The Silver Buick's 1969 Firebird OHC six project.

[TheSilverBuick]

I haven't made any progress on this because I've been trying to figure out a solution to mounting the electric water pump and have been getting no where. So I'm biting the bullet and relocating the battery to the trunk and putting the water pump where the battery sat. I need to get one of my 4L60e's shipped out for a professional build as time is ticking!

[TheSilverBuick]

Got a lot done this weekend, gives me hope on having a drag week ready car before the end of August.

So I bit the bullet and installed the battery in the trunk. Full box, cables out the back and down through the floor of the trunk. I still need to install a power disconnect switch and heavy duty fuse, but the 1 gauge positive cable is ran to the front with brackets holding it in place. The kit came with a short 24" ground cable, so I picked up some 4 gauge ground cable until I get 1 gauge down the road.

I figured since I have moved the fuel supply to the driver's side, I could remove the stock fuel lines on the passenger side and run the power cables more or less along the path the fuel lines used to go.


I've got three bolts holding it to the floor.


This should clear all the exhaust pipes going to and from the turbo.


With the battery tray free'd up, I welded a bracket to the tray to hold the water pump. I looked at options of just making a bracket to the frame or core support, but it was definitely simpler to attach it to the tray. I will probably use that space for power distribution, move the fuse panel from the fender well to the tray.


Sits about 2" higher than the stock pump did, but I do not expect any issues as long as I'm not low on coolant.


I also started on the flanges for the new set of headers. The flanges I have were just a bit on the small side, and the end ones needed to be squared up. So I took a grinder to them and started opening them up.



I'm hoping this week to get a machine shop lined up for the short block and either during the week or over next weekend get a transmission boxed up to ship to a builder that has done a few other Drag Week'er transmissions, so my hope is high the 4L60e will survive behind my little L6.

[SuperBuickGuy]

looks like it also gives you room for a cold air intake. nice work!

[TheSilverBuick]

Yup, should be able to go right over the water pump. Will decide later if I'll just pull from the fender well or put another hole in the core support.

I just talked to a local machine shop, if I can get the short block in this week he said 3-4 week's turn around time, maybe less. Should be pretty straight forward on the block work.

[TheSilverBuick]

Hopefully headed to the machine shop tomorrow!

[langleylad]

Good luck , fingers crossed

[Deaf Bob]

Saw a bunch of these motors at a wrecking yard, thought they were cool.. Ohhh maybe 20 years ago..
Then pretty much never heard much of them till this.. Interesting..
Then yesterday saw an ad for a Firebird that had one of these in it and a 4 speed up in Tumwater (near SBG). Bottom was rotted to nothing!
$5K! Some people! Claims to have the better 230 over the 250..
Which makes me wonder if he knows the OHC engines came in 2 sizes or thought the 250 is chevy..

Watching this only cuz it is interesting..

[TheSilverBuick]

People say that you will get more rpm out of a 230 because both the 230 and 250 use the same size valves so effectively gets choked on the longer stroke, but for the few on the dyno, displacement wins in power. People put the 292 crank in these for a bit over 300 cid. They cap out around 5,000rpm but make more HP than the 250 or 230. I contemplated going that route. I've also contemplated going the 230 route because I have a handful of them now.

[JOES66FURY]

Weirdo.

[STINEY]

Yeah, but he's OUR kind of weirdo.

[silver_bullet]

I have a 292...could I be a weirdo too?

[TheSilverBuick]

Some people are weirder. This Alfa engine inline six is sitting in the machine shop lobby waiting to get dynoed.

[silver_bullet]

Pretty!

[TheSilverBuick]

The progress continues. I ended up bringing the machine shop a spare cylinder head the following day because I need about 0.10" worth of valve reliefs cut into the pistons to maintain the non-interference design and they needed a head to get the proper angle with the valve size. I finished running the ground cable to the front, but I think I'm going to re-do it at a later date. I will see if I have any starter cranking issues first. I ordered a 250 amp fuse and holder to set up on the power side incase the main wire shorts out some how.

Made a simple upper radiator bracket. If I need something more substantial I'll change it, but I think it will do just fine as the upper radiator hose holds it in place pretty well. I also trimmed about 2" off the fan shroud to use my electric fan set up. The 2nd generation F-body radiator is narrower than the 1st gen.


I pulled the turbo off so I can start on the header work. I also started on the water plumbing. Because the radiator has a heater hose port I do not have to do any funny plumbing for the heater core. I'm going to get some heater hose from the parts store today and finish plumbing in the water pump. I need to wire in the PWM controller so I can control the water pump speed, then I should be pretty much ready to put the car back on the road.


The old 3-core was in pretty rough shape. Kind of hand an overheating hiccup a long time ago that bulged out the cores.

[TheSilverBuick]

Pretty much have the cooling system revamped. I need to cut a small section of 1.5" exhaust pipe from my scrap pipe bin to connect the lower radiator hose, but otherwise is all plumbed in. Now I need to dust off the Jeep solid state fan relay I bought for the water pump and wire it in so I can control the water pump speed. I had the old pump setup as ON/OFF depending on throttle position and coolant temperature, but with nearly tripling the water flow I do not think that method will be appropriate. If I can slow down the pump down by at least 50% I will be happy with that.


I'll redo the lines going into the head when I actually bolt the turbo back in. I will likely try and find some 1" pipe to use to keep the rubber lines from the exhaust heat. Or a bunch of zip tied rubber line....