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Pontiac of the Month

FBIRD69's 1969 Firebird

2024 March
of the Month

Kurk_Kurk

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Everything posted by Kurk_Kurk

  1. suspension? no i was talking about the contraption inside the posi differential thing. Some are a spring, others are an S slip looking thing. (The whole rear end is Pure FORDing Magic to me) I was already looking at an auburn so good to know i was on the right track! Good thing i'm chucking my 3.73 gear to my dad's trans am, i won't need that especially since i'll be doing highway pulls. A 3.55 seems right up my alley. But then it hit me, the rear in my 2002 firebird is a Torsion Lock Diff with two worm gears that lock under a certain load of torque (?) (It's the Performance Y87 code, kinda like a V6 firebird GT) Is that rear, whatever it's officially called, able to fit into the 1978 rear end?
  2. Because the blue car already has the open diff lol. So i'll be changing that diff to a posi. Thing is, i was really hoping to get the factory posi rear so a lot of the guess work would be eliminated. Now, i have to find a posi online or in a store and i'm not sure what i'm looking for. I'm finding posi rears with a collection of four springs. Others have an S clip in there. Realistically, the springs are better right? I'm also seeing tons of brands with barely any reviews, so how will i know which posi is good? Being indecisive is a huge crutch when it comes to this junk.
  3. We've got parts! No more will i manually pull up or push down my driver side window as this new(ish) door has a full window crank in there. Fenders are the saught after Trans am Fenders with vents and all, something i've always wanted but could never afford until now. We couldn't use the Rear since it was an open dif and 2.41 which was odd, but that was the case. I can now comfortably move onto the engine!
  4. Definitely going to stay away from a roll cage for the time being. I like the comforts of the car and wouldn't want them interfered. Plus, having an interior for comfort allows the inquisition of a passenger to scare shitless. Because that's always a plus. ANYWHO we struck gold! $650 bucks later... This car was sitting in a local landscaper's yard for 25 years as payment for a project that totalled 800 bucks. The roof is rotted and the original owner is long gone as well as the title. It's a true 1978 trans am and those fenders, doors and rear end will be perfect for 'Angry Bird.' Well, now that the car is going to be multi colored, might as well call it 'Angry Parrot'
  5. Hitting those Rice rockets is my pastime but i want to make sure i can embarrass them with a Naturally Aspirated Motor. So in a sense, i will be racing with the engine. not every day, but i will be frequent enough to the point where i want to be able to drive the car home from the track every race. And i've already gotten the new Posi rear, 3.75 gear, rear disc brake conversion, suspension and all the other goodies. It's just a matter of getting the parts on since she's undergoing some SERIOUS metal work on the floors and rails. Super friggen useful to know. might be why the Girdle comes with studs and nuts too. But i think i'll be taking the Girdle route as it's more Peace Of Mind.
  6. No photos this time, unfortunately but i took my entire engine apart and took a good look at the bearings. Apparently i was leaking oil out of the oil pan faster than i could keep up so i need new bearings, which is no big deal. I already have an aluminum oil pan, black and silver finned ready to install. HOWEVER i need some mucho geniuses here. I have the 2 bolt main Block. Not very strong, safe zone is up to 500hp and i understand this. The current engine components already make up to 420hp with a stock specification crank shaft. I've recently found that there is a Main Girdle i can use which essentially makes the block a 10 bolt main by connecting all bearings, increasing its strength and reliability to pump out more than 500hp. Great right? Now, since that's an option, would it be okay to throw in a stroker crank and make this into a 383 stroker? or would doing this be too risky?
  7. Alright, so on my 2002 Firebird V6 my catalytic converter kicked the bucket. I took this as a opportunity to buy some straight pipes for the V6 and glasspacks. (I know, but if i want to v8 swap, the pipes will be there now anyway.) My question, since the O2 Sensor is AFTER the Converter, would i be able to just zip tie the sensor to the frame? What im saying is, will the car run without that O2 Sensor behind the cat?
  8. I'd feel a lot more comfortable sleeving all eight. might as well keep it all evenly machined all around to avoid any more mishaps.
  9. The numbers matching motor is long gone by now. It was your basic 305CI enigne and i didn't see much value in that at the time. Boring the engine is probably not the best in my case, considering i'd need all new pistons for the new bore, and my pockets are running shallow. Would it be wise to bore it out to .060 and then sleeve it to .030?
