With June 2025 upon us, it was time to wrap up a few final items and get the engine started. This step is always exciting but also riddled with anxiety!

Good friend Randy Forbes helped us improve the looks of the engine bay by carefully bending a 1/2″ stainless steel pipe to replace the original copper heater pipe.

Original copper and new stainless steel heater pipe

The stainless pipe clearly looks better in the engine bay!

New stainless heater pipe mounted in place

Then it was time to get our electric fan’s thermostatic controller working. The water temperature fitting in the engine cylinder head is used for the water temperature gauge in the dash. Fortunately, there is also a bung for a temperature sensor or thermostatic switch in the top of the aluminum radiator. We modified an original temperature sender fitting by tapping it with 1/8″ NPT threads to receive a new switch that we picked up from Amazon. It turns on the electric fan at 190 degrees and cuts off at 175 degrees. We also have an override switch built in behind the dashboard. The wiring for the switch was previously anticipated and incorporated in our wiring loom.

Modified sender fitting and new thermostatic switch

Electric Fan Thermostatic Switch Install

With that job completed we then put about four gallons of fuel in the fuel tank and checked to see if we had any leaks. Experiencing none, we then turned on the ignition and ran the SU fuel pump to pump fuel to the HIF44 carb in the engine bay. Again, no leaks!!

No fuel leaks below the fuel fittings

With that behind us we then turned off the ignition and cranked the starter to generate fuel pressure as observed at the water temperature/oil pressure gauge.

The engine started right away as anticipated, since we had previously run it on a stand in the garage. However, we also encountered a very bad vibration and knocking sound. The noise seemed to emanate from the driveshaft tunnel. While we initially thought the noise might be coming from the driveshaft striking the body, after thinking about it for a while, we determined that they carburetor was running too rich, and the idle was set too low. once adjusted the engine smoothed out and the vibration disappeared. Hooray! The problem and solution can be seen and heard in Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven.

We also discovered that we had a problem with the gear shifter hitting the driveshaft tunnel thereby restricting its full range of motion.

Gear Shifter Hitting the Gearbox Tunnel

That was nothing that the careful application of the Dremel tool couldn’t solve. After a little paint was applied we reassembled everything and it was another problem solved.

The next problem we encountered was that the alternator was not charging the battery. We are using a Speed Hut, electronic tachometer supplied by Bugeyeguys.com. The electronic tachometerr does have provision for a charging light, but it is an LED. Unfortunately, an LED bulb does not generate sufficient load to signal the alternator to start charging the battery. We found out that you must have an incandescent bulb in the circuit to get the alternator to do its job. So, we modified our wiring and added an incandescent warning bulb in the charging circuit. The wiring modification is routed through Deutcsh connector D1. This process is also shown in the Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven. We just tucked the new light under the dash out of sight.

Finally, we made a slight modification in the carburetor float bowl overflow pipe by cutting off the curve at the end of the cunifer pipe and fitting a piece of quarter-inch rubber fuel hose at the end. We also replaced two 3 1/2″ bolts that go through the chassis floor into the gearbox mount with two 3 1/4″ bolts to avoid the possibility that the longer bolts might contact the upper part of the mount and cause vibration.

Bugeye Restoration Video Episode One Hundred-Seven:

https://vimeo.com/1092260334/7e6d3cd034?share=copy

Content summary:

0:00 – Heater pipe stainless steel replacement

0:25 – Radiator fan thermostatic switch 

1:33 – Fuel in the tank

2:32 – No fuel leaks!

3:02 – Rotating starter for oil pressure

3:17 – Engine start

4:45 – Knocking and vibration

5:25 – Searching for source of vibration

6:03 – Shifter surround modification

6:35 – Vibration problem solved

7:30 – Shifter problem fixed

8:06 – Alternator not charging

9:07 – Wiring modification in charging system

10:52 – Modifying the carb overflow drain pipe

11:18 – Gearbox mount bolts