77 Astre SW
 

Hi y'all

Just wanted to show and possibly ask questions later about my new project.
It's not too bad. We've found the major things it needs already. The engine is seized but my boyfriend(Jory) has a friend with one :) Found a hood and a steering column(it's broken). Then there's the stuff that has to be made. The right front frame rail is bad. As you can see the core support is shot too. Good thing Jory has a way with metal ;)

There's an Astre in the boneyard near here. Can't remember if it's a wagon or not. I'm heading out there this weekend, I should snap some pics if you need anything.

Thanks!! I have an order into a local junkyard, should hear back today. If he doesn't have the rest of the nose piece I'd be interested in that.

Thanks for the offer but I just heard from my guy. He's got everything :)

I'll post more pics as I get them. We're trying to get my 78 TA done first though so it'll be slow going until then.

i never knew they made them in wagons
i knew the vega was
kewl....

H bodies were one of my first car loves.....
to bad they rotted so much, fun little rides

I had a nice one(wagon) back in the day.
White with turquoise trim and white bucket seats.
151(iron duke) and about every option.
was sandwiched in a rear ender between my Dads van(which I was driving)
and an idiot in a Suburban. My wife was stopped behind me when the clown didnt even slow down hit us.Car was hit so hard the engine was sitting where the radiator used to be.
Ours was a fun little car that was anemic until I figured out to drill out the jets in the 2bbl.A good friend had a 78 Sunbird(same body) with a factory 305 V-8 and 4 speed.
1 st gear was useless with stock 13 inch tires .

I remember the chrome valve cover on the 151,I guess it was PMDs way of touting the OHV-4.

Congrats on the new purchase!!!! I have a 78 Sunbird Wagon, Chesterfield Brown, with a slightly built 231 V-6. And a 77 Astre Formula HB, I have parted out three 75-79 Astre/Sunbird wagons in the last 4 years so if you need any parts I may have them.

And Yes the made Astre wagons in 75-77, then rebadged them as Sunbird wagons in 78 & 79.

Well, Jory's been working on the wagon pretty steady. There's been a lot of obstacles but it's starting to look like a car again :) Here's a before and then some recent sheet metal shots.

Jory had to make a driver's floor pan :cool:

The engine is back out now so it can be diassaembled & cleaned. It was rebuilt a couple years ago but never used. It was covered with chain oil(?) before stored away. I also had to buy a trans out of an 4th gen F body, I won't say which one :o
We had an S10 trans but the shifter ended up in the middle of the dash. So rather than make a long shift rod I got the other trans. Which leads to another issue, the starter is now on the opposite side. It's always something with this little buggy :(

But it should be worth it when it's all done :drive:

We had a couple great scores in parts! Jory found an NOS rad support which saved SO much work :D

And I found some nice used quarters on the H body forums :)
They won't go on now but will be saved for when it gets worked on again years from now..
Possibly when it's gets the 455 outta my TA...:3gears:

Stacey, If Jory keeps it up you may actually have a car when it's done!It's looking a lot better than it did when you bought it.


Is that a 64 GTO sitting beside it?

Mike

Thanks Mike!
Yea, that's Daddy's 64 post coupe, his latest addition :)

That cars rare as hens teeth, niiiice

Nice thing about the Iron Duke is it's a Pontiac motor -

Mike, wasn't about '79 the Iron Duke got a cross-flow head ?

I thought it was 77. It was right in that era. The Coupe I owned had it and it was a late 77 build. I kinda wish I'd have kept that one around instead of letting the ex trade it off on an 89 'vert.

Mike

Friend in high school had a 77 Astre sedan, not the hatchback, it even had under dash a/c. I remember working on it in shop class it was not a cross flow head, the later ones got that feature, but I'm not sure of the year. The 2.5 originally was almost a 301 cut in 1/2.

I'll have to check my records and see what yr mine actually was. I'm 90% positive it was a 77 tho, It was a coupe, black with a tan interior rallys.

