Thanks to "1234bird"! Alex and I visited his home yesterday in the midst of a true blizzard, and came away with some parts that we needed... driveshaft, headlight buckets, and a rearview mirror... and we left him a list of things that we still need. He's a great guy and very good at finding 3rd and 4th gen stuff. Earlier in the day, I started tearing down the T5, and it looks so good, I probably didn't need to take it apart... but now that we have come this far, we will order a rebuild kit from Hanlon Motorsports. We also bought a vinyl repair kit, and I will take a crack at the console door first, and depending on results, I will then work on the dash pad, which is cracked in 3 places.

Update

Thanks to our recent blizzard (it's all gone now and temps are in the 70s) the yard is behind in its work and we still don't have an engine.

I decided to get busy on other things, so I tore down the T5. It had obviously been rebuilt once before, and everything looks pretty good, with the possible exception of the reverse idler gear.

I placed a phone call to Hanlon Motorsports, and they asked me to send a pic of the reverse idler, so they could advise me. They are a fantastic little Mom and Pop shop, and are always eager to help. As soon as I hear back from them, we'll get that trans kit ordered.

In the meantime, I started knocking out dents. The driver's fender had a dent in the lower front quadrant from a deer strike, and there appears to be an injury from a misplaced jack in the lower rear quadrant of the passenger's fender.

I got the driver's fender pretty straight, and I will let Bondo do the rest... have not yet tackled the other fender.

We got a pair of headlight buckets from "1bird" and got an introduction to the wide wonderful world of aligning those critters. I find that the best method of installing and/or removing them is to remove the plastic covers, and then remove the doors. Then remove the hinge bolts at the top rear of the bucket. This allows the bucket to swing forward, and gives easy access to the lower bolts.

We also scored a driveshaft from him, a remote mirror for the driver's door, a rear-view mirror, and an OEM radio, which I intend to modify to accept input from Alex's ipod.

He also sold us a complete nose for "Nellie", minus the hood and headlights. The man has a nose for parts, and his prices can't be beat.

I also spent some time repairing the console, which had badly separated vinyl... Gorilla Glue and clamps took care of that. I also used a trick that someone in another thread suggested, for fixing the tears in the vinyl. You sand it, fill the cracks with foam or silicone, sand it flat, and then spray with DupliColor bedliner (aerosol can). Finish it off with vinyl color spray, and the results look fantastic.

I'll close for now... we are supposed to get our engine tomorrow. (crossing fingers).

Update

We finally got our engine home the other day, and it's on the stand waiting to get torn down. Harbor Freight also finally came through with the parts washer, so now we are in business.

BTW, that parts washer takes 10 gallons of fluid, which cost us almost as much as the parts washer itself, but it should last us a while.

Got the trans mostly apart, and then ran into a problem: I could not get the counter shaft out. The WC T5 has a retaining plate, but apparently, the NWC doesn't... and the bearing appears to be pressed in. Fortunately, I resisted the temptation to put the case in a press, and I called Bob Hanlon over at Hanlon Motorsports.

I know that others on this board have given them high marks, and let me tell you, they live up to their reputation. He told me if I had put the case in the press I might have cracked the case. I won't bore you with details, but he laid out several strategies about how to attempt disassembly, and eventually, I was successful.


As it turns out, I would have ruined the case had I tried pressing the bearing out, and I did get it out without causing any damage.

Alex is up to his eyeballs in his studies, particularly in his AP courses, so for now, Dear Old Dad is on his own... which is fine by me. I don't want his grades to suffer, and this needs to get done (Mama is making noise about getting her garage parking space back).

Thanks to everyone who is giving us advice, encouragement, and information on parts... this board is an extremely valuable resource (and support group).

The T5 is 95% reassembled, and I am pleased with the results. Again, thanks to Hanlon Motorsports, the job went a lot smoother than it otherwise would have.

