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Orange 75 242 6.0L LS swap

Fresh shot from the latest Breakfast Club Rally in Carmel:

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full gallery of shots by Alex Nibyt: https://bcr.pic-time.com/-bcr08142021photosbyalexnibyt/gallery


I haven't posted here much but maybe I'll make a catch-up post. I've been doing a lot of work to the car and also taking it on various vintage rallys up and down California. I post most of my progress pictures on Instagram these days: https://www.instagram.com/toms_elleck/

We're getting ready to take the car on a 2000+ mile family road trip through Utah. I'm actually going to start a thread for that one, because I'm looking for suggestions of cool spots to see.
 
Fresh shot from the latest Breakfast Club Rally in Carmel:

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full gallery of shots by Alex Nibyt: https://bcr.pic-time.com/-bcr08142021photosbyalexnibyt/gallery


I haven't posted here much but maybe I'll make a catch-up post. I've been doing a lot of work to the car and also taking it on various vintage rallys up and down California. I post most of my progress pictures on Instagram these days: https://www.instagram.com/toms_elleck/

We're getting ready to take the car on a 2000+ mile family road trip through Utah. I'm actually going to start a thread for that one, because I'm looking for suggestions of cool spots to see.

What a great collection of cars. Of course your orange Volvo one of the standouts. Beautiful pics too very talented shooter there.

The gullwing looks like it might be the Kindig car?
 
Got some 140 hubcaps

There's no way it's going to fit under there. So now I'm thinking I might use a longer bolt, and just tap and thread the center of the hub. Either that, or I'll figure something else out.

I'm trying to do something similar. What did you wind up doing to mount the caps?
 
I have not kept up with this thread, because I was putting all my updates in Instagram. But I just deleted all my Meta accounts, so I'm going to play a bit of catch up here.

back in 2021, I signed up for the Overcrest Rally and took my whole family. This ended up being a 3000+ mile road trip through some of Utah's most remote areas including dirt roads, 9000+ft mountain passes, a bit of snow, and endless smooth sweeping curves. It was a life changing experience that I highly recommend. We ended up on their home page!
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Overcrest Rally home page
As you can imagine, this is pretty demanding on the car, and the passengers. It took a bit of prep to take the car from essentially a project to a reliable and safe vehicle.

First of all, I had to get serious about the suspension. Between the 4 of us plus all our luggage for 2 weeks, I had to make sure the suspension was ready. So I bought a set of BNE coilovers, mostly so that I could adjust the height up if needed due to bad roads or the cargo weight. I kept the spring rates super light so that the family would be comfortable, but tighter than factory. If I remember right, I ended up at something around 250lb front and 130lb rear? I can't quite remember now. Ben warned me that it might be too soft, and I think he was right. I did end up bottoming out a few times in both the front and back.

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Opted for some Continental DWS tires, to be useful on the gravel as well as twisty roads. They proved to be so good that I've put another two sets on the car since then. I love them.

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I already had the IPD aluminum skid plate on the car, but I thought it might be a good idea to cut some air exhaust holes in it. I meant to come back and put louvered panels or thick wire mesh in there, but I didn't get around to it. I am not sure if this made any difference, but the car didn't get hot even on the really tall 9000+ft mountain passes in 90+ degree heat through the desert, with the A/C on full blast.

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Speaking of A/C, that was another big part of this prep. Jeff, 55superbeetle, helped me put it all together. I ended up using my stock airbox under the dash (which is a limiting factor here, and was something I should have switched), the GM Truck compressor (which was a problem as it has some sort of variable displacement thing that can't be controlled right. I should have used a new aftermarket compressor), aftermarket condensor, new 240 dryer, new 240 valve, new 240 blower motor, and a ton of butyl tape, insulation, sound deadening, etc..
I'm really grateful for all the AC threads on Turbobricks for helping me figure this out. And extra grateful for Jeff for helping me crimp the lines, charge the system, and especially for correcting all the stuff I was doing wrong.


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I don't know if I've mentioned the seats in this thread. I found a stupid good deal on a set of orange spectrums and put those in. Total game changer, although I do need to have the driver's seat reupholstered. I just picked up a few yards of fabric that a friend was holding for years, which is awesome. I just need to find a place that can rebuild the bolsters and restitch the seats.

The interior is super important for keeping the family happy, so I installed a couple of DVD players for the kids, and a set of cupholders. We stopped every couple of towns and got RedBox movies for them. Kind of funny to pick up movies in CA and return them in UT or NV, then pick up more and return those back in CA. I insisted that all screens were turned off whenever we got off the interstate, so that the kids would look out the window and be bored. It worked out really well, with minimum complaining and fighting. We also kept the glovebox stocked with candy and snacks.

I zip-tied a BMW E46 cupholder insert right onto my e-brake handle. It was a desperate last-minute addition which has proven so useful that it's now still there 4 years later! haha

I didn't have a speedometer, so I downloaded Realdash app on my phone and put a magnetic mount right in front of the speedometer. Worked well for GPS speed and also for coolant temperature, using a wi-fi dongle on the OBD2 port.


