Grandmas Skylark project

Herzog said:

Were you blasting bachman turner overdrive?

looks good!

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Only audio this car has. (For now)

Tinkered with this pile tonight. Timing was set at 4*. I bumped it to 14* and things are mucho happier. Runs not quite as rich now. Doesn't load up at stoplights and such. We'll do a mpg run over the weekend and see what that did. Hopefully it cold starts better but we'll see how that goes.

I've spent more than I care to share on this dawg the past 4-5 days. Spare engine/trans, new rear diff, new trans cooler lines, new overflow tank for radiator, passenger inner wheel well, steering wheel, power steering brackets... Do not want to add it all up so I won't.. I'm dreading logging into my credit card but it's time. I need to get all that junk installed and see if I have a niceish car so I can spend some more. (suspension revamp and some other stuff)

mbryson said:

I've spent more than I care to share on this dawg the past 4-5 days. Spare engine/trans, new rear diff, new trans cooler lines, new overflow tank for radiator, passenger inner wheel well, steering wheel, power steering brackets... Do not want to add it all up so I won't.. I'm dreading logging into my credit card but it's time. I need to get all that junk installed and see if I have a niceish car so I can spend some more. (suspension revamp and some other stuff)

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It never ends. I just put the receipts in a folder in case I need a reference or need to return something. NEVER add it all up.

mbryson said:

I've spent more than I care to share on this dawg the past 4-5 days. Spare engine/trans, new rear diff, new trans cooler lines, new overflow tank for radiator, passenger inner wheel well, steering wheel, power steering brackets... Do not want to add it all up so I won't.. I'm dreading logging into my credit card but it's time. I need to get all that junk installed and see if I have a niceish car so I can spend some more. (suspension revamp and some other stuff)

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I feel ya.

All my receipts get tossed in my file cabinet, get asked all the time how much I think I've got into my project and I don't care to know, I'm never selling it, to me it's "priceless"

We'll see if we have power steering tomorrow!!!!

(Need some fluid and my car is kind of loud. Baby next door)

I even stole some parts from the spare engine

I just changed out the 3.55 almost spool 9" to a posi (unknown brand) 3.00 gear. What a difference. I knew the almost spool changeover would be a welcome thing but had no idea the 3.00 gear would be that dramatic. I'm anxious to take this thing on the freeway and see what it runs at 70ish mph. Previously it was well into the mid 3000 rpm. I'm curious if I'll be right at 3000 rpm or ???

The power steering and the rear diff change has REALLY changed this car.

Also of note: Landing a 9" center section on your middle finger of your right hand is not recommended. Changing a 9" on a garage floor, not highly recommended as it presents leverage issues with 70ish lb center sections. Taking the old one out kind of sucked due to the long studs (which are good things and frankly, just the right length with the center section in place) and putting the new one in is even more challenging if it's just yourself. I had to use a floor jack to lift the weight while I balanced and positioned the center section in place. It's in and it's good to go. (maybe I'm too out of shape to be lifting things like that with just my arm strength? I mean, I have the guns, they're just not utilized a lot the last 3 decades?)

Now that you have the car more comfortable to drive on longer rides maybe we should put together a RME Hot Rod cruise.

Interesting observation by a passerby the other day.




Not quite as catastrophic as it looked

I found a tune up guy. Lee at Family Auto in Bountiful. He fixed a couple things I'd have never found. Unbelievable difference in this car.

He talked me through swapping in my purchased HEI distributor. There's a resistor to the ignition coil that drops voltage to 6 volts from 12. The HEI needs 12. I went from about 25,000 volts with the fancy Mallory (maybe an MSD?) ignition to about 50,000. Set at 14* initial for a total of about 52-54*

My carb was pretty close to adjusted correctly, surprisingly. Thing starts RIGHT now, cold or hot.

He also found that my coil was only hot while in "run". Not hot while in start.. I'm amazed the the thing even started at all

He STRONGLY recommended to swap out the interior wiring harness. Conveniently I bought one a few months ago

I'm having a hell of a time believing that total timing is at 55*. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter as the thing runs WELL


From TA performance where I bought the distributor:

This distributor comes with a performance timing curve which features 22° of mechanical advance that starts at 1000 RPM and is in by 3400 RPM. (TA recommends setting the initial timing at 12° degrees with a total timing of 34°).

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If initial timing is set at 14*, the most advance I'd see is 36*. 32-38* is commonly ideal for 455 Buicks (I think 400 and 430 as well? Those may be slightly different as bore and stroke are different than 455)

Grandma got very wet today

Thoughts on where I'd get something like this?


or this...



or even this F*rd thing


I've thought of just using an inner tube but that might need to be exact right size and such.

I wouldnt think it would need to be very exact. Its before the filter so "mostly kinda sealed" should be good to go there. Its not gonna be much of a restriction so I wouldnt worry too much about it drawing in air from the outside much. In my opinion anyway.
Shouls be easy to find something like a silicone coupler once you measure what "round" size you need

NYCEGUY01 said:

I wouldnt think it would need to be very exact. Its before the filter so "mostly kinda sealed" should be good to go there. Its not gonna be much of a restriction so I wouldnt worry too much about it drawing in air from the outside much. In my opinion anyway.
Shouls be easy to find something like a silicone coupler once you measure what "round" size you need

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Maybe some diesel performance type thing would work? I wonder how big they get? The opening in my cowl is about 1.5-2" tall and about 10-12" long. It doesn't need to fit the opening and doesn't need to truly seal (that's what an air filter is for, right?) as you mention. Just kind of seal. The cowl piece could be bolted to the cowl and the coupler could connect to the extension of the air cleaner like the items pictured above.

I wonder if the C3 corvette accordion lookin intake boot would work? I haven't seen anything quite that big in the diesel stuff?



Take a look at this link, I'm not a member of the site, but if you highlight the thumbnail images, right click and search with "google lens" in google chrome it brings up a bunch of different boots.

Ebryson could likely print you something from TPU.

glockman said:

Ebryson could likely print you something from TPU.

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We talked about that but thought the under hood temps would melt filaments?

mbryson said:

We talked about that but thought the under hood temps would melt filaments?

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Now that you mention it, TPU prints at 270ish so you are probably right.