1991 Lumina Z34

[Skeptical]

I told myself I wouldn't... Then I was like, just one more port...... Just one then I'll quit....

[SuperBuickGuy]

and just like that, we knew you were one of us

[DanStokes]

Any port in a storm?

Dan

[Skeptical]

The word for the day is concentric. I'll use it in a sentence. The factory machining process gives zero F's about the exhaust seats being concentric to the valve guides.....

I got two more to square up and then I'll be onto the intakes. I already touched them with the stone and they cleaned right up so it should be just setting the width on those.


Spot checking exhaust seat width at .075. There's a slight optical illusion there where the seat meets the head. It's just stock angles of 30/46/60.

[Skeptical]

I'm mildly drunk and channeling my inner 20 something...

I removed the gravy serving dish from the subframe...



Not installing a 3800 or "Other" so should be fine....


Look at that margin difference on the exhaust valve. Left is a melling stock replacement. Right is a stocker with one grind on it. The left one disgusts me.



smidge too high...


dead f'n center. A 30 on top and a 60 on the bottom of the seat to narrow it up and we are good to go!


Aftermarket valve with no back cut


Stocker with the back cut.

[Skeptical]

I've been lacking motivation lately but managed to get out there and knock out a few things.



Wire wheeled the goo off the subframe to paint it.


First coat.


Done. Not perfect but then again I wasn't going for perfection. Much better than it was though.


i was surprised at how little paint was actually in the engine compartment. I guess Gm was saving pennies by lightly misting some color in there.


Primed.

Painted.



I'll just spend 5 minutes and roll this around to the shed so I can....!@#$...... Caught a pebble at speed and went for a tumble. Oh well. Just made the front pulley D shaped.

[DanStokes]

Bummer! I hate it when that happens. Your beautification efforts look great, though.

Dan

[Skeptical]

Bummer! I hate it when that happens. Your beautification efforts look great, though.

Dan

Thanks Dan! Hopefully I'll force myself to get out in the garage and wrap up the painting portion this week.

[Skeptical]

Shimmed the springs and put the heads together today. Surprisingly with the stock style spring seats/seals the intakes were still a little tighter than the 1.8" spec. I did shim up the exhaust side with .015 shims so that puts them at about a 1.790" installed height and the intakes were around 1.780-1.785" if I remember correctly.

[Russell]

Any updates? Have you got it running? Turbo installed?

[Skeptical]

Any updates? Have you got it running? Turbo installed?

Had some personal stuff come up so it's not too far from the last pictures of it. The subframe is back on the car aside from that. i got a couple more months I think of sorting some things out before I'll make any real progress on it. I need to get some machine work done on one of the transmission parts and order up the clutches/seals/ and other misc stuff for it. i already have the single chain, 3rd apply servo, 4340 input shaft, the right gears for the single chain. what I need to do is find a machine shop that will machine the output gear for this application. The 7/8" chain kits used the 4t40 style gears and had them drilled and the output gear machined to work in the 4t65/e. If I had more room I'd buy a lathe and do it myself.

[Skeptical]

It's still there! Looking like I'll be back in the spring time to get back to it. I still need to get the transmission pieces knocked out. I think finding all the beefier parts for the 4t65 is the hardest part of this whole thing (Aside from not being there). I am rethinking my cam choice too. I'm leaning towards something in the 218/224 range or even smaller.

[cm123077]

Following closely. Hope to see you back at it soon

[Skeptical]

Finally consolidated back down to a single location so I'll be able to start back in on this beast soon! Not much has changed on it other than it's a little dustier and has acquired more junk sitting on it. I've decided to hell with the auto and plan on swapping in a manual too. That should be fun.

[andy30thz]

How did I miss this?!? SAweet project, body looks MINT! Maybe it means more to me cause I turned 16 in 1991 and the Z34 was a HOT car around that time.(not to mention I've always been a manual guy and I believe that the Z34 was the only car the DOHC 3.4 was paired with a stick?)
I'm not crazy about the acres of plastic in the interior of this vintage car...but man, I always thought that body style was just zoomy looking in 2dr with the body kit!

I just can't imagine LS V8 noises outta this thing! I had never even considered it....? A manual swap would be bitchin!!(Thanks for mentioning a F40 trans....I didn't know about them) Although...a clutch pedal box for one of these was fairly rare when they were new...30 years ago....?
Although like you mentioned...traction will be LIMITED!(Not to mention spinning the steer tires is a tad sketchy...? LOL) Any luck finding a LSD for this thing?