Thanks for the conversation guys. It would be pretty tight, might have to see if the local tyre shop can test fit a couple from his used pile and see how they sit. How bad is it bad if they touched sidewalls? There will never be any weight on the back that I can imagine. Also considered just putting them on the front as better steer tyres.

If they rub they can't flex properly and heat up causing premature failure.

The other issue is they are more likely to pickup stones or rubbish off the road and shoot them into the windscreen of the vehicle following you (or the head of a motorcyclist). If this is seen and causes an accident you may be tracked down by insurance companies etc.

BruceMan
gudday m8

RE: pickup stones or rubbish off the road and shoot them into the windscreen of the vehicle following

Oh really

LOL
cya

When I was in the UK was v careful when behind 8 wheelers coming off demolition and building sites - not unusual to see half a brick wedged in the duals just waiting for the right moment to let go. But different scenario to sealed road.

Don't worry Swishy the UK is not in the Melway:woohoo:

Between everything else that’s going on I finally finished cleaning the hydraulic lifters and in the next few days I will look at reinstalling them along with pushrods and rocker arms. I’ll give the lifter bores a quick clean and inspection also. Plan to just give them a lick of kero. After that, fresh oil and filter then its time to give it the engine another test run. Fingers crossed all lifters will be pumping now and the replacement rods solve some of the miss fire issues. From there I’m praying it’s set the carb and timing then call the engine done.

Good luck with it


Paul

Hey. Update for the past week.

Lifters and rods installed. Some lifters seem to be pumping more oil than others but I guess that’s just how it goes. All valves appear to be opening and closing to their extremities. Tapped them with a rubber mallet before putting the rocker arms back on. 2 seemed a little stiff but freed up after a couple hits.

Engine oil and filter replaced. No gunk or foreign matter seemed to be present. After I get it running well and have done a few hours on that oil I will drop it out and replace the filter again for piece of mind.

New plugs and some used but still good leads have been installed.

All master, slave and wheel cylinders have been honed and refurb kits purchased. Clutch and brake master cylinders are a touch suspect but my fingers are crossed that they will go ok. Will put these all back together this week.

Back to the engine, it’s still missing a bit but is running better then it was. The carby (350 Holley) wouldn’t really tune and it’s leaking fuel so I have an overhaul kit on order for it. I have it to a point where it will idle on its own now, a touch high by listening to it though. I will install a tacho I have in the shed tomorrow to see where it is idling at. The timing light I was going to borrow was broken so will get one this week elsewhere. Purchased a vacuum gauge to help with the tune. In regards to timing can any damage be done by going too advanced as I can’t confirm where it’s at or will it just start running poorly? Can the carby be causing a miss? Running too lean? Haven’t inspected the new plugs since it has run in them but the old ones had signs of lean running.

Thanks.

If its too far advanced,you will hear it knocking soon as the engine gets hot.....first hill it will knock like crazy..........Id replace the leads with new copper wire core ones.......no high impedance leads ,or R type plugs.

Well done so far and good progress. All too often I have heard that 90% of the carby problem is ignition. So as suggested start with good copper core HT leads and at least confirm that the plugs are good or use all new ones, then you have to look at condensor a high probable cause and last the coil.
Without a positive way to test the coil and condensor you are only guessing and that these can and do break down as they age so what might test ok on a multimeter can still be faulty under load or in working conditions. I got lucky once and bought a coil/condensor testing machine that was popular with lawn mower shops but they work perfectly well on all types of coils/condensors. IT actually puts a charge through the components and gets them to operating temps. I test them cold first and take note of the settings then heat and test again. What I thought may have been good got binned and what I thought was maybe going to be rubbish passed with flying colours.
With the Holley 350, from my failing memory, they are easy to strip and clean and the jet block is so good to check for blockages. Then the air mixture screws need to be thoroughly cleaned out and blown through with air. Check the main shaft for leaks is going to be the hardest thing to establish unless you test that before you remove it by lightly spraying some carby cleaner arounf the throttle shaft and at the base of the carby. If the idle rises you have a problem.
Setting the fuel height again is so simple by removing the plug on the side of the bowl and adjusting the nut on top of the bowl by undoing the lock nut and turning the screw up n down until the fuel just shows at the bottom of that hole on the side. Lock the nut. Like so many carbies start at 1.5 turns out from bottom on the mixture screws and watch your RPM and get max RPM then screw it in 1/8 of a turn and see what happens. NEw gaskets top to bottom will be a bonus as they possibly have dried out and may have a crack in them too,