[camerjeff]

Well as some of you may know I purchased the Nice 67 California Sprint Firebird that was on BAT about 18 months ago, After fixing the inop rear brakes, I drove it around 10 hours before the engine went south. Not really a surprise as it did have 104,000 miles on it.
Last June on the way home from a friends Mod Meet, I noticed it was down on power, but still running well with over 35psi of oil pressure, and running at around 180F. So I continued to drive it home. On the exit rap of I-94, about 3 miles from my house it started smoking out the exhaust, looked blue. The car stalled at the light at the top of the ramp, and did not want to restart. When it did start it blew the cap off of the Oil fill tube! Denting the hood. And I limped it home smoking badly.
It took me about 6 months to get around to doing a compression check, and putting a boroscope down each of the cylinders. I found that the #6 plug was oil covered, the other 5 looked good, no coolant in the cylinders, but quite a bit of oil on the top of Pistons #4 & #6. The engine actually ran quite well, with no odd noises & the idle oil pressure was 25psi. So I let it warm up and did a Compression test. The resaults were #1-187, #2-183, #3-185, #4-125, #5-ZERO, #6-102. Rotted the engine to do a leak down test of the bad 3 cylinders, all would leak down in under 1 minute to 0psi, all the air was coming out of the oil fill tube. Looks like a rebuild, as I suspected.
So I traded a few spare parts to Rob at Woodland Motors for a good long block to put in the car while I rebuild the original engine. So last week I drained all the fluids. And started disconnecting things. Removed the Hood Tack and sent out for repair, removed the hood and drive shaft.
As you can see fro the before engine compartment picture there is a lot more going on under the hood than I am used to. Most of the 20 odd Sprint cars I have owned had power steering, and 1 had Power steering & A/C, but this is the 1st A.I.R equipped sprint I have owned, and it also has A/C & Power steering.
As you can see the long block needs a good cleaning & rattle can paint in the correct color. And the underside of the car is solid and original.

[camerjeff]

Upon disassembly I learned a couple of things about just how odd an A.I.R. equipped sprint are.
(1) As it has power steering and A.I.R. The rear Power steering pump brace is different than any other one I have seen. It has a long arm on it that attaches to the back of the air pump.
(2) It has both a Distributor Vacuum advance hard line that is routed along the back of the engine to the Distributor, but also a Vacuum Retard hard line that is routed the front of the engine under the thermostat bypass hose. I have only seen that line on a couple of core engine I purchased and sold off in the past, and those were both 1968 1bbl engines.
I also learned that the cheap tinny sounding exhaust pipe was welded onto the stock Y pipe, That is going to be a PITA I was not expecting. The plan is to pull & reuse the original engines E-cam and cover if all the lobes are in good shape, also reuse the intake/exhaust manifolds & Carb, and I will also have to swap the Dist, and fuel pump as they are different on a A.I.R. and A/C car.
So I will have a good used 4bbl Fuel pump for sale soon, along with most of my spare 250 engine parts.
If the original E-Cam is worn, I have both a good used H-Cam with followers & a NOS E-Cam in the parts stash.

[camerjeff]

Finally just some underside pictures, you can see the welded on exhaust pipe to the Y-Pipe. While on the lift I decided to change out the rear end oil. The used oil came out like it was original to the car. Also not that as a A/C equipped car, it as 3.23 rear gears in place of the standard non A/C gear ratio of 3.55.
Also I have no Idea why the oil pan has been repainted in the incorrect shade of GM Blue.

[Jeff Hamlin]

Jeff,
Thanks for starting a project post.
Love to see and learn about these things.

I see what you are saying about the support brackets, the other thing that jumped out at me was the long tube/pipe spacer.

Can't tell but looks like the PS pulley is a three-groove pulley, Is it?

Not to be a PITA but as you remove A.I.R.-related parts would you mind photographing the parts as well as any/all part numbers?

I'd love to add them to my files.

Thanks.

