B52bombardier1

Hello, I've got family in town over the next few days so I'm not sure how much serious time on the Cat I will get. But it doesn't stop me from thinking about my next steps. I have decided that I'm not gonna' cut up and shorten the dangling 1/4 inch steel mount plates provided in the mount kit right away. I've got some 1/4 inch by two inch bar stock steel that I'm gonna' cut up into temporary fitment pieces of various, two inch and three inch long trial lengths with holes drilled to experiment with - a plasma cutter would be VERY handy here. Once I'm happy with how these experimental pieces might work to lower the motor - and clear the oil pan from the steering gear and establish a good driveline angle to the differential - I will cut up the frame stands from the ICT Billet kit to the same length and weld those in. Rick

Hello, This is my first attempt at putting the LS 5.3 motor down into the engine bay of the Cat. Plainly, the engine needs to be and can be lowered somewhat and the Holley 302-5 oil pan will still clear the steering track rod. This "Builders Mount Kit" from the ICT Billet company provides a lot of front to rear adjustability and the two dangling steel plates will be trimmed down by me to lower the engine. I will likely cut these plates down in quarter inch or maybe half inch increments to sneak up on a proper fit. And as you might notice, the rear plate on the passenger side of the engine appears to need some notching to clear a brake line. This engine is not the engine that will be used to propel the Catalina. This one is merely a testing and fitment mule. However, once I'm satisfied with the placement and driveline angle of the engine and transmission, these dangling steel plates get welded to the front frame crossmember and the large bolt in each stand gets removed to allow the engine / trans to be lifted out. I'm also now very curious if the original LS engine exhaust manifolds can fit between the frame rails and still bolt up to the heads. Setting a head onto each side of the motor will be my next activity to see if the manifolds will fit. Rick

Hello, My dirtiest, unknown mileage, not running, junk yard 5.3 liter LS motor moves to the machine shop tomorrow for a rebuild. This rebuild will take about a month they say and maybe a little faster because I'm providing a set of 862 casting heads that this shop has already rebuilt - a few months ago. And perhaps about $420 less expensive from the standard $3000 price because these heads are rebuilt. The probably worn out heads on the dirty motor are a 706 casting that various references say are a higher compression head. I don't want to change the PCM operating system tune to support a 706 set of heads in the Catalina because the Cat is a cruiser, not a tire smokin' race car. The 862 heads will be fine and the 706 heads will simply get a good cleaning. I've got one more junk yard 5.3 liter motor that is magnitudes cleaner that I will use for engine mount test fitting while I wait for the dirty motor to be rebuilt. I will hang my almost certainly dead, sixty dollar, junk yard 4L60E transmission off the back of the motor before I lay the whole thing into the engine compartment. This will allow me to get into the bulk of the engine swap to work out proper drive line angles to the differential, floor pan sheet metal clearance, radiator fan clearance, exhaust manifold clearance, drive shaft creation and passenger side engine head clearance with the AC firewall plastic suitcase. As this is a full sized B-body vehicle, I think most of these things will be easier than what I found in my A-Body El Camino. My PSI Conversions LS swap engine harness also arrived today. For durability, I have abandoned the idea of depinning and repinning one of my junk yard harnesses. They were variously mangled, missing connectors, had the wrong connectors or had brittle insulation. I'm about 49 percent disappointed with myself here for not at least trying. The upside of the PSI Conversions harness is that it is built with extra wire length to move the PCM into the passenger compartment - maybe on top of the glove box under the dash cover. Rick

No emergency brake for a while? Do you park in steeply inclined areas where an e-brake might be helpful? Rick

The wiring diagram should reveal what the colors / stripes were for the radio - find those and reuse. The fuse panel may also have an "IGN" source that is easily accessible. Rick

Hello, I finally figured out why my Lincoln MIG welder feeds wire some of the time and other times, not at all. If I push the cart far away from where I'm welding, it feeds wire. If the cart is up close, it does not feed. Apparently, having the welding gas hose with the wire in it coiled up in any way along the path to the work lead makes the wire not feed - the feed motor can't overcome the push resistance. If I weld with the cart moved farther away and the hose straight to where I'm welding, it works fine. This quarter panel job on the Catalina is finished though it could use another coat of high build primer. Rick

Your car is getting there!! Rick

Hello Again, I'm way too slow creating these small sheet metal patch panels to ever make a living at it but I think this one turned out very nicely. I must have made twenty five trips from the car to the electric grinder slowly making the patch smaller so that it would fit the hole and I still need to sand off the green paint around the edge with the Roll Lock disk. And then fight with my MIG welder for making the wire feed. Rick

