Motoblag's '71 Duster

[Motoblag]

New fuel and evap lines show up in a couple days. Got the water pump pulled off, yanking the timing cover next to see what I have to work with for adding the fuel pump eccentric.

All my coolant hoses are toast, gonna be replacing those while I'm in here. And probably the water pump because why not.

 

[Motoblag]

And here's where I'm at tonight.

Now to get advice on how to add a fuel pump eccentric to the shebang.

 

[Motoblag]

Asking Hughes Engines if their extended cam bolt setup can let me add the fuel pump eccentric. Specifically this one: https://www.manciniracing.com/huencabowa.html .

If other folks have thoughts I'd love to hear them. Hoping for a street duty fun machine, but fueling seems to be a tougher nut to crack than I anticipated.

Got my fuel and evap line delivered, guess after cleaning up the coolant mess I can remove the old ones and install these, with new mounting hardware.

I gotta figure out a better way of tracking what work I need to do to get this back on the road.

 

[Motoblag]

Hughes Engines tech people got back to me, stating they aren't seeing a way to put a mechanical fuel pump on with the current timing setup. Side note: their email support was super helpful even though I haven't bought anything from them!

But this puts me at a crossroads: people with far more fabrication skills than I have made this work ( Milodon gear drive timing set on 410 stroker ). But I'm thinking of going back to an electric pump to get this show on the road faster. I'm going to try a different pump, probably a Holley Blue or similar and see what I can do for mounting it lower than the gas tank.

For work tracking I've updated my ancient Trello board:

 

[Motoblag]

Every day I'm trying to do at least something in the garage related to the Duster. Today it was pulling the old fuel line out:

The evap line is proving to be a bigger challenge. I looked at the factory service manuals real close and found there should be two screws holding the shield over the evap lines:

They are in front of the panel and screw towards the back of the car. It was an adventure finding them under almost a quarter inch of road grime, dirt, tire remnants and undercoating/sealant. It's out now and the hose to it removed and blocked off so the garage hopefully won't smell like gas.

Two clips left holding in the evap line. Should be able to get that out tomorrow and work on installing the new lines. Once the lines are in I'm going to estimate how much fuel line I need, what fittings for the new electric pump etc... and make an order to get those goodies.

Saturday I also got all new hoses for the entire cooling system, they're sitting in a box for when I put the front of the motor back together.

(I keep hemming and hawing over mechanical pump or not - but right now the unknowns of what needs to be done to swap to timing chain, with having to install bolts or caps into the holes made for the gear drive, oil flinger, drip finger, etc... makes me want to leave it alone and go back to electric.)

 

[Motoblag]

Fuel and evap lines removed.

New evap line was a little different, it runs between the rear swaybar mount and the frame. I think that's what the bracket on the front underside of the frame rails are. But it got clipped into place. Removing the passenger side rear wheel and both rear shocks helped free up room.

The fuel line is being a little trickier to reinstall. The engine side of it likes to get wedged between some combination of jackstand, exhaust header collector flange and the frame rail. Just need to spend a little more time wrestling with it.

After doing a bunch of reading on evap systems I'll be using the evap system almost as designed, skipping the "store gas vapors in the crankcase" part and will source a charcoal canister. But will probably vent the line to atmosphere in the engine bay in the very short term to get this running again.

 

[Motoblag]

These lines are a bit tricky to get into place. The engine side of things are fine but heading towards the back of the car things are rougher.

Front, looking okay, loosely secured:

Dogleg around the under side of the passenger seat. I don't know how to get a securing clip into the hole barely visible behind the lines:

The rear sway bar mount is right where the fuel line wants to be. I've got to tweak 1/8", maybe 1/4" to make things clear:

Tried using one of the lower brackets there to allow room for the fuel line to drop down but it's quite difficult to get things lined up. Wear marks on the bracket and the old fuel line show they were touching with the previous setup, so maybe it's just always super tight. I see others have similar issues:

3/8 fuel line problems?

5/16 fuel line problems....

A concern I have is the lines run hard against the body or frame in places. I'm worried about the line getting chafed through due to frame flex. Should the line not be touching the body or frame? If so I've got a fair amount of massaging of the line to do, or cushioning, maybe with some split fuel line.

 

[Motoblag]

Picked up some adel clamps to wrangle the lines where I want them. Will have to sort out a screw for the smaller size clamp for the evap line.

The front seal on the timing cover was not interested in coming out without a long fight. Got it in the end and now the cover is ready for cleanup and paint. A shot before getting everything scraped clean:

The daily driver got some attention today as the battery died overnight, preventing me from making a quick parts store run. Took the sidecar and added a new car battery to my shopping list. One of those days today.

 

[Motoblag]

Been slowly working on cleanup for the timing cover, it was in bad shape.

I cleaned things up and knocked down lots of marring from previous people popping seals in and out. With Chevy orange I did a terrible job painting it and will need to try again:

Probably the worst paint application I've ever done! I want it clean and bright so I can track down any future leaks.

Tomorrow I will get the evap and fuel lines sorted, button the bottom of the car back up, get it on the ground and start reassembling the front of the engine.

 

[Motoblag]

After struggling and using some bad words I've got the evap and fuel lines situated. I'm not happy with how it turned out but it'll be good enough for now.

New fuel pump, fuel pump relay kit and other odds and ends have been ordered.

(Yes I did snip off the tails on the zip ties )

 

[Motoblag]

Fuel pump arrived, got some fuel line and it's all ready to get sorted out.

In the meantime I cleaned up the corner of the garage I plan on using for metalworking so I can finish my welding cart:

Sanded and repainted the timing cover. It's no longer "delete all my online accounts and run away to join the Amish" bad:

New front seal installed on it as well - fought me just as much as the old one did coming out, but I got it in the end.

Next up: reassembling the front end of the motor and plumbing/wiring the fuel pump.

 

[Motoblag]

Back in town from a motorcycle trip, ordering more parts to keep any momentum going. Got the Mancini Racing timing set/water pump bolts as mine are really rough and I've already spent too much time trying to get a shoddy wire wheel from Lowes happy on my bench grinder to clean them up.

 

[Motoblag]

Been interesting times in Portland but the Mancini bolt kit is here so I can get back on reassembling the front of the engine.

I've been working on a welding cart since I need to be able to haul the gas bottle around. Getting closer on that.

Both the Honda and the Triumph motorcycles need a bit of maintenance so that'll take up some time, but due to Portland's worst-in-the-world air quality I can't spend too much time in the garage a day.