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An interesting 65 FI on ebay. The alleged original window sticker has side exhaust listed, however it is an A.O. Smith car. Being an A.O. Smith car would preclude factory side exhaust. Anyone familiar with this car? Real car other than side exhaust with bogus paperwork, or just a bogus car?
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Re: 65 FI
Well, the awards were 20 years ago, and the collective knowledge base has come a long way in that time. I don't believe anyone was checking for AO smith Sidepipe cars back then, for one thing, also the judging process for the engine block has changed significantly since then, so who knows? One look today is worth a lot more than a stack of 20+ year old awards.Bill Clupper #618 -
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when the issue about AO Smith bodies and side exhaust first surfaced on the DB, I seem to remember Roy Sinor chiming in to say there had been many Top Flight and MoE (Mark of Excellence) 'piper' cars with AO Smith body.... So, like Clup said, things DO change with time regarding NCRS knowledge and this car would probably take an exhaust system deduction today. BUT, that alone doesn't preclude it achiving a Top Flight award!Comment
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Re: 65 FI
Bill etal, Unbelieveable how many 65 fuel cars there are. I mean I've been doing this for an eon and have restored a ton of them and so have the rest of the FI restorers. I bet today there must be several thousand 65 fuel cars. But that unit is one great FI and warrants being put on a lot more cars than the misely 771 that came rolling down the St. Louie line. Between the 396 and poor sales its no wonder they were written off. Course the mechanics wouldn't work on them and refused to learn so that didn't help either.
One thing that we will never know is how many production units were made and sold. We may think we do but those numbers are not accurate. This info came from my old friend Frank Sciabica of RP .Frank said the over the counter units sold like hotcakes for $495.00 so they kept making them.Frank said the bean counters told RP to use up all the old castings.When they ran out of plenums Frank said they had a large pile of those ugly sand cast mid year plenums made. Heavy duty things they are but basically a POC. Still miss the old guy as he was my mentor. We didn't see eye to eye on everything but he sure made the hobby fun in the olden days. Made fun of me a lot in front of huge NCRS crowds because I was still using the cranking signal valves.But I never held that against him. Frank told me RP had a 75% failure rate concerning the CSV's. That's why so many old FI's were taken off and put on the shelf. You went into the dealer and put down big bucks for a valve and it didn't work so you thru in the towel. Enough rambling. JDComment
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Re: 65 FI
That`s not rambling John, that`s important history!!! There`s a lot of stories from and about old Frank that need to be told..........Comment
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Re: 65 FI
Chuck, I wish I had saved Frank's old letters. Some are around here somewhere. Also I wish I had gotten Frank's FI parts when he passed. A friend of mine got them and made an absolute killing on ebay. One unsolved mystery that I hesitate to put in writing but will in case someone out that has a clue. Frank used to have a ton of NOS hi-pressure pumps for the 57 to 65's. But these have never surfaced since his death. His wife Bea died shortly after he did and then the house was sold. His family sold his belongings and FI parts but the missing link is what happened to all the pumps. Those of you in the Rochester area that were close to him should investigate this. I have given up because the trail is cold. The fellow who got his parts did NOT get the pumps. I know for a fact that Frank had them as a mutual friend told me. Now the world knows but so what. THe hobby needs those hi-pressure FI pumps bad.
For those of you that are not up to the FI slang these pumps were part of the fuel injection unit and not the typical engine fuel pump.Thanks, JohnComment
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Re: 65 FI
John;
Any idea on what happened to his literature?? I know that he had the Rochester Products filmstrips for The A B Cs of Fuel Injection, 1957 Design Changes, 1961 New Product Information and 57 Corvette Ram Jet Fuel injection. I have the 1962 Rochester Products Design Change 35mm Slide set which he was very interested in obtaining. We had talked trades but it never got beyond that stage. He also had a complete set of the RP Service Bulletins and I know he sold some copies of those.Comment
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