become an item that might move from beater status to collectable status this week end is the Phoenix Swap meet held at the State Fair Grounds. Set up is on Friday and the activities begin at O-Dark-30 On Saturday the 5th continuing on into Sunday the 6th including a cash pay out car show on Sunday. You never know who or what will be found and if there is any chance some Saturn parts might be available this is the time and place to look for them. The one held last Thanksgiving Week End I scored some hard to find Seat Belt pieces form my Spirit and some unique Spark Plug wire accessories which I hope to expand on this week end along with some Chrome Script work my nephew was looking for to fit on his Lincoln Continental Low Rider.

http://www.phoenixcarswapmeet.com/

It has also been on the local news here in Phoenix that Firebird the Drag Race complex on land leased from the Indian Reservation South of town will close in April.
Where it might move to or IF it will move is open for conjecture at this point in time.

And little has been said about what role if any Speed World which is on the N.W. side of town may play in expanding their activities.

So if there are any readers with in reasonable driving distance of greater down town Phoenix, this is a good week end to make the trip.

 

Unc...............I work weekends, every weekend. Thats why I've not been to the Bird for some time. When it comes to Speed World I've never been there and may never be.

 

Other than it would be nice to afford things, being disabled and all I haven't had a full time job since 1999 and frankly haven't been there either. I used to live with in proverbial walking distance to Pomona and was only there once and that was a herculean effort to see Don Garlets run and it was worth making the trip. But speed world is around the corner so to speak and is a bit laid back and have been out there. I have enjoyed it.
There is a club activity there the end of month and I usually bracket race my Fuel Injected Spirit but it has developed a sever miss fire under acceleration I have not figured out. I think it is fuel starvation but I don't know why and it is not obvious to me as to what is causing it.
At the moment I am kicking myself for not purchasing a fuel pressure gauge at the swap meet last week end. I could have mounted it and monitored fuel pressure. It was cheap enough at the time but it did not dawn on me to do so.
I really hate it when a good idea escapes me.

 

If it's at the high end of RPM's it could also be valve float, or the points could be floating if your not running electronic ignition. Can be hard to find sure hope you do.

 

As a transplant from the San Fernando Valley area of California, I, also made the trip several times to the Ponoma Fairgrounds. True, it was a different era, with Tommy Ivo, Garlits, and the rest, with minimal facilities and sponsorships, but highly exciting non-the-less.

 

I'd forgotten this comment, should not have but did. So many times when pursuing the automotive hobby diagnostics become guess work due to most of us are working at some form of deficit of either knowledge, time or money resulting in the need for some one with either more of one or another or just to talk to to brain storm something with. A tool you don't have or a piece of information that is missing or just company I think. This car has had a history of eating fuel pumps. Now after some almost 13 years since being assembled frankly a lot of things could be the problem but those things are overshadowed by a continuing problem rather than a logical approach as dictated by the symptom. Also the lack of the before mentioned fuel pressure gauge.
A tool that frankly I never found a need for on a carbureted car. The reason I think is that mechanical fuel pumps are easier to diagnose as being a problem. However since fuel injection has become common a tool to measure fuel pressure seems to be an important thing to know when it comes to diagnosing things.
So now i actually have and use regularly, a rather expensive fuel pressure gauge usable only for fuel injection due to the pressures involved.
So lacking something though that gives a real time reading when driving I changed the fuel pump on this car. Why? Suspicion and I had a spare. The things run well over $100.00 a piece and I have gone through 4 or 5 of them.
The conversion to fuel injection from carburation is not cheap. Thus approaching doing one is rarely one of need it is one of curiosity and the excersizing pursuing your enjoyment of the hobby.
WhY? Because frankly fuel injection rarely does anything much better than a carburetor and if also an engine management product the existing distributor. The argument for example commonly given on using an electronic conversion for a set of point is, "Well you no longer have to adjust them!" A statement that is true, but is that worth a $100.00 expense for a substitute for a set of points that cost $6.00 and effectively does exactly the same job?
Only I guess if you are really lousy at adjusting points and have $94.00 which gets back to the fuel pump. I have spent $500.00 on fuel pumps in 13 years on this car. Is it worth the $3500.00 in parts it cost me to to the conversion?
Frankly no.
And as in this case the fuel pump is external from tank the pick up in the tank is not positioned in the most ideal location to be able to get enough gas when the tank is below half full due to the volume of fuel pumped in a complete cycle from the tank, to the pressure regulator and then back through to the tank again if you hit a steep hill or some form of acceleration the fuel sloshes and the pick up is exposed to air. And depending on the time taken to cover the pick up with gas again the pump will run dry and start to damage itself.
So I gambled another $100.00 pump to see if would fix it and it did.
But had I had a fuel pressure gauge mounted to where I could see it I probably would have seen the pressure spike low when the engine started to miss-fire.
Why this route? The problem only happened when the tank was half full, so I was suspicious the fuel pump had been damaged but not to the point of total failure.
Of course with all the transducers available now I wonder on the newer versions of manufactured cars if there is an error code for lack of fuel pressure.
One of these days I am going to have to purchase a Scan tool for second generation fuel injections systems now that functionality and prices have become so darned good that they are cost effective for us shade tree mechanics to actually own. The use of one will effectively identify problems so well that not having to guess as much and buying expensive replacement parts to try to solve something is less of a problem, the tool will pay for itself the first time it is used by some one.
But again from a cost standpoint, my new engine I am building with have a Distributor with a $6.00 set of points and a carburetor.
Why? I have an almost new good used distributor that will work very well and 5 carburetors. The distributor ran $35.00 at a swap meet and the carburetors cost well under $100.00 total over a couple of years of collecting stash. And the intake manifold was $150.00 new but a Chinese knock off of an Edelbrock Air Gap. It was still a good buy.
So if I run a cost analysis only? $3500.00 for the fuel injection conversion in parts vs $350.00 maybe in parts to get this engine ready to run and hook up to the transmission?
You do the math. I have already. That is why I am using points and a carburetor.