Re: 1938 Super 8 1605 - adventures with a newbie

Posted by kevinpackard On 2023/2/7 1:17:15

Thanks guys! I try to keep it as clean as possible....makes working in it less stressful. The floor coating helps because it keeps dust to almost zero, and makes fluid spills easy to clean up. It's not totally impervious, but better than bare concrete. I also haven't built a workbench and some other storage areas yet. Those will fill it up more. But I will keep the floor space as open and clear as possible. Working in my neighbor's shop back when I first got the Panama made me a clean freak for my own shop. Over there every square inch of floor space had some random junk on it, making it impossible to move around and find any sort of tools.

I had a few minutes to look deeper in the Super 8 tonight. A quick check of the radiator showed it was dry inside, though I had filled it up a month ago. Also, the rubber gasket on the cap had folded over last time it was installed.

I found a few coolant leaks. One around the gasket for the oil cooler, and a few loose hose clamps. I tightened all those up and refilled the coolant to the correct level.

I started it and let it warm up. No other coolant leaks noted. The water pump is pushing water as expected. The temp gauge on the dash is reading higher than with the temp gun on different parts of the engine. When it says 180 on the dash, it's closer to 160 on the engine.

There is an electric fan installed on the front of the radiator. I turned it on, and it does indeed cool the water as it passes through the radiator, but it is crazy loud. I will have to find a better solution.

The engine is not totally smooth yet. It has a random stumble at idle and is not smooth at all when accelerating. I will begin by verifying timing and dialing it in. The carb will likely need a rebuild and maybe that will help. Any other advice would be appreciated.

-Kevin