The Reality and Rebirth of a Third-Gen F-Body Part 2

After the wheels turned under the engine’s power (all 385 ci worth!), it seemed prudent to get the car licensed and legal, This meant a trip to the smog tester. I admit that I drove up there with a lump in my throat. After all, I’d added a complete Edelbrock performance package, including manifold, cam, headers, and after-cat system. It was my intention to build a clean running machine, and I reinstalled all the smog equipment, but with the speed equipment package on a stroked engine and topped off with a jet Performance rebuilt carb, I seriously wondered if I would have to do something drastic to pass. When the smogger printed out the test’ results, my jaw dropped. The engine is cleaner than my’98 daily driver! At 2,500 rpm the % CO is 0.00 versus a permitted 1.20, while the HC ppm is 25 out of a permitted 220. At idle, the numbers were an awesome 0.01 and 30. (Remember, these values are for a 305ci engine, not the stroker 385.) Who says we cant have package-engineered performance and clean air? Thank you, Edelbrock.

Once the car was licensed and had a couple of hundred miles on it, I parked it in the garage and didn’t touch it for weeks. 1 called the malady “Post Startum Blues.” I began to realize that I had not followed my own advice, and had not taken my time to work on the car and set realistic goals. Of course, not everyone has an editorial deadline, but I’ve seen more than my share of unfinished cars that burned out their owners before they were done. After weeks of attending to all the other household and family tasks that were abandoned during the last couple of hectic months getting the ‘Bird running, I began a serious evaluation of the next steps.

Driving the car uncovered several salient flaws, and so the shakedown work began. First of all, I was once again reminded of the Details. Some of the work required as much (or more) time than the basic engine assembly. So again, I stress-don’t rush it. Making everything work and having a reliable daily driver was one of the criteria, so don’t cut corners when it comes to things like working gauges, air conditioning, brakes, and suspension. If your car isn’t fun to drive, you’ve wasted your time.

The rate of acceleration wasn’t what I wanted. Although the engine had plenty of torque, and the B&M Holeshot converter gave great off-the-line scoot, once the crank got beyond 3,000, the car just didn’t seem to rev up as fast as I thought it should. At about 4,000 rpm, I could feel a hesitation, one that felt like the ignition system wasn’t cutting it. The next steps were clear: Replace the stock open-diff 3.08:1 gears with a limited slip unit and steeper cogs and look into a performance ignition package.

Since there aren’t any speed shops close to me, and the entire concept of this project car is for the parts to arrive by mail, I called National Drivetrain (800/507-4327) and ordered an Auburn limited slip and a 3.73:1 ring-and-pinion for the 10-b 0 It. The reasonably priced parts arrived promptly, and I studied the shop manual and instructions carefully before I began the installation. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this phase was over my head-installing gears requires specialized tools and experience.

I found Adams Driveshaft in Henderson, Nevada. The company has lots of experience in both performance and heavy duty rearends. When a guy builds race cars and also has the contract to service the city’s fire trucks, this tends to instill a sense of confidence in the new-comer. The point is, any time you select a shop, find out who the customers are and what a technician’s credentials are before plunking down your bucks.

At this point, I was glad to have experts working on the car. When the rear axle came apart, the bearings were looking just a little worn. Though they weren’t noisy, they were replaced as a preventative measure. -The gears needed to be fit with special shims in the axlehousing, and the pinion bearing was pressed in place. I don’t have the tools to do that stuff, nor do I recommend getting them. Adams charged $150 for the labor-well worth it.

There had been no problems with the driveshaft, but I figured for another $60, we Might-As-Well install new U-joints. Good thing. The originals (worn more than 180K miles) had begun to brinnel on the bearing race surfaces-minute stress cracks had begun to appear, and the next step would be failure. With the no nonsense shifting of the B&M trans, I recommend this detail for any project.

When the ‘Bird came off the lift, Adams gave me some break-in instructions: Take the car to the parking lot across the street and make some figure-eights to circulate the lube in the limited slip. After a couple of minutes, it was time for the pedal to meet the metal. Yup, those 100-foot-long black stripes are still in front of his shop, and the smile is still on my face! What a difference the gears made! Id flip-flopped between 3.42s and 3.73s. With the 0.70:1 overdrive ratio of the 700-R4, revs are about 2,600 at 65 mph with Dunlop 245ZR45xl7 tires. This is a bit high for the torque of the engine and the long open spaces in Nevada, but I really like the necksnapping action around town.

