Car/Truck Report

["piper_pa20" <piper_pa20@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since you guys are my car guy connection I thought I would give a little
summary of my recent activities.

I retrieved my son's 95 Chevy S-10 pickup from San Francisco a few weeks ago
and finally got it running good and ready for smog test and sale.  It needed
a new fuel pump (in tank, and the tank was brim full of fuel) plus all four
new fuel injectors AND the fuel pressure regulator.  The engine is the GM
2.4L which doesn't have a great reputation I found out, with 130,000 miles.
Now it runs good.  My final difficulty was a fuel leak at the pressure
regulator and after buying a new fuel line from Chevy, I discovered that all
it needed was the correct size (larger) O-ring.  Live and learn.  I didn't 
know much about fuel injection when I started this project, but I got the 95 
S-10 manuals (four book set) off of Ebay and also bought a Chilton's which 
was helpful.  It's great to learn enough to actually be able to fix one of 
these "modern" vehicles.

I recently started working on my 70 BBO javelin (304/auto) which had sat in
a field since 1978.  I brought it home several months ago and got it
running soon after, but because the cooling system was never really intact, 
I couldn't
really get the engine warm.  Tonight I closed up the cooling system with new
hoses and new heater valve (avaliable at Kragen's) and got the engine warm
for the first time in 27 years probably.  Amazingly there are no knocks and
unexpected rattles.  It runs rich at idle, but it might be a float level or 
idle
mixture problem with the Motorcraft 2-bbl carb.  I had rebult the carb but
I'll pull it off tomorrow and check the float setting and idle mixture basic
adjustment.  Any other suggestions are appreciated.  I would like to put 
this
car back on the road this summer and make it a fix and drive it type
project.  I see old Mustangs running around here on the central Coast and 
know that this old Javelin would get some comments.

Regards,
Joe Fulton