[ZeGermanHam]

Back with another GTO update. I am very happy to report that the engine is operational once again and running better than it ever did before I took the car apart for restoration. In the past few weeks I managed to get some loose ends tied up, including cutting the battery cables to length and terminating them, finding good body, frame, and engine grounds, and bending up some transmission cooler lines.

Bending up the transmission cooler lines was something I had been avoiding, but it ended up being not too terrible of a job. I wasn't able to route them the factory way since my headers have claimed that real estate. So I ended up routing them between the oil pan and the motor mount, and made a mounting tab that bolts to the forwardmost unused motor mount bolt hole and then anchored the trans tubes to the tab. At the end of the day, they're solidly mounted and don't interfere with anything, so I'm happy with how they came out.





Yesterday I welded up and installed my exhaust kit. It's a 2.5" Flowmaster tubing kit with Dynomax SuperTurbo mufflers. I had wanted to use Summit brand turbo style mufflers instead, because the Dynomax mufflers neck down to 2-1/4" internally, but when I attempted to install the Summit mufflers I discovered that they were too wide. So, on went the Dynomax mufflers... It's okay, I'm not making enough power at the moment for it to matter. The tubing kit went on pretty smoothly, and although my welds were not Instagram worthy, they were not terrible and will do their job.



Today's goal was to get the engine running, so the day began with adding coolant, ATF, and power steering fluid. I also filled the carb bowls with gas via the vent tubes since the fuel lines were completely new/dry and and I've never wired up or used an electric in-tank fuel pump with oil pressure safety switch before. I was not sure if it would all work.

So I cranked the engine and it didn't want to start, eventually letting out a little backfire. I know what that is... Time to yank the distributor and flip it 180-degrees. 15 minutes later I've got it where it should be and the engine fired right up! Held an idle almost immediately despite having not been run since early 2019.

Everything was working well. However, after about the 3rd start, the engine started making a TERRIBLE metal screeching noise. Sounded like the flywheel, and after some investigation, I found that the starter bendix gear was too close to the flywheel, so I had to remove the starter and shim it back. Not a big deal - took me maybe 20 minutes to get it out, fix it, and reinstall. After that, it was smooth sailing.

I let the engine get up to temp, dialed in the timing, and let it burn off all the oil residue inside the fresh exhaust tubing. Cold oil pressure at idle was about 65psi, which then dropped to about 35psi at hot idle and would raise to around 60psi with throttle input. All good!

Here are some videos of it running after I got it warmed up and timed. The carb bogged once or twice in this video, but that was the only time it did that during the day. I still have to spend some time dialing it in and adjusting the air mixture, but I think it's pretty close as-is.

Video 1: LINK

Video 2: LINK