harvs ek 327 wagon

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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Wagon's back on the road again. Needs to do a gentle 500km to bed the diff centre in. Trying to do the right thing by the lockdown rules, so it is going to be a while.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Hunting down bugs.

The temperature gauge decided to frighten me. Would start at ambient, and normally sit quite calmly at 80C. Recently it has started at ambient and then ran the needle to the end of the gauge after about 5 minutes.

Stop car. Check for boiling (nope), check for fan belt (ok), check fans working (yep), check radiator for blockage (nope), check radiator for fluid (yep).

Hmmm.

More test driving, and the needle peaks out at max, then suddenly drops to 80C. Aha! must be a sticky thermostat.

Remove thermostat housing, spill 2 litres of coooooolant into the valley. No thermostat installed. Curse the missing thermostat. Missing thermostats dont stick. Reinstall. Suck coolant out of valley with a length of hose. Get multiple mouthfuls of coooooolant. Neighbours must love listening to me dry-retching from the bitter coooooolant. Ponder whether cooooolant would turn up in a random breath test.... "No officer, I haven't been drinking, I'm just stupid".

Buy new temperature sender. Check temp sender during removal. Speco design is crappy - the top terminal is very close to the (grounded) thread. Clean road grime out of sensor top. Voila! success. All it was was the road grime partially earthing the sensor.

Now to fix the header bolts that loosen themselves. No room for splitwashers, barely enough room for capscrews on the CRS headers. Drill capscrews for safety wire. I should have shares in P&N for the number of drill bits I broke drilling those hard stainless capscrews. Building up the courage now to install the rotten things. Need pixie fingers to get in there.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Brett027
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Brett027 »

Pixie fingers😀
Coolant not nice to drink at all.
Good problem solve Harv. Only question I have though, is why do you think it didn't short straight away- why five minutes?
Sucker for a rusty bomb
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Suspect the debris was not a dead-short, but more like a resistor (partial-short). It made more current flow than should (but not full current) and hence changed the range of the gauge.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Brett027
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Brett027 »

Got it. 🙂
Sucker for a rusty bomb
EK283
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by EK283 »

Road Grime ? Harv you either need a pressure cleaner or drive it less !!!!

I have used the header bolts that have a reduced size hex head with some success, although they tend to loosen as well.

You have to continually check them for tightness.

The LS engines solve this issue ! Ha Ha Ha .

Greg
So many cars so little time!
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Yep, its got the reduced head hex bolts in it. The headers are painful. With the headers being so tight, I can only get one flat at a time on them, and even then only with a crowfoot spanner. Changing to capscrews and hoping I can get an allen key onto them a little easier.

I put the first loosening off to poor assembly by the engine builder. Replaced the gaskets and tightened the bolts. Didnt think they would loosen, so only worked out that they had done it again once the gasket was gone. One more set of gaskets. This time with safety wire.

An LS would be nice, but the engineer threatened to beam test the car if I went over 340-odd cubes :(.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
EK283
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by EK283 »

Forgot to say I sacrificed a ring spanner, ground it down really thin so it fits between the bolts and pipes.

Greg
So many cars so little time!
Blacky
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Blacky »

Harv wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 6:44 am
An LS would be nice, but the engineer threatened to beam test the car if I went over 340-odd cubes :(.

Cheers,
Harv
They make a 5.3 you know :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
When you're faced with an unpleasant task that you really don't want to do, sometimes you just have to dig deep down inside and somehow find the patience to wait for someone else to do it for you.


Foundation member #61 of FB/EK Holden club of W.A.
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Finally, I broke the "come home on a tilt-tray" hoodoo. With lockdown over and regional NSW open, I made the run up to Tamworth and back. First real extended highway miles in the wagon.

Wasn't sure on fuel consumption, and the fuel gauge is not linear, so put the jerrycan in the back. No dramas, though she's a wee tad thirsty - made 4.5km/L (10.5mpg). The mixture is correct all the way through the range (tuned via the rolling road). Could have a lot to do with my roller-bearing right ankle, though I didn't build this thing to be Aurion-efficient.