I could feel the stock ignition breaking up beyond 4,000 rpm. Although I’d installed a new cap and coil, they were dumb concessions to economy and not able to cope with the higher cylinder pressure generated by the stroker crank. Summit furnished an MSD multi-spark capacitive discharge system-this included the model 6AL, which has a plug-in cut-out module to keep from overrevving. I thought this extra feature would be a good investment in the event that someday a more aggressive cam or nitrous oxide would find its way into the engine bay. To ensure that there was plenty of voltage for both future modifications, I also t the MSD Street Blaster coil, which requires MSD’s nifty adapter for the HEI ignition distributor.

Between the time I ordered the ignition and its arrival, the ‘Bird lost a couple or cylinders. I determined which ones were not firing by running a cold engine for 15-20 seconds and then feeling the headers next to the heads. I had these horrible visions of wiping a cam or other mechanical problems, but I kept reminding myself of the KISS principle-Keep It Simple, Stupid. In other words, look for the simplest thing that could go wrong first. (One time, I decided to overhaul an engine because it had lost power-in reality, the stinking throttle cable had slipped, and the engine wasn’t getting full throttle!)

I pulled the plugs on the errant cylinders and found them fouled with gasoline. I didn’t know which came first, the fouling or the failure to ignite, but I installed new platinum-tipped plugs. It was difficult because the headers seemed to be in the way on every cylinder. I could only get a socket on two of the eight plugs, so I invented a new tool for the occasion (see ‘ photo), and I was happy. I installed the new plugs with the new ignition system. The engine still missed. I was not happy. Back to the KISS principle.
After the stock wires melted on the initial fire-up, I had installed modestly priced silicone “high-performance” cables, but visual checks didn’t show any obvious breaks. At this point, however, I was certain that the wires were the only thing that could be causing the problem. I got MSD Heli-Core wires and the extra protection from their Pro-Heat Guard silicone sleeves. Sure enough, the cheapie wires were cracked and shorting out where they came too close to the headers. See, I thought I could save $25 bucks when I bought the first set, but I should have bought the best set and the shields the first time.

Now the car is running great’ I got gears, I got ignition, and I got gobs of torque. But I can’t shift the tranny. Even the jet Performance custom chip (which was not in for the smog test) upshifted at 4,000 rpm in Drive. Attempting to use the stock to manually shift the car was like using an oar in water-lots of movement, little action. At this point, I’m seriously pregnant with expenses on the car, but the detail stuff is keeping me from really enjoying it. “Hello, mail order department? Send me a B&M Megashifter!”

When I began to install this item (which comes with very complete instructions), I found that the stock unit was broken and the only things holding it in position were the detents in the transmission. The installation was pretty easy and well engineered for an exact fit, but it still took me an entire Saturday afternoon

It had taken me a couple of months of to all the most popular questions occasional Sundays to iron out details, but I, now had confidence that the ignition was up to snuff, I could shift the tranny properly, and the gears would give me the acceleration I was looking for. Out in the back country, I did a full throttle blast through First and Second! Wow! Now I’m cookin’! The moral of all this is, no project car is 100 percent right when you fire it the first time-for that matter, a project car may never be 100 percent.
I hate cars that leak. I have a small oil leak at the back of the pan. I don’t know if it is the rear main seal or the rubber pan seal, but I’ve come to grips . with the drip pan in my garage. I’m not going to pull the engine to fix it. But this is a little like life. Enjoy the journey, potholes and all.

With the warm weather rapidly approaching in Nevada, I had thoughts of cool air wafting over me, so I completed the last steps of converting to 134a refrigerant and having the system charged for operation. The refrigerant gas that was used in most cars through most of the ’80s is R12, ozone-depleting stuff that is no longer used in new vehicles. Older cars still use it, but the cost of the R12 is becoming astronomical since it is no longer made for automotive use. My compressor was shot, so the conversion was easy. I bought a rebuilt unit for $200 and had the original hoses rebuilt for another $80 to make sure the system e was able to handle the extra pressure required of the 134a refrigerant. Find a shop that will allow you to do your own work and will evacuate the system with its suction pump -and pressurize it with the new gas using specialized pressure gauges. If you decide to convert, ‘be a good citizen of Earth and have your old R12 system emptied at a recovery station.

The dialed-in powertrain has revealed flaws in other areas. My next big challenge will be to rebuild the suspension system. I’ve also had some brake problems. The brakes are OK, but not as good as the ones on newer cars. I love the sound of the engine, bit I miss hearing a radio. And tape. And CD. Seen any Crutchfield catalog? Stay tuned.