July 2001

Pat and I were not able to make it to the Sunbeam Invasion put on by Ian Spencer and his team. A bunch of folks did go and report that it was a great event. It was especially strong in the focus on and attendance of Alpines. I commend Ian and everyone who worked on it and attended it for a great event. Sorry I missed it.

The 347 stroker and 5-speed project has been consuming every possible moment I can give to it. You know the old saying "Difficult things are never easy." Well you know, simple things are never easy either! 

As I was rebuilding all the hydraulics, I noticed that the one of the axle seals was leaking and I had differential oil all over the brakes. I ordered the parts and proceeded with getting the engine running.

I got the engine and trans in and it was time to fire it up. I statically set the timing and all was ready. It fired a bit, backfired through the carb and would not run. I had just taken the distributor from the 302 so everything should have been fine. But wait a minute. What if the engine builder used the 351W firing order when he did the cam? He never sent me any paperwork on the engine (it was the last one he did before going out of business), so I was flying blind in a few areas. Turns out he did use the 351W firing order and my 302 used the 289 firing order. Easy to fix, just move four plug wires. It started then but did not run right. It turned out that the builder had put the timing tape on the harmonic balancer backwards so when it showed 12 degrees Before TDC, it was really 12 degrees AFTER TDC. Again, once I realized it, it was easily fixed and we had a running engine.

I took it for a 40 mile trial drive and all went very well. The engine ran perfectly and the car had lots of power and torque. Break-in considerations prevented me from really seeing what the car will do, but that time will come. The 5-speed was butter smooth and dropped the cruising rpm's to an acceptable level. 

Got the car home and checked it over. All was okay except for a leak around the speedo cable attachment to the trans. A little silicon was added and it looks like that one is licked. After the parts arrived, I rented an axle puller and pulled both axles and replaced both oil seals. The old ones (from a 1993 rebuild) used leather seals that were brittle and cracked. The new ones were rubber and looked like they should work better. 

In that short drive, it looked like the stroker would be running hotter than the 302, so I ordered a Griffin aluminum radiator. I will do a before and after on this radiator to report to you on the results.

I had gotten the hots for a set of larger wheels and, after a bunch of information gathering, decided on the 16 inch Panasports. That was a project in itself. I will have more info on it in a future column. 

By the way, have I mentioned that the 302 is for sale?

Let's get out there and show the world what a beautiful car the Sunbeam is. Drive it!