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2nd "First Run"

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: 2nd "First Run"
From: "Jim Muller" <jimmuller@pop.mail.rcn.net>
Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 19:03:35 -0400
We took the GT6 out for another excursion today!  It was the 2nd long 
run of the year, and the first long run after putting the gearbox 
back in in pursuit of the chirping TO bearing.  Departed the suburbs 
west of Boston and headed up to Rye Beach for a late picnic lunch.  
Don't know the distance because the odomoter is still sound asleep...

The weather was cool and overcast but that made no difference to 
either us or the car.  The big 6 (okay, medium 6) purred (okay, 
roared) the whole time.  Sometimes we were out on I95, other times 
puttering along on 1A.  Didn't make any difference!  Life is good.

There are still two things I'd like to improve.  The exhaust smells 
too much like unburned hydrocarbons, and leaves us smelling like them 
too after a while.  And the engine roars inside the car with a 
modertely mind-numbing 150 Hz hum, rpm-dependent, of course.  
Yesterday I pushed the timing up 2 degrees to see what would happen.  
It seems like the throttle response is better and the engine launches 
from a standstill more smoothly, requiring less clutch slip.  The 
exhaust smell seems to have decreased.  But the roaring went from a 
narrow band 2000-3000 rpms to all the tach over whenever the 
throttles are opened even a bit over coasting.  (It's strange, but 
the sound doesn't seem to bother my dear spouse, though it sure 
bothers me.)  The engine doesn't ping except under full throttle in 
4th gear and then only moderately.  Anyway, I'm open to suggestions.  
Are the exhaust smell and sound indicative of anything?  More 
advance?  Less?  Or carb tweaks?  It has two SU's, not ZS's.  I'd try 
leaner except that when I was first getting them set up they always 
seemed to be running too lean.

The good news is that the car ran very well, and the gearbox and 
clutch behaved.  The dear spouse is now convinced that this is the 
car we should be using for some of our weekend camping trips up the 
the White Mountains this summer, and Acadia Natl. Park this fall!  In 
fact, she'd much rather go in the GT6 than in our Caravan.  Too bad 
the GT6 can't carry a canoe.  That would be too much of a good thing!

-- 
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+

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