The Hot Rod Homepage

While not directly Hot Rod related I figured that it merited a mention here on the site. My daily driver is a 1990 Toyota Corolla with an automatic 3-speed transmission. Over the course of the last 2 tanks of gas I have been experiencing transmission slippage that has greatly reduced my fuel mileage. This is a major problem considering that good fuel mileage is all that the Corolla has going for it. What do I do?

I spent some time with google looking up prices for transmission rebuild kits as well as possible common issues with the Corolla transmissions. My search proved helpful, but not in the way that I anticipated.

After a flurry of different websites offering rebuilds and replacements I came across the Lucas Oil homepage. I was brought to the site be a customer testimonial from John Quinn of Springfield, Illinois that stated:

I was driving down the street and the transmission starts slipping. Can’t get it past 10mph and then transmission just whines. Had it towed to shop and started looking for used trany. Saw your ad on the internet and tried a bottle. Not only did it drive without slipping, I’m getting about 40 extra miles per fill up at the gas station. Thanks a million.

Normally I do not fall for “testimonials” on a manufactures website, but at this point I am desperate. I simply cannot justify putting a new transmission into a car that I bough for $1000, so this morning I picked up a bottle of Lucas Transmission Fix from the local AutoZone. It set me back around $10.

The back of the bottle states “Results are Usually Immediate” so as soon as I exited the store I popped the hood on the trusty old Corolla and added half a bottle to the transmission via the dipstick tube. As directed by the Transmission Fix bottle I added the fluid with the engine warmed up and running.

I let the car sit and idle for a few minutes while I cleaned up, then took her for a road test.

Initial Impression:
Before I had even exited the parking lot I could tell the difference. The transmission was noticeably smoother on shifts and I could no longer perceive any slippage. So far this stuff is working.

Long Term Results:
Nothing yet, but as I get some more time with the car I will update this article.

Sources:
Lucas Oil Products
302 North Sheridan Street
Corona, CA 92880-2067
951.270.0154
www.lucasoil.com

Article Overview:
The second article in the ’66 Redux series of articles. Fortune smiled on me while I was at pick-a-part in Sunland, California looking for parts to finish off my electric fan conversion. I came across a 325i BMW with a pair of sport seats in pristine condition. Usually these sorts of seats are gone as soon as they hit the junkyard, but probably due to the overcast weather of the USC football game on TV these seats waited around long enough for me to snatch them up. Read along as I install them into my Chevelle.

The stock bucket seats in a 1966 Chevelle are hardly the apex of comfort or positive retention. Anyone who has taken steps to improve the handling of their classic muscle car is probably familiar with the “right hand on the wheel, left knee jammed into the door, left arm holding on to the window sill” technique for holding yourself in your seat will agree that there is much to be desired. I have spent considerable time browsing ebay, the recycler, and the summit catalog looking for a pair of seats that would strike a balance between comfort and performance. Most of what I came across was either in my price range or good, but never both. Fortunately while at the junkyard looking for electrical components I can across these seats out of an e30 BMW. They meet both the comfort and performance requirements and their covering material and color match the existing interior and the rear seat.

Follow along as I make some repairs to these seats then install them in my Malibu.



Front view of the seats after a light cleaning.



Rear view of the seats.



Close up shot of the damage on the rear of the passenger seat.

Trial Fit and First Look

The first order of business was to remove the factory seats from the car. Once I had the passenger seat out I placed them side by side for comparison. Right away it is clear that the Chevelle buckets are wider then those from the 325i, but they have similar heights and depths.

Next I put both seats on their sides to get a comparison of rail locations and seat height. This is simply to give me a rough idea. The final location in the car will be determined by actually sitting in the seats before making any sort of mounting arrangements.

The next order of business was to place one of the 325i seats in the car and take a look. The outside front bolt holes seem to line up quite well when I placed the seat down in the car so I put a bolt in for now.

Here is a shot from the passenger side of the seat sitting in the car. The black vinyl looks perfectly at home in the Chevelle interior and the seat location looks good.

A second view of the seats in the car and they look right at home.

At this point I sat down in the seat and got comfortable. It came rapidly to my attention that the BMW seats had me sitting higher in the car then I would like. The seat height is adjustable, but I had already placed it in the lowest setting. For reference I am 6 feet tall.

The feel that I have established for the car over the last 10 years says that the seats need to be around half and inch lower, especially at the rear. Fortunately the height adjustment allows me to mount them as low as possible then raise them in the advent that I grow shorter with age.

Seat Modification and Mounting

As you can see from this picture the BMW seats have mounting tabs that raise the height of the seat up about 1/2.” I will be removing this tab from the rear mounts of the seat to see how that impacts installed height. I will first remove only the bottom ring like tab, and if that proves insufficient I will remove the entire foot mount. Better to cut a little off at a time then take the time to weld stuff back together that has been cut too far.

Article Overview:

The first in a series of articles detailing what I consider to be things that I have wanted to get done on my 1966 Malibu for a long time, but have so far been too busy to get around to. This article will show the process of switching from a belt driven 5-blade clutch fan to a dual 12″ electric setup. I also intend to do some before and after drag-strip tests at LACR to determine if there are any performance benefits to the conversion.

Parts that I used in this conversion:

• Derale Dual Cooling fan (DER-1928)
• Delta Control Control Controller (VC-1260)
• Delta Current Control Thermal Probe ( TS-104)
• 1/2″ steel tube and 2″ steel strap
• Various wire and terminals from around in the garage

The bottom line is that this conversion is not cheap and will run you around $400 when all is said and done. At least you will have me as a guinea pig to determine if the conversion is worth the time and money.

