DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

sounds good! i wanna see some #s!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

us too!!! we're hoping to have it out soon.

86iroc2try

Looking good Matt. You guys are working your butts off.

I changed my oil and plugs and put new tires on and thought I was doing good. Oh, and I added an 850 bob book racing carburetor just to see what happens.

I hope to see it at Cecil soon!!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the list is getting smaller!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

another rare, but appreciated mid-week update! Chucky has his switch panel/gauge pod just about done. i'm hoping that the mid-week updates will come more frequently as we get it closer to being done.

86iroc2try

Looks good. That's a good idea for mounting that stuff.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

time for my weekly update

today went about as well as much of the project has gone. We made good headway, but had some weird noises coming from the motor at the end of the day, and it's got a miss now. we're hoping it's just a rocker that backed off or a burnt plug wire, but it began to make the noises right about the time we needed to load the car. so, we will look at that next time it comes off the trailer.

so for today, our biggest things were to get the nose back on, and get the interior knocked out as much as possible. i was able to get the timing set and the carb dialed in a little more. we pulled the rear bumper support out and also got ride of the hitch. gonna hold onto it though and put it on my car for dragweek we also got the ozite carpet in. i'm pretty happy with how it laid out. also got the battery in the back. here's a few pics from today. i was hoping to take more pictures today, but we were just so dang busy with all of it...

here's the ozite laid out. i believe he got 6 yards.


in the car:


a coupe motor shots, as i'm fairly certain we're done in the engine bay now.

GreggymacZ28

Nice man! I've been waiting for you to update about that carpet before I made the call on it. How did you like it for the install? What did you use to lay it down? And was it pretty straight forward?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

I'm only unhappy about one part of it, and that's where the rear set wells are. because we have the diagonals going from the main hoop towards the trans tunnel, we had to cut the carpet for them to pass through. this area was frustrating to say the least. we could probably take a little more time and clean that area up even better, as what we have right now is a bit of overlap.

we put the carpet down with some 3M super 77 adhesive. we did not do the entire floor, just in some key spots. this way if we needed to pull it back out, we could. as for actual installation, it wasn't bad. the carpet has stretch to it, which is great. a well placed foot or feet and you can get it about the right shape. the carpet install is not perfect, but very presentable. i intend to use it in my car also.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

found the miss

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

Did it just come loose?

If so, time for poly locks!

FRMULA88

Matt,

Looks great!

Do you have a part # for the upper radiator hose? my seems to offset the other direction creating a "high spot' between the intake & radiator.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

it's just a stock replacement for an 84 lg4 car. i trimmed a little off each end so it didn't have a lot of humps in it.

we have one semi-stripped stud and one broken stud in that picture. not sure what the solution is going to be. i'm thinking heavily of pulling the pins out of the two studs, snatching the studs out, then tapping just these two holes, and using the screw in studs that mr. gasket makes without the nut flange. then putting poly locks on it too, for peace of mind.

FRMULA88

thanks I trimmed mine to fit too but still not happy.. I think they sold me a TPI hose.

On another note: If those 2 studs failed and you replace them with screw-ins, what about the condition of the other 14, I know this is a budget build but for peace of mind?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i get what you're saying. i'm going to replace them myself. i will see how incredibly tough depinning, pulling, tapping, and threading in the new studs are going to be or not be, then i will determine if the condition of the rest of the studs are questionable or not. i had no problems with the rest of the nuts locking securely to the studs though, only these two were problematic. i am going to do this with the engine still assembled and in the car too, so i'm trying to avoid being invasive with my surgery, lol. going to go to poly locks too i think.

STREETDEMON

matt i had an issue with #7 in the 350 that was in my '82 Jimmy. the nut kept backing off. i pulled one from an old 305 i had sitting in the corner and never had another problem. the keeper on the nut must have been worn out.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

yup. wish that was the case here. the top threads on the one stud are gone though. these two studs need to be replaced. Chucky is going to attempt to replace them without me sometime this week.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

This weekend we are working on my car. i have to put the new quicktime bellhousing in the car. we are a month away from our first event of the season and we have no testing done yet, nor on the horizon at the rate we're going. Anyhow, since i told Chucky we are going to be working on my car, he got to really thinking about the studs. i found all the part numbers to service this (puller, screw in studs, and polylocks) and he ordered them. He decided he wanted to take a stab at it, even without me there and i told him sure! i hadn't done this job myself yet, so what difference did it make if i was there helping him or not? so he was able to drill the crosspins out and pull the studs. tomorrow if there is time between or after the bellhousing install, i'm sure he'll be working on it a bit.





so, hopefully we'll have it back together tomorrow. never can tell with us, lol!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

Today i installed the bellhousing on my car. that's a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother thread. what a nightmare. Between helping me, Chucky was working on his own junk. so cool that he's really taken the reigns on this project. i still don't feel comfortable letting him run valve lash, but he took care of business with the studs. we will likely do the rest over next winter. we just needed it to get going for now.

zz17iroc

iTrader: (4)

There is no other feeling like when a plan comes together. Keep up the good work fellas. Matt, it seems that you are rubbing off on your brother-in-law. Man I want to move back to MD. so bad!