A word to those who are thinking of rebuilding the T5: Even with the video from Hanlon, and exploded parts diagrams and instructions downloaded from the web, I noticed a couple of variations between our transmission and the pictures. Bob Hanlon explained to me that they are all very similar, but there are some differences.

So I am glad that I laid out the parts very carefully during disassembly, because that helped me to tell the difference between a variation and a boo-boo on my part.

If you get the video and your trans is NWC, be advised that there are a couple of significant differences, which you should note during disassembly. The trans in the video is a WC from a Ford application.

Here's the latest:

I went to pressure wash the 'new' engine in the driveway before disassembly, and of course my pressure washer was broken. I ordered a new part for it, and made a temporary repair.

After washing the engine, I dropped the oil, and it came out a bit too fast, was noticeably thin, and smelled of fuel. Hmmm. If this were a carbureted engine, I'd suspect a leaky fuel pump or carb float. I guess it's a pressure regulator or injector problem. We'll be using the parts from the original motor to avoid a recurrence.

I have the engine about half torn down, and there is significant carbon fouling in the upper end... however, the inside of this engine is remarkably clean. The freeze plugs all look new. Close inspection revealed that the pistons are 1.00 mm oversized, and the cylinder walls show no wear. I can still see a strong crosshatch pattern.

Eventually, I found a plate on the side of the block identifying it as a remanufactured engine, but I didn't see a date stamp.

If it weren't for the fuel in the oil, I'd be willing to take a chance on this motor as-is... but I don't know how long it ran this way. BTW, it came out of a perfectly straight, clean car, so that adds to my suspicion that it may have been junked because of the motor.

I am going to drop the block off at a machine shop and have him check it over... then give me his recommendation. Since 1.00 mm is about .040 over, I wonder about the relative merits of doing a rebore, given that the cylinder walls don't even have a 'fingernail' ridge in them.

I also tried out my new wire-feed welder from Harbor Freight, and it did a great job of welding up the cuts in the y-pipe. Now I just have to weld back the piece that mates up to the cat, which was cut off and still is attached to the cat on the other end.

Took the block, crank, and heads to the machine shop on Saturday. Their initial inspection revealed each cylinder with about .002" wear, and about the same amount of taper.

They strongly suggest that we avoid additional overbore, as they fear that the motor will run hot. Since this is within reasonable tolerances, we'll probably just replace pistons and rings with the existing size. There was some galling on the piston skirts and crankshaft journals due to the contaminated oil. We are going to use the crank out of the original motor, since it is in better condition.

The machine shop is doing a closer inspection of the block before doing any machining, to be sure that the block doesn't have any hidden defects. We should know in a day or so what the verdict is.

In the meantime, I am only about 3 months behind in the dreaded Honey-Do's, so it's back to home improvement mode for me until after Easter.

Sounds like you're making good progress.

Right now I'm waiting on the rebuild kit to arrive via UPS for my engine. It had spun a bearing(oil pump died), had to get the crank turned .010" but inside is unbelievably clean, no ridge, no taper or wear on the pistons or cylinders.

I'm going through the same process almost. Just rebuilt my WC T5, still have to check the endplay and set the input shaft preload on it. When you got your rebuild kit, did it have a replacement clip to hold the speedo gear in place? I'm just curious cause my kit didn't come with one, and I'm wondering if it should have. I got mine from a different place, but I'm assuming they would all be the same kit?

It's been a while, but I do believe that the kit did come with one. I'm a shopper, so I checked with any number of places before I settled on Hanlon Motorsports. I was impressed with their service, and also it seemed to me that although their price was highest, I would be sure to get all the parts I needed, as well as getting good quality parts.

One of the things that made me go with Hanlon was that it is clear to me that all of the kits are NOT created equal, and these people really seem to have their act together. Also, they will talk to you and answer your questions. I felt that the support alone was well worth the extra cost of the kit.

