[The Boss]

Not going to make it Mike, you coming to Norwalk?

[Judge273]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Not going to make it Mike, you coming to Norwalk?

Me and Norwood will be at Norwalk Friday and Saturday...Bob, should bring his new trailer and we can push the gold one off to grass.

[Gator67]

Your engine compartment looks fantastic! I did my 70 TA last year and it never looked this good--the small details you attended to make a big difference. Now, with 4k miles on my car, it looks really tired in comparison.

[The Boss]

Great - you guys should all plan on having steaks with us on Saturday over on the pit side!

[Bentwheelbob]

Long day, so short post. The car is alive. The engine cranked on the second try and it sounds and runs awesome on the 4 post lift. Getting it on the road will take a while longer. Only one problem we know now and that is the intake is leaking on the center exhaust ports. That sucks, but if that is the worst problem then we can deal with that. Here are a few a pictures and a video. My Pal Dave is giving the salute to a few of his PY buddies.

This is a video.

[The Boss]

Dave is always doing the hard work but gets to do the fun stuff too.

Back atchya Dave!

[Alvin]

Bob, congrats on the successful engine fire up. Just now viewed your video of the event...so the screen grab below is Dave's "out the window" answer to the following Q?

- Police to Dave: "How many drinks did you have before I pulled you over for 100mph in the 30 zone?"

- Doctor to Dave....

Or Insert any catchy phrase of your own

Enjoy the Nats.

[dreamn69]

Stunning car Bob, stunning!

[Bentwheelbob]

Originally Posted by dreamn69

Stunning car Bob, stunning!

Thanks. I wish the rest of the car looked as good. The interior and paint are all original as are the decals. The only exceptions are the dash bezel, left rear quarter and wheels. It still looks very presentable, but there are plenty of scratches, rock chips and character marks. Under the hood things were so bad that it wasn't worth retaining survivor status, but the rest of the car looks good enough for me and I like the fact it is original.

The intake exhaust leak is fixed and this car should hit the road tomorrow. A few lose ends to button up and install the hood. Look out.,,

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Thanks. I wish the rest of the car looked as good. The interior and paint are all original as are the decals. The only exceptions are the dash bezel, left rear quarter and wheels. It still looks very presentable, but there are plenty of scratches, rock chips and character marks. Under the hood things were so bad that it wasn't worth retaining survivor status, but the rest of the car looks good enough for me and I like the fact it is original.

The intake exhaust leak is fixed and this car should hit the road tomorrow. A few lose ends to button up and install the hood. Look out.,,

Pls Praytell the origin & fix on the intake leak

[Bentwheelbob]

Well, the Gold Car is back on the road. There are still a few issues to button up, but we got it off the lift and back on the asphalt after 6.5 months of surgery. The EFE/heat riser doesn't like the choppy vacuum from the Stump Puller cam and rattles like a cheap pair of roller skates and will need fixed, there seems to be a small exhaust leak that needs tracked down, and the car is running a little hot so a 160 degree thermostat is going in to see what benefit it provides. Other than that, things are good. The car has gobs of power and runs nice. We were worried that you couldn't get it to go down the road straight after replacing everything in the front end, but it's not that bad. Definitely will be able to drive it to the alignment shop next week.

Here's a few pictures and a video...


This is a video.

[Alvin]

That 1st to 2nd gear scratch by MPD was cool...TY for posting & enjoy!

[Gator67]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Well, the Gold Car is back on the road. There are still a few issues to button up, but we got it off the lift and back on the asphalt after 6.5 months of surgery. The EFE/heat riser doesn't like the choppy vacuum from the Stump Puller cam and rattles like a cheap pair of roller skates and will need fixed, there seems to be a small exhaust leak that needs tracked down, and the car is running a little hot so a 160 degree thermostat is going in to see what benefit it provides. Other than that, things are good. The car has gobs of power and runs nice. We were worried that you couldn't get it to go down the road straight after replacing everything in the front end, but it's not that bad. Definitely will be able to drive it to the alignment shop next week.

I have the same cam in my GTO's 462 and it idles smoothly with steady vacuum once warmed up…what type of compression do you have? Mine also ran really cool from day 1…I wonder if you need more timing and/or a richer mix? Oh, I also think I read in an earlier post that you're running valve cover spacers…was that necessary because your valve covers have drippers?

[Alvin]

Thx for sharing the clutch thermal coil adjust link and reminder that OEM WS6's came w urethane sway bar end links.