  10. Yup, i know about the oversized rings. im just worried about boring it over again. I'm already 30 over bore, so what would be next? 40 over? i know i cant go past 60 over, but i feel im cutting it close now. I'd love to see if i can get away with honing because of this. But if i absolutely HAVE to, ill take it to a shop. Thakfully my dad knows a guy that can get the work done really well for a case of beers and $300 And frosty, you're damned right im gonna build this the right way without any Spectre oil pans or gaskets lol. I'll stomach the extra few bucks and buy some legitimate parts this time around. Im glad im choosing street though, can't imagine how much money i'd be down with a race engine build!
  11. And it was going so smoothly. While working on the car, buttoning up loose bolts, prepping areas for paints and general placements, he wanted to take a look at the engine, which was sitting on the Engine stand and flipped over. He looked around, asking about the crankshaft and what-not. pointing out a lean oil pickup tube too. It wasn't long before i wanted to show him how tall the engine was going to be with the new carb, intake and etc. So when i rotated the engine to Right Side Up, oil poured out of cylinder 5 spark plug hole. That would explain why there was always a fouled plug and blue smoke behind me. So, new set of piston rings? Nope. Unfortunately, it got worse once we took the cylinder heads off. We found scoring and deep scratches in cylinder walls all through the block. The culprit? the Damned Spectre Oil Pan. i think it's called a splash shield (?) that cracked and with the vibrations, the seam from the crack rubbed together creating metal flakes in the oil. im praying that a simple honing could solve this, since buying new pistons for a new overbore, let alone get it to a machine shop, is not within my budget.
  12. Definitely worthy of an update, Heater core removed and installed without removing the entire dashboard. Ha, take that pops. my father did it by the book when he was my age and building his '78 Camaro which called for him to remove the entire dashboard. took him a whole day where me, and my trusty brain, managed in only an hour.
  13. She's standing on her own two front feet now after an entire winter. All that's left for the front suspension is to grease all the fittings and replace the steering tie rods. Afterwards, it will be time to throw in the new radiator core support AND the new aluminum radiator. Welding is in the distant future at this point, as we're still trying to gather materials. A roll cage is still further along the way. As for the wheel wells, i want to throw out the stocks and cut my own to go in there. I think i could clean up the engine bay with sleeker looks of smooth sheet metal rather than the bulbous wheel wells that protrude through the engine bay. Look up 'BFG Tire Bird' and you'll see what i'm talking about. Lots of smooth space for those +5hp stickers
  14. BIG progress made, in my opinion. got one whole wheel installed finally on passenger side. Driver side didn't go so well as the lower control arm i purchased has a screwed up lower ball joint insert or seating area or whatever. The hole where it goes into to press fit (hammer into) was too wide so it didn't seat. So that's halted some of the progress for the time being. Good thing i kept my old control arms, currently getting the old one sandblasted and painted to look all nice. Frame has been painted, calipers were powder coated, slotted and drilled rotors too. Coilovers need to be adjusted still, right now it's super low but i can't change that until i get a full load on them.
  15. Interesting... I feel i certainly won't have to do any extreme cutting though, but it's nice to know what my limits may be. in either case, i have decided against tubular control arms since they change geometry that may not be in my favor, let alone barely cause any weight reduction. That cuts costs on this build by about $400 which opens up a plethora of buying options for little cleaning supplies. With my subframe exposed, im planning on coating that with something other than Engine Bled Oil and using a thick gloss black special plaint thing. Weather ain't warming up, so it may be a while before i post another picture of progress
  16. Oh, i've considered it but im working in a driveway with very limited space. Besides, all other metal is still sitting with factory fresh paint. What baffles me, from the photos, is how your car didn't collapse on itself. I thought that if you cut the car up that much, it would warp around itself. How did you manage to avoid that?
  17. Wow, such valuable information. Didn't think my only option was to buy the whole firewall, then again, i guess that's good because my dad's 1979 trans-am that he's building alongside mine is going to need firewall pieces too. (yes im in a 'race' with the old man.) I'm just hoping that that when the discription says "Incl Frame Cushion Brackets" that means those triangle torque box things are on there too. There's not a whole lot of photos :/ And the rot did make it to the floor board, but my dad has some left over floor board pieces that will fit in there. As for the lifespan of my bird, it was kept in a garage...on a carpet that retained moisture from rainy days in the salt belt of america. It was also driven regularly throught the 40+ years on the road. The two rear frame rails are also rotted out because of this and they need welding too.
