1970 Torino And Fairlane Builds
- Thread starter bigjohn
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2018
We survived the Redwood Rally 2026!
The gold Torino completed the 800 mile drive portion plus the 700 mile round trip to Medford and back. I finished 8th, and Anna 17th. The field was much tougher this year at the top of our class, but I’m happy with the results. Anna, however, is not.
The Torino tune was brutally off and I’m not sure how. Over the first few days I learned the float levels were terribly low and the crank dampener I believe has spun on the Cleveland, giving a false timing reading. Then header bolts rattled out and I lost a remflex header gasket. I ended up making a fill in piece with a cut up remflex collector gasket to get to Woodburn, where we’d overnighted a new set and header bolts.
Otherwise, the starter relay signal wire had a voltage drop resulting in intermittent starting issues. I changed the starter anyway (laying on constantly poking goat heads) and wired up a push button that worked great for the entire rally. Now I get to find the source of the voltage drop. After the issues on the first few days, good rust worked and drive great!
The clutch setup worked great the whole trip. I need to adjust the cable just a bit but it was really good. The carb jetting needs leaned out Due to the raised float levels, but for consistency sake, which is the name of the game for my class, I let it be, running really rich at the higher elevation tracks and sandbagging at the lower, better air tracks to get my time without breaking out.
Fuel mileage was about 13-20mpg’s. After the event I took the kids with the truck and trailer and Anna and her dad took off ahead in the Torino, running 70-75 the whole was. That leg of the trip was about 14mpg. I think the 13 was from Medford to Madras. With a car full of slick tires, tools and Anna’s dad.
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Seriously cool!