For anyone starting the process, I recommend ordering Hanlon's DVD that goes through the WC rebuild. It makes everything so much easier, and in my case it helped me avoid costly errors.

Thats probably my problem. I'm on a tight budget and went with the cheapest kit I could find. Wouldn't have been a problem except that I broke the little tab off the bottom of the clip when I was tearing the trans down. having the video probably would have helped with that. I did download the T5 rebuild manual and had another online guide with pics to help, but nothing mentioned that the gear came off first. I figured the clip needed to be removed to get the gear off, not the other way around. You wouldn't happen to have the original clip still would you?

No, you have to remove the gear first. The Hanlon video shows you how to do it by demonstration. Like I said, they are very helpful.

As I started to read your post, my first reaction was "Hell, if I have our old clip, I'll offer to send it".

PM me with your address, and I'll check to see if I still have the old clip when I get home tonight.

That'd be great. I'd really appreciate it as I can't seem to find anyone who sells them separately. PM sent. Thanks.

OK, the machine shop had good news and bad news:

The block is sound and does not need a re-bore. If it did, we would probably be shopping for another engine.

The bad news is that one of the heads is cracked. Since we had 2 engines to work with, we had an extra set of heads. Alex dropped off the extra set yesterday. "Dad, that place was COOL..."

Hopefully, we can salvage at least one of those and have a good pair of heads.

This is the old "If I had known then what I know now... " I will NEVER attempt to do another V6 of this type. V8s practically grow on trees, and I would have had the job done by now had I decided to do the swap.

I should have listened to you guys.

Hahaha. Don't worry about it. I ran into all kinds of problems swapping a V-8 for a V-8. We got an engine out of a Caprice for free and it was an LG4/auto. The TA was an L69/T5....lets just say that not everything was the same and I am still trying to get it to start. It pops out the exhaust when you crank it but it won't run.

It sounds like you may be one cylinder off on your distributor cap. Check your firing order and the position of #1.

Everyone is telling me various things and that was one of them...problem is how do you fix a firing order? You can't do it short of reprogramming and redoing the whole engine in my mind. If its in the distributor, I've timed and retimed that engine over and over again by pulling the #1 plug and feeling for air blasting out of the hole as I turn it. When I feel the air blast out I keep turning til 6 degrees BTDC then set it there as that is the ignition specs for the car. Still won't run. I've gotta take it to the mechanic and have him drain the old gas out. (Mom won't let me do it in the garage) Maybe while it is there I will have him check it out. He said he could diagnose it in an hour. For about 100 bucks to find out what the problem is and have a tank drained it might not be a bad idea.

Firing order is controlled by the distributor and the location of the wires on the cap, not the computer. When you get #1 to TDC, remove your distributor cap and see where the rotor is pointing. Make sure its pointing to the post that is wired to your #1 cylinder. If that is correct, keep turning the engine and make sure it lines up with all the other posts correctly. Most likely, that is the first thing the mechanic is going to check anyhow.

I think I had it a lil bit before the post for number one. Maybe when I was playing around with it I was missing it by moving it too far from the post either way. If the crank is at 6 degrees and the distributor is a lil before the post my guess is its firing when the piston is on the way back down. Maybe I will turn it so that its lined up with the post when the engine is at 6 BTDC. That should do it should it? The LG4 and L69 have the same firing order so there shouldn't be any differences other than an upgraded igniton as I put the L69 distributor in the LG4.

Ideally, I would love to get it running then take it to him have him drain the gas then drive it home. but its not a perfect world.

UPDATE

The machine shop just called. Everything is ready to be picked up... will have to wait for Saturday since it's an hour's ride and I quit working when they do...

They got the block all done, boiled, honed, new cam bearings and plugs, new oil pressure relief valve, pistons pressed onto rods, crank turned... and a set of reconditioned heads... turns out 2 of the 4 we had were cracked, one from each engine.

