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Automotive
1987 Shelby CSX #694 of 750
This is my 1987 Shelby CSX that I've owned since 1998. It is number 694 out of 750 that were modified at Shelby Automobiles in Whittier, California. You can read the back story here. The car has somehow survived a move and a number of life change events, however I have not really done any serious work on it for about two decades. That has recently started to change....
The CSX: December 3, 2004
Posted on December 03, 2004.
Put the car to rest for the winter. The inner tripod on the passenger side axle is pretty loose and the car needs tires, but other than that it ran good all summer/fall. I do need to drop the oil pan and install the crank scraper, oil temp bung, and possibly some baffling. The one thing that got me at the driving school at SDAC was oil supply problems. By the end of the session the car was running pretty bad because of collapsed lifters.
The CSX: July 21, 2004
Posted on July 21, 2004.
On the road again. New intermediate shaft, new seals. Thanks to Dave for the crankshaft seal housing (had to strip the orange paint...sorry :). I still have a rattle coming from the tranny in neutral. I noticed that it doesn't rattle if I release the clutch slowly, so perhaps it has something to do with this 6-puck HD clutch disc. Nice to have A/C again.
The CSX: July 14, 2004
Posted on July 14, 2004.
I was doing some post-convention maintenance such as retorquing the head studs (which it didn't need, BTW), when I had a slight problem. While trying to track down a fuel leak I dropped one of the fuel rail bolts on the head, which of course went straight down the center oil return passage and into the oil pan. Grrr. While pulling the pan, I cracked the front crank seal housing. Grrr. I then noticed that the new intermediate shaft seal housing is also leaking. Grrr.
The CSX: July 1, 2004
Posted on July 01, 2004.
Well, another year, another convention. SDAC-14 was a blast as usual. I went home each night, which made it hard to get up at 5am for the car show and the driving school. The car show was pretty cool, as we were right along side the classic Mopars from the Chicago Mopar Connection. My dad had a good time checking out all the classic Mopars. I didn't bother showing the CSX because it was...well just ugly.
The performance driving school was awesome. I liked it even more than SDAC-10 (even though that one had the NASCAR oval). Blackhawk Farms is a really fun track and the weather was beautiful. I got a total of 6 sessions in and my instructor was with me the whole time. He really helped me a lot. The car was running a little lean at the top end. Some 100 octane stopped the pinging, but it still broke up on the straights after a couple of laps. I think I cured it the next day by raising the pumping effeciency table up a bit in the upper RPM range. Guess I'm flowing a bit better than stock...probably the ported exhaust manifold/bigger exhaust. By the end my rear brakes were toast. They sounded horrible, so I just put a new set of pads on since I couldn't find rotors that night.
The drags were fun, but a little quieter than usual in terms of participation. There was some scheduling confusion and the bracket races happened while everyone was eating lunch. I didn't realize until the end that time trials were still running between events. I would have run more if I had known. One thing on the Shelby that I have not been able to fix: the car won't boost past about 14-15psi, even with the wastegate unplugged. I made a new BOV flange, swapped Talon BOVs, replaced the ribbed, upper hose, etc. Nothing helped. It's either a boost leak in the intercooler or somewhere that I can't see or the wastegate actuator is toast. The turbo is getting rather sloppy on the compressor side and there seems to be some oil in the IC now when there wasn't before the headgasket change. I have a feeling that it's on the way out. Grrr.
My best run was the first of the day: 14.737sec @ 96.35mph:
| Reaction | 60ft | 1/8 ET | 1/8 mph | 1/4 ET | 1/4 mph | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.174 | 2.325 | 9.596 | 77.14 | 14.737 | 96.35 | First run of the day, 13-14psi boost |
| 0.594 | 2.473 | 9.915 | 74.04 | 15.345 | 90.05 | Still 13-14psi of boost, can't get more. |
| 0.796 | 2.428 | 9.785 | 73.99 | 15.224 | 90.18 | Consistent... |
| 0.421 | 2.406 | 9.674 | 74.44 | 15.048 | 91.42 | Getting closer... |
| 0.241 | 2.497 | 10.664 | 68.23 | 16.309 | 87.75 | Spinning bad through the antifreeze left by the New Yorker... |
| 0.560 | 2.679 | 10.222 | 74.72 | 15.504 | 93.69 | Spun bad on this one too (again behind the leaking NYer). |
| 0.580 | 2.357 | 9.707 | 74.54 | 15.011 | 93.22 | Finally getting some traction, but can't break into the 14s again. |
The CSX: June 27, 2004
Posted on June 27, 2004.
Well, on my way to Dave's house for the SDAC-14 early bird BBQ, the car completely died about 3 miles from his place. I managed to roll it into a gas station. I thought it was the HEP, as I got fuel pressure when I turn the ignition on, but upon further inspection, I noticed that the distributer rotor had about 180 degrees of slop.
Luckily, JT had his truck and trailer up at Dave's and was able to drive down and haul the beast back up to Dave's garage. A bit of disassembly confirmed that the intermediate shaft and oil pump gears were toast. The teeth were simply worn away to oblivion. I'm alittle unclear what causes this failure. It looks like a lack of lubrication to me.
Dave and Kate, being the cool people that they are, put me up for night and then Dave took me to the parts store in the morning. Dave had a selection of used intermediate shafts from various motors and I bought a new Melling oil pump from Autozone. After getting it all back together, the car ran like a champ. All the idle problems, pinging weirdness, and revving problems were gone. She pulls hard to 6k. Thanks guys!
