1972 Maverick Sprint - Phase 2

[Maverick]

One of the things that is contributing to the Maverick's cold bloodedness is an electric choke that comes off too fast. I think its totally open in about 20 or 30 seconds.

There are temp-sensitive switches that delay power to the elect choke till the intake manifold is warmed up but they are expensive.

Tried a free solution today. The resistor wire that powered the original points distributor became unused when the electronic distributor got full 12V power. Removed the 12V lead from the choke and connected the resistor wire which is delivering 9.75 volts. That oughta slow the choke opening some.

[oldvettedad]

Just looking over your comparison of the 347 to the 302. That is some substantial increase in HP and Torque! It oughta be fun

[Maverick]

Got the Maverick weighed today at Mayflowers Moving. Very friendly, no waiting, $10 fee, and they gave me a print out. 3000 lbs ON THE NOSE!!

[Racin'Jacin]

Good Luck with the electric choke! Never had much luck with them. I have an "automatic" choke on my old truck - it seems to work better now that I have the spring assembled correctly inside it. I still think a manual one would sometimes be better ;-/

[Maverick]

Don't want a choke knob on the dash if I can avoid it. Think it would really look aout of place on the Sprint. This is one time -- only time I can think of -- I prefer esthetics over function.

Put a 10 ohm/100 watt resistor in series with the choke heater. At today's temperature, it opened at a good rate. Still has to idle for a minute or more to get it in gear without stalling. It stays on the fast idle cam longer which helps.

[Racin'Jacin]

Well if it doesn't work out you can always hide it somewhere - inside the glove box perhaps.

Or you could go high tech and put a small linear actuator hooked up to a manual choke rod and control it with a switch that you could disguise as the cigarette lighter.


You could have some real fun with this...depending on your definition of fun!!


Jacin

[Maverick]

I LIKE the cigarette lighter idea. That has real possibilities.

Would you believe the Maverick doesn't have a glove box?

[MostMint]

How about a servo on a remote control?

[Maverick]

Since the beginning the custom exhaust has had an annoying drone/resonance. On our trip to the NPD show in Silver Springs, FL last Jan, bro Willy wore ear plugs. The original exhaust system had 3-chamber Magnaflows, which I thought would be nice and was disappointed with the drone.

Went back to the exhaust shop and had them replace the Magnaflows with Thrush Turbos. That reduced the drone to a tolerable level.

Then came the 347 and, with it, an annoyingly loud drone again.

I stopped in a different custom muffler shop this morning to see what they might recommend. They weren't real positive about any solution. Owner is a great guy who, I think, didn't want to over promise and have a disappointed customer.

But when I said I'd be satisfied with a 50%-80% reduction in drone, he opined that 12" glass packs as resonators would probably get at least a 50% reduction. He was right.

I wasn't really expecting to get it done today -- so I didn't get before and after recordiings -- but he installed them while I waited.

Drone is cut by 60%-70% I guess, which cuts the annoyance factor by a lot more than that. Wish it hadn't reduced the other "noise" so much but its fine. Probably not going to intimidate anyone at a light now.

If I had to do the exhaust over again I'd take it to this shop, Henry's on Capitol Blvd in Raleigh.

[Maverick]

Went back to PCM this morning for completion of the dyno tune. Eric replaced the primary accelerator pump with a 50 cc, went to a more aggressive accel pump cam, and changed the main jets from 71s to 73s (if I remember right). There's still a slight, occasional hesitation but hardly noticeable. It a lot smoother under light throttle. Decided to leave it there at least for a while.

Eric also took a couple of degrees of timing out to eliminate occasional spark knock when starting.

The car is nicer to drive now -- quieter with the glass pack resonators and smoother with the new carb parts.

Here's hoping the weather is good on Sunday for the 2012 opening of the Greensboro 1/8th mile for T&T.

[Maverick]

I'm frustrated to say that the 347 is STILL not right. It ran well for a while with new plugs after the PCM "tune" but after driving it around town for a while it went back to serious hesitation, back firing thru the carb, and flutter under light throttle. I took it back to the engine builder two weeks ago. He's fiddled with the carb and thinks its probably OK now and suspects the new MSD distributor. He's going to try an MSD CD box (shoud NOT be necessary for this engine) and a different MSD distributor. Its not been much fun lately.

[Maverick]

A couple of posts on oldvettedad's project thread touched on the low priority of numbers matching parts on Mavericks. Didn't want to clutter up that project thread. This post today on mmb.maverick.to sums it up nicely. "Dennis", in the post, is the original owner of a beautiful Maverick Sprint.

Ok, here's my take. As much as we don't want to hear it, face the facts. Mavericks/Comets are grouped by most enthusiasts with the likes of Gremlins,Vegas,Pintos and the like. '70s econo cars. A few trim options do not make an econo car valuable. None of these cars are worth any more "correct" than a properly modded one. Notice I left out Dusters and Novas. Mopar and GM saw fit to actually offer hipo versions of these cars, which makes the "correct" stuff more important to those buyers. I think Mavericks/Comets are like old street rods in this respect: when modded properly they will always be worth more than a stocker. The allure to these cars are the clean lines, simplicity and most view them as a blank canvas.
Now, on to modded cars. I see Hines' car as an exellent example of a "what if Ford built 'em this way" car. Even though most stuff has been changed, it uses period correct pieces to show how you should've been able to get one. Craigs car is what they call a "day 2" car. Yea, it's got all the paint dabs/chalk marks and all that jazz, but the Cragars, slapper bars, dual pipes and all are usually the first things people done to them right after buying them. As far as cars like Dennis', I think he just done it the way HE wanted while keeping the original flavor. Which is cool. They're ALL cool. Does anyone think the aformentioned cars would be nearly as cool if the owners done 'em back to # match, 100% correct? No way. Build 'em like you want. If you want original # match to mean anything at sell time, go buy a Mach 1 or RS/SS.

[oldvettedad]

Build 'em like you want. If you want original # match to mean anything at sell time, go buy a Mach 1 or RS/SS.

Makes a lot of sense! Build it for your enjoyment. I am seeing more of this in the Corvette community too!

[Maverick]

Well, I'm cautiously optimistic ... the Maverick is home again. Picked it up from the engine builder in Charlotte. He replaced the new MSD distributor and installed an MSD 6AL ignition box. From what I've read the 6AL shouldn't be necessary with this engine but I'm ready to have it if it solves the problem. The advantage of stronger spark and multiple sparks at lower RPMs might help the idle and keep the plugs clean. Anyway, it ran well on the test drive and on the 150 miles of Interstate drive home. The real test comes when I drive it around town for a while. Think most guys buy the MSD box for better spark at high RPMs and for high compression engines. I have it for stronger, multiple sparks at low RPMs.

I also bought a TCI 2500 stall converter from him which I haven't installed yet. Didn't feel a need for more torque on launch but the looser converter should let it idle a little freer and allow the engine to flare up into RPMs where it runs better. I don't expect a problem with transmission temperature since it currently stays in the 150*-180* range. Don't mind having it heat up some from there.

The modulator will also get adjusted in another 1/2 turn to let RPMs build a little before up shifting.

Would like to get a trip down the 1/8th mile before the converter swap and then again after the swap just to see what difference there is. Think WXO and I are both ready for the strip now. Just need to find a day when we can go.

[Fred32v]

Time slips will tell the story, but you have to be getting excited to see what you have created will do.
Also, it will be interesting to see what that converter will eventually do to improve things even more.