Need help from the brain trust

I'd take the valve cover off on that side.  I'd check that push rods are operating correctly (aligned), that the rockers go up and down - with valves as you manually turn engine over.  Then I'd adjust the valves - that might show a broken/stretched valve stem - if one is way off. 

#3 exhaust used to be the one that went first on VW since the oil cooler blocked flow to it.  You want to catch a broken valve before it beats a hole in the piston and spreads shavings throughout your oil galleries and bearings.

Thanks Wolfgang!   I did pull off the valve cover and checked the valve clearance and the head bolts and all was good. 

I checked all the exhaust ports and all is good and tight.

I played some more with the carb linkage and idle and air adjustments to make sure they were in sync but not a lot changed.  

I worked a ton on VW engines in my high school and college days, but they were all had a single carburetor.  May be time to take it to some who know what they are doing😩.  

@Csquared

Chris, in light of all you mentioned, this may more than likely be an exhaust leak. Possibly from the area you originally suspected (#3).

Although the nuts on the exhaust port may seem tight, the gasket may be cracked or split. Only way to be certain is to remove exhaust and visibly check gaskets.

Hope you get this resolved without any major issue and back on the road! 

^^^^^^That!

And if it isn’t a blown exhaust flange gasket, I would look for a cruded up idle jet on that side.

Thanks Gents!

Gordon Nichols posted:

^^^^^^That!

And if it isn’t a blown exhaust flange gasket, I would look for a cruded up idle jet on that side.

And if it isn't either of those two, I'd check for that typical intake gasket suck(intake gasket failure).

Well my day got a lot worse!  I had some tools under the hood and pulled out while working on the carbs.   I cleaned everything up and decided to go a drive to see if anything improved.  

About two miles into the drive, on a nice downhill on a two lane road, the hood flew up, hung there for a second and then flew off the car!   I never fully closed the hood and the safety catch did’t hold  the load at 50 miles an hour.  Luckily there was no other damage other the hood itself.  And more importantly no one was hurt by the flying hood!  

I plan to call Henry tomorrow to see if I can buy a new hood.  This is all bad timing as the weather is just getting perfect!  Not the best was to spend my Birthday😩😡🤬

Csquared posted:

Well my day got a lot worse!  I had some tools under the hood and pulled out while working on the carbs.   I cleaned everything up and decided to go a drive to see if anything improved.  

About two miles into the drive, on a nice downhill on a two lane road, the hood flew up, hung there for a second and then flew off the car!   I never fully closed the hood and the safety catch did’t hold  the load at 50 miles an hour.  Luckily there was no other damage other the hood itself.  And more importantly no one was hurt by the flying hood!  

I plan to call Henry tomorrow to see if I can buy a new hood.  This is all bad timing as the weather is just getting perfect!  Not the best was to spend my Birthday😩😡🤬

Wow, you are lucky to have escaped with so little damage. Henry will get you fixed back up.  Maybe until then you could run as a superleggera?  Oh, and may your birthday proceed with better outcomes.

Sorry to hear about your hood.  A call to IM will help you. 

I forgot to latch mine once and the second one hung it to 50mph.  Wow, what a fright. 

It honestly doesn't look that beat up for flying thru the air.  The hinges can be rebonded in and any dings filled and repainted.  Your probably looking at $800 for replacement hood plus costly shipping. 

I wonder if Carey at Special Edition could fix it for you. He’s in Bremen, Indiana. 

http://www.rustytubs.com/porsc...-car-front-h356.html has replacement hood that fit most kit cars.  Exterior is $395 and it has to be bonded to the interior substructure piece which is $150 --- so $545 plus shipping from NV with "some assembly required."

I have an extra front CMC trunk lid in OEM black gel coat.  It has one very small chip (dime size on edge (as I recall) and is drilled for the hood handle.  PM me if interested. I'm in NW FL (just 12 miles west of Destin).  It has been stored in garage all these years.

Wolfgang, might have a point y0ou should look into it.  @Robert M  Now that is a great suggestion, to have an expert like Carey look at it.  I am sure they would do a bang up job fixing the hood up.  I mean you won't have to look at doing all the seams either which will reduce the work a lot. 

I would strongly recommend that you stick with IM for a new hood if you go that route.  Different makers will use different molds to produce their hoods and doors and one from Special Edition or Rusty Tubs (if available) probably will not fit precisely and will need a similar amount of fiddling with to make it match your IM body.

You old hood could be brought back to life, but without seeing and measuring it and pre-fitting it on the car to see if it is warped, I can't comment on how much work it might take.  A decent autobody shop used to working on Corvettes, or a boat shop that works on fiberglass mods would be able to tell you if your old hood is re-useable.

I have seen one other car that had the hood pop up like that, but while it destroyed the windshield, the hood stayed attached (more or less).  It still needed a bunch of work to repair it, but it eventually came through OK.  Merklin's body shop friend bought the car, spiffed it up and re-sold it a few years back.

Wolfgang and Gordon, thanks for your ideas and suggestions.   Theron gave the same advice, that is to get the damaged hood fixed.   I will check with some local shops that have experienced with corvettes/fiberglass and if they think it can be fixed  

Thanks to all for your help!

Good summary of issues to consider there Gordon.  

I would tape up the sides and refit the hood to see what I have to do.

Good idea!  I will place the hood in the opening to make sure it is not warped.  My only concern is making sure the mounting bracket are positioned properly when bonded back in place.  I am hope they will seat back in the original position. 

