#2228 delivered but not on the road

the door latch on the body may need adjustment. Check timing first, that is what the backfiring sounds like, also change the plugs, they may be fouled by now and it will drive you crazy trying other things before you realize it is the plugs.My experience is that even poorly tuned 4 barrel carbs do not cause a lot of backfiring, webers are another story, so electrical is likely the culprit. Start your timing at 12 degrees BTDC and go from there, make sure advance is working.
 
You didn't happen to buy your car from Park Place in Seattle did you? If so I can understand your issues. Since you are in AZ I assume your dealer is there. I've asked Park Place three times now for a couple of the fixes necessary for my car and at this point they will not even return my E-mails. I live 300 miles away so I can't just walk in a scream at anyone. I am also doing my own install, I think it will be up to the owners to fix most of the little problems like Lynn, Dennis and many others have done and why this forum is so important. It's like having our own 12 step program without weekly meetings.
 

Kirby Schrader

They're mostly silver
Lifetime Supporter
Update:

Not fixed: turn indicator
Not fixed: rough engine, lots of back firing and idle stalls

What really pisses me off is that they give me the car back without fixing the two most important issues (engine & turn signal).

Thomas

Thomas,

What is the problem with the turn signal?

I had an issue with mine (2155) where left turn signal would give left rear and right front. Right signal would give right rear and left front.
In addition, there was a problem with the driving lights.

I found the problem in the two plugs that are on the right behind the radiator.

There was a yellow wire going to a yellow/black and a yellow/black going to a yellow. i.e., each of the two wires were in the wrong plug.

I used a small screwdriver to bend down the locking tab on each one, pushed them out and moved them to their correct plug.

Problem solved! Even the driving lights worked after that.

Currently, I'm tweaking the EFI some more and driving it a lot more.
Took some pictures of it last weekend and put them on my website.
Kirby's Detomaso Korner

I also think I'm over the 'crap in the fuel tank' issue. Finally...
Last time I pulled the filter, it had very little of the famous junk in it.
Hope the above helps.

Kirby
 
Thomas, as a pro car builder I do understand that there is some teething problems with cars such as these. That being said i do believe the dealer should have taken care of it. Now for the issues you are most concerned about. I gather from the IR that you have stack injection. That can be a real problem to tune depending on the intake design and drive system. You need to have a lot of experience and I really don't know how much experience John's, (I'm assuming he's where you got it), employees have tuning systems like this. Just because they are a dealer for the product and have lot's of cool tools doesn't necessarily mean they know what they are doing. What drive system do you have? I've worked with DFI, FAST and MoTeC and do know the systems quite well. I'm also not very far from you if you want to give me a call to talk. My number is 520-494-2745.
 

Kirby Schrader

They're mostly silver
Lifetime Supporter
Kirby,

Great looking car!!! Where did you get the exhaust for it ?

Ron,

The exhaust was fabricated by a guy near Olthoff. Dennis had him do it since Mike Trusty and I went the 'non-Roush' route with our engines.

Name is Ken Thompson and he calls his business 'Independent Enterprises'.
Has a shop in Denver, NC and apparently did the exhausts for the original cars. It's stainless, in case you hadn't noticed.
:)

He was working on a number of cool projects including some J cars when we visited his shop.

Amazing place he's got and very interesting guy.

Regards,
Kirby
 
You didn't happen to buy your car from Park Place in Seattle did you? If so I can understand your issues. Since you are in AZ I assume your dealer is there. I've asked Park Place three times now for a couple of the fixes necessary for my car and at this point they will not even return my E-mails. I live 300 miles away so I can't just walk in a scream at anyone. I am also doing my own install, I think it will be up to the owners to fix most of the little problems like Lynn, Dennis and many others have done and why this forum is so important. It's like having our own 12 step program without weekly meetings.

Hi Richard,

I'm in Seattle here - if I can do anything to help then let me know. I do go to Park Place once every few weeks for the heck of it and I'm happy to ask what in the hell is going on there with not returning your inquiries.

There's one guy over at PP that seems to be really good - Rene Bourgett. He's a friendly french canadian guy - have you spoken with him???
 

Ron McCall

Supporter
Ron,

The exhaust was fabricated by a guy near Olthoff. Dennis had him do it since Mike Trusty and I went the 'non-Roush' route with our engines.

Name is Ken Thompson and he calls his business 'Independent Enterprises'.
Has a shop in Denver, NC and apparently did the exhausts for the original cars. It's stainless, in case you hadn't noticed.
:)

He was working on a number of cool projects including some J cars when we visited his shop.

Amazing place he's got and very interesting guy.

Regards,
Kirby


Kirby,

Do you mind me asking how much $$$ the exhaust was and how long it took to fabricate? You can PM me if you don't want to say here.

Thanks
 

Thomas Hertzler

Lifetime Supporter
the door latch on the body may need adjustment. Check timing first, that is what the backfiring sounds like, also change the plugs, they may be fouled by now and it will drive you crazy trying other things before you realize it is the plugs.My experience is that even poorly tuned 4 barrel carbs do not cause a lot of backfiring, webers are another story, so electrical is likely the culprit. Start your timing at 12 degrees BTDC and go from there, make sure advance is working.

Chuck, thx for the tips. I think I can fix the door. As far as the engine goes, I am not a mechanic and won't touch it. I have paid $24,000 for the engine and almost $10,000 for the install. Everything is under warranty and if I muck it up then that would be even worse.
 

