95naSTA's Bonneville Progression

[95naSTA]

Yeah the joys of having a black car.. lol.

Bill any chance you could link me?

[Twenty]

It was on w-body.com, in the 'Whatever' section of the forum. I think you have to be a member to see that area though. I could get some screenshots.

[95naSTA]

I'm a member over there too but I haven't been very active.

I did find it. Thanks for the heads up.

[Twenty]

Oh nice, I didn't know you were there too.

[95naSTA]

I finally got back from travel last week and got a few things done Friday and Sunday.

All the brake lines are run to the MC. I used a 90* bulkhead for the ABS reservoir rubber line and bushings for the F/R brake lines. I still need to repolish the MC and the bleeder snapped off my driver’s side F-body caliper.. I'll get that out somehow.

There's a pic showing what you'll see brake liens wise in the bay.. Just 3 lines running behind the strut tower.

The passenger side wiring is finished, grounds, bushings, etc.

Most of the battery wiring is run. I used a plastic bulkhead for where the power goes through the unibody. I still have to cut the line at the starter, throw a connection on it, and make an alt to fuse/relay center line. I popped my trunk for the first time in 6 months.. lol.

The battery tray is going to get por-15'd.

The driver's side wiring is mostly complete. I just need to get a bushing around where the body wiring goes through the unibody.

I got the new cam in the engine with new timing chain.. I'm just going to run a stock chain/damper since my last chain/damper still had life left in it after 80k with LS6 springs. I'm waiting on a tensioner to put the front cover on. I ordered a por-15 black engine paint kit I'm going to do the block and heads with that.. I was going to paint the heads purple but I think it'll look good to have the black as a contrast. The LIM/front cover and trans are all purple. This is the it's too late or crappy out part of the build.

I picked up my reworked knuckles with the flipped tie rod hole and reamed out ball joint hole. They had the top part of the bushing cup I'm making done too.

I welded up the ball joint carriers and bushing cup then test fit the monster truck ball joint on the car. I ran into a problem that I have been worrying about.. There isn't enough range of motion with the ball joint and it's maxed out before I can even bolt up the knuckle. I'm kinda bummed out about it but I'm hoping I figure something out. I might be able to find a different 727 style ball joint that will work. I know of at least 1 other I can try.. I just have to look more into it.

I also decided to just run the same style of top mount I was running. All the solutions I came up with are a huge undertaking that will probably never get finished in the time I need them to be done. I at least used a shorter pipe so it can't get out of round.. I welded those up but still need to paint them. I'll address this later..

[Twenty]

I always enjoy seeing the 'New Post' icon next to this thread's title.

[markpetersonii]

Wow, so much work! Looks great though!

It's cool to see what goes into doing these types of things. Makes me want a garage and my own space to do all this to a project. That's not for a long time though.

[95naSTA]

I wish I had my own garage. This project is the umbilical cord I have to my parent's place. Once I finish this, I'm finally moving out. In the mean time my parents are being super cool about taking over the garage and the driveway.

Looking at the pics of the angles and realizing I have two spare control arms.. I'll probably modify the ends of them. That makes the most sense at this point.

I can make 3 cuts, push the mounting face for the ball joint down, correcting the angle, box it in and even add sheet metal to the top for strength.

The only real hard part is making them 100% identical.

[95naSTA]

The ball joint stuff is on hold. I need to get this thing on the road.

The forcast said rain when I got off work today but I pulled my subframe when I got home anyway.

I got the new subframe/rack/sway/most of the body bushings in and I was just finishing up pressing the subframe bushings in when it started to pour. So I didn't make out too bad. The j-tool for the subframe bushings works awesome..

I also got the Abbott Racing heads on with ARP head studs and 0.045" MLS gaskets (cleaned plus each layer sprayed).

[The01Cav]

The ball joint stuff is on hold. I need to get this thing on the road.

The forcast said rain when I got off work today but I pulled my subframe when I got home anyway.

I got the new subframe/rack/sway/most of the body bushings in and I was just finishing up pressing the subframe bushings in when it started to pour. So I didn't make out too bad. The j-tool for the subframe bushings works awesome..

I also got the Abbott Racing heads on with ARP head studs and 0.045" MLS gaskets (cleaned plus each layer sprayed).

When do you think it will be back on the road again?

[95naSTA]

My goal would be sometime next month.

I go on travel again the 16th of next month so I would like to get as much in as I can before then.

[Ringo64]

My goal would be sometime next month.

I go on travel again the 16th of next month so I would like to get as much in as I can before then.

Tomorrow the 16th or 16th of July? Better get movin if it's tomorrow

That's cool though, can't wait to see this thing on the road!

[95naSTA]

Lol. July.

I just ordered a 1 3/8" thick (7/8" stock) double row all aluminum rad made for an Eldorado that should fit my car. That and the big oil cooler should help with the 11:1ish compression.

