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Pontiac of the Month

FBIRD69's 1969 Firebird

2024 March
of the Month

AaronGTR

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Everything posted by AaronGTR

  1. And over here, they are old persons cars. lol They haven't made a good buick since the grand national IMO. Their current "sporty" models such as the Regal GS fall far short of expectations.
  2. I wouldn't say they got it all right. I still can't get over those hideous rabbit teeth in the front grill. Other than that, it's a very nice car. A kid in one of my classes at school has one in all black.
  3. There's nothing they sell at GMC that is any different than Chevy trucks though. Exactly the same underneath, and almost the same on the outside too. Nothing they couldn't offer with some options or an extra trim level on a chevy. Same thing with Buick. The reason why Buick sold so well in China was just because of the name. Their very small class of rich/priviledged people (basically their commi leaders) had bought buicks back in the day, so buicks were seen as a status symbol. Doesn't even matter to them what kind of car it is or what it looks like. Simple solution... make Pontiacs in the US and make them sporty for the American people. Take the same car to china, give it some softer bushings and drivetrain cal, maybe a different headlight/tail light treatment or something (ala chevy cobalt/Pontiac G5), slap a buick badge on it. Job done! They will still buy them because it says it's a buick. GM went about it in all the wrong way.
  4. Ok, here's my official submission, just in under the wire. I finally had a chance to wash her and get some current pics yesterday (before the rain came today). Photobucket was causing me some problems this morning, but I got it working tonight. Full res pics are 2048x1536. Played around with a couple of the filters on my galaxy S3 and I like how they came out. I'm not really sure which is the best, so pick your favorite. Car is a 2000 Grand Am GT1 "GXP" concept clone (sorta).
  5. nah, I wouldn't put my car in there. It's not really in show condition right now. Plus there aren't many newer cars in there. Those camaros were about the newest things there. Mostly older hot rods and muscle cars, and a few "newer" muscle cars. I don't think anyone would really care to see my car there. lol
  6. Good idea! I'll try and remember when the time comes to make a post over here ahead of time.
  7. lol well, that isn't really feasible. We usually trade off weekends going back and forth, and she was out here last weekend. Plus we already have plans with her friends. I'll just have to miss it. Honestly, when I used to go on Saturdays back 6 years ago, it was so packed and crazy that it wasn't really fun. Most places the parking was reserved, or you had to go down really early to get a spot then couldn't leave or you'd lose your spot, and there were so many people on the road that didn't belong there that you couldn't actually cruise. It took like 4 hours to go 2 miles... not fun at all. I actually preferred cruising the week before the cruise.
  8. Yeah, the weather was great, and lots of nice cars there.
  9. Shoot... never mind. I forgot, I'm supposed to go to Lansing this weekend to see the GF. I won't even be around Saturday. Oh well, maybe next year. I'll probably go down there for a bit tonight and tomorrow night though.
  10. Went to a car show last weekend in downtown Rochester, MI called Rockin' Rods. It's a charity car show they do every year. There were lots of really nice and some very rare cars there too like a Nash Ambassador, a Cord, couple Studebakers, and a few others. Lots of nice Pontiacs too. I would have taken more pics but it was actually kinda crowded, and I'm not that fast taking pics with my galaxy 3 yet. Anyway here are a few good ones I snapped. The rare and elusive Solstice gxp coupe. Really nicely done Chevy II with air ride suspension. A '32 Dodge coupe with a viper V10 in it? You betcha! He's gonna be at the Chrysler display at Woodward Dream Cruise this year. '55 Chevy with a blown 572 big block! Nice custom '66 'vette. Sweet GTO. '67 I think? There were several there, but this one was the cleanest. Everything was perfect on this car! A light blue 340 Barracuda. There were actually two 'cudas there. Don't see a lot of those. Very nicely done '57 chevy. My favorite was this street mod RS camaro. Had an LS3 in it. All suspension, rear end, and headers from Detroit Speed. Upgraded brakes and wheels/tires. I'd love to do something like that. A super rare Shelby Series 1 convertible. I've never seen one in yellow either. Had three yellow camaros at the entrance. Two SS's and a ZL1, all modded.
  11. Hey guys, been a while since I've been active on this forum (been busy with work/school). Anyway I saw on FB that there was a meet planned for Woodward cruise. So what are the plans? I haven't been there in like 6 years 'cause I just moved back from Florida. It would be fun to meet up with some members while I'm down there. I'll probably go down a cruise a couple nights this week too because people start cruising on Monday usually, lol. My parents went down last night in their 'vette and are going down tonight too. Anyway, hope to see lots of Pontiacs on Saturday.
  12. Hmm, that's interesting. I haven't seen that one. I don't really get anything from Pontiac anymore though, and I'm surprised they send stuff out still. The only thing I ever get is advertising for former Pontiac owners trying to get them to buy Buicks. lol
  13. Gotta love those classic Pontiacs. Would love to have one myself some day when I get my own garage and have the money. It would be a tough call between a '67 GTO or a '69 Firebird though. Anyway, welcome to the site, and enjoy!
  14. Hey, welcome to the site! Nice pair of Bonnevilles. I always thought they were an underrated car IMO. I always liked the front end on them though. I liked where they placed the fog lights and the design of the headlights and grill opening. I think it might look better with some different rims, but that's about it. Anyway, welcome and enjoy the site.
