Antique Vehicles and Antifreeze

Found this article extremely relevant!

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Antique Cars and Antifreeze

From Welcome to First Capital AACA

So what’s cooling your antique car …IAT or OAT type antifreeze?  What’s the difference, you ask?  To be honest, I didn’t realize there were different types of antifreeze compounds.  I just shopped for brands and price.  I figure it’s all the same stuff just different colors.  Well, there IS a difference and it DOES matter to all of us that have water cooled antiques.

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Fine Tuning Your Carburetor

Although I have tuned countless carburetors over the years by “ear”, I decided I wanted to make sure I had tuned my trucks new carburetor to be as efficient as possible. Especially since my hearing is NOTHING like it used to be!

The next step in carburetor tuning is via a halfway decent vacuum gauge. You connect the gauge to a vacuum source – in this case I connected to the line right off the intake manifold that runs to the vacuum advance unit on the distributor. I immediately saw a wobbly reading of approximately 16.5 inches of vacuum. After adjusting the mixture, it rose to a little over 18 (you want to see between 18-20 or so) and was pretty steady. Also, the periodic “puff” in the exhaust decreased, which was good.

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Winter Storage

So it’s finally time to put Cornelius away for the winter. I am fortunate enough to have an extra 10 feet at the front of my garage where the truck can be kept and still allow two vehicles to park normally. And while tight, there is also enough room to get at most everything so that I can pull a part or two off for restoration over the winter.

I’ve put together a winter storage to-do list that I have compiled from a few sources, and this is pretty much what I’ve followed for Cornelius. Have any thoughts or additions?

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Test Drive

Well the weather finally cleared this past Thanksgiving weekend and I managed to get Cornelius out for a proper test drive. The skies were sunny and blue, and the temperature was a rare 64 degrees in late November! Susan joined me for no less than 25 miles of country driving, at low speeds and high, up hill and down. Cornelius felt smooth and powerful the entire trip, and the idle stayed smooth and even. Acceleration was smooth, with no hiccups or power fade.

So after several weeks of tinkering with the stumbling issue, I am happy to report that the fuel supply was the primary problem (we also solved a vacuum issue which also helped immensely – read older posts to see details) and that it has been solved. It was a VERY enjoyable afternoon.

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New Fuel Line

So as I had noted in my last post, I felt that the main section of fuel line had to be replaced. I ordered a twenty-foot coil of 3/8″ copper-nickel fuel line and used my brake flare kit to set up a double-flare on each end. This line replaced what had previously been three sections of different types of tubing extending from the gas tank to the engine bay, each joined by rubber tubing and hose clamps.

The new line replaces all of that – the only line left in place was a nicely bent section extending from the driver’s side of the engine bay to the passenger side, where it connected to the fuel pump. From the fuel pump there is one more section of line extending to the fuel filter, which is then directly connected to the carburetor. I used an air compressor to blow out the lines I retained after they were drained of fuel.

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Stumbling Along

Within a week or so after replacing the differential oil, Cornelius started to complain a little when going uphill. This was in the form of stumbling when the accelerator was applied.

My first steps were to check the fuel system and to clean the fuel filters in both the Durex Fuel Filter itself, and the fuel filter contained within the fuel pump. In the Durex unit, the fuel filter is composed of a brass porous element, which I cleaned by agitating it in Chemtool B-12 fuel system cleaner, then blowing through it with compressed air. The fuel pump filter was a brass screen, which was cleaned in a similar fashion.

The result of these efforts? Still stumbling.

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