See here https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=300856 for the old configuration. No more 5.0l, no more 305 cid, no more 3.736" bore.

The new: ZZ3 shortblock, freshened up with .030" hypereutectic 10cc SpeedPro's, new bearings, balanced, eBay ZZ4 cam; with the "old" parts previously gracing the '86 LG4, including the ZZ3 take-off intake manifold (now gasket matched), as well as ZZ3 oil pump (new shaft w/steel sleeve) & pan/tray, World Products S/R Torquer 305 heads home ported (and now freshened up and verified to have 64cc chambers), Hooker 2055 headers (now w/A.I.R. removed, primary ports cleaned up, collector ball flange opened up to match the downpipes, and Jet Hot coated).

A freshened up TH700R-4 w/shift kit is another change. The previously run restalled-to-2300 converter is going back in (will be interesting to see what it stalls at behind the 350). The 3" Catco cat will probably be an amnesia victum when reassembly is complete.

The headers should be back from Jet Hot this weekend. The engine just may find itself back in the car by next Monday. Still a lot to do beyond the reinstallation - carb rebuild, u-joint change-out, LCA boxing & poly bushing install, driveshaft loop install, clean up wiring harnesses and vacuum lines, etc.

Here's a pic of the engine as of July 4th. It's not the cleanest thing you've seen around this Board, but it should be adequate as a farmboy's daily driver.

 

Everything looks like it is falling into place. I hope I didn't just jinx you though . It will be interesting to read your final thoughts and recomendations when you are complete and scootin' down the road.

 

yeah not that many people cover their swap as good as you do.Its looks like its all coming together. how much $$ did you already drop into it?

 

That information is classified...

(Actually, I haven't added it up yet. Probably in the neighborhood of $2k.)

 

Not a lot of progress in the past week and weekend. Still wrestling with the low oil pressure problem on the wife's Bonneville. I know it's low, verified with mechanical gage, but haven't figured out why the engine hasn't eaten itself up. Done everything on the pump but replace the front cover, the JY cover I picked up from a running engine looked worse than mine. Frustrating.

I did manage to get the u-joints replaced and get the exhaust ready for modification (3" straight pipe going in place of cat). The headers arrived from Jet Hot today. I need to rebuild the carb still, otherwise everything is ready for assembly and installation.

 

MAJOR SNAG!

All excited opening the box from Jet Hot this evening, 1st thing I pulled out was the passengerside header:

Apparently it was dropped on the ball flange before coating. I know for a fact that it wasn't bent when we boxed it for shipping to them.

Guess I'll be on the phone with Jet Hot customer service tomorrow. Want to start a pool on possible excuses?

 

Another shot. It's obvious with stereo eyeballs, a little harder to photograph.

 

Looking straight down.

 

nothing a pair of vice grips and a torch cant fix.. its gonna mate up with the y at that ball joint anyways

 

OUCH... that sux a LOT man

 

It's distorted enough that it leaves a big gap with the y-pipe down-pipe flange. Since I opened the ball flange up to match the down-pipe before sending them off for coating, the part that is bent is the part that mates to the flange.

I'm going to talk to them before trying anything. My concern is the coating may flake off when straightening out the flange. If I can talk them into doing the fix, they can recoat as required. If I try to fix it and it flakes off, I'm probably stuck, unless they give me the go-ahead.

 

Talked to Jet Hot customer service. They offered to pick them up and try to fix it. Also said it may have been dropped after coating. I asked if I could try to fix it for the sake of time, they said that would be fine. If the coating gets damaged in the process, they'll take it back and recoat. But, they didn't think it would be damaged.

 

so how about a picture of the headers? besides the damage, how did they turn out? these were used headers, correct?

 

They were used. I've posted a pic of the y-pipe on the Exhaust forum ("2055 nit revisited" thread). I'll try to get a "family portrait" tonight. Other than this dinged flange, I'm pleased with the results.

 

I took the largest prybar I had and a 1 pound ball peen and persuaded it out. Here are the results - the coating appears okay.

 

And, the promised family portrait...

 

Five7Kid,
Darn I wish we could afford a set of those! The motor looks fantastic as well. I installed some cheapo headers on our Z-28 and after only thirty minutes the paint at the heads is already discolored. Unlike yours.... ours will be rusty in no time..
Kurt

 

The paint that comes on headers is "shipping paint", only intended to protect the headers until installed. I had painted these with 1200 degree paint before first installing, the headers did okay but the y-pipe suffered mightily. I've posted on the Exhaust forum about this journey, it has taken me 4 years to get to this point.

Here's what they looked like after 3-1/2 years of daily driving.

 

How much longer ya think you have in it?

 

Man, I don't know. Other than banging out the flange, I didn't work on it last night (family movie night). Tonight there's the son's horse activities, Fri-Sun is Mile High Nationals, next Monday - Thursday I'll be out of town on a business trip. That leaves this Thursday evening, without another chance until next Thursday.

Labor Day, maybe?

And the Bonneville oil pressure is still low...

 

I know how it is to have a family and things that have to come before the car. Sometimes its hard to just find time to do even simple thing.

Hang in there, you will get it together.