Thomas Hertzler

Lifetime Supporter
You didn't happen to buy your car from Park Place in Seattle did you? If so I can understand your issues. Since you are in AZ I assume your dealer is there. I've asked Park Place three times now for a couple of the fixes necessary for my car and at this point they will not even return my E-mails. I live 300 miles away so I can't just walk in a scream at anyone. I am also doing my own install, I think it will be up to the owners to fix most of the little problems like Lynn, Dennis and many others have done and why this forum is so important. It's like having our own 12 step program without weekly meetings.

I am sorry to hear that. No it is not Park Place. The dealer in question is Anthem Motors / American Legends. If what you say is symptomatic for the SPF dealer scene, then some of the blame is to lay on Superformance for not choosing their dealers more carefully. I have send an email to Lance of SPF to ask his point of view.
 

Thomas Hertzler

Lifetime Supporter
Thomas, as a pro car builder I do understand that there is some teething problems with cars such as these. That being said i do believe the dealer should have taken care of it. Now for the issues you are most concerned about. I gather from the IR that you have stack injection. That can be a real problem to tune depending on the intake design and drive system. You need to have a lot of experience and I really don't know how much experience John's, (I'm assuming he's where you got it), employees have tuning systems like this. Just because they are a dealer for the product and have lot's of cool tools doesn't necessarily mean they know what they are doing. What drive system do you have? I've worked with DFI, FAST and MoTeC and do know the systems quite well. I'm also not very far from you if you want to give me a call to talk. My number is 520-494-2745.

Gordon,

I will definitely call you, thank you for the offer. I have had a friend who worked for me as an A&P over this morning. He thinks it is a fuel flow problem. A neighbor and former Mk II owner brought his IR thermometer over and he measure EGTs. The 4 forward cylinders run very hot, ca. 600 deg F while the others run at around 400. He noticed that one of the spark plug leads was touching the header and was almost burnt through. How something like this could escape Anthem, after they hauled it in the first time, is beyond me.

The relation with Anthem/American Legends has taken a turn for the worse on Friday, so I don't feel like protecting their name any more.
 

Kirby Schrader

They're mostly silver
Lifetime Supporter
Gordon,

He thinks it is a fuel flow problem.

You should definitely check your fuel filter.

Many of the SPF owners, including me, have had lots of problem with crud in the tanks. It will plug up the fuel filter in no time.

By crud, I mean metal filings, what looks like red rag lint and small bits of what appears to be black RTV.

I've had to pull my filter more than 6 times, that I can remember, and clean it out.

Good luck!

Kirby
 

Steve C

Steve
GT40s Supporter
Tom,

You might want to consider a fuel delivery set up like this:
Send me a pm if you want to discuss.

Steve P2125
 

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I have send an email to Lance of SPF to ask his point of view.

Tom

Good luck with that. Please post any reply you get from Stander to the forum. As I went through my build, I sent several emails and dozens of calls to Lance over a 9 month period and never got ONE SINGLE response. (it was just like dealing with our friend Lloyd Butafoy from RBT/ZF) I even had my dealer (Ian Grunes of Dynamic Motorsports) call on my behalf to get him to call me. No luck. I found my only good resource for getting my car running was this forum and Mike Evangelo at Dynamic.

Most if not all the old established dealers are gone due to poor support from SPF Corporate. Olthoff and Dynamic are but two examples. Most of the new dealers don't have a clue like the experience Rich Woerz had at Park Place. They don't seem to care because people buy the car and then find out what a PITA they've gotten themselves into. One would think that Lance Stander would fall all over himself to get these problems solved and provide the support that gave SPF the premier reputation it had when Jim Price controlled the operation. There are two ways to make money in business:

Build a strong rep by providing quality, service and support.

Buy an existing reputable operation and milk it for everything you can before it goes down the toilet.

Enuf rant back to the problems at hand:

As for the crud in the fuel system, I had the same problem as mentioned above. My (factory supplied) Moroso filter got completely plugged at 50 miles, again at 150. I replaced it with the Canton filter Steve C refers to and that plugged at 300 miles. I'm now at 1300 miles and all is well. As amazing as it sounds, Hi-Tech apparently does not bother to clean the tanks after manufacturing. There are metal shaving, bits of rubber, and plastic in the bottom.

I installed a fuel pressure gage that is visible in the rear view mirror through the window. When I see my pressure consistently low, it has been a clogged filter every time.
 
there is no doubt that buying a finished and detailed car makes a lot of sense, both from a financial and frustration point of view.
 
Most if not all the old established dealers are gone due to poor support from SPF Corporate. Olthoff and Dynamic are but two examples.

Dennis told me that he had to divest himself of the SPF business because these cars are sold as kit cars. Legally he could not sell a new, running, turn-key car or else it is then subject to all the laws etc. of production cars.

So, you have to buy the 'kit car' from one business, and then have another business actually perform the work to make it run (drivetrain installation etc.).

When faced with this problem, Dennis chose to concentrate on what he does best (makes cars run) and spun off the sales arm to somebody else, located elsewhere, to keep everything nice and legal-like.
 
. . . . . all very interesting and informative. Whether I buy one of these cars or not depends on how this situation plays out.

Thanks to all, especially Lynn Miner, for their frank contributions.
 
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