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  #501  
Old 07-26-2015, 08:24 PM
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Greg Reid Greg Reid is offline
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The car is really looking good Fred. I hope you get all the bugs worked out soon. I'd love to see you bring it to next spring's BOP since it's generally right in your neighborhood.

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  #502  
Old 09-03-2015, 12:13 AM
fbrown fbrown is offline
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I bought a GM Supermatic 4L70E and a stock 2006 GTO TC. The only bad thing is GM no longer offers a new TC for the GTO application. I had to buy a remanufactured part. GM part number 17803808. The stall is listed at 1800-2000 RPM.

I should be happy with this combination since I owned a 2006 GTO in the past and had not complaints with how the 2006 GTO drove.

Removed the transmission last weekend and found the fittings for the cooler lines in my old transmission would not fit. case fittings for the cooler line is larger for the 4L70E. Size was 9/16-17 the old transmission had 1/2-17. Still waiting for the correct fittings to arrive. Should get here tomorrow, so I will have a long weekend to get the new transmission installed.



I couldn't confirm in advance if the 4L70E Supermatic had a input speed sensor. It appears that it does by the pins that are installed in the connector. 15 pins are present, there are 13 for the older 4l60E. GM apparently does not use ISS in their retrofit transmission controller, so I was worried that GM wouldn't bother to install a ISS in their aftermarket transmission. Had this been a 13 pin transmission, my TCU could be reprogramed.


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  #503  
Old 12-22-2015, 06:33 PM
fbrown fbrown is offline
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This is been long over due for an update. Many bizarre things going on in my life right now.

First the new transmission and TC work very well. The road manners are much improved so that the car is fun to drive. Not all went well, blew a transmission cooler line about ten miles after the install. I got lucky, I was close to my house and was able to coast all the way home. It was down hill the whole way. It turns out that I'm not the only person to have hose problems with a 4L70E, it seems that under some conditions the pressure in the hose can reach 350PSI for brief periods of time, combined the possibility of high temperature it was hard to find a good enough hose. I have also heard that Dexron VI transmission fluid will attack common rubber and that special hose is needed. I ended up spending about $100 for hose and fittings to make a PTFE hose set. PTFE was the only type of hose I could find that would work at 350 PSI, 300 degrees and work with Dexron VI

As life now gets it the way.

This is the short version.

One of my neighbors dead trees fell across my driveway and dented the fender of my Buick. Two weeks later Another tree fell and hit my Buick again and also did major damage to my Genesis. Two weeks after that I had to get a lawyer since the homeowners insurance would not accept responsibility. Genesis was to be towed to a dealer and was lost in route to the dealer and could not be found. I was told I should report the car stolen since no one could find the car. I ended up reporting the car as stolen with my car insurance. Five weeks later my car insurance company found the car in the service department in another dealers service department. Now it is the beginning of November, another tree fell, hitting my house with a limbs punching holes in my roof. House has been repaired but not covered by anyone's insurance at this point. Around Thanksgiving I settled the claim on my Buick with my car insurance Comprehensive coverage. Damage to the Buick consisted of a dented fender and a crack in the windshield. My Buick was within $50 of being considered totaled. The Genesis is still in limbo as I write this and still has not made its way to a collision shop in spite of many phone calls. The shop where the car was improperly dumped, won't release the car until they are paid storage fees. It's now in the hands of my car insurance company to resolve.

Back to more automotive things. I bought a replacement car after the Genesis appeared to have been stolen. I test drove a chevy SS. The one I drove must have been a dog. It drove real nice but acceleration was not good. Anyway I drive too much for a car that gets 15/21 MPG. I ended up with a 2014 Infiniti
Q50S Hybrid. This car is fast 0-60 in under 5 and mid 13's in quarter. I range from 31-35 mpg in the 4500 miles that I have put on the car so far. The GF is mostly responsible for this choice, she never liked my Genesis.


Now back to topic.

