Re: Now for something completely different.

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2009/8/25 17:01:21

Continuing the comments on the reliability of the various vehicles involved in the movie shoot, this post will be about the clone Cop Car, a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Apparently the Blues Brothers 2000 sequel featured a 1989 Chevy Caprice as the cop car (the original had a 1973 Dodge Monaco as the cop car). The UK director had two Caprice in England and asked me to find one locally to clone. In two days, I had found one on Craigslist in Las Vegas and had the money electronically transferred to me for purchase.

1) Despite the seller's claims, the Caprice would not go over 35 mph. So, we rented a U-Haul car transport trailer and hauled it to Pahrump. The problem turned out to also be fuel delivery, but not because of vapor lock. Originally a Fuel Injection engine, someone had removed the FI and substituted an E-carb and intake. Since the fuel line pressure on an FI is about 45psi, the inlet line to the carb needed to be regulated down. This was done incorrectly --actually, stupidly-- as a "T" was used with one arm the line from the fuel pump in the tank and the other arm to the return line to the tank. The leg was regulated down to 5psi with a cheap "dead head" type regulator and connected to the carb inlet. Naturally, almost all the fuel was going in a circuit from and back to the tank through the two arms of the "T"! A proper regulator and replumbing solved this problem.

2) As soon as I got the engine running properly, the cooling system overheated -- and it was still in the 90s at that time. I removed the radiator, had it rodded out (about 80% clogged according to the rad shop), reinstalled it with proper coolant and that solved that.

3) The engine was equipped with shorty headers upon which the ignition wires kept landing, burning through and shorting out. Rerouting, replacing, and having proper wire connectors solved that.

4) The only idiot light which worked was the overtemp light. The low oil pressure light send was not even connected. An inexpensive triple gauge set solved that.

All of the above occured before the movie shoot date just to get a sort of reliable driver.

As related above, the Caprice made it from Pahrump to Las Vegas and performed OK for the first night shoot. However...

5) On the trip to Crystal from Las Vegas, the Caprice had to stop twice for blue-gray smoke coming out from underneath. Upon inspection the first time it was apparent that oil was leaking down the back of the engine onto the exhaust pipe. Also, the oil level was low due to the leak, so that caused the second stop in Indian Springs (about 25 mi from Crystal) to purchase extra oil. After several of us looking at it, the consensus is that the gasket at the back of the intake manifold has pushed out and oil is getting out of the lifter valley by that route.

6) Finally, the Caprice is getting really lousy gas mileage, so it was left in Crystal after the shoot because the gas tank was almost empty.

Next...the problems with the two Packards!

Craig