[68ragtop]

Bob, I know you had your carb gone through, but was it setup for the camshaft you installed? I only ask because When I broke in the cam on my 68 GTO engine, I used the carb from my 78 Trans am because I knew that car ran perfect & I didn't want to add a possible carb issue to the mix during the 68's cam break in cycle. On that engine I am running the 068 cam. first thing I noticed was I had to open up the throttle blades quite a bit to get the 68's engine to idle from where it was at on the T/A

I had the 68's original carb rebuilt by a local carb expert & he wanted all the specs of the engine. When I got the carb back from him & installed it on the GTO's engine, I couldn't believe how much smoooooother it idled. Not just a little bit, but a lot! Still had some lump to the idle, but very controlled. Next time I saw the carb guy I asked him what was up with that & he told me quadrajets are very, very sensitive to vacuum & have a touchy idle circuit. Because I added a cam that had less vacuum, I add to open the throttle blades to allow more air to get into the engine for it to idle. If I remember correctly this puts the throttle blades in a bad spot and causes some sort of fuel drip from the main circuit, or maybe it was too much from the idle circuit? (i forgot which it was) but it was loading up & he said no adjustment would fix it. So he made small holes in the throttle blades to pass more air & allow the blades to be in the location they were supposed to be. What a difference that made.

I'm guessing you have all of this covered already in your carb rebuild, but thought it was worth mentioning because I learned a lot from that experience. My carb guy said its one of the reasons people who modify their engines toss the quadrajets to the curb & call them junk.

Car looks fantastic! BTW, my 78 survivor I'll bet has more scratches & dings than your car has. In fact, when I first bought the car, I almost repainted it. Soooo glad I didn't now. So few of these cars out there with original paint.

[Bentwheelbob]

The carb is fine and the car idles nicely. Cliff supplied the deluxe rebuild kit spec'd for the precise application and motor/car details. It may just be the that EFE is tired since it is the original. It holds vacuum when bench tested, but flutters and rattles at low rpm.

[The Boss]

Very nicely done there Bob (& Dave) and thank you for sharing it with me while I was away on vacation! Unfortunately there was no visual evidence left on the street that you were there! If you make it out to Norwalk, I'll show you boys how to properly power brake a stick car so others will know you have been there.

First class job on that car!

[Bentwheelbob]

The light bulb lit up shortly after my last post and I am such a dumbass...

I took a short cut on plumbing the vacuum line for the EFE valve. Instead of running the vauum line all the way around the back of the engine and down the right side to the TVV valve on the front of the engine as shown in the vacuum diagram, I hooked it to the vacuum tree on the carb. Nice short run and a lot cleaner. The problem is that the EFE valve is normally open and needs vacuum only when the engine is cold. The vacuum tree supplies vacuum under all but WOT conditions, therefore, I have been essentially running the car with the left side exhaust blocked. Stupid...

It will be interesting to see how this thing runs with two exhaust pipes and the impact on the engine temps.

What an idiot.

Another mistake I made was on the sway bar end links. I mounted these threaded end down and they are supposed to be threaded end up. This has been corrected.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

The light bulb lit up shortly after my last post and I am such a dumbass...

I took a short cut on plumbing the vacuum line for the EFE valve. Instead of running the vauum line all the way around the back of the engine and down the right side to the TVV valve on the front of the engine as shown in the vacuum diagram, I hooked it to the vacuum tree on the carb. Nice short run and a lot cleaner. The problem is that the EFE valve is normally open and needs vacuum only when the engine is cold. The vacuum tree supplies vacuum under all but WOT conditions, therefore, I have been essentially running the car with the left side exhaust blocked. Stupid...

It will be interesting to see how this thing runs with two exhaust pipes and the impact on the engine temps.

What an idiot.

Another mistake I made was on the sway bar end links. I mounted these threaded end down and they are supposed to be threaded end up. This has been corrected.

Bob, reminder of this info from vintage HPP http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...=755425&page=3 (see post# 48) and this reworked hose layout (below)



x2 on taking it easy on yourself...until you mentioned it, I didn't even notice the end link bolt...from your post # 37 (below)

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Now for the bad.

Several issues that immediately jump out. The exhaust system is crap from the manifolds to the muffler. The car has a true dual exhaust with no catalytic converter. The installation was shoddy to start with and time has not helped it any. It will be replaced very soon, but I need some suggestions on good systems for a 1978. On the transmission the dust cover is missing - if any one has a dust cover please send me a pm. The engine really leaks oil and the rear main seal will need to be addressed this winter. The paint shows more wear than you would like, but at the same time it looks pretty darn good for a 53K mile survivor. The drivers side window needs adjusted, and the sway bar end link bushings are totally missing. All in all - not too shabby. here's some pics.

[Judge273]

Originally Posted by The Boss

Very nicely done there Bob (& Dave) and thank you for sharing it with me while I was away on vacation! Unfortunately there was no visual evidence left on the street that you were there! If you make it out to Norwalk, I'll show you boys how to properly power brake a stick car so others will know you have been there.

First class job on that car!

Bob, have you not driven it yet?

Chris, I'll be there and love to learn that trick too...