I have been fighting numerous problems with the Lemans. The most serious is a soft brake pedal poor breaking performance and the inability to lock up the brakes. Since I assume that the problem is bleeding, I took the car to a shop to have the brakes bleed. It was a total waste of money, they changed nothing. Since I appears that I'm on my own to fix the problem, I order a pressure bleeder kit. Well I go to bleed the front brakes and can't get any fluid to come out the bleeder screws even with 30 PSI of pressure on the bleeder. After a couple of nights of fooling around, I removed one of the bleeder valves and found that it had stuck closed. I had installed the type that had a check valve to allow for one person bleeding. I obtained some regular bleeder screws for local automotive parts place and then find that the seats are now messed up and I can't stop the bleeder screws from leaking. At least the Wilwood caliper uses a screw in assembly, but I had to order a replacement set. OK install new bleeder hardware and I can bleed front brakes. This doesn't say much about the shop I got to bleed the brakes, since it is certain, they had no flow out the bleeder screw.

Now to do the rear brakes. My impact gun won't remove the lug nuts. I had to use a three foot breaker bar, one broke, one was bend and threads on all the studs were messed up. I have no idea on how the shop managed to do this.



I spend several days obtaining replacement studs. I have Moser axels and I couldn't find any studs the correct size locally. Ended up buying Moser packaged studs from Summit. I told my GF that I would tow the car somewhere to get the work done, except now the car is in my basement and it would be impossible for a wrecker to retrieve the car. A flat bed truck won't clear a tree near the basement door.

I used a front end ball joint service kit to press the studs out. I used a stack of oiled washers and a grader 8 nut to pull the studs in.


Now I can bleed the rear brakes. All seems well, the brake pedal feels harder. Need to drive car to find out for sure.

While I had the car in my basement I deal with other problems. I had a whistle a high speed where the passenger window was not against the seal hard enough. I reworked the seals and adjust windows. Now it seems to go up and down better. The slight gap in the window and seal is now gone.

I took this time to also adjust the driver side window which didn't go up and down unless the door was open. Adjusted tracks on that side. Window goes up and down much better now.

Now to the bad part. Started on why the engine has a slightly rough idle. It also sometimes backfires at moderate to wide open throttle. In neutral the engine didn't seem to rev smoothly. Since four years have gone by since I first cranked the engine, maybe one of the injectors is not working right. I had already changed the plugs and replaced the GM wires with MSD wires a few months ago. Since rough idle can be caused by fuel, spark or compression, I have already eliminated spark, I have only fuel or compression left. Since I have no way to check injector flow, I will check compression. If compression is good, the only thing left is injectors. With only 166 miles on the car, the compression should be good, but by checking compression I would rule out anything but the injectors. Well . . . . . The compression test was not good.

170, 200, 155, 180, 175, 160, 170, 165 I think 205 is normal

I have no explanation of what happened. All of the miles were short trip around the block. In my case the block is about 5 miles and has 1 mile of interstate. This allows for varied speeds and should make for a good break in, since there is slow speed, high speed, stops etc.

Anyway I have no idea what to do next. I'm not very good with hard core engine repair. That's the reason I bought a brand new crate engine. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.



Some carnage shots

This tree broke at the top and the roof and fell down the front, overhanging the front of the house by 10 feet.


I was working on the Lemans, installing new transmission cooler lines when the tree hit my Buick and Genesis. A very loud noise. The piece of tree almost hit the Lemans.


Buick Wagon got hit again



Genesis Damage - The tree hit, bounced off and broke into pieces. The open hood of my Lemans kept me from seeing the hit. The hood stopped caving in when it hit the top of the engine.






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  #504  
Old 12-22-2015, 09:11 PM
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I just had $4K worth of trees cut for fear of the same thing happening. I could actually use about 7~8 more cut but the biggest/closest are gone.
Sorry about your troubles...but 'this too shall pass' as they say.

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  #505  
Old 12-24-2015, 01:36 AM
fbrown fbrown is offline
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Quote:
I just had $4K worth of trees cut for fear of the same thing happening. I could actually use about 7~8 more cut but the biggest/closest are gone.
Sorry about your troubles...but 'this too shall pass' as they say.
Unfortunately none of those trees were on my property. They had been dead for years and the old lady (90+) wouldn't have them cut down.

Good news, the bad compression test was the result of a bad compression gauge. When I squirted some oil in one of the cylinders, I couldn't get a repeatable reading. Actually lost another 20 PSI after I shot oil in it. Then I was able the see the gauge drop from 20-40 PSI after turning the starter off. It's hard to see that gauge when your in the car.

Bought a new gauge tonight and had a much better test.

