[Electronic M]

I've been planning to take da Batmobile to the ETF meet so some sprucing up has been under way.

2 weeks ago: oil change.

Last week: new master brake cylinder. The old master cyl was leaking badly on the seal facing the booster (and probably internally too). With the old master the brake fluid dropped almost 1/2" in under 20miles on it's last drive, and was spooky unreliable/spongy. The new master is not having any noticeable drop in reservoir level over a longer test span, and brake performance is perhaps the best since I've owned it. I think I've finally got the brakes right!


Yesterday: New Muffler. Unfortunately could not duplicate the tail pipe section aft of it. The stores don't stock bend sections sharper than 45 degrees and near 90 was needed....Tried to heat and bend a 45 to 90 but barely had any effect. Tried a local exhaust shop but they could not duplicate the pipe on time or within budget. Boo!


Got a chance to run it with the muffler off...It had epic muscle car sound, but it likes to backfire sans muffler...

With the new muffler it is whisper quiet. Me and my friend were joking while cruising "is the engine running? I can't hear it". Even floored there is little more than a mild "wooosh" from the exhaust with the new muffler. Now I can hear my radio without cranking it with the throttle. Part of me liked hearing the engine roar and burble too, with old bad exhaust, but a ~6 hour drive to the ETF with that volume level probably translates to hearing loss (and I've been MADE to NOT take it to interviews because the folks thought the exhaust noise made a bad impression)...

Just test packed it for the ETF and it did not seem to like being driven under that much load. I was having a hard time getting it over 50MPH. It was sputtering like (hard to tell with the exhaust squelching it) the 2 previous times it randomly sputtered and stalled (which I complained about in my last post)...Then it smoothed out after some time floored and started gaining speed. I think I'll try finding the fuel filter and if it don't have one I'll try adding one. She seems do the random sputter and sometimes stall bit when below a quarter tank I've noticed. I'll probably drive her with less than a full load of TVs (I'll stick to claimed sets) to go easy on the suspension and the less than 100% carb and transmission.