1979 Malibu

[TireSmoker]

Made it Paul's house and back successfully in Maliboost tonight! This is the first real road miles I've put on it. Google maps said 41 miles round trip.

The front air dam has made a substantial difference. It goes down the road at basically 180*. It'll climb to 190 at a traffic light, but it will come back down again as you start moving. On a good downhill run, it went down to 170. I let it idle when I got home and it climbed to 200. This thing isn't gonna be great idling for 5+ minutes. But I think I can deal with this as it is.

[Blue_69_malibu]

All the Cool Kids are hanging out there this week.

Glad you made it there and back successfully.

Next up....Lorain County!!!

[GMJohnny]

I read a post on an El Camino forum where a guy stated that he never uses a thermostat
that’s cooler than 180* because, at that temp, the thermostat holds the coolant in the
radiator longer than a 160*, or no thermostat at all. It’s an interesting concept. What
thermostat do you run?

GM

[TireSmoker]

I have a 160 in there now. I'm not sure I buy that concept, though. Once everything is relatively heat soaked, say after 20-30 minutes of driving, the thermostat is not gonna be opening/closing, its more or less gonna stay open and you're gonna have relatively constant water flow/circulation. Maybe this is an incorrect assumption??

I guess the question is -- how much of a flow restriction (gallons/minute?) is a 180 stat at 180 degrees, versus a 160 stat at 180 degrees?

[MostMint]

There is a certain flow rate where the water will move too quickly through the radiator to effectively cool it. Now I don't know all the dynamics of this my guess is the difference between 160 and 180 should not be that significant. You could probably run a gutted thermostat housing and this effect would not happen.

[GMJohnny]

I’ve always run 160* thermostats, but only on cold days do I see 160*
all the time on the temp gauge. Ironically, my last 2 Oldsmobiles cool
better than my El Camino does and that’s strange to me. I always thought
Chevy’s run super cool. We should research the topic so we know the
real truth.

GM

[TireSmoker]

So I learned there's a thing called a triple-pass radiator, which looks like its designed to keep the water in the radiator longer by making it go across three times.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-380325-3

[Basement Paul]

It's got solid reviews.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

I got the new seat belts installed last night. I went with a cam-lock style, and what an improvement over the ones that were in the car. Everything fits better, and it's easier to put them on / take them off. I moved the old seat belts to the passenger seat, although I still need to drill a couple holes for the lap belts.

I also got the fuel cell vent setup. I capped the fittings at the front, and drilled a hole behind the license plate for the rear vent hose to run through. Hopefully this will eliminate the occasional fuel smell inside.

[Basement Paul]

I would also recommend a breather filter or at least a fine screen of some sort for that hose. Being at the back of the car, there will be a lot of dirt and debris flying around while you're driving down the road, doing burnouts, etc that may potentially get breathed into that system.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

The Malibu made its street driven debut at Thompson on Wednesday. The good news is that is made it there and back without any real issues -- other than not being able to make a full pass due to an electrical issue. When I'd come off the line, on either the transbrake or footbrake, it would cut out electrically. It almost seemed related to suspension rise or something. I can see a reflection of a light-strip on the windshield going off and on when it happens. But I could hammer it on the return road (from a roll) without issue. It was a little frustrating, but it also felt really strong!!

Dang, this thing is LOUD inside. When you're just driving along, the transmission makes soooo much noise. It's not bad under power, but maintenance throttle or decel and it sounds awful. Enduring the noise is going to be one of the challenging parts of Drag Week.

[TireSmoker]

Well, I found the electrical issue.

A well placed zip-tie may have prevented that.

I ran a new cable, added split-loom** around the positive cable and the alternator cable.

I changed where the fuel cell vent hose hooks up.

I got the passenger seat belts fully installed.

I am super-excited to head out Wednesday and make some more 10 second passes.

** Gwen told me this was called hide-a-wire.

[TireSmoker]

Holy cow, I did it! I made 3 passes tonight, and only 1 was in the 10s. The other two were in the 9s!! And I drove it there and back. Soooo excited!

These pics were taken by Mike Trimboli on on the 9.96 pass, my first ever 9.

[wxo]

Congratulations, Dave. You built yourself one heck of a racecar!

[Basement Paul]

Technically, it's a streetcar!

-BP