220,205,203,204,203,195,205,203

The 220 was the cylinder I squirted last night.

The 195 goes to 200 with a squirt of oil.

Problem is most likely injectors. I need to get the injectors cleaned and flow tested.

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  #506  
Old 12-24-2015, 01:48 AM
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Did you take any pix of the Vintage Air airbox mounting? I did not see them in the posts.

  #507  
Old 12-24-2015, 02:07 AM
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I didn't really take any pictures. There was not much to it. I Just shoved it as high as it would go. If you have not filled in the AC box hole like I did, it mounts to existing holes and a plate is supplied to cover the old AC box hole. This picture it probably the best one.


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  #508  
Old 12-24-2015, 02:17 AM
fbrown fbrown is offline
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Vintage air was working on a Surefit system for the 68 GTO when I ordered the Chevelle kit. I still don't see a listing for the 68 GTO. At the time I was told there was a 68 GTO in their shop and they expected to have a kit in about 6 months. The chevelle kit is not bad, but it did take some effort to make a bracket to mount one of their control heads in the 68 opening. The control panel I used was not for the chevelle.

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  #509  
Old 12-24-2015, 02:23 AM
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I should also say that the system seems to work OK. I don't really remember what the AC/Heat was like in my 69 Bonneville so it's hard to compare the Vintage AC unit with a factory unit of the day. The Vintage unit kept me cool on a hot summer day. The biggest complaint I have is the lack of fresh air. The vintage air does not pull in any outside air.

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  #510  
Old 12-24-2015, 03:09 PM
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fbrown: I did pick up the setup for my 79 - the brackets mounting the airbox were not sufficient in my book. I had a set made by our laser cutters, and was curious if the A body setup was any better than their F setup. My T/A was originally an AC car but during the rebuild was converted to non-AC with an external airbox. I changed the kicks out for vented units VA has no provision for fresh air, so I kept the kicks and routed the hoses elsewhere. I will see if VA is interested in improving their stuff.

  #511  
Old 09-30-2016, 08:14 AM
gtospieg gtospieg is offline
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Default Where do things stand now?

I just finished reading your entire build thread...awesome work...so it appears that there have been no new updates since Dec. of '15...anything new to report?

  #512  
Old 10-31-2016, 12:14 AM
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The last few things are the hardest. Sometimes I ready to push it over a cliff. I have a little over 600 miles on it now.

Brakes - Brakes got worse and worse, to the point that it was hard to stop the car. A rapid stop was impossible, forget trying to lock them up. I spent a long time on the brakes, convinced that it was a bleeding problem. Ended up buying a pressure bleeder. Didn't make much difference so I parked the car a walking away from it for many months. It turns out the rear disc brakes, included on the Moser 12 bolt were what are called Eldorado/Sevelle brakes. It was unfortunate that I didn't receive the instructions, since there was critical information that I didn't have. When installing this type of disc, it is necessary to set and release the emergency brake many times to get the pads to the proper position. In addition if you don't set the parking brake routinely this type of brake doesn't work properly. I didn't have a parking brake and still don't. Would need custom cables since my cross member is not in a standard position. When trying to set the calipers manually after all this time, I find they are damaged and leak. From specs on Rockauto I find that the Eldorado front and rear calipers appear to be the same except for the parking brake. I picked up a pair of front calipers and installed then on the rear, bleed the lines and tested. Was able to lock up the rear finally. Adjusted the Wilwood Proportioning Valve since I had tried adjusting it while trouble shooting the brakes.

Final result I can lock up all four tires but the feel of the pedal is not really great. Takes a lot of travel but will stop quickly. Thinking I spoiled by modern cars I try the brakes in my 77 Cadillac, no problem, not much pedal travel will stop you very quickly. This is currently the status of the brakes. I don't really know where to go from here.

Gas Tank - I had been tracing leakage that was dripping off the gas tank. Determined it to be return line. Was unable to get the leak stopped. Ended up dropping gas tank so I could see the flare. There was a small flaw in the flare. Currently the fuel pump assembly is a Ricks being repaired.

Fuel Pump - The fuel pump included with the Ricks tank is not big enough to support a LS3. I'm having Rick's upgrade to a higher flow fuel pump while they are repairing the return line fitting.