I just finished painting my 92 Z28 after hitting a deer on my way to school 5 weeks ago, but know that's done I can start installing that TC 7875 turbo. Yeah man!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

For the record, chucky is my cousin, lol. Yes it does seem that way. i was impressed to say the least. I think i'll let him do the rest this winter. we'll pull the heads and take care of business without them in the car. I think Chucky is getting a real kick out of being this deep into the build. here's to hoping it goes a little smoother from here out though.

I'm not sure i'd recommend moving back here....it's crowded and costly, lol

articwhiteZ

iTrader: (56)

we had the same thing happening back in the 1986. with the screw in studs though.(like what ya just installed) as we had some also breaking just the tips.its funny just the first 1/4 tip would be broken off.
we used red lock tight to hold the studs in. to remove them just heat stud and unscrew. to replace. if i remember. the locks stopped any more from popping just the tips. that eng was not a big money eng. but ran Fantastic.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

not much to report this weekend as chucky was at a pool tournament so i spent most of the day yesterday on the SpeedMu11et getting my wiring straightened out. I am happy to report that the valve lash has been run and the polylocks are now in place. i hope this is the last time we have to go into the motor for this season.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

I'm hoping for some big updates on this thread this weekend. we are now within 2 weeks of our event and still have a bit to do. interior install, passenger's door still needs attention, new valve covers to replace the cracked ones, etc etc etc. i also have a handful of things on my car as well. i'm only posting in this thread because i can barely sit still during the week when i can only touch the cars 1 or 2 days on the weekends, lol.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

today was a good day! Chucky did everything on the car today himself as i was working hard on my car today. He even took these pictures!

it started out with us pushing the car off the trailer cause chucky lost his keys. i gave him a crash course in how to remove the steering wheel to replace the lock cylinder. he dove right in

]

once he got the steering column back together, i'm happy to say the car fired right up. He also swapped out his valve covers that his awesome cousin got him for an early b-day present.



since he lost his keys, we priced out a rear lock cylinder for a bird....these were cheaper



and he took the spoiler off while he was at it, which i've aways preferred the gta's with no spoiler

and an overall shot of the car and tow rig. not a bad setup for a noob!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

we are finally going to the track! finished up some details this week, headed to the track in the morning








^^those straps are going to be available in purple, and in any other color folks may want sometime soon. we actually came up with a design and had a strap supplier make this one for us. this one is the "prototype", lol.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

what...a...weekend!

honestly i don't think i need to give a play by play on the entire day, but basically here's what went down. DA was ~14-1600' all day.

Pass#1 for was a throw-away. we knew whatever data we got from that pass was going to be useless because i really wanted him to take it easy and get used to the car. well, he got up on the converter harder than the brakes would hold and it sent the car through the beams before the tree was activated so no timeslip at all. he ran it on down the track, kinda softly and when we got back to the trailer he was smiling and felt pretty good. ready to make another hit, lol.

Pass #2 he did a little better burnout (remembered to use linelock this time) and took his time a little more in the beams. I had the shift light turned down to 54-5500 for another soft hit and he clicked through the beams with a 12.76 @ 105 on a 1.71 60'.

he was happy:


Pass #3 was with me in the car. i shifted 2nd at about 5700 and 3rd about 6000 and felt it nose over right before the 2-3 shift. times weren't stellar but i was more or less trying to figure out shift points. 12.69 @ 106 on a 1.65 60'.

he made several more passes. we found that the alternator wire is too small and not charging the battery fully. i had moved the shift light up a little more to around 5750 and it really seemed to respond. Chucky is also still getting seat time and figuring how to stage and hit the tree right on. His final pass was his fastest. here's the slip:



in case the link dies and the picture is lost, the slip was:
R/T: .047
60': 1.649
330': 5.063
1/8: 7.938
MPH: 85.52
1000': 10.426
1/4: 12.535
MPH: 107.39

So all in all, i was about dead on with what i thought the car would run first time out. Can't wait to get some better air and a little more tuning time. we didn't touch the carb or timing. figured it wouldn't be a good idea to change a bunch of stuff up before we got his driving more consistent.

video

FRMULA88

Excellent, and not bad at all for his first time outing !

