Best I give you a little background on how this all came about otherwise the vehicle and thread will be lacking some essence , so to speak.
I bought an FB sedan around 9 years back with intention's of a mild 6 and 5 speed so I could get the family out on cruises . Like all good intention's , that went out the window as it morphed into a 5 ltr , 6 speed , coil over front end etc . Ok , I have a weakness !
Somewhere between then and 2 years ago a number of side tracks have chewed away at my time . A 57 Chev wagon for the wife that req'd work , the eldest daughter bought an HD from the east which consumed a good 6 months of spare time to prep as an every day driver and then engineer and Rego , the young bloke at 16 years old bought an EK from the east which we did a full modified rebuild on ( Brodies EK ) plus the usual time consuming issues of getting the kid's through their L's etc and then 3 years last March I bought a one owner 79 SLE Statesman in from Canberra with 84 thousand klm on the clock to be our daily driver and replace the 1UZ Soarer which was starting to have electrical problem's .The SLE had been unused for the last couple of years so that also took up a little time to prep for daily use .( Love that car, become more passionate about it the more I drive it .) In between all that , time and money was also going into the FB but very slowly . Biggest problem of late has been mustering up the energy , combination of a shit job and old age does not help .
Anyway , what I am getting to here is 2 years ago a freshly built EK with small block , T350 and 9 inch became available and I was at a stage where I was doubting whether I would finish the FB . One of those moments in life , do I keep banging my head against the shed door or bite the bullet and grab what you dream of with both hands , after a discussion with the good woman and a week later I was cruising in an EK ( even if it is on the never - never ) .
Photo's of when we went to pick up the car on a cool and foggy Saturday morning 13/7/2013 .
The car had 965 klm on it when I picked it up , like all fresh builds there were a number of teething problems to be resolved .
Looking at the big picture , the car had a lot of similarity to where I was going with the FB and as this was apparently Doug's first build , he had done exceptionally well and put a lot of effort into given areas . As we all have our own tastes and preferences , there is a number of thing's that will be changed as time goes by to bring the old girl back to a cool cruiser look on the outside with an aggressive nature at heart . External changes will be rim's , guard flutes deleted , chromed vent cowl replaced with painted FB cowl and the addition of FB side trim with possibly a vivid white flash . Sorry all of you EK purist's , have always had a love of FB trim and EK grilles . So this is a mix , hence the plates " UBK ". Inside will be a complete replacement of seating and all trim , carpet and also gauges . Trim is not to my taste and being an old fart , I have trouble reading the Classic Instrument's being as condensed as they are . The drive train is another story which will unfold as time goes by .
As It was when picked up .
From memory the steering wheel was the first thing to go , as much as I love FB & EK horn buttons ......not on that wheel !
When I test drove the car I respectfully told Doug the owner / builder how disappointed I was as to how the car drove considering it was a coil over front end .
That all explained itself when we got the car home and did an assessment on the alignment , it was toeing in drastically to start with which was showing with the cut on tyres , so I booked it in to Wilkinson's Suspension and they sorted it the best they could . To get to the lower A arms for adjustment the rack needs to be removed so they did all they could " but " and informed me as to the issues .
I have a recond ED Ffffalcon
power steer rack and arms from the FB that have been modified to suit , so this will be fitted at a later date but to do so a new sump needs to be fabricated to accommodate the distance the rack needs to sit off the cross member and also allowing for another 10mm more clearance for the motor off the fire wall due to extractors touching the wall when under full noise .Bit of cruising to settle in and get a feel for it .
Also the young bloke ( Brodie's EK ) and the eldest daughter Breeanna's HD out for the fun time's
The next little job was a set of adjustable Koni's in the rear and replace the rear 235 tyres with 225's allowing the removal of the air shockies and also the compressor from the boot . As can be seen from the photo's the old girl was sitting way too high .
Right from the start the engine was running rich and the problem became worse as time went by , coming to a head when on the way to the annual Fathers Day Rod Show at Freo .
After being rescued by a good mate with a tilt tray and returned safely home I replaced the HP Holley with the 780 Quick Fuel that was intended for the FB , which got it running again . It was booked in for a dyno to sort out the problem's . When we spun it up on the rollers with air cleaner removed the carb resembled an overfull washing machine in crazy agitation with raw fuel spewing every where.
The fuel regulator turned out to be an injected item and pumping through way too much pressure and had obviously knocked the pressure gauge out of calibration , but by pure chance the needle had settled at 6lb when under pressure leaving every one none the wiser as to the source of the problem . I replaced the regulator and a liquid filled gauge with Aeromotive product's . 
The original Holley must have suffered from gouging in the seats caused from excess pressure creating bypass and got to a point where it was left in a constant flooded state . I have yet to check it out .
While on the dyno it was showing issues with spark scatter so being my last car I bit the bullet and bought an ICE ignition system which hurt the pocket .
When removing the old HEI unit I found a loose soldered connection inside and then very nasty wear on the bronze alloy drive gear ( roller cam ) , hence the spark scatter . Those that are considering a high volume oil pump should do a little research unless it is for competition use . To help resolve the problem caused by the HV pump ( until the sump is replaced with another for steer rack mod's and then I can fit a standard pump ) I cut a 30 thou groove in the lower boss of the ICE dist shaft to allow an oil feed from the gallery above that flow's through the journal in the block casting then around the shaft and back into the down stream block journal . This groove needs to be cut to suit the approx location above the cam and distributor gear drives when timing is set so that the oil feed is directed onto the drive gears ensuring a good oil supply instead of splash feed and at the same time relieving a little pressure / loading on the gears .I fitted a composite gear to the distributor which comes drilled only on one side . To ensure a true alignment for the roll pin you have to align on the shaft and drill through the opposing side then you can press the pin through .
Yeah ! I thought so too , especially with today's technology . I assume they are concerned about fluctuations with alignment which would cause stress loading on the composite gear and a possible fracture .