Worried that the tendency to arc-out rotor buttons on the highway would come back (I've blown out two so far and came home on a tilt tray both times), so carried a spare rotor and tools. No drama. I'm now convinced that my crappily-made, ultra-high resistance #1 plug wire (which I replaced after cooking the second rotor) was the problem.

Had changed the exhaust manifold gaskets, but not had the time to lock wire them. They seemed OK (nipped them up in Tamworth again, not much movement).

The young bloke had blown an axle at the drags back in Q1, and I had beefed up the diff to 31 splines and a Harrop centre. It needed to have 500km gentle (slower than 80km/h) run-in miles. Took me since June to clock that up pooting around western Sydney (hard to clock up miles when you are locked in no further than 5km from home, and for essential trips only). Got the 500km up at the start of the journey, and could finally hear Captain Kirk (Mr Scott, Warp Factor 9... or at least 110km/h) on the freeway. Managed to blow a bit of diff oil out the breather, though suspect I had it over-full. The GMH diff cover plates are normally used as the level indicator - top the diff up until it overflows. The diff got a TA Performance ally cover and girdle in the recent rebuild, and I suspect the fill hole is a lot higher than factory. Stupid me then topped it up to the higher level. No drama pooting around, but at 110km/h enough speed to throw the excess out. If anyone has a standard BW75 or 78 diff cover to hand (VL and later Commodores with live axles) I'd love a measurement on the fill hole height (from the bottom of the diff) please.

Had been hunting a ticking noise on the drivers side of the car for months. It was road speed dependant, and sounded like the tick-tick-tick of a dry wheel bearing (just before it grinds, screams, then locks up). Had changed the wheel bearings (and found I used the Commodore wheel bearing washer on a HR front end), but had not solved it. Have had the damn thing up on stands a dozen times, could not find that ticking noise. Carried spare wheel bearings and tools just in case. Dad hunted it down in 3 minutes. One of the rear Moon covers was ticking. Take it off, no noise. A ticking wheel cover I can live with... doing a wheel bearing change at midnight at the back of Elk Snout did not appeal.

Some fiddly stuff still to sort out (HK washer/2-speed wiper switch died), but otherwise a good run.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Errol62
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Errol62 »

Good one Harv. I had a creak in right front wheel when I put the steelies on to go over the pits. Baby moon hubcap was all it was. Comes and goes. They are not a very tight fit.

FB ute driver, EK van project

getting my FB ute on the road
EK van on rotisserie
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Some more thinking on my diff overfilling. The image to the left is the standard BW78 cover. You fill that till it overflows (red line). The image on the right is the TA Performance cover, which I filled until it overflowed (green line).

overfill.png
overfill.png (671.47 KiB) Viewed 358 times

Me, being dumb-dumb-not-so-smart ignored the little overflow allen-head plug at the correct level (green circle). I was worried it was part of the stud girdle adjustment (red circle) so didn't touch it. Should have looked harder at the internals before sending it to the diff shop for the overhaul. I followed the TA Performance instructions and filled to overflowing... just not at the right location.

Ta performance cover.png
Ta performance cover.png (964.3 KiB) Viewed 358 times

Waaaay overfull. Looks like I need to pull the little allan plug and drain her down.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
In the Shed
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by In the Shed »

Good to hear wagon is back on the road Harv. What sort of fuel consumption would you expect for your motor?

Regards
Stephen
A day in the shed beats a day at work!
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Harv
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Harv »

Standard grey - 17mpg.
Small block in the city - 12-15mpg.
Small block on the highway - low twenties mpg.
Small block with my boot into it: 10mpg.

The gearing is a bit off for economy. TH350 is 1:1 (does not have overdrive), though rear-end is 3.08:1.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
Blacky
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Re: harvs ek 327 wagon

Post by Blacky »

just a tad overfull :lol: :lol: :lol: , should be able to decant the excess and do your next 2 diff oil changes for free !!
When you're faced with an unpleasant task that you really don't want to do, sometimes you just have to dig deep down inside and somehow find the patience to wait for someone else to do it for you.


Foundation member #61 of FB/EK Holden club of W.A.
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