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Because Roadkill, -or- I bought an old ugly domestic car

mombobuggy

mombobuggy

Well-Known Member
Location
Highland
Congrats Man it is going be so fun. I love Big block cars. I think it would be pretty cool to put a period correct shaker hood scoop on it at some point. And perhaps a period correct Nascar paint job with cut out flared fenders on all four corners roll bar etc . Nice work very cool ride .
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
RogueJeepr said:
Bet your neighbors think your crazy.
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I can only hope so. ;)

mombobuggy said:
I think it would be pretty cool to put a period correct shaker hood scoop on it at some point.
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Dude, you and me both. All along, I figured my RPM AirGap intake would force me to cut a hole in the hood, and I was fine with that idea. It amazed me that the drop base 3" air cleaner fits under the stock hood (after giving the hood a rib-ectomy). But even though it fits, I'd like to run a taller filter for better airflow... so I know some sort of hood scoop is in this car's future.

On that topic, a while back I found this photo online:
uUS9ERj.jpg


I love virtually everything about this car--the Pontiac shaker, the Pontiac hood tach, even the 16" Trans Am wheels.
 
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TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
A couple posts above, I said I thought I was done installing my transmission controller. I was wrong. I had forgotten about another part of it, what TCI calls the RPM module. This morning before coming in to work, I spent some time installing that and wiring it in. I also installed a few zip ties underneath the car to keep the wiring away from the header. What this all means is that the transmission controller is now completely installed and ready to go.

That leaves the cable connecting the shifter to the transmission as the only thing keeping this car from moving under its own power. Despite fiddling with it for quite a while yesterday (in the snow and wind, which made me grumpy and certainly less efficient), I could not come up with a way to make it work with the items I have on hand. I have heard of guys that installed floor shifters from S-10 Blazers along with their swapped-in 4L80Es; I guess I need to do more research to find out how they got that shifter to work their transmission.

I am SO close....
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Today I took the shortest, slowest test drive of my entire life... and it was awesome!!!

After spending lots of time (and a few tool runs) trying to modify the donor van's trans cable bracket into something I can use, today it finally hit me: it simply isn't going to work. Okay, start again from scratch. With an open mind, I came up with an idea so simple that I couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to me until now. Half an hour later, I had (at least partial) shifting ability. Close enough for now.

I fired up the car and got the engine fully warmed up. While doing so, I noticed my shiny new radiator's equally new cap was leaking coolant. Hmm. Easy enough to address later.

With the engine warm, I shut it down and then began testing the fusebox for an ignition source which is live in both ON and cranking. Once I found that, I fed it into the relay for the TCI trans controller. At last, I was ready to bring that controller online. Ignition on, I went through the setup wizard and everything seemed perfect. After I let it store the 'new tune' I re-fired the engine. Immediately, the TCU barfed a fault code. What?!? It gave me a TPS error. I shut it off and dug out my multimeter, and I started testing each wire at the sensor. Everything was right on spec. When I installed the sensor, I followed the TCU instructions and tried to position it so that at "zero throttle" the sensor was putting out a very small amount of voltage. Now as I checked on that, I saw the sensor was actually putting out 0.0v at idle. Ah-ha. I dismantled the TPS assembly, modified it to make sure it was slightly engaged, and reassembled everything. Key on, go through another setup wizard, save the new setup, and start 'er up. At last! The TCU is happy and reports no errors.

I left the car idling while I began cleaning up my tools. With that done, it was finally time to get the car off the jack stands and back on the ground. I decided to lower the nose first since the jack was already under the engine crossmember. With those two jack stands out of the way, I lowered the jack... only to have the weight of the fully-operational big block push the crossmember low enough that the jack was stuck under it. (sigh) I noticed the left front tire was a bit low, so I routed my air hose from the garage to the front end and inflated both front tires to 42 psi to try and add more clearance. Better, but still not quite there. I went next door and got my neighbor to lift up on the left fender while I yanked the jack from underneath, and that worked. The tail end sits considerably higher, so there was no problem with that end.

And now, finally, I was ready to go for a drive. My plan was simply to drive around my block, nothing more. In eager anticipation, I hopped in and buckled up. I put my foot on the brake and shifted into reverse, then very slowly backed down the driveway onto the street. I shifted to neutral just to see if it would work as desired (it did), then shifted to Drive. I eased off the brake and started on my way. Even at idle, I was picking up a little speed... and just as I was about to actually apply some throttle, I suddenly heard a soft thunk-thunk-thunk coming from under the car. I quickly braked to a stop and the noise stopped as well. I let off the brake, and the noise came back. Hmm. It definitely seems to be a driveshaft noise. I had only made it to in front of my neighbor's house (the same neighbor who helped me get the car off the jack), but I decided my first drive was over. I backed up to my driveway, then pulled right back in next to the house where I had been just a minute before.

Obviously, I have a few issues to address. But you know what? I don't care. It actually moved under its own power! I am so stoked.
 
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TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
I Lean said:
I'm interested to know what your thunking turns out to be.
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Even though I haven't looked underneath yet, I'm pretty positive it is the driveshaft hitting the stock 'driveshaft loop' brace. When I installed the new driveshaft, I thought it was going to clear that brace. Now I don't think so.