Mike

Thanks!
Well, that's another issue with my little wagon. The original motor was seized so I ended up buying a 2.5 out of an 80's S10. My Dad & I :argue: about what color to paint it. He says I should paint it Pontiac blue, like the original motor was. But beings it's out of a chevy S10 :confused:
Any opinions?

Pontiac blue, of course ! The "Iron Duke" is a Pontiac motor. It shared several common parts with the 301, they even have the same bore x stroke. People knock 'em for being gutless, but the truth is they're pretty hardy long lasting engines. It's a much better engine then the failure prone aluminum Chevy Vega engine that was also offered.
It even shared many parts with the 301, they debuted the same year. Keep us posted -

Pontiac also had the Super Duty parts for the 2.5L.That was the last actual Pontiac engine.They used it in the fiero and into the 90's in the buick century,grand am,s-trucks,and the olds cierra(fwd).

Too bad they didnt put the Pontiac SD 3.0 DOHC engine in many GM cars, it probably would have been much better then the headgasket eating Olds Quad 4 : http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...ger/index.html

GM sold the licensing and rights to the SD4 to another company that is still making the SD4 parts. They still use them in ARCA racing. So if you want a little more power for the Astre (I had a 1976 hatchback that was painted carosel red with white racing stripes) here is their website: http://www.kansasracingproducts.com/...the_Block.html

it probably would have been much better then the headgasket eating Olds Quad 4 :
Hey now I made alot of money doing those headgaskets while at the dealership.I didnt make much off the 2.5L other than timing covers/chain tensioners,and v/c gaskets.
They were to reliable of an engine.
Craig

One of those wagons with a 455 has to be flat-out fun!

The only problem I came across with the 2.5 (FWD applications mainly ?) was the corner stud tended to snap, if you were lucky you could pull it out and not do a head gasket, although some shops charged for it anyway.

Thanks for all the info guys!
I guess I should listen to my father about the paint then :rolleyes:
And by the way, this engine is not stock. The guy I bought it from used to race his S10's. It has some head work done & a beefier cam. Jory wants to do more & get an even beefier cam :oogle:

I'd paint it black to hide the oil leaks. The valve cover gasket was the weak point on those engines. They leak like a Detroit Diesel. With some care and maybe not, they run forever and a day.

I still think you should shove a Turbo V-6 in it out of a Grand National, in stock form it'd scream, with a little more boost, some injectors and a few other mods it'd run 11's in street trim and get 20+ mpg.


Mike

The only other issue with the iron dukes is the Plastic timing gear, the one on my 77 Astre Formula just snapped a few weeks ago. I don't think it will move under the 2.5's power again.

Tell me if you can tell Mike, but doesnt cammerjeffs engine look like a non cross flow head ? ;)
And NOTHING leaks oil like a Detroit diesel !

Oh it is a non cross flow head, 77-78 model years only. Basicly the old chevy II
4 cylinder, bored out to use the same piston/rod assembly of the 301 V-8. Starting in 79 they changed the head to the crossflow style. And John Sawruk had to redesign almost every part of the engine to do it. Block, head, cam, ect... then the head design was alot closer to the 301's, but still not quite the same.
It took be quite awile to find a replacement head for mine, it cracked shortly after I bought it, and now the timeing gear issue. I am done working on it!!!!

Now I'm going to have to dig, the engine in the Sbird I had wasn't like that one. Possibly it was changed or the yr is off in my head.


Mike

I for got to mention that the Air Pulse tubes in the pic's are from the original (cracked) California emissions head, only the CA & High Altitude cars got those funky looking tubes. The rebuilt 48 state head did not have provisions for them, so they are not on the car now. So it looks different without them.
But I do like the crome valve cover the 77's got!!!

We don't have as much time to work lately but Jory's still making progress :)
We found out awhile ago that there's no room for an air cleaner with the S10 intake so Jory made a hood scoop :cool:
We went back and forth on what to do & since this is a budget build Jory offered to make something, surprise surprise. We decided on the Turbo TA hood scoop, flipped. I can't wait to see the finished product but it's lookin good so far :D

The next piece of the puzzle is the clutch hydraulics. I have to play show & tell on my clutch rod. It's off my Dad's old Sears riding tractor. I don't know what it was. I'm just happy Daddy doesn't throw things away :p

Cool Stacey . . . hope all else is well. I will see you sometime this week hopefully.