Total bill for machine work: $630.08

We got the parts kit from a warehouse, for $300, and it included pistons, rings, all bearings, gaskets, oil pump, cam and lifters.

I am just wrapping up the Honey-Do's, so we'll get started on assembly this weekend.

Tim (and Alex)

who did your machine work?

Everyone we talked to recommended Shepherd's in Roanoke. So that's who we used.

hmm never heard of them. Their price doesn't seem too bad. I've always used Kowalskys in Rustburg. I feel if they did the same work it would have cost $2500 LOL

They seem to be well-known to the guys at the parts stores and some other folks I spoke to. The guy I dealt with, Dave Rogers, is a pretty solid guy and he'll work with you. I also didn't pressure them as far as time is concerned. They have a pretty impressive operation.

OK now for the fun part... which usually ends up nickel-and-diming you to death. I picked everything up yesterday, but didn't have enough time to get started because we go to church on Saturday evening.

Got up Sunday morning, and immediately noticed a problem. The crankshaft on this motor uses a 1-piece rear main seal. The crankshaft that we used, which was the better of the two, had a groove worn in the seal-mating surface. I recall that there was clear evidence of a bad rear main seal leak in the motor that we took this crankshaft from.

A quick check revealed that Fel-Pro makes a repair sleeve... which of course, was not in stock at Advance. So I ordered it, along with a repair sleeve for the torsion damper, which also typically gets a groove (both of ours had that problem). The repair sleeve for the rear seal, the part we needed first, of course will not be in until Friday, and at a cost of $55.00 -- ouch.

I also ordered a set of cylinder head bolts, because everyone who has anything to do with this engine recommends replacing them rather than reusing. These three 'extras' ended up adding another $100 to the cost of the job.

Since I had to wait for parts, I decided to take care of some things that needed doing, like add hydraulic oil to my press, and check everything else out to make sure that I wasn't going to get any more surprises.

BTW, after a good machine-honing, the bores in the engine look like they are freshly bored, even though they aren't. I'll post pix as soon as I can. If all goes well, we should have this engine assembled next weekend.

My biggest worry at this point is routing vacuum lines, but we do have the advantage of owning the other car, which has the same engine -- hopefully we can use it as a model.

This morning Alex had to go to an athletic competition for school, and he wants to be involved in the engine assembly, so I decided to finish the transmission (install top cover and tail housing). Man, what a pain in the butt. Getting those two to line up and wiggle into place is a bit tricky. Anyway, it's all together and shifts nicely... ready to go in the car.

I picked up the parts I ordered at Advance last evening. I had been thinking a lot about how to carefully install the oil seal sleeve, and now I know why it costs $55 -- it comes with an install tool, and it has a lip on it that you can break off after installing it.

So the tool (it looks like a giant wheel bearing dust cap) fits over everything, and only drives against the lip. Once in place the lip is scored so you can just break it off with a pair of pliers.

I took pix of the crank (note the groove that the oil seal cut into that end surface) and the nice honing job that the machine shop did on the block (yes, that's a piston ring getting it's end gap checked in the nearest cylinder).

Unfortunately, I had a problem with the camera, so no more pix until I figure that out.

very cool.
That's a lot to spend on a v6 :P
But the way you're going at it, it'll be basically a new engine.
Keep us posted.

Well, the sad thing is, and I did try to point it out to my son, that a V8 might have cost the same or actually been cheaper... with parts easier to find.

I let him decide, since it is his car and his money. He did ask me to guide him, though, and had I known how much trouble it was going to be to stay with the V6, I'd have talked him into the V8.

The good news is that I now know what to do with our OTHER ThirdGen car... which is a 225K mile V6... when the engine needs to be done... I'll go with a TPI V8 swap, and maybe go from auto to stick at the same time. It still runs very well, so I have time...

Yeah well again, the v8 is more common, and the v6 is more original to the car. PLus the V8 you would've done wouldn't have been nearly the same quality for the price. That thing has been rebuilt from the ground up, i'm sure it'll serve him well.