Hello, As promised . . . pictures from today. I will try to create the small patch panel in some 18 gauge cold rolled, ungalvanized sheet metal tomorrow - using tape as the template. I have already shot the inner fender sheet metal with a rust converting paint and I will remove the original metallic green paint from the edges of the hole tomorrow with a Roll Lock disk. The trouble I face is that my wire feed Lincoln MIG welder is a little bodgy on actually feeding the wire. I've got plenty of argon / CO2 but the wire stops. If the wire feeds, it'll be short burns of very hot welding to tack the new piece . . . makes for less warping of the old and new metal. This is a very uncomplicated patch panel to make and the weld beads will promptly get sanded down to a flat contour with the original quarter panel. And then get shot with some self etching primer. Pictures tomorrow if I can get it done. Rick

Yea, the James Gang. Joe Walsh the guitarist was in that band. Rick

Hello Frosty, I established a very good, temporary ground at the firewall sheet metal with great continuity but yes, all of the original engine compartment grounds are gone - there's no engine or transmission or battery or alternator. I've come to the conclusion that the portion of the fuse panel that is exposed to the engine compartment is my problem and as of late this morning, I have ordered an all new engine harness - that includes a new plastic fuse panel square block at the firewall. Plus all new wires, of course. The old harness was beat up with brittle insulation and the car needed this harness all new anyway. I have ordered it from Ames but they don't make them or stock these harness assemblies. They are contracted for production with M&H Electric and this company has a very good reputation but I won't see it until at least three months from now. I have plenty of other things to do on the Cat. I picked up the cutoff wheel earlier this afternoon and cut out the rusty metal behind the driver's rear wheel. The wheel arch stainless trim had to come off to make the cuts and I had to remove the rear wheel to do that. So then I picked up a big hammer and tapped the brake drum off - I think the wheel cylinder leaks -- will be replaced anyway. I will try to post a few pictures later tonight. Rick

Hello, With a good bit of cheating, I have been able to apply 13.8 volts DC to an internal connection within the guts of the fuse panel. All of the rear vehicle lighting works - brake lights, tail lights, turn signals, flashers and the passenger compartment courtesy lights / glove box light also function. All of the wiring at the front of the vehicle AC / heat and wipers is disconnected by me. Oddly, the ignition key won't go to the Accessory notch. And the radio wiring was cut by a previous owner with the connector nowhere to be found. But I'm cheating. I still can't get power past a certain point along a main fat red wire and corrosion does not appear to be the problem. Still head scratchin' and staring at the wiring diagram a lot. But it appears that at least some of the 54 year old wiring is in good condition. Rick

Are the original high impedance speakers in the car still operational? The people at Crutchfield can help you with your impedance mismatch but you might need to buy all new high impedance speakers. https://www.crutchfield.com/S-iPWbpWifxCk/ Rick

The use of today's new, modern two ohm low impedance speakers will FRY / BROIL / KILL (!!!!) the output transistor in your old school Pontiac radio. The final amplifier in your old Pontiac radio expects to see a high impedance 8-10 ohm load. A two ohm speaker load "appears" as a near short and will flow too much current. And POOF!!! There goes your output transistor. Off for repairs your radio will then go. Also, don't be surprised that the dielectric paste in your electrolytic capacitors within the radio has dried out. It happens after this many years and usually results in poor receiver sensitivity even with an excellent antenna. Rick

Hello, I have declared the main floor and the trunk floor complete for rust repairs and the application of sound deadening. Now I can lay under the driver's side dash in relative comfort and try to figure out my almost complete lack of 12 volts in the passenger compartment. Its some kind of problem at the fuse panel. The silver stuff is the aluminized adhesive rubber but the trunk floor and main floor both got a heavy coat of the "SprayMax 2K Glamour" high gloss and high film thickness clear coat before laying down the rubber. The floors got the spray last night on top of the Lizard Skin and the clear dried very nicely overnight. This is the rattle can stuff with an internal breakable ampule of hardener activator that makes the cured spray very hard and durable. This clear also makes for a surface that the adhesive on the rubber can really bond to. This same kind of aluminized rubber is in my 70 El Camino on the floor and the roof and hasn't moved a millimeter in five years or so. The trunk floor will also have some kind of cloth cover to protect it much like it originally had but that cover from the factory in 1970 was dirty, rust stained and destroyed. I might do the splatter paint in the trunk but its expensive and apparently there is a trick to applying it correctly. The idea here of applying the aluminized rubber is to give the sheet metal additional mass to force the metal into a lower resonant vibration frequency. If it still vibrates, it'll be at a less obnoxious frequency. A heavier sheet of metal also needs more energy to force it into vibrating. Covering every square inch of metal is not required and it is not the intention that this provides much protection against heat or cold in the passenger compartment. Its all about minimizing noise, vibration and harshness from the roadway. The new "mass backing" molded carpet with jute padding is what will do the insulating against cold and heat. Rick