Are you done with the engine ? I was wondering if a Mercruiser 3.0 marine engine would work (block or head)

I think one of the best combos for that car is the old Buick/Olds Aluminum 215 V8; it weighs slightly more then the original aluminum 4 cylinder , so it wont create handling issues. You can even use a Land rover engine; a Buford 350 HEI distributor drops right in. With a 215 & 5 speed combo you can get close to 30 mpg and they can pull 0-60 in the 8 second zone. Try that with the old Iron Duke -

I am getting ready to begin working on my 79 Sunbird Safari. It is a solid car with little or no rust. I did find some real nice front fenders for it. The others were beat up. This car has a Buick even fire V6, a TH350 and a 10 bolt posi. This was the very last "Vega" looking wagon.

Fast . . . cool. Post some pics please (when you can).

455Grandville,

I did complete the head change last year, but then the timing gear broke on the cam, and as I am planning on putting in a 383 SBC I didn't feel like working on the 2.5 internals again, and spending $$$ on it. I do agree that the Buick 215 is a great engine for H-bodies!!! And just after I bought the sbc parts I had a chance to buy a used turbo ecoteck from a soltice. I probebly should have jumped on it, but I didn't have the $2500.00 when it poped up, And it did include everything needed including the 5 speed trans.

fasteddy, I have one 79 Sunbird wagon grill from a parts car a few years ago, if you want it just pay shipping. the other grill was busted out. I run 75/76 Astre grills in my 78 Sunbird wagon. And don't have a use for the one year 79 grill. Are you planning on keeping the 3.8? I have done a few things to the 3.8 in my Wagon.

keep up the great progress on the car...
i have to say..... it truly is bringing back some H-body memories...
to think.... i ummmm am guilty for slaughtering about 14 of them.... i was young, broke, but what a learning curve it was for me and my friend.... we still talk about it to this day..

It's been awhile since I posted but works been steady on the wagon.

2many, if Jory hadn't found a tech article on the H body forums about converting to S10 brakes all around I would've jumped on those wheels. I bought a ball joint conversion kit on ebay for the front. Then front spindles from Scott at ABE Auto Salvage, he's been a life saver!! Jory found rear axles at a local junkyard along with a posi unit which will go in after it gets on the road. And to top it off Daddy donated a set of used 15" Rally II's :D
We were dying to see how it looked with the wheels so my parents were nice enough to offer being the engine & trans to see it closer to ride heighth. Daddy doesn't look too comfy :rolleyes:

And while Jory's been busy on all the mechanical/body... I've been dying interior panels. It'll have a great engine compartment & interior :p
Here's some before & the after shots. Jory had to fix the crack in the left rear panel. It turned out pretty good!

Since we swapped trannys we can't use the factory speedo. So it'll have a custom gauge cluster. It's not done yet but here's a sneak preview.

Jory's been doing more than just saturday work on the car itself. He's been getting the engine cleaned, assembled & painted. And installed :D
And as you can see, once we got the S10 brakes figured out he finished the brake system up. The clutch is also done other than a hydraulic line will have to be made.
The trans & torque arm are in also :)

The intake is from the S10 so it was set up for fuel injection. Jory modified it & made a carb adapter plate so we can use the original Astre carb :cool:
And then Daddy blasted & clear coated the intake for us.
Jory finished rebuilding the carb today. It may get fitted on tomorrow.

I had a great Christmas!!!!
Jory bought me a distributer, it's a monster!
He also bought me a stereo & speakers but we're not ready for those yet.
Daddy bought me tires, whoo hoo!! Jory mounted them on the Rally's and hopefully they'll go on tomorrow too.

Stay tuned... :)

How about some pics ?

I had pictures posted... Somehow Nixon deleted them :(
I'll try to repost them one night this week.

Here's the pics & the post #'s they go with.

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