High beam Headlights - Chased a problem with high beams going out, though it was the high/low switch. High beam would go out immediately when activated. Later determined that the circuit breaker in the head light switch doesn't have the current needed for my Xenon headlights. Bought relays and connectors to make a headlight harness. Haven't got around to making it yet.

Front end alignment - Goodyear did the initial alignment. They didn't want to do it since the car had never been aligned. The tech at Goodyear told me he was unable to set it to specs, but it was probably close enough to drive.

Alignment needs to be redone by a good shop. Car wanders and doesn't feel right while cornering. Can't get this done till I get the gas leak repaired.

Dyno tuning - Needs to be done. In addition to fuel pump with more flow, I want to install resonators. Car is too loud. The final exhaust system should be on before I get the car tuned.


The lower stall torque convertor (Stock 2006 GTO) is working good. The car was uncontrollable with a 3200 rpm stall speed. You can still roast the tires with the lower stall speed if you want to, but you also feather the throttle for a fast start without going up in smoke.

Local tire place was unable to fix a slow leak in one of my wheels/tires. Shop also had difficulty balancing these wheels/tires and since I had already wasted over $200 with balancing/leak repair I upgraded to 17" Year one wheels and Continental ExtremeContact DW tires. I only have about 20 miles on this setup and need to wait until I can get car aligned before driving more.

Here are a few pictures. Not great, too late in the day, but these are better than anything else I have. These pictures show the Year One Wheels.















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  #513  
Old 10-31-2016, 05:17 PM
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I feel your pain - there always seem to be a few issues plaguing total rebuilds - my 3.42's seem to be howling.

Keep at it - you got a taste of the power.

  #514  
Old 11-03-2016, 12:37 AM
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Beautiful car and great work. So glad you didn't shave the door handles or add that stupid whale tail and hood tach. Definitely understand what you mean when you say walk away for a while. Pretty much anything you buy nowadays is a crap shoot when it comes to parts for old cars. You do everything by the book, yet, nothing works as it's supposed to.

Maybe this is why so much is sold online now, so you can't just walk into your local parts store and yell at someone.

  #515  
Old 11-03-2016, 06:19 AM
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Regardless of all of the issues, it sure does LOOK GOOD...

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  #516  
Old 11-03-2016, 09:46 AM
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It's all fun after you solve each little problem and look at the car and drive it.. Great Job Brother. That is not a task for the faint of heart.

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  #517  
Old 01-17-2017, 08:56 PM
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Looks Great!

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1966 GTO Montero Red Hardtop - Holley EFI'd 462, KRE DPorts/Muncie 4spd
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1996 Chevy K2500 ECSB 'Poopy'
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My project thread: http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=516826

  #518  
Old 07-28-2018, 01:14 PM
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Update time, found a shop to fix the Goodyear alignment screwup. Only used Goodyear since they were close to my house and anywhere else I would have needed to tow the car. Now there is no wandering and the car tracks straight.

Now for the good stuff. I got the car tuned at LSExperts. Final numbers were about 400HP, 400 Ft/Lb torque. This would suggest about 500 HP at crank. As for how it runs, GREAT, pulls so hard at low speeds it make me light headed.


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  #519  
Old 08-03-2018, 12:11 PM
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Vintage Air. Uhg. Yeah, I have a 70-72, and what a nightmare with the duct work. I also have a smoothy plate, so did some studs on the inside for the original bracket to mount to instead of screws going thru the firewall. It too was wimpy, and chose to do a strap to help support it that goes into the rain gutter/cowl.

I mounted it as high and to the right as I could, which made it a little bit of a challenge to run the lines. I have a bulkhead manifold in the original position of the fan/blower, and used the EZ-Clip fittings. Because of the tight turns and the size of the fittings, I had to do specific loops inside the cowl to ensure there were no kinks. Stupid thing.

So I was looking at options for the condenser mounting, and noticed there was a sure fit kit for the cutlass, and ended up purchasing the brackets only. Worked very good. They also have better duct fittings too, but still nothing for the defrost, which I had to fab.

Not sure what I'm going to do about the lower duct section that has the lap vents, on 70-72, it's a large piece that's is roughly 4/5ths along the lower dash. I have a lower piece from a cutlass, and they make the duct adapters for it, I may try to make something work there.

Nice work by the way!

.

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