"Italian Tune-Up" Vindicated!

In the old days we used this term to denote running the hell out of the car to clean it out. Well. I have been testing my 1986 3.2 for the Clayton Georgia 1/2 mile drag race and came up wanting! Specifically under full throttle in third and fourth at about 5,500 rpm I was getting consistent interment full scale small but noticeable ignition missing.

I did two things. First, I dumped a large bottle of Techron in the tank. Then repeatedly ran third gear from 3,000 rpms to 7,000 rpms. That takes about 7 seconds. [From 4,000 rpms it takes about four seconds.] I also ran fourth gear many times up to perhaps 6,000 rpms but up here in the mountains there simply is not enough space to do that comfortably even on two lane remote roads and no place at all to get 7,000 rpms in fourth.

Two things happened. First, I have not had one single engine miss since the first couple of runs. But more interestingly my check engine light went out! I do not know what exactly that light indicates. I have had several cars from this era and it was clear to me all of them were lighting up due to rich conditions that I had created for one reason or another.

In this 1986 3.2 I deliberately gave the fuel screw 1/8 inch turn rich since the last thing I wanted was to burn a valve. From that time on the check engine light was intermittent. After today's vigorous 'Itallian Tune' up runs it just went out entirely. So it was a good beer run day. Four Bush Ice beers acquired after a long mountain runs to and back. And the car is running like a humming bird and no check engine light! Bring on the Clayton 1/2 mile speed challenge! With crossed fingers......

 

You are probably right but in this case it really is not broke so I probably will not fix it. I do a lot of full throttle runs up to 6k and if I need to do 7k to clean it out? Well, what better reason could I have to do so

PS: After scattering a clutch on a 90F day at 7.7k I have generally refrained from doing that. There is one caveat on this. I had foolishly replaced both hydraulic clutch cylinders with cheap Alpha units. They worked but I suspect they were only good for parades. The clutch scatter was accompanied by destruction of BOTH those Alpha units. I personally suspect they introduced some sort of harmonic resonance that did in the entire system.

 

Happy to have been of assistance! I believe machinery needs to be well exercised. There is a thin line between well exercised and abused, and I have crossed the line from time to time. For instance with my Ferrari clutch. But there is not a day that goes by than any car I drive is not reved near the red line with full throttle. Never broke an engine, and only wore out a 1974 Vega station wagon back in about 1979. It still ran well but the aftermarket cam and rings were bad and used three quarts of oil per tank of gas.

I put 190,000 miles on a 1991 Lincoln Mark VII with 7psi Kenne Belle postitive displacement supercharger using stock Speed Density. Ran like factory till I upgraded to a 347 stroker and with the same blower. IT ran like like factory but I smoke the Transgo AOD practicing a torgue brake drag race launch. I was using an 1,800 rpm stall speed truck torgue converter with 2.73 gears and it just was too much. But would do 130 mph at 3,000 rpm speed limiter.

Here is my favorite example. WAY back in 1979 I bought a worn-out 1965 Corvair Monza converible with loads of blow-by and always drove the hell our of it. Of course with 110 hp no one else could tell I was running hard but I like the torgue curve. (Two single barrels one on each cylider head without runers gave a nice high rpm feel.) But it ran ok so kept putting off the rebuid. And because of this plan I was, let us say, negligent on oil changes. In recent years, before the recent overhaul, I let it go two years before changing. So I ran a worn out Corvair about 40,000 miles and 35 years then mike the bearings.

Bench analysis. First, all the blow-by was caused by two pistons that had previously been replaced backwards then broken ther rings. But more significantly, every last bearing miked out exactly even and exactly at the high end of new. Not even sure if the rebuilder replaced them. And here is the final indignity. For the first year the car ran the same but without the blow-by. Then it got weired when the car started running noticeably better after break in.

Stories, stories, stories......