For your morning humor, here is a new photo. She's ridin' a bit low in the front. (The effect is exaggerated since I have taller coils in the back but stock 37-year-old V6 springs up front.)
7PrLIv9.jpg


:rofl:
 
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Bart

Bart

Registered User
Location
Arm Utah
Very cool that it moved under its own power. Congrats Dempsey. Personally, I'd lower the back end. Good luck with the driveline situation.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Suspension-wise, my next move is to order the new taller/heavier front springs (and new shocks) and install them. Once I see what that does to the car's rake, I'll decide what else to do to the rear end. But, yes, my plan is to leave room in the tail for tires wider than my current 235/60s.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Yesterday morning I told you all about Thursday's stupidly short test drive--all 50 feet of it. I got home from work Friday afternoon with enough time to test my theory on the clunking noise. I put only the rear end on jack stands, then started the car. It only took a second to crawl underneath and verify that, yes, the noise was the driveshaft's front u-joint hitting the stock brace. I shut down the engine and, four bolts later, the brace was off the car. I started it back up and--voila!--no more driveshaft clunking. You know what that meant: time for a real test drive. :)

For multiple reasons, I didn't want to go crazy. I took one slow lap around the neighborhood. I only got up to about 20 MPH, just enough for the trans to shift into second gear. I was barely applying throttle, which was probably a good thing because I could feel the transmission slipping... so I came around and pulled back into the driveway. I left the engine running, popped the hood, and removed the trans dipstick.

"Umm, how much fluid do you need to add if the dipstick is completely dry?"

I went looking through my garage for some Dexron-III (I swear I had some left over) but I couldn't find any. I decided it might not be wise to drive the GP any significant distance with the fluid so low, so I shut it down and hopped in the Suburban for an O'Reilly's run. Back home, after adding three quarts it seemed to finally show up on the dipstick.... though it is difficult to be sure when there is fluid on the inner wall of the fill tube. Would this be enough to stop the slipping? There's only one way to find out. :)

Another lap around the neighborhood and the trans now seems much more responsive. Decided I wanted to get a little more aggressive on the throttle, so I went over to a more major road (which has extremely wide shoulders and little traffic, but is still limited to 25 MPH :( ) and dipped into it oh so slightly. Revving up to 3500 in first gear, this trans shifts very firmly--much more so than the Suburban. I didn't dare hit 35 MPH since this road is a favorite hangout for speed patrol, and I didn't try any sort of tire spinning antics for the same reason. Still, so far things feel pretty fantastic.

When I'm in neutral or park, the engine idles around 1050 rpm. If I'm in gear and I'm holding the car still with the brake, the engine drops way down to 500-550 rpm. It sounds like it is dying, but I think it's actually the car's way of saying it doesn't like sitting still. It would probably sounds pretty wicked if it weren't for the damn exhaust leak at the cylinder head.


The next three things I must do to the car are:
- fix that exhaust leak so I don't asphyxiate myself
- install taller front springs & new shocks
- replace the leaking trans pan gasket (and install a new filter while I'm at it)

My plan is to complete all three tasks this week. To that end, I ordered my new front coil springs & shocks today. While I was at it, I also ordered a LubeLocker gasket for the 4L80E trans pan. Should be fun.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Late this afternoon, I decided to spend "just a few minutes" outside working on the car. Took a peek at a few fluid levels; verified that swapping radiator caps seems to have stopped the coolant leak; then decided to find out why my (AutoMeter) tachometer isn't working. Every time I tried testing for continuity between the distributor's tach output and the under-dash tach input wire, I came up empty. I eventually found out why: I had plugged the wrong wire into the tach input. I made the correction, and was happy knowing that all six of my gauges would at last be working.

Then I started the engine and saw the tach come right to life, but my GPS speedometer was now dead. :mad:

To properly troubleshoot that, I'd need to remove the cluster from the dash. I didn't want to do that right now, preferring instead to go for a drive, and that's when I realized my TCU interface/programming module displayed road speed on one of its 'live data' screens. That'll do for now, I decided, so I hastily bent up a small bracket and mounted it to my floor shifter. Good enough for now--let's drive!

I bravely (foolishly?) set out for my friend Mike's place in Pleasant Grove. Driving on Pioneer Crossing let me hit 50 MPH, which is where the TCU locks the torque converter. So far, I've been pretty happy with how it (the TCI EZ-TCU) behaves. This controller allows the user to make all sorts of custom alterations to the program, but I decided not to fiddle with it at all--I just went through the setup wizard and let it take over from there.

As I drove through AF on State Street, I passed my favorite O'Reilly Auto. I saw Eric's black '64 El Camino parked there, so I pulled in so he could come outside and see the car. As we chatted and I opened the hood, he noticed evidence of a fuel leak at the small filter next to the carb. It seemed to be a combination (?) of a chunk of old, worn hose plus a clamp that wasn't doing its job. Eric gave me a piece of new scrap fuel line, I scrounged a clamp out of the trunk of the car, and I spent a few minutes on my roadside repair. It was almost like I was having the full Roadkill experience.

Repair completed, I resumed my journey. I made it to Mike's place without incident. I opened the hood to inspect my handiwork, and everything seemed mostly leak-free. Not waiting for any spoken invitation, Mike just climbed in the car for a ride. (I'm detecting a trend here.) He asked me if I had found the gas pedal yet. When I hem-hawed trying to answer, he chided me: "if you have to think about it, you haven't done it yet." I reminded him that I'm trying to be kind to my brand new engine, but he offered no sympathy.

He lives in the middle of a residential area, so I wasn't about to go overboard. Still, a few blocks later I aggressively pulled away from a stop sign and spun the tires for 10 or 12 feet. He was unimpressed, telling me his ElCo would have been more violent. The smack talk has apparently begun! I'm sure there is going to be some sort of impromptu speed contest in our future.

Anyway, the drive back home went fine. I'm guessing the round trip was 30-35 miles or so. Since everything went so well, I am considering driving the car to work tomorrow.
 
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