted as this would certainly cause air to be trapped as you need to bleed the air out of the caliper via its highest point not its lowest ?

If so try unbolting the caliper from the hub and turning it up the other way and bleeding it again with the nipple now at the top before refitting/trying again.

My Son had a Supra that had awful soft brakes that a ''Jap car specialist'' declared needed a new abs pump and master cylinder and after much head scratching i noticed the rear calipers were fitted on the wrong sides of the car with their bleed screws at the bottom and once swapped over the brake pedal was spot on.

They've been bled thoroughly  several times and work but it's  so-so.  I've a master cylinder rebuild kit, its now finding time/motivation to start pulling it off the car.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

After some umming and aching this is going up for sale, I'd rather  complete one or more project ahtn nibble at the edges of 3 or 4.