"OBEASTY" has a new Duel Chamber Master Cylinder to replace her old fruit jar. The new one is for a 67 Mustang with Manual Front Disk and Drum Rear Brakes, and has 1" piston. We found that the stock 48 Dodge Brake Pedal has a long enough arm on it that we don't need a power booster.

These neat Banjo Fittings help keep the brake lines away from the exhaust pipes. I found them at Pure Choice Motorsports I'm also going to use a pair of these on my 79 Chevette 2dr.."BUTRNUT"

 

 

"OBEASTY" now has new 3/16" brake lines with a new Wilwood 2 lb Residual Check Valve going to the front Disk Brakes, a new brake light switch in the brake line between the Master Cylinder and the Adjustable Proportioning Valve, and a new Wilwood 10 lb Residual Check Valve between the Adjustable Porportioning Valve and the rear Drum Brakes. New front calipers and new rear brake cylinders have also been installed .

I decided to try a couple pair of "SOLO BLEEDS" from Earl's Plumbing These will make bleeding the brakes a whole lot easier.

 

 

Even "MORTY BIRD" knows...it dosen't matter how fast your car can go...if you can't stop when you get there.

 

 

Electric Radiator Fans have come a long way in developemant since we put "OBEASTY" together back in 1987. Back then these two 11" fans seemed like they'd be enough, but I still ended up running a steel fan on the waterpump anyway.

After doing a bit of "Googling" I found out that a 16" Ford Taurus Fan is really good, but the ultimate electric fan is the 18" Lincoln Mark 8 2 Speed Fan which is also used in mid 90s T-Birds. These puppys pull from 3500 CFM on Low Speed to around 4300 CFM on High Speed. I scored a Taurus and a Mark 8/T-Bird Fan at our local "Pull-A-Part" for $15 each, and after testing them I was impressed with both...but decided to go with the Mark 8. In order for either of them to function properly we've ordered an FK35 Fan Controller from DCCONTROL.COM . The FK35 Fan Controller is a "stand alone unit" that will be wired directly to the battery. We're also getting a new 160amp Alternator from MCR because these Taurus Fans can draw up to 100amps. "OBEASTYs'" radiator is for a 68 Chevy Big Block Pickup, has 4 rows, and a core measures 28.25"x17"x2.5". It sits in a 77 Camaro Radiator Cradle that's been trimmed and modified to provide support for "OBEASTYs'" front fenders.

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

April 26th 2008 I started on a new project today...mounting "OBEASTYs'" Lincoln Mark 8 Fan on a new 68 Chevy Big Block 4 row Radiator. This Puppy can pull up to 4300 CFM...so I figure if the 440 quits on us...I'll just turn up the fan and deploy the wings..
..........Our new radiator came with four 3/8" holes in the top and bottom core support channels...so I thought I'd make use of them with four 3/8" x 3.5" bolts and some very carefully cut to length 1/8"x1.5" Aluminum Angle. This will provide a very strong and stable mounting point. So far so good.

 

 

This spout will have to be rotated counter clockwise 90 degrees and canted a bit in order to clear the Camaro Frame Horns.
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

April 30th 2008 I got a little help from my friend, John Eastman. with this. John handled the Soldering and Aluminum Welding while I widdled on some Aluminum and Plastic with his Band Saw.

 

...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

May 1st 2008 We hung the front sheetmetal back on for a test fit today and as a result..."OBEASTY" is starting to look like her old self again...finally. If you go to the bottom of page #6 there a few new pics of "OBEASTY" taken outside on a "sunny day".

 

 

Not to worry...this Cross Bar is an anticipated problem that will be moved shortly to make way for the new fan. And if you're wondering how we're going hook up the Radiator to the Engine...stay tuned because we're about to go a little bit "Hi-Tech" in an automotive sort of way. I'll explain more in a few days when the "Very Trick" little goody that I've ordered arrives. 