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I picked up a stock Silverado muffler, to get the drone down as little as possible. Not shown, I also added a resonator from the Silverado, just in front of the rear axle. This helped tremendously to get the car quiet, but it also robbed some power. Come to find out, after 13 hours straight from CA to UT, I got out of the car to find the fuel pump screaming for its life. The rear muffler caused so much restriction it was heating not only the gas tank, but the entire trunk. The rear bumper was too hot to touch. This proved to be a problem, so I've since gone back to the flowmaster. I really need to redo the exhaust to be a dual 2.5" setup. This time with electronic cutouts.

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OK and finally, I had to do something to hold all of our luggage. The trunk is huge, but not quite huge enough. Best I could come up with was a craigslist Yakima cargo box. It was $50 but it looked like crap. So I got a few cans of rattlecan and got to work. What would go with the orange paint... how about a Gulf livery?

I almost left it baby blue when I first saw it next to the car.
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a TON of crap up there. Spare parts, tools, icechest, baby stuff, clothes, water shoes, camp chairs, blankets, pillow (so my wife could see over the steering wheel! haha), first aid kit, emergency food and water, kids' toys... I don't even remember what else. We only needed like 25% of it. But I wasn't going to take a chance, this being the first long road trip with the whole family.
 
The rally was a glowing success. We left in the early evening and I drive through the night, then my wife could take over in the morning sometime. I figured that the kids would stay awake through part of the initial ~6 hours through California. We stopped for dinner and then they all fell asleep for a few hours. They woke up in Barstow when I stopped for gas at like 4am and then went back to sleep until the sun came up. My wife took over in Arizona after we stopped for breakfast.

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By the way, with the stock tank and a car full of ~900lbs of people and cargo, the 6.0L got pretty thirsty. I calculated the mileage at each fill up, and the best I got was 23mpg, the worst was 12mpg. It was super dependent on throttle input and elevation change. Going uphill at 80mph was atrocious on gas mileage. With the car unloaded going down the highway at 70mph, I have gotten 27mpg. But most typically it's around 17-18mpg because I can't help but push on that pedal. It really makes a huge difference.

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We made it! But this is where I discovered the fuel pump just screaming. I ordered a fuel pump to be sent to our hotel overnight. but in the end, the Walbro held on and kept working for the whole trip.


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The Overcrest Rally was a life changing event. They organize one in a different state each year, and in 2021 it was in Utah. We decided to drive the whole family out there for the 3 days of the rally event, and then we'd spend another week exploring Utah as a family vacation. Best trip ever! I think I logged just short of 3000 miles in 2 weeks, some of that on dirt roads and at elevations over 9000ft. Almost the entire time with the AC cranked up. The car was an absolute unit- keeping pace with Porsches loaded to the gills with our entire family. It was like it was made specifically for this kind of event.

The starting point was out in the middle of nowhere- a dirt parking lot in Monument Valley, the southeast corner of Utah. We gathered before daylight, and watched the sunrise in the desert.
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Within the first hour, we were driving up the Moki Dugway. This is a gravel road that goes up a cliff overlooking Monument Valley. It's technically a state highway, but that seems very surprising because it has hardly any guardrails. It was pretty well maintained and somewhat smooth, although I did bottom out a couple of times. The vast openness was almost impossible to take in. What an experience.

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From there, the rally consisted of two full days of some of the most breathtaking scenery I've seen. Pictures don't do it justice. Beautiful smooth roads, huge elevations gains, and everything from forest, all colors of rock and sand, we even found snow. Lots of stopping, climbing, and swimming. Just way too cool. Utah is beautiful.



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The rally ended at an old drive-in theater, in a town 2 hours south of Salt Lake City. The Overcrest crew had prepared a movie festival, so we watched those short films, drank beers, ate snack bar food and swapped rally stories. It was the perfect end to an amazing weekend.
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Overcrest rally video:

And the Film Fest is worth watching too (especially the film that starts at 51:30):
 
About time you’re back
Takes more than that to keep me away.

Going to miss your instagram updates but glad you’re here
I loved the ease of posting there, but it's for the best.

So after the rally, we spent a week spending our family vacation seeing more of Utah. We headed over to Moab, visited Canyonlands and Arches, and went to see the dinosaurs. Great time.

The car looked funny in Moab, the land of tall Jeeps.
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After 4 days in Moab, we headed back through Escalante. Highway 12 is epic. We stayed at Yonder Escalante (now name changed to Ofland) which was an old drive-in theater that has been repurposed into a fancy glamping spot. They have tiny homes and Airstream trailers that you can rent, or you can stay in an RV or tent site. They've kept the Drive-in screen operating, and even collected a bunch of vintage cars for you to sit in and watch the movies. We watched The Breakfast Club in a Dodge Polara.

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While we were there, I chose to address the loud fuel pump. Moab has great auto parts stores, so I bought some header wrap to try and keep the pipe from heating the gas tank so badly. Formed a nice pile of rocks to give me enough room to work, and I used a trash can from our tiny home to wet the fiberglass wrap. That helps it lay nice and flat, and also seems to help from getting so much of it stuck in your skin.
In the end, I'm not sure this made so much of a difference. And it was the only repair I had to make to the car on the whole trip.

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After Escalante, we hit Bryce National Park before heading home.

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We drove through Las Vegas on the way home, because the kids wanted to stay at a hotel with a water park. It was a mistake- I should have taken the northern route on Hwy50. But I will save that for another road trip.


It was an epic trip. The kids and my wife loved it, and I was so proud of the car. I pulled the rally sticker off the front fenders and kept one inside the trunk lid.
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