Yeah v8 and T5 or T56 is great. If you're going TPI, don't worry about the 305 v 350 too much, but try to get speed density (90-92). In those years, the difference in hp between 305 and 350 was less than or equal to 20.

OK we got the sleeve on the crankshaft. It was a snap to install, again, because of the included tool.

We got the crank and pistons installed, and the timing chain, and oil pump. We had to stop there to get the timing cover and oil pan properly cleaned...

More to come, and hopefully pix soon...

Well, sorry, but the digital camera is messed up. It says batteries are dead, and shuts off. If I change the batteries, it does the same thing. So for now, no more pix...

In the meantime, we got the engine 'long-blocked"... just have to clean a few things, and paint it before final assembly.

OK we had a productive weekend... while everyone else was picnicking and boating, we worked.

The engine is assembled, and painted. We chose to paint it black, which I believe is the factory color. The valve colors were silver, and I happened to have some Evinrude light blue metallic outboard paint, which made them look awesome against the black engine.

We got all the belt-driven accessories mounted, and it appears that the previous owner had chopped off everything connected to the air pump. A quick check revealed that the car was available without an air pump, so we will probably take the pump back off and use the appropriate serpentine belt. I can't see where it connected to the exhaust anyway... there are no ports on the manifolds or in the cat to connect it.

With the flywheel out for resurfacing, we turned our attention to the car's interior. We took out the seats, and the badly worn and faded carpet. There are a couple of (surface) rusty spots that we want to treat before installing the new carpet, and a gash in the transmission tunnel just aft of the shifter where the driveshaft had beaten itself into the floorboard after the slip yoke failed. I'll have to weld it up while everything is out of the car.

We got a new front carpet set (the rear is in great shape) from a place called "Tamraz" on ebay. They sell GM certified restoration parts, and we got the carpet shipped for $145. Although the car's original carpet was gray, Alex opted for black.

We have to decide what to do about the seats while they are out; they have several tears in them, and we can't find replacement covers that we like. The covers actually unzip and can be removed, so we are considering trying to either repair or remake them. The seats underneath are in good shape.

We are going camping this weekend, so it will be at least until the following weekend before we can install the engine and trans... sorry about no pix... trying to resolve the camera issue.

very good thread , i have been following it since you started . i bartered my 86 s/c to my paint & body man for the same type project . when both young men hit last 2 yrs. of high school they can say , me & my dad built this car . ( makes me smile just thinking about it ) a lot more pride than saying mom & dad bought me this mitsushitsu , rhonda , misnisson , ect. . keep the faith & hang in there . best of luck .

Still no camera so no pix.

We have the engine ready to go into the car, although we still need a few odds and ends.

We cleaned the floor pan, and found that the two drain plugs under the rear seat were rotted. I can't seem to find replacements, so I may try to adapt something else, like a freeze plug or something.

I ordered a can of Rust Bullet today, to take care of the rusty spots on the floor. It's solid, and we'd like it to stay that way.

123Bird is waiting on a parts car, from which we hope to get our AC condenser.

Alex got a new battery today, and his flywheel will be ready tomorrow... we are hoping to turn the key sometime next weekend....


Tim and Alex Ernandes
Moneta, VA

Whew... we are on the verge of getting things put back together here...

I solved the digital camera issue -- apparently, we bought a whole box of batteries that were all barely working. I finally went and bought a new package of batteries, and the camera works fine.

Here are a couple of shots of the engine as it sits now... note how cool it looks with the valve covers painted Evinrude Blue... they and the block/heads have about 5 coats of paint.

Note in the previous post -- we replaced the exhaust manifold studs, and gave everything a liberal coating of Anti-Seize.

We got a pint of Rust Bullet, and if it lives up to its reputation, I'll probably order a gallon can. The reason we need it is evident in the pix below: The floor pan has some rust, and we want to arrest that while it is still solid. I still haven't figured out how I am going to tackle the drain plugs.

