67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

[SuperBuickGuy]

how does taking that much metal off the flywheel affect balance?
Is there the potential of the flywheel coming apart if it gets too hot?

love the color of that motor.

[Hemi Joel]

The only concern I have with the ballance is that the balancing holes are not as deep as they were, so I'm going to drill them back to their original depth. I don't think a steel flywheel will come apart, even though it is lighter. Plenty of factory made steel wheels are just as light. If it was iron, no way would I cut it like this.

[Hemi Joel]

Well, I hate to complain, but it was a frustrating week. I spent a majority of 2 evenings in the shop looking for parts that have been sitting unused, who knows where, for 23 years. So I got almost nothing done untill the weekend, except find missing parts. Still, when it gets frustrating, I need to sit back and relax, remind myself that this is fun, not work, and reflect on how fortunate I am to be working on such a cool car in a nice shop full of good tools with a good sterio.

It is getting farther behind schedule, but progress is being made. Still shooting for Power Tour.

I got all the pulleys and belt driven stuff found, matched up, and painted, cleaned up the brake booster, acid cleaned and neutralized a bunch of old wire connections and light sockets.
I also figured out that the Trans Am WS6 steering box that I installed back in the 80's DOES have the proper internal stops. I was thinking that it didn't because the turning radius was so large. Well, it's amazing what another 23 years of experience does to improve a mans ability to figure stuff like this out. What I discovered is that when the steering wheel was centered, the steering box was not. But the tie rods were adjusted all wacky to compensate, long on one side, short on the other. So I was going down the road straight, with the steering wheel pointed straight, but the steering box way closer to the stops on one side than the other. What was I thinking back then? So centering the box, pulling the steering wheel and re-orienting it, then correcting the tie rod adjustments fixed that.

I assembled the trans onto the motor, since the crank was not properly bored for a pilot bushing for the manual trans, used an adapter bushing that fits into the tork converter pilot. After an unsucsessful attempt at getting the tranny in, I discovered that the splines on the tranny input shaft were hitting the pilot bushing adapter, so I had to pull that back out and machine some clearance into it.






I figured it would be a breeze to drop the motor/trans in without the front end sheet metal. WRONG!



The Moroso pan would no way clear the crossmember with the motor at an angle.



So I debated whether to pull the pan or the trans, the tranny won. I pulled the tranny and bellhousing back off, then the motor dropped straight down in no problem. Wrestled the headers in, then took them back out because the bolt holes didn't line up, ground out the holes, wrestled the headers back in, then used my cherry picker engine hoist with my special home made adapter to lift the tranny in from the bottom.


Now I'm going to get the wiring and fuel and exhaust all hooked up, temp in the radiator, and start it up and make sure it is OK before re-installing the front end. If I run short of time before power tour, there are some shortcuts I can take, like leaving the chev rear end in it, so I'm not building the ford posi until I am ready.

Bye for now, Joel

[SuperBuickGuy]

that tranny jack looks familiar

[Huskinhano]

Making good progress I think. Motor looks nice....except I think the blue VCs clash with the copper paint *G*

[Hemi Joel]

Making good progress I think. Motor looks nice....except I think the blue VCs clash with the copper paint *G*

Haha, I knew that those ugly valve covers would get noticed! How's this, I fixed it for ya:

[Huskinhano]

A million bucks! Perfect.

[R442]

Looking good, I'm jealous of the shot of the engine and trans. The extra gear is a great thing with gas prices the way they are now. I'm running a close ratio Muncie and 3:91's in my 442 and it can get ugly quick.

[Hemi Joel]

It's alive! I worked on it all day saturday and sunday, and finally got it fired up last night. Chased down a few issues like a bad spark plug, and it actually runs really well so far. It has a very slight lope at idle, the cam is pretty mild. Well, hopefully that will help get better mileage. I was debating what to do for an ignition system, and I ended up just throwing in the HEI out of the '76 98 donor car into it. So I'll need to get back to that and check out the advance curve. I discovered after the motor and trans was in the car that the hole in the block that the clutch cross shaft pivot mounts to was AWOL. There was a drilled and tapped hole that I thought was it, but it turns out that it was in the wrong place. So I fabbed up a bracket that mounts to a couple unused holes in the block, and threaded the pivot into the bracket.
This week I need to clean up my thrashing mess, get the 9" built, pick up a new gas tank, and re-assemble the dash/instruments while the body shop finishes assembling the front sheet metal. Then next weekend I need to drag it back home, install the interior, the rear end, the gas tank, do a bunch of wiring stuff, align the front end, fix a bunch of stuff, and then hopefully test drive it.

Hopefully I don't run into any snags! Joel

[SuperBuickGuy]

"hopefully I don't run into any snags...." Mr. Murphy is already on his way to your house.... I hear if you get him drunk, you may still be able to drive that car on PT... otherwise, you'll be in a Camry

[Hemi Joel]

Making more progress! While the body shop has the car this week, I have assembeled the instrument cluster and installed tha guages in it and cleaned up the dash pad. Ron Roth from Michigan restored the dash for me, and he did an awesome job in a very short time. All chromed and perfectly detailed out. Ron is the man for dashes!

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And also I rounded up a bunch of rear end parts and picked out the best ones and put together a posi carrier for the 9". Jay Browns buddy Brad came to the rescue with a spider gear and a shaft to replace one of mine that was chewed up. THanks Brad!

[IMG][/IMG]

At the body shop, they got the front end put back together and painted the dash, and the paintless guy Ben came back and removed a dent from the hood and one from the fender.

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I drove up to Auto City Classics in Isanti and picked up a new stainless steel gas tank. I had hoped to build a new, oversize tank, but I'm out of time for that kind of stuff.

I'm planning on a couple of 18 hour days this weekend, and hopefully by monday it will be a drivable car.

[Hemi Joel]

I got alot done in the last week, drove the car for the 1st time in 23 years a couple nights ago. Drove it to work today. It looks great, runs great, so far.



insulated the floor with a $20 roll from Menards:


Built a sheet metal cover for the big hole in the floor for the shifter:



Got the console and the instrument panel in. Had to move the console back an inch to work with the shifter.



New upolstry from Year One looks great!



At the body shop today, they buffed it out and did a few more fixes:



Now it's ready for me to drive it home on the rain:

Still have a lot more work to do before Power Tour, I better get off the computer and get back to it!

[SuperBuickGuy]

very cool. sounds great too

[JOES66FURY]

awsome. Looks and sounds great!

[Scott Liggett]

Sounds great. Looking pretty tasty as well. Great job getting it this far in the time allowed.