[camerjeff]

Jeff, good eye, I can't believe I did not notice that the power steering pulley was a 3 groove pulley! Having never seen a 3 groove version I never thought to look for it. Must be a A.I.R with power steering & A/C only set up.
I can't imagine how hard it would be to find a replacement, as you are aware even finding a 2 groove version is very very hard!
It is a cast 3 groove pulley, as seen in the close ups I took this morning. And of course I can post any P/N's I find during the project. I see the pulley has what looks like a P/N cast into the lower of the 3 spokes in the picture posted below.

[besserspat]

man I love those straight sixes, so refreshing !

[Jeff Hamlin]

Originally Posted by camerjeff

Jeff, good eye, I can't believe I did not notice that the power steering pulley was a 3 groove pulley! Having never seen a 3 groove version I never thought to look for it. Must be a A.I.R with power steering & A/C only set up.
I can't imagine how hard it would be to find a replacement, as you are aware even finding a 2 groove version is very very hard!
It is a cast 3 groove pulley, as seen in the close ups I took this morning. And of course I can post any P/N's I find during the project. I see the pulley has what looks like a P/N cast into the lower of the 3 spokes in the picture posted below.

Wow, that is a big chunk of casting for sure.

Thanks for sharing this progress.

[Jeff Hamlin]

I've had this on file forever and not once did I take note of the 3-Groove Pulley

[camerjeff]

Interesting Jeff, it is easy to overlook the one 3-groove pulley on the list. I actually had to read thru it 3 times to find it!

Some slow progress this weekend, due to both cold temps here in S/E MI, & my back starting to complain a bit more than usual. But 1st just some general engine compartment views to show the progress. That and I spent the better part of 3 hours removing the A.I.R hose off the check valve without damaging either part.

Note I really like working on a rust free vehicle! Even with over 100,000 miles on it things still just come apart as they were intended to.

1st picture shows the condition at the start of the weekend

2nd is the status last evening, So in addition to removing the Intake/Exhaust manifolds, the starter and Bell Housing dust cover are removed, the Radiator in removed, the entire muffler shop exhaust system in removed, and the rear axle oil is drained. The Starter is also removed, nice to see it still has the small front mounting bracket!

As a Bonus I think I found the rattle that I was hearing when going over bumps! The exhaust hangar just in front of the rear axle was hanging loose, both bolt are gone.

[camerjeff]

So here are some pictures of the Smog pump system, I never removed a manifold set that had intact tubes in the exhaust ports before! I did have a 1bbl exhaust manifold years ago that had the remains of the tubes in it, but they must have been corroded almost completely as they only protruded slightly into the ports.
These tubes must get very close to the exhaust valves! Also I found a small stainless steel shim on the #1 exhaust port. Heat shield? For the power steering pump bracket? This car had a composite Intake/Exhaust gasket. hard to tell if it was original or not.

[camerjeff]

Pictures of the smog pump brackets front and rear, no P/N's on them.

[camerjeff]

I do not know if the 7 bladed Flex fan is original or not. My 66 Lemans Sprint with A/C used a 7 Bladed fan that was longer. No P.N's on the fan either just the word FRONT on the front face of the hub.
The 3rd picture is of the spring mounted on the exhaust manifold butterfly valve. I don't think it is original as all my past cars that still had one were more of a "clock" spring type. Also it is not working, the valve was jammed into the closed position forcing all of the front 3 cylinders exhaust gasses into the intake manifold heat riser. Going to have to fix that. The good news is the small post that keeps the spring tension is the best one I have ever seen, they are usually corroded away.

[camerjeff]

Some pictures of the smog pump & P.N's for the pump & Pulley. The pump has a small crack on the housing in an area that will not effect performance. It turns freely with no binding or noise. The crack is in the area that captures the upper mounting bolt nuts, it keeps them from turning when tightening or loosening the bolts.