You will also note that when the front driveshaft yoke broke, the trans tunnel took quite a beating. We cleaned the oil off the underside in preparation for welding this area.

Looks like this is coming along pretty good.

Well, we did it -- the engine and trans are back in place, but we had to stop as soon as the motor mount bolts went in.

The good news is that we were able to install the whole thing as a package, which saved my back and neck untold agony, I'm sure. That's one nice thing about the V6 -- it is short enough to do that.

I know that guys do it with V8s, but in our case, we use a system wherein the engine is on a stationary hoist, and we roll the car under it... a little challenging, but we got it done.

I'll post pix tomorrow -- I'm a little tired and sore... and then hopefully we can light her off sometime in the afternoon... of course, there could always be surprises... had a few today, in fact, but I will elaborate tomorrow AM while I have my coffee... right now, my back is screaming at me, so I'll lie down.

OK, here are the pix from yesterday...

In the first, you will see that I had a wonderful time beating the crap out of the floor pan prior to welding... and then in the second, the same spot (view is from opposite side) after welding.

The Harbor Freight MIG welder does the job, although at the slow feed speed and low power necessary for welding sheet metal, it does not feed smoothly. Still, how do you complain for a hundred bucks.

The last pic is "the little engine hoist that could"... also from HF... at $130, if I never use it again, it will be well worth the money (lifted engine out of car 4 months ago... lifted replacement engine out of pickup bed, lifted block back onto bed to take to machine shop, lifted it back out when we got it back, then installed engine and trans package into car.)

more to come

OK now here are a couple more pix...

We installed our refinished flywheel after hoisting the engine up off the stand...

then after installing the clutch assembly and bellhousing, we decided to 'test-fit' the transmission. I've installed many more transmissions than I can count, and once reminded of the pitfalls, we opted to try and install the whole thing as a package, especially since the one with all the muscles had never done this before.

As you know by now, it went pretty smoothly, and the package is in, motor mount bolts are through, and as soon as I finish my coffee and drag my son out of bed, we will see about getting her running...

That's me steadying the engine (Alex took the picture). The one pic you will all want to see is of him the first time the engine fires off (he does not do a lot of smiling -- methinks he will grin widely... just a guess).

As I mentioned previously, we did run into a few hitches, which in a project like this is par for the course. I installed a new oil filter, and filled the crankcase. That's when I discovered that I had only finger-tightened the valve cover bolts, so I had to deal with that. Then I put a drill to the oil pump shaft, and ended up blowing oil out the distributor hole, because I ran the drill too fast and it came out the oil holes near the top of the opening.

We bought new platinum spark plugs, and although they claim to be factory gapped, the gaps were so far off it was ridiculous. Took care of that... (we did NOT have the type that you're not supposed to adjust). A little research on the BOSCH website gave us the info we needed.

More to come... after today's efforts.

Looks really good, Tim - that engine sure does reflect all of the effort that you two have put into it. I like the pictures, too. Good luck with the rest of the engine piece of your project!

Thanks, Mark.
Well, we had a few frustrations on Sunday, and needless to say, that resulted in a delay of the 'key turning'.

I mentioned in a previous post that the guy who sold us the car had butchered the y-pipe, which had been welded to the cat. His intention was to replace the blown engine with a V8, so he chopped up the y-pipe thinking he could pull the motor with the pipe still attached.

Of course, that wasn't the case, but he left us with a mess. I thought I could just weld the pipes back together, but two things stopped me:

1. This would make the resultant assembly quite heavy, and installing a y-pipe is enough of a challenge
2. A close inspection revealed that pieces of the pipe were missing

So, I dug into my massive collection of odds and ends and produced a couple of exhaust fittings that I used to make a 2-piece assembly. I laid it out carefully, then cut the ends, allowing for the length of the joint, and then welded pieces onto each of the ends, so that I could slip them together and secure the joint with a muffler clamp. That cost me about an hour and a half, but the results were excellent.