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 May 8th 2008 Ok here it is...the "Very Trick" little goody that I've been waiting for.

This is a Dedenbear Manifold Expansion Tank that I recently found in the Jegs catalog. And the reason I'm a little excited about getting it...is that it has solved a couple of rather important problems. First ...it will provide a way to get fluid into the cooling system.

Secondly it gives us an excuse to get rid of the old Ford expansion tank that we used to use.

This not only looks a whole lot better...but it will also make hooking up to the radiator a whole lot easier. Our old setup worked but it was really kind of butt ugly...with a couple of hoses that seemed to run all over the place ...it worked in it's day...but it's definitely time to bring "OBEASTY" into the "New Millennium".

This is "OBEASTYs' " new Recovery Tank that I found on E-bay. It measures 8"x3"x2.5". I'm gonna try very hard to hide this ugly thing way over in the corner on the passenger side of the engine compartment...after all we don't want anyone thinking that we're into "billitt" around here.

 

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

May 13th 2008 I found the perfect place to mount "OBEASTYs'" horns. I saved these before the New Yorker was hauled off by the Scrap Man a couple of weeks ago (see bottom of page 12). I believe these are what Chrysler used to call thier "Town & Country Horns".What I like best about them is thier "I'm a Big Car" sound. To make sure that they will honk when I want them to I ran a ground wire all the way to back to the "Ground Bus Strip" above the Fuse Panel.

 

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
.........May 18th 2008 I got the new Recovery Tank mounted...but then discovered that it's a bit to close to the alternator bracket...so it will be moved about an inch...then it should be ok.

 I removed a couple of things in preparation for "OBEASTYs'" new HEI Distributor. The beauty of an HEI is that it only requires a 12 Volt Power Wire to be connected to the positive side of the coil, then the two wires from the Distributor are connected to the positive and negative sides of the coil...and you're done. It just doesn't get much simpler than that.

To help keep the heat off of them I covered the Fuel Line and Brake Line with Protective Tape.

 The Electric Fan Control fits quite nicely in its' own little corner.
.......There may be a Molded Hose, out there in the world somewhere, that would fit here...but I haven't found it yet...but I did find a Flex Hose that's the right length to do the job. I just have to do a little more trimming, here and there, to give it a bit more clearance . In the lower left picture you can see that I've started wiring all the front lights...not to worry...it will be a little neater when I'm done.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

May 20th 2008...Time to finish mounting our 18" 1994 T-Bird Electric Fan to the radiator. These pictures pretty much tell the story...and I think it came out looking really good...almost as if I actually new what I was doing.

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.........May 21st 2008 "OBEASTY" has all of her lights temporarily working. She's got Hi & Low Beam Headlights, Right & Left Turn Lights Front and Back, All 3 Brake Lights, 4 way Hazard Lights, Dash Lights including Left & Right Turn Indicators, Hi Beam Indicator, a Red Third Brake Light Indicator, and all her Gauge Lights. As soon as the special crimping tool we ordered gets here, I'll be installing a Weather Tight Plug for the Headlight Harness, so that when ever we take "OBEASTYs'" front sheet metal off we can just unplug the lights. If our new Distributor and Plug wires get here soon then there's a very real possibility that we'll be taking "OBEASTY" for a test drive by Memorial Day. We just don't have that much left to do.

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

May 23rd 2008..."OBEASTY" is alive...sort of!!! The combination of this new Pro-Comp 440 HEI Distributor, Accel 8.8 wires, eight new Autolite 86 Spark Plugs, along with her Flowmaster Exhaust System, momentarily created a whole new personality for her...like nothing she had before...in what seemed like a good way. Both of my sons and I stood in disbelief for a few seconds when she fired off immediately with one turn of the key. Everything seemed fine until "OBEASTY" got warmed up and then the problems started. It didn't take long and the HEI Module crapped out on us. More on this a little later.