It should be a fairly easy open the fibreglass and reset the Angle bracket within the hood using minimal, quick glue, and testing it for hinge operation... then bonding it permanently.  

Finishing the edge might be the easiest step after that to a good FGlass man. 

I would give it a shot.  You never know, it may look worse than it is, all the damage seems to be on the inside, do you even need a repaint? Most likely but we can't see from here. 

 All the best in your repair journey ... 

P.S.  

BTW, I would ask @Alan Merklin to have a look at it I know he not at your door but he is pretty close to you and he could put it back together for you I am sure and he has a painter for you as well if that is practical. 

I enlarged the hood photos and surprisingly the damage is not too severe , it can be properly repaired. The metal that is bonded into the hood needs to be reset in place and is the most difficult thing to do, ( 3M Panel Bond adhesive is stronger than fiberglass )  but can be done as long as the repair shop have the car too.. All hoods needs to be fit to the actual car that being some taken off the outer edges to get the correct 3/16 gap and your hood already has that fit. IMHO I would take the car and hood to a local shop this way it will fit correctly when done. With the repair, paint etc . expect $650 to $900.  P' Msg. me if you have questions.

Follow the good Doctor's advice, and all will be well.

Thanks Alan!  I talked with a local shop today who is confident they can fix it.  I plan to bring it down tomorrow or Wednesday depending on the weather.   I’ll share an update once I have more info.   Thanks again for everyone’s help!!!

Well, good news.  I brought the car down today and he thinks it will be pretty easy to fix the hood!  

He also listened to the car for 10 seconds and said the head is loose on the #1 or #3 cylinder.  He pulled the engine this afternoon and found 2 two head bolts broken.   He going to pull both heads off, check the other studs and replace them with the standard studs if all the other look good or use all new chromoly studs.   He also going to fix a few oil leaks too so it should be leak free for a day or two!  

So far, so good!!

I worry a bit about the hood flying off when I use my Wardlow bra. It has a piece that slips over the end of the hood and it doesn't seem to latch quite as securely with that in place.

Honestly, I have often thought of having a safety cable that comes through to attach to the hood lock in some way with a safety quick release latch of some sort. 

Alternatively, Dusty's belts are an option but I don't like the look on a classic car.

If the latch works properly there is no way for the latch to release from the safety position w/o manually moving it.

Key words “if the latch is working properly”.   I will check it once the hood is fixed to check that it is fully engaged.  

Here is a pic of the snapped head bolt.  He also found a crack between the valves on both heads.  He going to check the depth and see if it goes through to the intake port, if not, then he will weld it up, otherwise I will have two nice paper weights.

If I need new heads, any recommendations? It is a CB performance 2165 motor.    

Thanks Alan!

Call CB, they must know the specs that the engine came with from IM, or IM would have a build sheet telling them what it came with.

Other than that the Borg would have to call them to find out as well.

I'll save you a phone call to Henry.  When I had the car he said

"No too much in the file, This tube chassis Roadster was sold as a coach but completed by Intermeccania with customer supplied engine & trans.  I remember big motor maybe 2180cc or ? with Porsche 911 style fan shroud.  If I remember right seemed like very short gears to me. 
 
Delivered July 1999
Sapphire Silver
Gray leather
Gray Stayfast top
Full tonneau in gray Stayfast
Square Weave carpet, silver blue
Low bumper guards
Courtesy lights
Radio pod with customer supplied radio
Auto antenna
Heated seats
Power windows
Dual cigar lighters
 
That is about all, it has been gone from this are for a long time."

@Csquared wrote- "If I need new heads, any recommendations? It is a CB performance 2165 motor."  What heads are on it now? Valve sizes? How do you like the powerband? What carbs? camshaft/rockers? exhaust? compression ratio?   

I see a surge in those buying Dusty's leather hood straps.

I'm surprised no one has tried putting the hinges on the front of the hood like on a  Spyder??? Of course, Spyder owners have the clam shell to worry about......

Hood straps are a good idea, but an annoyance every time you need to fill up or open the hood for whatever reason.

To me, they are worth the hassle for the lack of worry of having the hood fly up.  Plus, unlike Ray, I like the look.

Carlos G posted:

I'm surprised no one has tried putting the hinges on the front of the hood like on a  Spyder??? Of course, Spyder owners have the clam shell to worry about......

Hmmmmm. I'm gonna put that one in the file.

Come to think of it it’s a great idea and I don’t know why we never thought about it

Maybe because there is absolutely zero structural frame members out that far forward to hold the frame end of the hood hinges?

IaM-Ray posted:

Come to think of it it’s a great idea and I don’t know why we never thought about it

Maybe because the heavy end of the hood is at the rear ?  Or, the front, pointy end would have to have the hinges just about center mounted...not good in a windy situation. 

There are no frame supports supporting the hinges on the Spyder. It's all hanging on fiberglass. It'd take some doing, but it'd look cool.

It'd be cool to design a hinge for the Spyder clam shell that works like the hinges on older BMW front hoods. Mmm, I'm going to have to put that on my list.

Gordon Nichols posted:

Maybe because there is absolutely zero structural frame members out that far forward to hold the frame end of the hood hinges?

You mean like what the latches attach to in the front of a rear hinged hood?

I think he means where the hinges would have to attach at the front to serve as the pivot point for the hood .