Sea foam tech

A couple of weeks back I asked for help finding some 'sea foam' colored leather for my 1978 400A. ( Its the one shown a while back in Forza ) I'm still looking ! But the chat evolved into some topics on what I've done tech wise on the car since having it. I needed to confirm details before sharing so couldn't answer all questions then but can now. One key point, most the improvements were done by Dan at Dream Cars in SoCal. I'm not the tech head, but wanted to share what I've learned. I use the car as a daily driver. here's what has been done:

1. Changed the alternator to the 90 amp version of the alternator for an 84 Audi Quattro. This made a huge performance difference for my 400 which has only one alternator as standard. Apparently you have to specifically ask for the 90 amp when chasing this down. This completley eliminated problems I was having especially stalling in slow traffic, and has made performance 'crisper' in general. I still have to rev it up to 3000 rpm or so to get it to start charging which generally wakes the neighbors, but there's a fun side to that !

2. Put a Jaguar XJR torque converter in. Unfortunately I burned out the last torque converter driving the auto as a manual. This converter is rated for a higher torque than the origional so should survive better. I now drive with the shifter in 2nd for around town then drive for highway.

3. Put a Trans-go shift kit and a new GM 400TH auto transmission. This allows for crisp 1st to 2nd shifting to be at 4500 rpm and 2nd to 3rd at 5000 rpm when I push it. For slower driving it shifts at as low as 2500 rpm, somewhat 'mushier' than I would prefer, but acceptable.

4. ATE super Blue Racing brake fluid. A bit difficult to find but this is a high boiling point brake fluid. I had a scary moment driving in the Malibu mountains doing too much braking on very steep downhill and my brake failed. Luckily I was able to spin the car and stop with no damage, but am happy to have made this change for the future.

5. Ceramic ATE Matric brake pads. More aggressive than stock, I wanted insurance on the braking side. I now have very solid braking.

6. My dash lights were very dim so I bi-pased the potentiomter in the dash. Very easy and satisfying !

7. All new hoses stopped annoying oil leaks.

8. New Pirelli's. I know this isn't stock, but they are available and I think look very good because of the very large Pirelli graphic that looks deliciously Italian !

9. Getting through SMOG was a trick. Worthy of a chat over a drink sometime. It invovled using some BMW 7 serries CATS, with some smart welding, so they might be conveniently detatched ......

10. Re-built start motor. Not a big deal but apparently quite a b....ch to get to with my carbureters. Maybe its easier with injectors.

And now I'm having a wail of a time driving around. She's been quite reliable so far and I'm looking forward to future improvements as I learn more.

Cheers

 

I finally figured out how to upload photos. Here's my sea foam sweety.
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For the alternator, you need to swap the belt wheel for the origional, otherwise my understanding is that its pretty much a swap in. Hope this helps.

 

The brake pads do squeek when warm sometimes ... apparently there's a foam plate of some kind that can reduce this that Dan is looking into.

 

Thanks ! Yes I did but they didn't have any sea foam green .... shoudl I try again ?

 

I'll see if they"ll work from a color matched photo....thx