I wish my first car was that fast when I started. 12s is a lot of fun, the car should run forever without something major breaking.

skinny z

Great stuff and congratulations. I went back and looked through this again. Super story start to finish.
It looks like you took a lot out. Did you end up with a weight guestamate?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

my guess is it's between 3150 and 3250lbs....quite a bit came out, but i think it stil looks pretty complete. car is a blast to drive.

90camaro355rs

nice build!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i totally forgot to post up finished pictures of the door panels. Chucky got them done saturday.

STREETDEMON

looking back a page, unknown_host hit the numbers right on the head.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

lol, he sure did! i think we all had a good idea of what was going on. i didn't think it'd be this fast out of the gate though. i also think with some more tweaking and trimming we can be in the 11.99/12.00 range, which is right at the bottom of the "Street" classes here. Chucky prefers to chase

khulsebus

iTrader: (2)

Digging the door panels, especially with the strap. Saw something similar on Top Gear with some Porsche glorified beetle 911 thing.

On a different note, I've been waiting for you to run his and your car for a while now. Waiting for this assignment to end so that I can get to my car, I have to get my car fix on here. Looks like you and him had a good weekend, and some good timeslips.

SeriouslySinnin

Matt and I just decided to start fabricating door panels PM me for info if you would like a set!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

This car has been affectionately dubbed "The DirtyBird", lol. we recieved a few more pictures from our outing two weekends ago from a fellow Mu11et Militia member, so i figured i'd share.







I'm not gonna lie, i'm jelly that he's pulling tires before i pulled a tire with the t56, lol!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

This weekend had little to do with working on the cars. we actually were getting work done on Chucky's Tahoe as it failed inspection. Rear brakes, tune up, fuel filter, misc lights here and there and it was ready before lunchtime. So...we decided to take the car off the trailer. we put a larger (4 ga) wire from the alternator to the cutoff switch cause we were having problems with charging at the track. Once that was done we took a load of stuff to the dump for my uncle. that reminded us that we needed to weigh our cars and the recycle place has scales...so...hehehe



off to the scales we went!

we were rewarded with some awesome numbers too. his car weighs 3220 with him in the car, that's ~2970 without him. he was running over a 1/2 tank of fuel and we still have one door to gut. pretty sure he could be at 3200 or less with just a few things here and there. if he went to real drag brakes, aluminum heads, tubular k-member, etc etc etc i could see it being sub 3000.

my car weighed in at 3260 with me in the car, which means it's ~2985 without me. i too was running over a 1/2 tank and i still need to gut both doors. me personally, i'm down 40lbs and have another ~50 i want to to lose. with drag brakes and an aluminum center section and a little bit more trimming here and there, another 100lbs out of the car should be possible as well.

the trip was about 10-15 miles round trip. both cars acted basically like any stock car would. chucky reported 200-210 coolant temps and never got over 3000 rpm, even when running 65-70. i thought that was great considering the car is running a 35gpm electric water pump. my car crept up to 195 when we were waiting in line at the scales, but was 175-180 cruising. i saw the oil temps rise on mine to 180ish, but nothing to be alarmed about. i LOVE cruising

SeriouslySinnin

So we buttoned up a few things this weekend.

1. Replaced all the steering components i.e. centerlink, tie rods, ball joints etc.

2. Installed my new Comp Engineering 90/10 front struts.

3. Installed my new Grant steering wheel.

And last night I polished up my wheels. They were in desperate need of attention.

here are a few pics...






The harnesses color got washed out in this photo... the purples match alot better than this lol


BEFORE


AFTER

STREETDEMON

it's amazing what a little elbow grease will do to a chunk of aluminum.

SeriouslySinnin

Yeah. Mothers Mini Ball and Turtle Rubbing and Polishing Compound works great

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

We went racing at Capitol Raceway yesterday. the weather was looking pretty ominous and i worried about even going, but it seems it was a good thing that we went.

the opposition we saw once at the track got to a comical level. the first pass chucky made was relatively normal. it went 12.69 at 106 or so. he said he shifted early so he felt it would go 12.50's no issue.

second pass it definite was quicker. a tenth quicker to the 1/8, then shortly after the 1000' mark it spit back through the intake and he lifted to keep from hurting anything.