  15. wow, that '95 looks sharp! It's a great color and the paint looks in really good condition. I like the rims too. Nice ride! And welcome to the site.
  16. Seems like the PCV fix worked. No sign of oil at all in the intake after 2 days of driving. Going to check it again on saturday after putting some more miles on it to be sure how well it is working.
  17. Update on todays work. Went and bought a new compression tester just for the hell of it and did a compression test. Pressure was between 175-180psi on every cylinder and pressure built up exactly as it was supposed to as described in the manual. So much for the "your rings are bad" theory. I made some changes to the PCV system to make it more like the final system will be once the SC is back in. I took another stainless scrub pad like I used in my catch can and I sandwiched it between the splash shield and valve cover on the inside of the valve cover. Hopefully that will act as sort of a pre-filter and help block any heavy oil splash from getting behind the shield and sucked up the line. Then I sanded down the threads on the brass fitting I had JB welded in the valve cover port, just enough so the old PCV valve would slide in. Didn't take much. I put some RTV around the outside of the valve and pushed it in, so that should keep it from leaking at all. In the reading I did last night I found the PCV isn't just a check valve but also meters the flow volume depending on the vacuum applied to it and the pressure in the crank case, so I guess it has to stay in the system. The OEM line size is 3/8" so I changed out all the NPT/hose barb fittings for 3/8" and changed all the hose over to 3/8" hose instead of the 1/2" I was using. Hopefully that will keep the flow volume and speed correct. Last thing I did was put my check valve on the outlet side of the catch can, since that is the side it will be on anyway when the SC is on. I also ordered another catch can from elite engineering. It's designed for LS engines, but catch cans are pretty universal and it has the correct 3/8" fittings I need. All I have to do is make my own bracket instead of using the one they provide. Then I'll have a dual can system. Ships tomorrow so it should be here next week.
  18. They didn't specifically tell me not to run parts from two different manufacturers. They told me that it might have caused an issue. Just because a person can run those two parts together on one engine from a different make doesn't mean I can run them on my engine and that there might not be problems. In case you didn't notice, engines are pretty complex ... different engine designs might react differently to the same part combinations. That is common sense. And anyway they also said that was only a theory, not the answer. So far they have been very professional in their dealings with me, and haven't given me any reason not to trust them, where Ben on the other hand has not. He sold me a shitty pair of gaskets for $190, didn't provide me with the necessary information to use them, and then blamed their failure on me. He's being an asshole. I'm am working on fixing the PCV issue today. I can tell you right now it's NOT the piston rings though. He has no clue wtf he is talking about on that one... they are good. I did everything by the book so there's no way they could be bad. Regardless I'll be doing a compression test as soon as I can get a good compression tester, just so he'll shut up about the rings. My compression tester has a bad pressure relief valve and isn't holding pressure like it should.
  19. Well, they do seem like they know what they are talking about actually... and they've built a far larger number and variety of engines than certain other people I won't mention, so I think for now I'll at least see what they have to say after they fully inspect the heads. On other news... I got my blower back today, and my exhaust parts also got here. I'm going to change the flanges on my headers to v-bands to make them easier to get together, along with a slight adjustment to the cross over pipe because it doesn't really line up properly and is a PITA to get bolted up. Anyway, I went to put the blower back in today, and instead found a huge amount of oil in my intake. Apparently my PCV line was sucking up too much oil from the valve cover and it was puddling behind the throttle plate and running into the intake tube. Soooo one more problem to solve, and I want to fix that before I put the blower back in so it doesn't get all oily. The oil in the pan was about 1/4 of a quart low in a very short amount of time, so I'm wondering if the PCV system was actually responsible for some of my oil consumption before (along with that exhaust valve guide). Kinda weird since it's had a catch can in the line and had a PCV valve until two weeks ago. There is just a check valve right now but I'm going to add a PCV valve back in the line and try a few other things to see if I can keep the oil in the pan!
  20. Update: I took the heads to the machine shop yesterday for them to look at. They said they had never seen a spring shim get chewed up like that before and don't know what would have caused it. As for the oil getting in the combustion chambers, since I was only getting smoke occasionally at idle and not while driving or any big puff of smoke when I hit the throttle, they said that was an indication that it was only pulling oil in from somewhere under high vacuum which means it probably isn't the piston rings. It's more likely from LIM gaskets, valve seals, or head gaskets. They did say they've seen a lot of sealing problems with MLS gaskets, especially on Nissans. If they aren't perfectly flat and smooth they won't seal up properly, and they agreed that sometimes they do need copper gasket spray, even though Cometic says they don't. Some head milling machines simply aren't capable of producing a smooth enough surface, and the spray is needed to fill in the tiny imperfections and create a tight seal. They also said the factory head finish is typically the best, and they don't like to mill the heads unless the surface flatness is off by .003" or more. If it's .002" or less they usually don't touch it, and they didn't mill mine so he said they should be