  18. WOO warm weather means i can start working on the car again. Here we go, This time on Project Blue Bird: front radiator support and mounts have been removed, finally, for replacement. The actual radiator support itself is not bad so i'll be wire brushing it and painting it to make it look fresh. The mounts were not too bad but they were awful enough to merit replacement. While doing this, i noticed "Shredded Mozzarella" in my motor mounts, telling me i did too many burnouts. So, as anyone would to, i pulled the engine out for further prep work until parts come in. This is where things got worse In the photo attached, i've circled the area that's been rotted out because of a bad Heater Core. At first, i saw the rotted out toe board which seemed to be an easy enough fix. Unfortunately i jinxed myself when i found that the Acidic Antifreeze ate through all three layers of steel by the toe board. If you look, you can see the red mount from the Energy Suspension Part going into that frame-body connection point. The structure point of the car i guess. I've drawn out what's happening with the metal with my handy MS paint skills below. I have no idea how i'm going to fix this at all....
  19. Well, as soon as i made this post, the weather started warming up and the issue hasn't been around since this post. I'ts got to be the shrinking metal inside the cylinder but i'll update this post when it's really cold and not starting again. That's when i'll have a chance to heat the key and etc.
  20. Interesting. Im not sure if that would work though. Both of my keys (you're correct, both my keys look like that) don't work. If i hold the key in the start position, the SECURITY light blinks. If i sit with the key in the ignition, the light still blinks. However, if the car is warm, none of this happens and it starts normally.
  21. Okay so, i have the 2002 firebird base model and lately it's been VATs locking itself. But in this case, its not doing it randomly or from a bad resistor in the key. My 2002 firbird is VATs locking itself when temperatures overnight drop below 15F. The only thing i've found, is that the interior of the car needs to be above 20F in order for it to start properly. anything below that, the car VATs locks. how the heck do i fix this?
  22. I took a look when i got home yesterday. Oh boy, are they rusted out and bent. Driver side was expected, but the passenger side bolts and hinge were bent out of shape. Lots of angry passengers over the years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ thanks for the heads up!
  23. Ah crap. That means my doors probably aren't lined up either. i had to install both with the shot body mounts after the accident.
  24. So this is actually a pretty big deal, we got the old body mount hardware and rubber all out for the replacements! They have never been touched since their day they rolled off the factory assembly line, as with most of the parts on the car. This is a really big deal because one day when me and my Father had to replace the flywheel, we put the jack stand under the trans and pumped it up for engine alignment, the whole car would bend and creak from the firewall and forward. It was about to accordion itself, really, with how much it bent. that was because of these worn out bolts. With the new Energy Suspension rubber bushings and hardware in place, the whole thing barely budges from it's position.Which gives me the whole 'i told you so' attitude because my father keeps telling me the car is 'unsaveable' But seriously, look at how awful these bolts got. I drove around with these for about 4 years, yikes.
  25. Alright, looks like i made some progress for phase 1 of the restoration. The whole front fenders, bumper and hood are all off and the guts are fully exposed. So much to the point where i can see how every. single. bushing. has been dry rotted and dusted out of place. The body mount bushings? they fell out finally, rotted away and feeling like a wet paper towel. Unfortunately, while trying to tackle the body mounts, on the first turns i felt the bold starting to 'rub' you know, the tell-tale sign that the rusted bolt is about to break. So now i wait for new bolts to come in before going any further with that. pretty sure i need to work one side of the frame and then the other, lifting the body up just enough and etc. fun times. I can, however, go ahead with control arm bushing replacement since i think that's where the illusion of a 'bent body' is coming from. Not to mention how i now have all the room in the world to work on it. Little by little. And i would love to have a full frame like you have there, but i simply have no idea how to do that. the most i'll end up doing, is cutting out the entire back seat and trunk out and turning that into a reinforced cage section since.. it's all sheet metal there anyway. I'll create a bunch of room back there to play around with. let my creative side out for a bit lol. So if anyone knows, i need to know the bolt size on the body mounts. I know it's a 15/16, grade 8 bolt, but i dont know the thread or length i need. Any help? UntIl NeXT tImE
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