Do you mind if I ask how much Jet Hot charged you?

 

$305, coated and shipped back to my door.

 

Thanks, I may have them coat my hedman LT's.

 

May be less for you. They said $179 for headers, w/o knowing what type they were. The y-pipe was $100 of the total.

 

That sounds good. I will get a price quote from them just to make sure. Thanks.

 

Most places I've talked to have different rates for short and long headers, but they don't car which brand they are or anything.

 

I hear you, life gets complicated too quickly especially when it comes to projects! I’ve already moved my Bird to the land of misfit toys.

 

Got a couple of hours in this evening. Next chance will probably be next Thursday.

 

Yuck..auto tranny

 

looks great! Make sure u post some more pics on thursday night then!

 

Send me a complete T56 and 12-bolt setup, ready to install, and I'll do it.

On your dime, of course. My budget is spent.

 

A dime is probably all i can spare right now. Im also working on becoming a "5.7 Kid" and its nickel and diming me to death.

 

five7kid have you got pics of your whole car? I always read your posts and get a lot of info from them but have never seen your whole car. just curious.

 

Five7, what air cleaner and carb are you going to use with that intake? How much hood clearance will you have?

Auggie

 

The same system that was on the 305 is going on the 350. LG4 carb and distributor, L69 air cleaner. I'm going to use a filtered breather cap on the valve cover rather than the pipe to the air cleaner filter (the pipe was always a tad short). Hood clearance is just barely.

I don't have a very good pic of the car that is small enough to post. The rims that are currently on the car are in a pic at the top of this thread.

 

Five7, I think that your air cleaner is going to be a little small. I had a L69 a/c on my engine and it was just fine. When I installed the 355 (1985) I opened up the Q-Jet to a 750 and it just didn't perform like I thought it should so I had a friend of mine make me an a/c out of alum. that would accept a 14" x 3" K&N element(see pic). Now I am not much for SOTP but that really made a differance. I had trouble dialing in the carb so I bought an air/fuel monitor which made the job easy. Good luck the rest of the way. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had poor power brake preformance at slow speeds so I installed a vacuum reserve can. I don't know what your valve events are but my cam will only pull 14" of vacuum.

Auggie

 

We'll see, I guess. Maybe that was one of the things that held the ZZ4 to 308 HP in the HO 350 Camaro Conversion Kit.

I plan on removing the charcoal bed from the air cleaner. Not sure how much of a restriction that is, but it won't be anymore. I use an oiled open cell foam AMSOIL air filter (I have no respect for K&N, sorry).

 

Yah, I had that removed from the L69 cleaner too but what's the story on the K&N's??

Auggie

 

Doesn't filter out any smaller particles than a standard paper filter, doesn't flow any more than the AMSOIL filter.

 

And I asume they cost alot more?

Auggie

 

I don't know what a K&N costs, but an AMSOIL TS16 for the L69 air cleaner is $21.90 (same as LG4, by the way). Clean and re-oil, lasts a lifetime.

 

yah, k&n is a BIT more expensive... 14x3 Xstream flow (has the filter top) open elemtn setup was something in the ball park of 120 IIRC... i need to take mine off, clean it, and reoil it.. its been a year..

 

A filter top isn't going to do much good with a hood blanket sitting on top of it. Doesn't do much to enhance the benefits of the cool air coming in dual snorkels.

 

oh, was just saying what i paid.. i think just the filter is something like $50.. cant remember tho.. and I have a 3" harwood cowl but i have yet to make the cowl pan/ or custom fiberglass the hood down around the filter.. would be interesting

 

I don't know what your hood setup will be like, but I remember when the first third gen Z28's came out they had vacuum operated hood doors for fresh cool air? I was working for BMW then and I had a lot of Chev/BMW dealers. I would make service calls once a month and would always see at least one Z28 with a blown engine. Seems when it rained water would leak through them hood doors and find its way down into the engine and fill up a couple cyls. As you know you can't compress a liquid .

Auggie

 

the back of my cowl hood looks like this (that line is what that plate is slanted at) so i dont have to worry too much about water getting in

 

My son's Z-28 is an early '82 (was a crossfire) with the working hood scoop doors. They have a single electrical actuator. I found several articles that mentioned the problem you stated. It is likely to be at least one of the reasons the Cross-Fire was discontinued.
Sincerely,
Kurt

 

Electric? Ok I stand corrected. Thanks.

Auggie

 

Well, it's Thursday night. After getting home from the airport and getting dinner, it was 7:30 by the time I got out to the garage. I hadn't removed the old torque arm mount bushings yet, so did that real quick and mounted the hardware to the tailshaft, then began the process. My daughter took our "good" digital camera with her to Missouri, so I was left with a "free digital camera" that my son got a couple of years ago - no focus, no zoom, no display of the photo, etc. So, forgive me for the photo quality.

We weren't able to get it in far enough with the hoist to the front, so we had to remove a tire and come in from the side. Not much of a photo, but the best I got.

 

By 9:30, the tranny was still being held up by a floor jack, but the front mount bolts were in, the lift chains off, and the car pushed back in the garage.

Hope for some more progress tomorrow evening and over the weekend.