[Ringo64]

gotcha

nice! what do you have left till she's road-worthy?

[95naSTA]

There's a bunch of small stuff that needs to happend once the engine/trans gets in. Cooler routing, brake bleeding, some wiring, etc.

And I still need to repolish a bunch of things which is time consuming..

Got some more crap done today though..

-Grinded and Por-15ed: front unibody corners in front of front doors, areas where the subframe bolts up in the rear, and newly welded coilover top mounts

-Got all the subframe to body bushings in after the paint dried

-Ported oil passage in rear cover, went to dealership to get the new style aluminum rear cover gasket and rear main, installed

-Re-installed oil pan

-Painted the engine GM Oil Leak Black with a Por-15 engine painting kit. It's a 4 step process which took a while.. I used spare L26 parts to cover the heads, lifter valley, and front cover area.

-Installed EWP to front cover

-Put L26 oil pump in the L36/67 cover and packed it

The new knock sensors, tensioner, TC bolts, a 2 row 1 3/4" thick all aluminum rad, and some other misc things are in the mail.

I may be rocking the same LCAs so they'll come out, probably get painted, get new bushings and ball joints, and I'll do the top mounts at the same time.

[Jedi3]

looking real good man!

Are you going to clean up and paint the firewall like you did with the rest of the engine compartment?

[95naSTA]

The firewall is all covered with plastic and the majority of it is under the fuse block cover and Vac booster.

Here's a pic to give you a better idea.

The pic also shows the nasty HVAC box cover falling apart. That's why I had the box ceramic coated.

[95naSTA]

Haha. This thing will probably never be done.

I made a little headway since the last post.

I was soaking the tailshaft of the trans since it's been forever since I started the trans build. I finally got the side cover bolts cleaned up and torqued down the cover. So, it's due to come off the trans stand.

Knowing that the Eldorado rads are larger and fit, I searched for the largest one I could find. What I ended up with was one that is over an inch thicker than stock and still fits like stock. Ebay link here. This should really help with the high compression.

And I wanted to figure out a better solution for the rear dogbone trans mount. Since I raise the engine and trans up 1.5", I modified/welded the diff mount for the rear dogbone down 1.5" before. Last year my wheel caught a barrier on the highway when I was trying to avoid accident. The car went up a couple feet and I bottomed out my car real bad. The part of the mount I elongated on the diff housing hit the ground and punched the trans hard enough to crack the housing. Knowing I may go lower, I wanted to take that out of the equation. I found an adjustable Dogbone mount that Fiero guys use. It looked close enough to try and my guess was right.

When the engine and trans are in the car, I'll just shorten the mount and it should work really well with my bolted front trans mount and new d/s rear and p/s TA mount.

With my heads milled 0.050" and thinner head gaskets I was wondering if there were going to be alignment issues. The aluminum LIM gaskets needed to be shaved at the bottom to work with the rubber valley gaskets. The LIM I had milled to match does bolt up but there is a lip at the bottom of the intake ports transitioning to the heads. The top and sides line up good though. So, I'm going to have to port the bottom of the LIM ports before I install the LIM. I'm hoping to take care of that soon, along with the front cover.

Here's a short list of stuff that needs to happen before I drop the engine and trans in... Still lots of misc. crap to do after that before I can take it for a spin though.

[Jedi3]

WOW the stock radiator looks winpy next to the Caddy one.

[Ghost]

on your list...what is "brekes"?

[95naSTA]

I'm bad at spelling but not that bad. The a isn't connected

[valid]

Rodney Dickman is a godsend. He lives a mile away from my parents.

Beautiful progress. I can't imagine how anxious you must be to take her for a spin!

[Killiger2009]

jesus doode

[95naSTA]

Thanks!

I did some weird stuff with my work hours and took off today and tomorrow to work on my cars.

Crap I got done:

Also:

-Installed the timing chain damper, front cover, and front oil seal

-Installed a different oil pressure spring (think it was zzp?) along with the oil cooler oil filter adapter. The fittings barely clear the aluminum pan but they do clear which is sweet.

-Ported LIM more to match and installed

-Junked drivers side caliper trying to get the seized bleeder out

-New ball joints

-Realized I didn't order new coilover bearings and ordered those

-Por-15ed the tops of the struts above the threaded sleeve and the two small brackets that sit on the strut towers opposite the STB.

I'm definitely happy with the control arm bushing tool. The only part I needed something else was when I was installing the bushings on the actual control arms. The receiver cup was too large so I used a busted old trans dogbone as a receiver.

Other pics:

It might look like there is a lip up now on the LIM to head transition but it's level.

And the L67 ATI damper is there for intended high revs. L67 (2 belt drive) just because it was cheap.

I'm hoping to knock a couple more things off that list tomorrow in addition to fixing the i30. It doesn't like using belts at the moment.

[Ghost]

so uh, is my Ecotec next on your list?