[camerjeff]

My 3 groove power steering pulley P/N seems to agree with the 67 pulley P/N chart you posted

9788972

I will attempt to weight the pulley just for kicks (If I can remove it without to much trouble)

Also the manual transmission dust cover is also the nicest one I have ever seen. Even the one on my old 69 California Sprint FB was somewhat mangled. (Note the 69 Bird was missing the entire A.I.R. system when I bought it in CA back in the early 1990's.

[camerjeff]

As I was planning to replace the exhaust the cheap tinny sounding muffler shop exhaust system with new Waldron system I bought, and the fact that the muffler shop welded the exhaust pipe to the factory Y pipe, I decided to cut it off.
And while it was out of the way I decided to pull the axle rear cover to both inspect the gears and change the gear oil of unknown age. I think it was a smart move as the oil just barely drained out, and there was a large sludge build up at the bottom of the center section. Note this is a factory 3.23 Posi rear axle.
Also I documented what seem to be yellow inspection (or at least ID marks) both around the axle fill plug & under the drivers side spring perch.
That's all for now, I hope to get the engine/trans pulled this week, and start some clean up & painting.

[Jeff Hamlin]

Jeff these pictures are great.
I have made a dedicated file on this A.I.R. system.

The Flex fan may be correct.
I've seen 5-blade flex.
The 5-blade was more common on the '68-'69 OHCs
but I do have images and notes of a 7-blade for HD cooling used on FB.
Just can't confirm this.

The heat gate spring/cover is correct.
I parted a '67 last year and it had that shield.
The "Clock" spring is under the shield.
The small wire clip on the outside is an Anti Rattle Spring.
I still need to find a replacement for that.

[camerjeff]

Thanks Jeff, My fan looks like the one you posted, so it probably is stock. To bad there is no P/N on it to verify. The only non stock items I have found on the car so far are
1-rear sway bar
2-Hurst Shifter
3-Gas shocks
4-CD ignition system
There are a few replacement items also like the exhaust and the radiator & hoses, Dist caps and wires. But for the most part it is the most stock Sprint I have ever owned. And I have owned 22 of them from 1976.

Here are a few more pictures. I got a little bit done yesterday, removed the Accessory housing, water pump, timing belt, and cam cover. and I also started the "Flint Michigan" engine rebuild of the good long block I got from Rob. That means I started cleaning the engine for a fresh coat of Pontiac Metallic Blue paint from a rattle can! If all goes well I should get the engine & Trans out on Wednesday

Picture 1 is verification of a correct timing belt B011
Picture 2 shows oil dripping out of the #5 & #6 intake ports. Looks like I have leaky intak valve seals
Picture 3 shows the cam, inspected and there is no excessive wear, I don't know what cam it is yet so I will post the marking on it after I remove the belt sprocket.
Picture 4 shows the cam followers, also near excessive wear, so as long as the cam is either an E, WE, or H cam it will be going on the new to me long block.
Picture 5 is a very bad picture of the Air Conditioning fuel pump with the vapor return port.

[camerjeff]

Just a few more today. This time showing the Distributor with both vacuum advance and retard ports, P/N, & a couple of shots of the Vacuum retard hard line that goes under the thermostat bypass hose and the back of the timing belt cover.

[camerjeff]

Just a little progress this week, I fought with the clutch Z-Bar for about 2 hours yesterday, I just don't remember the frame side nut being so difficult to access on my 69 Bird. Removed the shifter lever, and undid the motor mount & trans mount, so gravity is holding the engine in place. Also I forgot to pull the coolant drain plug from the block before pulling the water pump. Oops made a bigger mess than needed. I am getting old I think.
Forgot to post the P/N for the A/C High Idle Solenoid. I decided to remove the solenoid from the carb, I didn't want to rist breaking the 50 year old plastic connectors if I wasn't changing the solenoid.

[Jeff Hamlin]

While thumbing through the '67 Service Manual,
I couldn't help but notice the obvious design change for the rear pump(s) bracket.
Guess they realized quickly that it needed to be beefier