My oldest son is up visiting from Utah for a few days (yeah!). Last weekend he summited Mt. Baker as part of a glaciering class, which gives him some experience on the wet western Washington snow (vs. the dry Utah snow).

RACE JEEP:

On Wednesday we got out the Race Jeep so we could loosen the steering a little (there was a slight bind that I’ve meant to correct for a while). The hope was that the stars would finally align and Ann and I could hit the Moonshiner’s race this weekend in Randall.

However, while driving the race jeep out on Wed I noticed some smoking from the engine (hood was off). We discovered some some oil (a few Tablespoons maybe) had splashed from the front passenger side lower engine corner area (still not sure where), that hit the radiator hose and front pumpkin as we were driving. I cleaned up the oil, but rain and a dead battery (another puzzle, as I have a battery disconnect) forced us to give up the search for the leak.

Later that evening, I looked for leaking oil under the racer, but saw nothing obvious (to me anyway).

On Thursday, the weather improved greatly, so after some chores we got out the racer and idled it, but didn’t see any flash of oil. So, we drove it around some. Once again, we spotted some excess oil on the radiator hose.

After some investigation, we figured out the oil was coming out a bolt hole in the block just above the mechanical fuel pump attachment point. I’m not all that familiar with Chev 350s, but a quick video showed me that a bolt needs to be there, so I don’t know why one isn’t there. Perhaps it fell off?? See pics below:

See top hole … I believe that should have a bolt. So, I’ll try that!

GLASSES UPDATE:

Meanwhile, the company making my new glass lens are still a few days away from shipping them, in part because, due to the prescription, they aren’t sure if they will fit my frames or not .. ugh.  So, even without the oil issue, I wouldn’t be able to see the track well enough to race.

So, it all sucks, but such is life.

FC PROGRESS:

As for the FC, more progress was made. I cleaned up and painted the gas pedal linkage, so now it’s ready for installation.  I also installed the gauges onto the bottom of the dash. I think the smaller size helps make them look less overwhelming vis-a-vis the dash. On the left side of the dash you might see an aluminum strip, which is a mockup for an angled bracket that will support the fuse box, which will rotate up when not being view (or so that’s the theory).