I then put Alex to work using Rust Bullet on the floor pan, while I sorted through all the various electrical and plumbing connections on the engine. When he finished, I had him remove the old, battered drive shaft, and install the new one, then do various other under-the-car tasks. He learned an awful lot about mechanic's techniques , but having to help him prevented me from finishing what I was doing.

We had a number of challenges, all of which we overcame, but after a full day of work we were short of our goal to try and light her off. That's OK, though. We are at a point now where I KNOW the next day we put in will see us at least make an attempt at starting the engine.

glad to see this is coming along

looks like a fun project! if i had a dad that was interested in working on cars as much as i am my 86 would have been rolling around with a ls1 swap before i graduated. lol i had to learn all my stuff the hard way (trial and error) luckly ive met quiet a few people in the past few years that have helped me gain my knowledge. im not to awful far from you guys but still a good drive if your ever in need of some parts send me a pm i may be able to find it or i may have it! also trying to get together a f-body cruise for the parkway if interested when you and your son get the firebird rollin!

Well, my Dad was always too busy to get involved in stuff like this with me, and I wanted to be able to help my son learn all the stuff that I had to learn the hard way.

We will definitely give you a holler if we need something... right now we are looking for an AC condenser and the axle tube mounts for the rear sway bar; 1234bird says he can provide this stuff for us.

We might be in the market for some interior parts before too long.

We'd love to do a cruise when we get her on the road...

Sorry I didn't post sooner, but I am exhausted from this weekend's efforts. To wit:

Saturday turned into a marathon of "just one more thing"s, including wrestling with the torsion arm, a maze of vacuum,
plumbing , and electrical connections, and making sure everything was properly grounded.

By the time we had to call it quits, it seemed as though we were just about ready to try starting her up.

Sunday morning, I installed the radiator and the battery. After adding coolant, I found a couple of minor leaks that I corrected. Then I realized that I had not installed the air induction system, which has the MAF sensor in it. We did not seem to have the clamps for the rubber flex hose that attaches to the throttle body.

I sent Alex out to buy some, and it took forever because he had to go to several places before he found what we needed. While he was gone, I kept finding little things that needed attention. Finally, it seemed like we were ready to go. I had left the fuel lines disconnected, and we turned the key "on" and off several times to get fuel pumping -- we caught the fuel in a plastic jug, and it seemed OK, but it had been sitting for a few months.

So, I sent Alex back out for some SeaFoam and 5 gallons of fresh gas. While he was gone, I filled the trans with ATF and installed the shifter, then installed the air induction system.

After treating the fuel and adding fresh gas, we turned the key. Nothing. I jumped the starter at the solenoid, and she cranked. Then I remembered that these cars have a clutch safety switch. With no seats in the car, it was a little tricky, but we managed to get her to crank.

After two or three tries, she started to sputter, and then she started up, chugging a bit until we had a little momentum, and then she smoothed out some. We put a timing light on her, and saw that our static timing setup had us at about 0 - 2 Degrees BTC. We bumped it up to 8 degrees BTC, and she flattened out nicely. Occasionally, she'd miss a little, but I attributed most of it to old fuel and needing to 'burn in' a little.

We blocked her at 2000 RPM for 10 to 15 minutes to break in the cam, and then back down to idle. She starts right up now, and stops dead as soon as you turn the key off. We are pleased.

I did a lot of fist-pumping, but Alex just continued to wear his normal deadpan expression. When I asked him why he wasn't excited, he said, "Wasn't that the whole point of doing all that carefull planning and hard work? I knew you would make it work". Gotta love that kid.

VROOOOM!!!

congrats man sounds like its coming on along!

Yes, it is definitely moving along... and we are in a good place, since a lot of the question marks are no longer in play. We now know that we have a good computer and sensors, and that the electrical system is working.

