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WarShrike's Project Thread - V6 Firebird
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awesome improvement
i need to fab up a set for the lebaron being a convertible it is extra noodlelyOriginally posted by Remy-Z;n1167534Congratulations, man. You've just inherited the "Patron Saint of Automotive Lost Causes" from me. No question.
75Grand AM 455:Pissed off GrandMA, 68 Volkswagen Type1 "beetle":it will run some year
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Long time no post! Had some bumps along the way, and some interruptions on the build. Still NA, but going a little more extreme on the braking/suspension side now after getting my feet wet in the autocross side of things.
Youtube vid from the first session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOYRlaVGeY
Second session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2p6y6Zx9w4
Had to do another rebuild at 160K after the timing chain tensioner failed. Rushed the job during the new cam install and broke a valve off at idle in my driveway. Absolutely rookie mistake and I shouldn't have let myself get into that position.
Where'd it go?
Quite fortunate, the valve punched the piston, and cracked the head between the valve guides but the block was okay.
Decided to push forward with the cam I selected and took the block to a machine shop to have it sorted through, address some issues with MY build quality as a novice as well as do the reassembly.
Engine was bored/honed, had flycut pistons ordered (took forever to show up from JE Pistons), rotated the assembly and finally got it back after almost a year of hunting parts through slow to respond vendors.
Yes, I know, beyond belief I kept the V6. I don't really intend to do an LS swap on the Firebird, I'll save those shenanigans for maybe a Volvo Wagon here later.
So during this span, I had ordered a few parts from Alan Blaine at Blaine Fabrication to tighten things up a little more. He's a relatively popular CMC Road Race builder in the F-body page FRRAX and has offered some good guidance to me in the past.
This included parts for a full rebuild on the rear end, including new yukon axles, an Auburn Auto-x/Road Race differential (car came stock with 3.42 and posi), and kept the 3.42 ratio because it was just right for my mixture of daily highway use and some weekend trackday fun. The T-56 I used is one from a GTO, so 6th gear isn't quite as tall as the one from the F-body.
Alan modified a set of global west upper control arms to work around some interference issues they have with lowered cars under heavy cornering.
With sheet metal valve covers that were a little weepy when it got hot as well as just some other pinhole spots including a coolant leak before the rebuild, the underside was like an oil slick in some spots especially the rear. This has already been cleaned and powdercoated for ease of cleaning later on and for easier inspection.
Continued below...2000 Firebird
●H/C/I●Longtubes●Strano HP7●T56 swapped●
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Continued from above...
Finally had time to work on it yesterday!
This mostly involved making things clean by making other things dirty. Cleaned up years of grime baked into the power steering rack as well as installed a few "upgrades."
First on the list is a set of boxed swaybar brackets by Blaine Fabrication. These help take care of deflection and bent brackets that the F-body suffers from when running big swaybars and big hot black slicks. Who doesn't like big hot black slicks?
Second is a small piece, but it is a solid bushing for the steering rack. This is actually for Corvettes from Doug Rippie, but it fits our rack as well. This eliminates some slop from the rack, but in all likelihood it is a placebo effect until I get some hoosier slicks on the car. I decided to do this to replace the "squishy" bushing that was in there since it has gone through years of oil/coolant leaks and other crap that I just wanted to get rid of.
Have to take a break from the day's festivities, and this is where I leave the garage for the night/morning:
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Second full day of going at it. Had to run some errands here and there, did some more cleanup and wrestled the engine around for a little while. The cardboard came in handy since I could just slide the engine/k-member off the hoist and onto the heavy duty dolly. Hey, if it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid.
Pretty good shot of the Mal-Wood adapter plate. This allows me to use a full T-56 and LSx bellhousing and just bolt it directly to the engine block.
Ram Clutches throwout bearing spacer (Necessary to compensate for adapter plate and difference in height of the T-5 clutch/flywheel vs. T-56 stuff), OEM slave and Tick remote bleeder.
All installed.
Closer.
Testing things out to see if the engine and trans would roll under the car without touching anything. Makes it easy since the intake plenum isn't installed. 6-ton stands, really nice investment and a lot more room for me to move around under the car without feeling friggin claustrophobic!
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Day 3:
Kind of a "meh" day of trying to find bolts that were supposed to be in one spot but after a year later, they...migrated. Oh well, found them and got things moving along.
Really like the eye for detail that the guys at Total Engine Service have for their engine assembly. It's those little things that tend to make me happy.
"In the beginning, there were no accessories. And then a lot of terse words were spoken..."
New water pump and an underdrive WP pulley from ZZP.
Mmm, all sealed up.
Notice the NPT plug? This prevents unfiltered oil from going through the bypass and washing the mains. Spun bearings are one of the lead causes of 3800 engine death. This helps fight it along with good filter and oil selection.
Accessorized!
More below.2000 Firebird
●H/C/I●Longtubes●Strano HP7●T56 swapped●
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Continued from above.
For the first time since August of last year, there's an engine in the car.
Exhausted and have a few mixed feelings since it has taken so long to get to this point. Still have to reconnect and reinstall a whole lot of parts.
Also, brown truck dropped these off!
UMI Performance Inc. boxed A-Arms. This is pretty much the last part of the suspension puzzle for the car. Just got really busy with other things today and things are competing for my time when I really wanted a clean and open schedule to finish...this...car!
I actually remember asking about boxed A-arms like the LG Motorsports ones a few years back and Ryan from UMI piped up that they actually had prototypes in the works. So, a few years later I finally get around to buying them, better late than never!
Really clean design, looking forward to putting this through the paces soon enough:
Stay tuned for more!2000 Firebird
●H/C/I●Longtubes●Strano HP7●T56 swapped●
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Originally posted by Deaf Bob View PostGlad to see you're back!
Wondered what happened!
Looks absolutely beautiful!
Originally posted by RideTech_Ryan View PostKeep the pics coming! Great build!
Originally posted by SuperBuickGuy View Postneat stuff.... it's amazing how long some things can take.
Originally posted by DanStokes View PostNice job! ANYTHING w/o a SBC/LSsomething is great in my book. I know they make power and all that, but.......
Dan2000 Firebird
●H/C/I●Longtubes●Strano HP7●T56 swapped●
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