#81  
Old 05-23-2011, 04:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OVERULD View Post
I like the pulley and cable rig that lets you change the angle of the motor easily. That's very cunning! You've obviously done that a time or two.

BJ

If your going to copy NJ Steves set up, I'd make sure to get the steel cable & pulleys from a trust worthy source, and of the right capacity.
Overkill is OK when you have an engine hanging over your feet & fenders.

I've had luck with this place for heavy duty rigging wire etc.
http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Riggin...FUPf4Aod5l3mTg

BTW that motor mount design has to be the worst for installing a replacement engine, even getting the old mounts out with
the lower control arms in place is a pain.
I rember my Dad had to stand on top of my intake manafold to push down the motor while I tried to get those bolts through the mounts,
Funny now but not fun then.

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  #82  
Old 05-23-2011, 05:05 PM
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That cable rig actually belongs to a local mechanic friend. It's a commercially built piece, not home-made. Don't know where he got it originally, but it's probably half a century old.

There has been a slew of engine installs this season so we keep loaning out the cherry picker up and back. It's like a community hoist.

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Old 05-24-2011, 10:30 PM
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Got the car all together today, added the last of the fluids, rechecked everything and got ready for the longwinded start up process...You know the drill, crank it over, stand back for the inevitable backfing and loss of eyebrows...pull the distributor and reinstall it 180 degrees out from where it was, find out where the leaking oil/gas/water/beer is coming from...try again...yada, yada, yada.



I can tell you that in 35 years of playing with cars and building engines I have never run into something like this:

I had the boy outside with me holding the fire extinguisher (from prior experience, just in case). All I was trying to do was bump the starter in order to move the timing mark on the balancer to the "0" spot on the timing mark. I turn the key for half a second and the car is running. No cranking, no backfiring, I mean running like I had just shut it off a minute ago. Instant 60 pounds of oil pressure, no weird noises, no leaks, no running out of gas.

So I end up sitting there with a stop watch and running the rpms up and down around 1500 to 2000 pm for 15 minutes. After that, I shut her off and drained the oil - looked clean, the magnetic drain plug was perfectly clean - not even a speck of metal anywhere. Refilled the oil and added another can of break-in additive and turned the key again, and she starts up on the first crank again. Set the timing and we both hopped in.

So we took Grammas Rose's car out for a victory lap and went to Rita's Ice for some Italian ice to celebrate. Got home and here's how she sounds after our victory ride: (click on the photo)




So, between the 455HO my daughter built in 3rd grade and this 350 my son built in 4th grade, the moral of the story is that from now on I will only have my kids build my engines for me.

Sounds like an idea for a new TV show:

Can You Build An Engine Better Than a 4th Grader?


Last edited by njsteve; 05-24-2011 at 10:39 PM.
  #84  
Old 05-25-2011, 07:59 AM
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That car wanted to go back together - some don't!

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And go racin' in the street.


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  #85  
Old 05-25-2011, 10:19 AM
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Cool build. I like the engine color!!! I like the fact your kids are helping,and want to help, what a good feeling!!!

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  #86  
Old 05-25-2011, 11:40 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Boss View Post
That car wanted to go back together - some don't!
Nobody could top Steves Charger story for strange coincidences but,

There must have been some good Mojo in the Norwood factory in 1975,

All of the 75' birds I ever had (parts cars included) were spooky to work on.

I found some of my missing shifter back drive parts & interior parts in a totally unrelated random 65 mustang parts car my friend bought.

I later found an NOS 75 bird AM FM Stereo & 8 Track in the GM boxes for $35 at carslile in a tent from a guy who sold mustang parts. (I was looking for parts for my friend car he could not make it that day.)

My 75 T/A had found me, I was not even looking for an other project. I already had put an engine in my 75 base bird and was happy with it.
I walked out of work & the owner was sitting on the hood of the T/A and asked if I wanted another 75 he had to sell it fast to pay for a baby
on the way....and he wanted to make sure it went to a good home. Turns out I had stopped to look at buying the same car 8 years before when I was
in high school but never had the money.

I never had another car in my life that WANTED to go out and be driven.

Be Nice to those '75s!

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  #87  
Old 05-25-2011, 05:52 PM
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Great story Steve - motor sounds great. Say, how much does your boy charge for a motor rebuild? Think he could work me in if I find a good project?

BJ

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Old 05-25-2011, 08:38 PM
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He's too expensive! As it is, he wants way too much for mowing the lawn.

Had to wait for the wife and daughter to get home this evening to put the hood back on. Then I washed all the dust off and fixed a broken A/C compressor wire. Now everything works at the moment but the high speed on the blower fan, which didn't work before the rebuild, anyway. I think the relay has gone bad.

Here's some shots after the bath.






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Old 05-25-2011, 09:23 PM
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Looks great Steve!

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  #90  
Old 05-25-2011, 10:16 PM
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Cool thread!

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Old 05-25-2011, 10:26 PM
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Thanks for sharing!
Great read and awesome to get the kids involved at an early age.

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Old 05-26-2011, 11:17 AM
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Steve,
The relay can be a problem.

My 77 had a 2 or 3 wire harness that laid across the engine.
The harness has (had) a connector in it, the connector would over heat and melt, causing a problem, I chopped the connector out, butt connected those wires together!!!

Another issue can be corrosion on wire connectors, especially on the resistor.I know there are some differences on the A/C setups between a 75 and 77, but
most of it is similar...I replaced the dash switch, once in my car, it fixed that problem, that time....

I'm going to remove (if possible) all the A/C and heater wiring under the hood of my car and give it the once over here, when I get a chance. I'm thinking of soldering some of those wire connectors, so corrosion won't get between them...

