This really sucks...

I got my 66 Barracuda back from the shop a couple of weeks ago - not running. This really sucks, I was expecting to be driving it by now. A couple of days before I was supposed to pick it up, the shop who did my transmission conversion and installed the engine told me the engine was running great, everything was working good... then the day I'm supposed to pick it up they call and tell me something's wrong with the engine. Get engine builder to come by the house to take a look and almost all the valves are sticking. "Could be caused by bad gas" in which case I'll have to pay to get it fixed. WTF??? How come no one told me this could happen? I mentioned to the engine builder that the car had been sitting for a few years, no mention of draining the tank. The shop that did the conversion - they were told too... in fact they couldn't get the car started until they removed the gas line from the tank to the carb and blew it out. Another clue to the experts I hired that maybe something was wrong with the gas in the car??? Some of my friends said I "should have known" to drain the tank after the car sat for so long - but I didn't, and that's why I hired experts - to make sure everything went OK. It seems like - at least this time - hiring the experts didn't help all that much.

Apologies to TTI

I wrote last time about my problems with the TTI headers I decided to run on my Barracuda. After talking to TTI and the shop doing the work (B&T Custom in Sparks, NV) it turns out the problem isn't the headers, it's the Keisler 5 speed transmission kit. When they sent me the kit, instead of the 1963-66 A Body kit I ordered they sent a kit for the 1967-69 A Body. The tail shaft on the later kit doesn't allow the transmission to sit high enough in the tunnel which puts the engine at the wrong angle. This pushes the bottom front of the headers into the steering linkage, makes the driver's side torsion bar rub on the headers, and even causes fan clearance problems. I'm hoping Keisler will send me the right parts to correct this problem but so far I don't have much confidence. I know it's been awhile since I bought the kit but it was their mistake so I feel they should make could on it. It's bad enough paying extra labor to the shop to swap in the correct parts. Having to pay just to get the correct parts would be adding insult to injury. It was a fricken' $5000 kit...

Barracuda Header Problems - Starter

When I decided on a high performance 318 for my Barracuda, I didn't want it choked off with the stock exhaust manifolds so I bought a (very expensive) set of TTI headers. I knew there would be issues - the Barracuda engine compartment doesn't exactly have a lot of room. I didn't know what a P.I.T.A. those issues would be though. The most annoying one is the starter. In the instructions, TTI calls for a specific starter that is no longer made. Other mini starters, even so-called "clockable" starters, won't fit. I got ahold of TTI and they refered me to another vendor who makes starters that supposedly work with the TTI headers. Called them yesterday and found out they do make the starter, but they're missing some parts for it and won't be able to ship until Feb 15. OK so if I can find a starter that works, so what, right? Well, no. What if the starter goes bad and there is no longer anyone making a replacement that will work? I'm screwed I guess. I wish now that I would have gone with Doug's Headers. They're harder to find than the TTI's but from what I've read don't have TTI's issue with the starter (or with the pitman arm, bellhousing size, ...) Oh well, live and learn I guess. I don't want to have to go back to a stock exhaust...