flat. However they did recommend that I not use the MLS gaskets and use a stock type gasket. They said at my power level a MLS gasket shouldn't be needed, and that good tuning and the head studs should be enough to keep them from blowing. One theory they had was that the combination of the head studs and MLS gaskets could have contributed to the leak, because those parts from different manufacturers aren't designed to work together. The OEM style gaskets are more compressable and allow the heads to expand downward slightly with thermal expansion. They also asked the torque specs for stock head bolts and the ARP studs, and said the studs should only be clamping around 15-20 ft/lbs more than the bolts, but that they don't stretch as much as the bolts do. It's possible that the combination of the MLS gaskets which are harder metal and would expand themselves under heating, and the stronger head studs, where not allowing the heads to expand and contract as they normally would and could have caused distortion making the gaskets not seal as they normally would. Normally when you take the LIM off you can also see a line around the ports where the gasket touches. On my ported LIM the line for the gasket looked good around three sides but on the top of the ports it looked like the gasket was right at the edge of the manifold. Perhaps with the thermal distortion it could have caused the head or LIM to lift up or pull apart somehow and reduce the sealing pressure there letting oil mist from the lifter galley get pulled in when the vacuum was high enough? It would sort of make sense with what I saw. There was a light oil residue in all the intake ports that didn't look like oil leaking from the valve guides because it went up past the valve guides into the LIM runners. I thought this was just residue from the PCV system, but maybe it was from the gasket leaking. Anyway, for now I have stock heads back on with the felpro head and LIM gaskets. The machine shop has my other heads and they are going to recheck them for flatness then check all the valve guides and the rest of them again. They said they will let me know what they find, and they will replace the #2 exhaust valve guide and give me a new spring shim. If any of the other valve guides are bad then we might replace them all, but they would have to re-do the valve job then. So we'll see what happens. For now my supercharger got here today so I need to go reinstall that, and I have parts on the way for the headers. I decided I was tired of the crossover pipe not lining up right, so while I still have my welder I am cutting off the flared ends and replaced them with v-band flanges. __________________
  21. hmm... tried looking at some of the earlier pics and all that is showing is a big triangle with an exclamation point. Where are you hosting them? I tried watching the exhaust vid too and all I got was a youtube message saying the video was private. lol Might want to make it public if you want people to be able to see it.
  22. BTW, I pulled the heads off last weekend and switched the gaskets out. I did end up finding signs of major oil leakage from the exhaust valve guide on cylinder #2, and after pulling that head and taking the valve spring off I found that the cap on the spring shim has broke off and it had worn down the outside of the valve guide. Luckily I had a complete set of stock heads I could swap on, but still... sucks that I now don't have the nice set of ported heads that I put all that time and money into. I'm going to take it back to the machine shop and ask them whats up with that. I used those springs/shims/retainers on those heads for probably 12k miles with no issues, then get the heads back from them and the damn things junk after 1,000 miles?! It's probably going to need a new valve guide pressed in now. This was the underside of the head. Nice carbon build up! [sarcasm] Busted spring shim on the right. The #2 exhaust port. Heavy build up and an obvious oil trail coming from the guide and out the port. There was wet oil and carbon build up in the header primary too.
  23. lol, looks a bit like the 97 grand prix I had and recently sold.
  24. Couple magnaflows or a flowmaster muffler. Exhaust tuning for sound is difficult. So many things affect it. A lot is dictated by the engine design too and there's only so much you can do to make it sound better. Mine doesn't sound like a ferrari or anything (lol) but I've heard NA 3800's with exhausts before and personally I think my 3400 sounds better. The difference is the angle between the cylinder banks. V6's are naturally not as balanced as a V8 in regards to combustion events. The number of cylinders, angle between the banks, and design of the crank shaft determines the timing of the exhaust pulses and the forces on the crank shaft. A 90 degree v6 doesn't have any of those forces balanced. A 60 degree v6 doesn't have rotational forces balanced, but 60 divides even into 360 (degrees of crank rotation) so the firing forces are balanced and the exhaust pulse timing is different. Hence why I prefer the sound of my v6, while an Ls1 v8 sounds even better, and a ferrari v8 with a flat plane crank sounds like pure sex! The rest is up to header and exhaust design. Proper cylinder pairing on primaries will change the sound, as will equal length primaries. My header design is very much a compromise because of the transverse engine and space available, but the exhaust note still sounded better after I got them. It changed again when I got a bigger cam. I'm back to a stock cam again, and the sound changed yet again. Even different tip styles can affect it. You could spend a lot of money trying different combinations.
  25. Yeah, hard to tell from that pic. I can see the outboard shocks, but it looks like there might be something inside the spring. Would have to see it in person or a better pic. I didn't find any pics of it when I searched. I just knew the cobalt had a torsion beam suspension and looked up the torrent and found it was multi-link. Mine is multi-link too but uses a rear strut setup, but if the torrent is a separate spring/shock then it might work.
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