I had to get a little creative with the routing of one of the Accel Wires so we could still adjust the distributor. Because of the repositioning of the Vacume Canister, and the HEI Module, the Rotor in this Distributor is installed 45 degrees clockwise from normal. This means moving all the plug wires 45 degrees clockwise also.

I need to order a pair of Wire Towers from JEGS to hold up and organize the 8.8mm Plug Wires at the corners of the Valve Covers, like I did with the old wires, but I think they're looking pretty good. They definitely add a little color.

 

 

Edelbrock says that 5.5 PSI is the optimum fuel pressure for thier Performer Carbs. To meet that requirement "OBEASTYs"" new Adjustable Fuel Regulator is being mounted on the inner fender panel, thats why the Fuel Line is taking the long way around the barn. ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
.........June 3rd 2008...Well...I've got "good news" and "some not so good news"... The "good news"... we have taken "OBEASTY" for a short ride up the street and back. The "not so good news" she dosen't want to run when she gets warmed up and her brakes need to be bled again. So as you might have guessed ...we didn't make it to the Mopar Round Up (BUMMER).. When we first fired "OBEASTY" off with her new HEI Distributor she did sound great, but we only let her run for a few seconds because the radiator wasn't hooked up. It wasn't until we got her sheet metal hung back on and everything hooked up, including the Electric Fan (which by the way is working great), that we started having some problems. We can start her up and she'll idle and we get good throttle response...until she gets really warmed up...then she starts to bog and/or die when we'd hit the throttle off idle. To make a long story a little shorter...it turns out we've have a couple of things contributing to the situation. #1...I had to go hunt down a 1" thick Phenolic Carb Spacer...because the carb has been getting to hot just sitting on top of the Torquer II Intake Manifold...this can make the fuel percolate in the carb...which isn't a good thing. #2 We also found out that it's very important, with an HEI Distributor like ours, to use a 12 volt coil that dose not require a ballast resistor. We started off using the same Accel Super Sport Chrome Coil that we had used with our old Mopar Ignition. Don't misunderstand...it's a very good Coil...but it's not made to work with an HEI. To cure this problem I bought a Pertronix Flame Thrower Coil, which says right on it's box not to use with a ballast resister. But...even after changing coils and installing the Carb Spacer she still won't run more than a few seconds before she dies. So I called Pro-Comp and talked to one of thier tech guys. It was his opinion, after listening to all our problems, that it's the HEI Module that's that's cutting out on us. #3 As it turns out we have more problems than that. On the left we have a ....Pro-Comp #7007 440 HEI Distributor, like we ended up with, and on the right we have a Pro-Comp #7007 440 HEI Distributor. It says on the Pro-Comp adds for thier "READY TO RUN #7007 440 HEI Distributors" that all you need to do is install them and you're ready to go...no muss...no fuss...but ours took a little more than that to install. Would it be kind of silly to believe that Pro-Comp would sell two completely opposite distributors using the same part number? It might be silly...but it's true. Study the pictures and you can see for yourself. Well... we definitely got what we paid our $65 for...and even though it came in a Pro-Comp box with the 7007 part number...I was beginning to believe we have a "Knock Off Pro-Comp 440 HEI Distributor"... because it just ain't right in a couple of very important ways. On thier web site Pro-Comp sells thier 440 Ready to Run Distributor for $120...but as you can see in the pictures... it's set up exactly opposite of the one we got from GR8HOTRODS.COM on EBAY. On the distributor that we got we noticed right away that the Rotor is advanced clockwise 45 degrees, with no instructions included ( after all this was a learning process ), we figured out on our own that the distributor would have to be installed with all the plug wires moved one place clockwise and after we did that it started up right away and sounded great. But... after we got everything else hooked up we started having problems when "OBEASTY" got warmed up. She'll run for a few seconds then bog down and die. So it looks like we got a "dud" anyway. To fix this situation I plan on getting our money back by returning this first distributor, but I'm going to wait because I've ordered what we hope will be the correct Pro-Comp Ready to Run 440 HEI Distributor directly from Pro-Comp...and I want to compare the two. So it will be a while longer before we get to go for another ride in "OBEASTY"...but we gettin there.