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  #93  
Old 05-26-2011, 08:44 PM
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I checked the relay connection and it is the melted wire syndrome. 20 years ago I put an inline fuse in the power feed for the high speed circuit, where it enters the relay. You can actually see the orange wired, white plastic inline fuse holder in the upper left corner by the passenger side hood hinge, in the first photo above. I think I did this because the original wire melted, so I thought a fuse would protect the wire in the future.

In actuality, all it does is heat up the inline fuse carrier enough that it softens the plastic and then the metal connectors no longer contact the inline fuse, cutting off the 12 volts feed.

I jumped the two ends of the melted fuse holder and high speed then functioned perfectly.

I guess I forgot that the relay is the thing that is supposed to be protecting the circuit from heat damage but it doesn't do too good of a job at it.

I guess I will go back to the original 12 gauge wire and forget the fuse.

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Old 05-26-2011, 08:50 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobzdar View Post
Maybe I'm missing something, but that's 8% difference. If it wasn't using oil, I wouldn't have rebuilt as it's only virgin once. Bore and bearings would seem to indicate that there were no issues.

As to why it was gutless, the tiny cam they put in those from the factory is the culprit I'm sure. I hope you're planning at least a mild upgrade in that area. Very cool car.
Im with you there; I probably wouldn't rebuild it with numbers that good. Car looks damn niiice though -

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Old 05-26-2011, 09:05 PM
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Like I said, if I could do math, I would have been a doctor.

:-)

Actually, I was looking for an excuse to work on something with my son, and it was the perfect candidate. I will say that it is a lot peppier now, even with just 50 miles on it. There's a noticeable increase in power - probably from the 068 cam. And an added plus is that there aren't any oil or ATF puddles under the car anymore.

BTW, nice timing on your comment. The boy and I just spent an hour trying to figure out his math homework...yeah, you guessed it, it involved figuring out percentages!

We had to call his sister downstairs to help us.

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Old 05-27-2011, 03:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by njsteve View Post
I checked the relay connection and it is the melted wire syndrome. 20 years ago I put an inline fuse in the power feed for the high speed circuit, where it enters the relay. You can actually see the orange wired, white plastic inline fuse holder in the upper left corner by the passenger side hood hinge, in the first photo above. I think I did this because the original wire melted, so I thought a fuse would protect the wire in the future.

In actuality, all it does is heat up the inline fuse carrier enough that it softens the plastic and then the metal connectors no longer contact the inline fuse, cutting off the 12 volts feed.

I jumped the two ends of the melted fuse holder and high speed then functioned perfectly.

I guess I forgot that the relay is the thing that is supposed to be protecting the circuit from heat damage but it doesn't do too good of a job at it.

I guess I will go back to the original 12 gauge wire and forget the fuse.
Steve,
Thanks for the laugh!!! All the other A/C maladies I've experienced w/ my car, I forgot about melting the big relay wire....I cut the big wire out of my harness, and put a seperate (better) connector on it, it was all I could do.This wasn't too long after my car was out of warranty...been a while...

From what I could tell by the short video, the 350 sounded like it idles fairly smooth???
How smooth is it??? I currently have a 350 in my car, and I happen to have a 068 cam, thinking about trying to give it a little boost in power, it's about all the budget will allow, for now...

How much did you take off the head surfaces??? That year 350 was rated at 7.6:1 compression. Any gain in compression would have helped.

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  #97  
Old 05-27-2011, 06:25 PM
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They only took off about .008 from the heads, just to make them perfectly flat. The car seems to like the 068 cam. It idles pretty smooth but has much more power than the prior cam which was some Crane torque cam I put in back in 1994.

Today I replaced the 30 amp plastic fuse holder with a heavier duty one that uses a modern fuse. It is long enough to hide out of sight. Those original plastic inline fuse holders are a terrible design for high amperage fuses because as the amperage goes up, so does the heat...the heat then softens the plastic and the internal spring then pushes the metal contacts away from the fuse, until they don't make electrical contact any more...and you lose high speed on the fan.

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Old 05-27-2011, 06:32 PM
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Cool, w/ the minor surfacing on the heads, and the .030 over bore, your 8.2 comp ratio thought might be real close...

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1977 Black Trans Am 180 HP Auto, essentially base model T/A.
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  #99  
Old 06-02-2011, 06:14 PM
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I was going throught the pile of original paperwork the other day and found the old Midas Muffler paperwork. Gramma bought the lifetime warranty shocks way back when. My brother got them replaced under the lifetime warranty back in 1984 and again in 1991. I figured after 20 years it was time again so I paid a little visit to the local Midas shop that is run by a friend of my mechanic buddy. The owner had a good laugh and ordered the shocks up for me.

The kids working there (who were not born when the original set...or the second...or third set was put on) could not figure out how to read the original paper warranty certficate and do the paperwork. All they kept saying was, "It's not on my computer. I don't know how to do this?"

The kid tried to convince me that I owed $198 for installation, and I referred him back to the certificate that states, "free parts and free labor." He couldn't believe they used to have that deal (it's only free parts nowadays).

The owner got a kick out of watching the young'ens squirm under this incrediblely arduous paperwork task, so he assigned his "old timer" to put the shocks on. (He had a 73 T/A way back when and enjoyed working on Gramma's car).

Lucky for them I replaced the original Midas single exhaust and transverse muffler years ago with my own dual setup, otherwise I would have gone the full exhaust route, too.

I didn't even start on the lifetime brake warranty, - as she only has 5000 miles since the work was done in '91.

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Old 06-03-2011, 03:49 PM
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Kudos to the Midas shop manager for honoring that warranty. That one has to be some sort of record.

BJ

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