i pulled the timing gun out when he got back to the pits to check to see if something moved. it showed 41* total timing. i thought i had set it at 36* so i figured it had moved and i put it back to 36*. he made another pass, this time way slower and it popped back through the intake again. this time it shut down at the end of the track and he ended up getting a tow back to the trailer. this time we found that the fuel pump wasn't pumping through the filter. i put one of those cheap filters in it with the sintered bronze elements and it was clogged good. with on other options, we pulled the element out and put the filter assembly back in. back up to the track he went. 12.89 ran out the back door with no pops or sputters, but it was slow. he said it spun so i sent him back up for a better shot. again another 12.8x pass. we managed to meander through eliminations with some good luck draws and ended up in the finals when it dawned on me. i pulled 5* of timing. my guess now is that it actually WAS set at 41* total timing and that i hadn't revved it high enough to see that was how much it had when i set it weeks ago. apparently it LIKES that much timing, despite all the articles and internet info saying vortec heads don't want more than 36*. instead of swapping the timing around, i put an .80 on the window. everything worked out great and chucky did a fantastic job. he cut a better light, caught the guy, and lifted just enough to take the win. pretty interesting turn of events for the day!

oh...and it rained off and on most of the day, lol.

GreggymacZ28

Awesome! It's always nice to pull off a win when the car isn't running like normal. Also, I know what you mean about vortec heads and timing, a lot of guys said I was too high at 36 with my setup. But, if the car likes it, run it!

Hirevsjoe

That's awesome! Congrats Chuck. Pulling the wheels and winning the finals in the first two outings? John Force better watch his ***! Our vortec head 355 LOVED timing. We ended up around 38-42* total also.

SeriouslySinnin

New Aeromotive fuel filter on the way in time for this weekends racing.

Ill be racing with the Pontiac Outlaw Drag Series. One class bracket for Pontiac only, electronics not permitted. Should be pretty fun.

Matt will be running Pro Stick this weekend. Should be an interesting and fun weekend!

Will hopefully have more video etc for you guys...

skinny z

I'd like to see your timing marks confirmed (and your timing light especially if it's dial-back type) because that's the exception more than the rule. It's not an internet thing, that 34-36 degrees of total timing is based on dyno results.
That's not to say your engine (and other Vortecs) don't want additional timing it's just as a guy of science you understand how it all works.
As for my comment about the dial-back timing light, there's IS an internet thing about using them on certain kinds of ignition systems, (in particular the multiple spark types). My personal experience shows a definite difference in the observed result between using the timing in it's dial-back mode (reading zero on the dampner) as opposed to reading the actual value on the timing tape with the dial-back set to zero. It appears to be a couple of degrees.
All of that said, in most cases, I know most racers set the timing to get the best result out of the given application and the actual number is just a reference. Same as building the timing curve. You don't measure each curve with each change in spring. It's just that plays havoc when you're trying to build a data base.

Have you done a compression test on Chuck's engine?

By the way, congartulations on the win Chuck. Well done...rookie!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i'd tend to agree.

my light is a MAC analog light, with a potentiometer and **** on the back. confirming timing tab to mark on the balancer would certainly not hurt as we are still using a stock 8" balancer. ignition system is an msd "ready to run" distributor with an external msd coil (i think it's a blaster 2). no ignition box to really screw with stuff.

some changes this winter may make this irrelevant. not that i don't want to get some real data for you, but timing and convenience do not really allow for a huge amount of data gathering. a compression test has not been done yet. we've had no reason to do that other than to know a baseline of engine health. all 8 stay lit so it's not been a real concern, lol!

85SILVERBULLET1

I chuckle some when I see people go and buy aftermarket timing covers and timing pointers with out degreeing the motor to find a true 0. At that point you can only adjust to what the car likes. I would bet the timing indicator is wrong and that is why the number is so high.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

that's a possibility, or maybe the balancer slipped. who knows. it's pretty immaterial at this point, lol.

yesterday we did move the timing back up to where we had it and it seemed much happier. we also put the new large 10 micron aeromotive fuel filter on the car and it seems overall much happier.

to the point that today it went a 12.54 @ 107 right off the trailer. we took the air filter off and were rewarded with a 12.48, 12.47, then surprised us and went 12.36 in first round (wind changed from a headwind to a tail wind, and chucky staged a little more shallow on accident). he bought back in and it went a 12.40 on a 12.38 dial in. my speculation is that the last pass the engine was about 15* warmer than the previous pass and that was why it was off. he struggled to hit a light a bit so no win today, but i think he's having a great time with the car.

and who doesn't like video? lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhiq...ature=youtu.be

BlackTopKing

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys, great little build I've enjoyed this thread and think the TA came out well. Along with the daring weather challenges you guys really kicked butt!

I am wondering what carb is on the motor...not sure if I missed it or if you kept the same one from the start (looked different in recent pice)

Thanks and I look forward to more!