June 20th 2008 Well this has been an interesting week. On Wednesday the second "Pro-Comp #7007 440 Ready to Run HEI Distributor" finally arrived at our door. I was happy to see it until I opened the box and found a distributor exactly like the one we already have. I was expecting it's "mirror twin"...so that I could compare them...but no such luck. So I got on the phone to Pro-Comp. So far nobody has explained why they have two distributors with the same part number. After what has turned into a 3 week discussion... they are supposed to be sending a new HEI Module to fix the first distributor and I've been told that I'm not going to get stuck with two of them. So the saga continues for now...but if this new module that they're sending doesn't do the trick... a "Pertronix Plug & Play 440 Distributor" is starting to look really nice about now...because I want to go for a ride in my Hot Rod...and the sooner the better.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

..........This Delta Fan Control is working great. First... using the little junpers, that are supplied with it, we were able to set the fan to come on at 148 degrees which with a 180 thermostat keeps the temp at about 185 degrees all the time. Then...just to be on the safe side, with all the test running we've been trying to do, we plugged in the AC Jumper so that the fan comes on at 10% speed when the ignition is on.

We ran into another little complication when we started bolting on the front sheet metal. We had to make a little bracket for one of the support bars, that stabilize the front end, when it was displaced by the new Radiator Hose. These Bars go down and attach to tabs on each side of the Camaro Radiator Core Support.

 

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

 

June 23rd 2008. Well...the HEI Module finally arrived from Pro-Comp today. I wish I could say it fixed everything...but no such luck. After I installed it "OBEASTY" managed to run pretty good for about 20 minutes, which was long enough to go for another very short ride around the neighborhood, but as soon as she got really warmed up again the Hei Module started crapping out just like the first one did. So both the Pro-Comp Ready to Run Distributors I've bought are being sent back for financial refunds. I believe the reason the Pro-Comp Ready to Run Distributor we tried didn't work is because the HEI Module isn't grounded in any way. From what I've read about creating an HEI set up... if the Module isn't grounded it will cause over heating and electrical problems just like we've experienced. So we're done with Pro-Comp and have ordered a Pertronix 440 Plug & Play Distributor from JEGS. And since we've never had to return anything that we ever ordered from Summit or Jegs, from now on we're ordering from them. This little fiasco has taught us much and cost us a month of time that forced us to miss some very important car events that we wanted to attend with "OBEASTY". Most of that lost time, 3 weeks to be exact, has been spent waiting for UPS to deliver an HEI Module that we should have been able to get at our local Auto Parts Store if we wanted to. And since for the month that this has been going on no one at Pro-Comp has explained, or admitted to me, why they have two distributors with the same part number, in all honesty I would never recommend that anyone do business with Pro-Comp Electronics because thier "CUSTOMER SERVICE" leaves alot to be desired.

I made this little bracket to keep the Fuel Line from rubbing on the Upper Control Arm.

...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

For reasons of over all better drivability we decided to use the cast iron intake manifold off of "OBEASTYs" old 1971 390hp 440. I took it to the local machine shop and had it boiled out...then I painted it with Hi-Temp Silver. I've heard that Edelbrock used this manifold as thier base when they designed the Performer intake manifolds for Mopar 440s.

We bought a Pertronix Billet Distributor to totally simplify the ignition system ( it only needs a 12volt hot wire ) and it works exceptionly well. A word to the wise...be prepared to clearence the passenger side head with a hand held grinder in order for the bigger diameter of the Billet Distributor to fit properly.

To finish things off we decided to reuse the DIRECT CONNECTION Valve Covers and Air Cleaner that I bought  for "OBEASTY" in 1987 when we first got her running.