Wow, what a day. This morning I finished up a few odds and ends on the Mach 1; filled the power steering pump, installed spark plugs, and a final brake bleed all four corners. I installed a couple of temporary exhaust turn downs on the mufflers as I will need a muffler shop to install the tail pipes. Some adjustment will be necessary to get the chrome tips to properly line up with the rear valence cutouts.
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Next I pushed my old girl out of the shop in preparation for the first engine start in almost 30 years. I truly did not know what to expect. I have done a bunch of work on the car over the past months. So many changes all at once including a transmission swap means there are so many things that could go wrong.
After dumping 5 gallons of non-ethanol premium in the tank, I disconnected the coil and cranked the engine to prime the fuel bowls and circulate the oil. I re-connected the coil and pulled a plug wire to confirm I had spark. You never know after installing a new engine wiring harness, new distributor, new plug wires and a new coil, but good news… I had spark.
Well, time for the moment of truth.
With a remote starter switch hooked up to the solenoid and a fire extinguisher close at hand I pushed the button…
Bam! She fired right up on the first crank without a stumble or a missed beat. I’m not sure the crankshaft even made a full rotation before firing off! Idle was a little high, but otherwise smooth as silk.
The first video below was taken 30 seconds after firing off. I looked for leaks and walked around the back to smell/listen to the exhaust and shot the video.
Unbelievable. The car started and ran as if she had been my daily driver. I quite literally had tears in my eyes. Here she was…my first car…alive again after all these years!!
Back to the front of the car…a little fiddling with the idle screw… watching for leaks/smoke…I let her warm up and goosed the throttle a couple times. Electric choke needed no adjustment and the now warm engine settled down to a smooth idle of around 1000 rpm (tach works!).
I shot the next video.
As you can see/hear, she’s clearly running smoothly on all eight.
After a quick adjustment of the timing and adjusting the idle to around 750 rpm I shut her down and just stood there smiling and laughing…
Well…WTF…I don’t need no stinkin’ registration or insurance…I installed the air cleaner, grabbed my wallet and jumped it. She fired right up again and I drove into town 15 miles round trip and topped off the tank.
Clutch worked smoothly, transmission shifted like butter, no noise from the new Eaton rear end, power brakes worked, power steering made no noise, hell, even the “eyeball” front end alignment wasn’t bad!
I am so happy I am giddy. I have been sitting staring at the old girl all afternoon re-living my youth.
Life is good indeed!
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