I noticed brake fluid dribbling from one of the rear drums, so we'll have to change that cylinder... and I still need to get the rear sway bar mounts. I also noticed that the temp gauge isn't registering. I'll trouble shoot that tonight.

Once that's all done (assuming I don't find anything else wrong with the brakes), there's a dent in the lower passenger fender aft of the wheelwell that needs to be pulled down (it looks like they bottomed out on something) and I need to fix a couple of small leaks where I welded the exhaust.

Then the carpet and seats can go back in... After that, she comes down off the jackstands, and I'll road test her.

I think I found a solution to the floor drain plug problem (I can't find replacements anywhere). I'm talking about the round ones that are under the rear seats.

Yesterday, I was in Advance Auto Parts (they are still open when I leave work) and I decided to cruise the "HELP!" display... they didn't have the drain plugs, but they DID have something that I decided to try:

Old style master-cylinder rubber cover gaskets... I got two that were close to the size of the holes in the floor, and I am going to try and set them in place with some RTV. I'll let you know how it works out.

Congrats on getting it running, now come to NJ and give me a hand with getting mine running LOL. I've got it popping out the exhaust, won't run. Siphoned all the old gas out (or at least I think I got it all) and I have spark, so using starter fluid it should run for two seconds then die. Also my crankshaft bolt is rounding off, so I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that. In the meantime, I've been doing some body work, and electrical work (switches and the like), lights etc. I'll get it at some point but my patience is wearing thin and I'm so close yet so far......now the debate: have it sent out and get the timing fixed (I'm 99.9 % sure thats my problem) or keep it in the garage and have a friend help me get it running or pray I get lucky. Another thing I'm curious about is can you use a timing light with the car not running and get the timing set? Its impossible for one person to watch it and crank it over.

Hey, I definitely think you have a timing problem. Here's a few ideas for you:

• Check the damper and verify the timing mark. I say this because ours (remember, its a V6) has THREE equally spaced marks. It was great for setting valve lash when we installed the rocker arms. You may want to make sure that you don't have multiple timing marks on the damper, which could mean that you timed your distributor on the wrong one.
• A timing light is not necessary to static-time the engine. It might work, but it's really for fine tuning. If nothing else, it should show you what I already suspect: that you are at least one cylinder off in your timing.
• Verify the cylinder numbering and firing order. As I said, I suspect that your firing order may be correct, but staggered one cylinder (probably late). Number one will be the one closest to the front of the engine. Also verify your distributor rotation. You'll find all of that info in a Chilton's or similar repair manual.
• There are other possibilities, but a lot depends on what you did to the engine since it ran last. For example, if you installed a timing chain, incorrect installation could produce the problems you are having.
• Remember that your cylinders fire every second revolution... so it's easy to static time a distributor at 180 degrees out of phase. The best method of static timing is to remove #1 spark plug, put your finger over the hole, and rotate the engine by hand until you feel pressure build up. The next time your timing marks line up, you will be at TDC for #1. At that point, check where the rotor is pointing (you may have to mark the dist with chalk or paint for the location of #1's plug wire). If you have to, pull the dist and install it so that the rotor points where it should. BTW, you are still not done -- now you have to line up the reluctor tip(s) with the magnetic pickup. That's the 'trigger' for firing the spark. With the rotor pointing at #1's plug wire, slowly turn the distributor until the reluctor and pickup align. If you do it right, you should still be close enough to #1's wire to fire correctly. Omitting that last step could very well cause your problem.

Oh, BTW... I discovered the reason why the replacement engine's crankcase was full of fuel:

When we assembled the engine, I chose to use the injectors and rail from the original engine to avoid transferring the fuel dumping problem to our car... I recently inspected the fuel rail from the second engine, and lo, one of the injectors had a severely cracked nozzle. I would have seen this while cleaning it up, but it's clear that this was the problem.