Building a Mounting Bracket:

The new dual electric fan from Derale (DER-16928) as it looks fresh out of the package.



Taking measurements of the fans mounting tabs. I will not be using the nylon zip ties that came with the fan for installation. This car sees quite a bit of road use, some of it far from home and I would prefer a more positive method for retaining the fan.

A basic drawing of the mounting hole configuration of the fan assembly.



Here is have come up with the basic design for my fan mount. The is about 1/2″ of space between the radiator and the inside of the fan shroud that will allow me to hide my mounting bracket between the fan and the radiator for a very clean looking install.



I have drilled the holes to mount the two sticks of 1/2″ steel to the fan shroud based on the measurements that I took of the fan shroud assembly.



Next I used two pieces of 2″ steel strap to for the base mounts for my bracket. At first I attempted to use 22 gauge sheet metal, but found it to be too flimsy and went with something a bit thicker. Make sure to carefully mark you holes and use a center punch before drilling to get the best results. Also I found it very useful to have the actual radiator on hand for this part of the project as these old Chevy radiators are far from straight. I made up for this by making my mounting brackets parallel to each other, but not to the radiation. The fan shroud itself is pretty straight so I did not have to do much in that area.



Clamp everything down good and weld it up. Thanks to Steve at Hotrods to Hell for the help with the welds.



Here is a look at the final welded bracket. All looks good so far.



I removed the fans from the shroud and bolted it up to my bracket to see how everything fits together. It all looks good. A benefit of Derale’s design is that the fans can be removed individually from the fan shroud in the event that they require service down the road.



Here is a second view of the bracket that gives you an idea of how everything went together.



Here is the whole radiator and fan assembly with the fans reinstalled. Looks nice and clean and it is strong enough that I can pick up the whole radiator using the fan shroud. I also like the fact that the bracket is nice and hidden behind the fan shroud.



Here is the fan assembly mounted in the car.



Another view of the complete assembly mounted in the car.

Wiring:

The installation of an electric fan requires a simple, but important bit of wiring and electrical work. Here is a picture of the Ford starter solenoid that I will be using to route power to my fans. I picked up this $5 starter solenoid out of a late 80′s Ford Taurus of which there are plenty in most local pic-ur-part style junkyards. On the Taurus that I got this from it was mounted on the driver side inner fender.

After doing more reasearch I discoved that the Ford solenoid is not rated for a constant duty cycle and will not work, fortunatly I have discovered an elegant solution that I figured couldn’t hurt to try. Delta Current Control offers an electric fan controller the adjusts fan speed to keep your coolant temperature in a close range as opposed to a relay and temp switch that will allow your temperature to fluctuate quite a bit. I ordered the #VC-1260 (60 Ampere Controller) and #TS-104 (Radiator Temp Sensor) from the DCC paypal store.

My part arrived from DCC within about a week, and I quickly installed it. Since I had already run most of the wires needed, installation took me only about 15 minutes.



Mount the controller on the radiator core support.



Hook the controller up to power with the supplier fusable link.



Connect the fan and thermal probe to the DCC unit.



Close up view of the thermal probe.

Let me just say, this product has been working wonderfully. So far I have given it the Taco Bell drive through test, a 100 mile freeway drive, stop and go traffic, and a trip to LACR and I could almost swear my gauge is stuck at just over 195 degrees. I run a 195 thermostat so this is correct for my situation. Read a more detailed description of this product here in the DCC Product Spotlight.

Performance Testing and Final Thoughts:

I ran the car at LACR before the installation of the electric fans to establish a baseline for performance. The switch pitch stall converter on my TH-400 allows many options so I ran once with it in high stall and one in low stall.
Baseline Performance:

• 14.296@94.065MPH – High Stall
• 14.863@99.200MPH – Low Stall
• Best trap speed – 101.82
• Best ET – 14.296

Sources:
If you use any of the vendors listed, let ‘em know you saw them here.

Hotrods to Hell, Inc
100 East Prospect Ave
Burbank, Ca 91012
818.842.4360
www.hotrodstohell.net

Derale
3901 Medford Street
Los Angeles, CA 90063
800.421.6288
www.derale.com

Delta Current Control
www.dccontrol.com

Industrial Metal Supply
8300 San Fernando Rd.
Sun Valley, CA 91352
800.371.4404
www.industrialmetalsupply.com

Additional Reading:
Dyno testing on fans, alternators and oil…..all here!

Said to be the “world’s oldest continuously operated drag strip” the Inyokern Dragstrip was opened at the Inyokern Airport in September of 1954. Federal Aviation Administration safety regulations now being imposed on the strip have forced its closure. The strip was operated by the Dust Devils Auto Club and its website is located at www.inyokerndragstrip.com.

It is sad to see such a long standing piece of hot rod history get closed down, but at least I can preserve a little bit of it here on the hot rod homepage.

I took a look at my website statistics for the first time in a while and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Hot Rod Homepage is listed as an external link on the Wikipedia’s hot rod page. I guess this site is moving up in the world.

I really need to hunker down and get some more stuff up here on the site. Right now the gallery section is by far the most popular area, so I guess that means that I need to have more pictures in my articles. I am going to DriftDay in Fontana this saturday and a car show in South Pasadena on sunday so I will be sure to snap a bunch of pictures to share with you guys.