Maybe it's trying to tell me something

Post date: Nov 24, 2017 7:38:52 PM

I really shouldn't have a picture like that at this point in the build. We'll come back to that.

In good news, the second attempt with the Pypes x-pipe kit went much better. Shaun brought over the good welder (both equipment and skilled person) - him - and got it all put together. Tucked much higher than the old setup. Still needs a bit of trimming on the rear crossmember. Indeed, the kit with the built-in dumps would not have fit. The acoustiseal stuff is actually goopey tar, so that's fun. The right tail hits the bumper. The stock style muffler hangers actually fit quite well with the axle mounted sway bar with just some minor trimming.

Now that there aren't any exhaust leaks it's really rather quiet. Almost too quiet. Might need more aggressive mufflers!

The new plate for the booster finally came in. As always, this was a mixed bag.

It came with a tool - really just a machined chunk of tubing - for the retaining nut. Of course, the bracket from the Denton guy is smaller than that tubing, so I have to cut apart the old bracket to get to the nut. Then I had to shorten the pushrod a bit more. Of course I got in a rush and didn't clean it up properly, so the clevis is all boogered up. I'll probably have to remove the unit and install a new pushrod and clevis at some point. This setup is actually working quite well. The brakes are pretty soft, but are easier to modulate. Feels like a little less feedback than before. Still locks up the tires easily.

On to the EFI! I looked at various throttle bracket options and all were terrible. I liked the Lokar Pro-Flow setup, but it uses some wacky trapezoidal spacer. I copied that idea and Shaun cut some chunks out of a plow disk (!!!) and ended up with this:

Obviously it was too good to be true:

A 1/2" air cleaner spacer fixes that at least.

I just drilled and tapped some holes in the back of a 1" 4150 spacer for 1/4" studs and used a spread to square adapter plate. It was a bit of a pain to find a spacer that was a usable shape with enough meat to hold the studs. Then I notice the throttle body is actually a little larger than a 4150. No problem, just port the spacer and plate, right?

Right.

Good news is the air cleaner mod worked out really well. Bad news is getting the hoses to stay on didn't go well, so I blindly hit it with the drill to tighten the clamp, thinking I had the clutch set correctly. Nope. It crushed the driver side tube. Anyway, it's together. I'll make a reinforcement ring, or something, for that tube. Or maybe just make another one. Why not. The IAT fits in the old PCV fresh air hole with a couple of grommets.

The FAST dual sync distributor finally came it. It's actually just a modified Pertronix unit. The Pertronix already has an 8 magnet center ring and a vacuum lockout arm. They cut a slot in the magnet holder (!!!), put in a magnet for the cam signal and wrapped tape around it. I'm sure nothing can go wrong there. The housing has a ball bearing at the top protected by a lip seal from the bottom and a plain - possible steel? - bushing at the bottom. Didn't look like an oilite. It's an OK assembly, bit of slop in the magnet ring, except the lower housing had a whole bunch of trash inside it. There's also no feed/breather hole for the lower bushing. The MSD cap-a-dapt fits, and I swapped the plug over to a weatherpack. The 6al2 takes a hall effect input, so now I just have to deduce the proper phasing and it's off to the races. For reference, it's an 8 and 1 hall effect sensor.

So, what is that top picture all about? Well, while driving around last weekend there would be huge bursts of white smoke whenever slowing down from a hard run. Everything was running great, so I didn't pull over for a while. Popped the hood - coolant everywhere, no pressure in the system, but water had only dropped a few inches. Stopped at a grocery store, it only needed about a quart of water, poked around, figured out the lower weep hole was spurting water whenever under notable pressure. Fantastic. Order a new pump, hopefully I can get the old one replaced under warranty and then have a spare.

While I'm at it, I had noticed that sometimes there would be a horrible racket from the passenger side when starting cold. It would just completely go away within a minute so I never located it. Assumed it was a temperamental exhaust leak. So since the accessory drive was off to swap the pump, I pulled the valve covers to check the rockers. Sure enough, #6 intake was just flopping around. Get a borescope down there and the lifter had collapsed entirely. I guess that in manages to pump up after getting jostled around a bit, then collapses at some point. Great. My plan was just to swap the water pump over the holiday and get back on the road - no time for this nonsense. So I drive down to Summit in Arlington to pick up a set of lifters, get the intake off, and whaddaya know, two lifters had mushroomed and won't come out. The cam pretty much has to be destroyed as well.

OK, great, no big deal, just a cam swap, right? We've got R&R this engine down to a simple practice.

In talking to Remmel, he said there's just a known failure rate with the voodoo stuff since the ramps are so aggressive. So I'm switching to a Crower grind - 56264 - that is a couple degrees longer duration, 112 instead of 110 LSA, a bit more lift and a softer ramp. Should be very similar, maybe better! And the crower cam-saver lifters. Of course no one stocks Olds cams anymore, so it's a special order even though it's an off-the-shelf grind. Maybe in a couple of weeks? I was seriously tempted to switch to a roller, but the extra $1k and various complications - and the time crunch - just ruled that out. Next time.

While I'm at it, I decided to swap to a proper oil adapter block and -10 lines to the cooler and filter. Besides the increase in line size, that also removes 3 90 degree bends in each path. I'll also shim the oil pump and see if I can chase down that pump rattle.

The plan was to start sorting, selecting and cleaning brightwork and finishing any bodywork I can manage. Oh well. I'm sure it'll all be back together and running great before January.