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well texas has a lot of clean old iron waiting to see road again. my buick skylark came from slidell/sanger area if remember rite. been awhile I got it september 08.
Quick update.
I have the weld Pro Stars, MT tires, radiator with fans, Race mufflers and some misc stuff coming this week.
Oh, and which wire is ODB2 at the plug under the dash? My wiring diagrams in the Haynes manual suck bad. I need a shop manual.
Got the dash buttoned back up after wiring up the new gauges and the ECM. I need to solve one issue though. I turn on the running lights and everything works fine. Turn on the headlights and the dash lights go out, the turn signal indicators on the dash come on and the 5 wire (relay)? under the dash starts buzzing like a bad connection. I am going to look tonight to see if there is a ground up front that didn't get hooked back up. I hope that's all it is. Did I ever mention I hate wiring? LOL
Rear end and driveshaft are installed. Need to get a couple fittings for the brake lines.
Only thing left is the radiator up front and a little wiring cleanup and then I can put the hood back on.
So the plan is that this weekend, I will be able to drive it if I can get it to the exhaust shop to get the true duals completed. I am getting slightly excited.
We don't have to worry about that in my county. They don't smog test. Also found the bad ground on the driver side headlight. Had to run a new ground and the issue is fixed.
Installed the hydraulic parking brake and got the bed back on it. Looks like I get to buy some drop spindles and new lowering springs for the front. Will be installing the fuel cell by this weekend. Radiator with fans come in tomorrow. Should have everything done (less front suspension) and ready to drive this Saturday. Fingers crossed, I'll get the front done in the next week or 2.
Thanks. Going to cut the front springs this weekend. Just a quick fix until I get the new springs and drop spindles. Plan to add 1" blocks to the rear to get a touch more drop and shouldn't have to notch the frame.
Got the radiator today. Looks good but have to cut a bunch of metal to get it to fit. Opened the 2nd box that should have been the fans and shroud, it was another radiator. LOL So I am now waiting again for the parts to finish.
always a surprise. i ordered asmooth pulley for belt tensioner ad its wrong. he said they sent what i orered box was rite. part wrong. if i pay shippin now both way they exchange i a $17 part screw it get one somewere else. this is to work with the pas side head a holley bracket.
Yea, they should take care of that for you no charge.
Well I cut one coil off the front springs and it sits nice now. About 2" drop in the front. Looks good for now, may go lower later.
Drove it night before last up and down the street real quick. Open headers so only got a couple of blasts. Runs great engine wise. Trany acts like it has a stall converter and I am sure it doesn't. So I am going to change the trany filter and fluid to see if that helps. Just slips like a stall but get the rpm up and it runs and shifts great.
Only issue it had other than the trany was wiring I think. Not sure what it is. The ABS and Brake light stays on and the warning tone stays on. Even with just the key in and in the off position with doors closed and no lights on, the warning sound stays on for some reason. So I need to check this out, but I may not figure it out. Again, I am not a wiring person. Anyone want to come by and help? Seriously.
Went to load it on the trailer yesterday to take it for the exhaust and wouldn't start. Fuel pump wouldn't run. Found a bad fuse, swapped it and no go. Put straight power to the pump and nope. Still wont spin. Its an Aeromotive A1000 that I bought here from a member. Worked fine until yesterday. Ordered an A750 last night since its smaller and wont cause me as much of a fuel heating issue on a stock engine and 12 gallon fuel cell,
Installed the hydraulic parking brake and got the bed back on it. Looks like I get to buy some drop spindles and new lowering springs for the front. Will be installing the fuel cell by this weekend. Radiator with fans come in tomorrow. Should have everything done (less front suspension) and ready to drive this Saturday. Fingers crossed, I'll get the front done in the next week or 2.
Hey Taxman, could you elaborate a little on the hydraulic parking brake? Does it just pressurize the front or rear brake calipers by hand lever? Does it hold or is it for momentary use? I currently don't have a working parking brake and would like to work it into the existing hydraulic system if possible.
Yea, I found this at my local performance shop. Its just a small black block of aluminum with an inlet on one side and an outlet on the other side. You cut your rear brake line and flare it and hook it up to this block. Press the brake pedal to build up the pressure and push down on the ball valve and release the brake. It locks the pressure inside the line between the block and rear axle. Push the brake pedal to hit the inlet side with pressure and it releases. It cost about 30.00 so pretty cheap. I hope it passes inspection with it. The store said it should and does all the time.
sorry, one more new guy question. I have a Vortec 6.0 in a Scout. Its sat a while and the external fuel pump has varnished up. I have searched for a replacement and ran into a PSI decision. Read that the Vortec, and LS motors run 58 PSI at the fuel rail. And also saw people running 45 PSI pumps and doing just fine. Is a 60 PSI recommended??
No problem, ask away. I did. LOL And I am still learning these engines. The pump in the picture is an Aeromotive A1000 inline. It went bad this week. I knew it wouldn't last long but figured it would last longer than it did. The problem with that pump was its too much pump for a stock engine. It put out 90psi at 600 lbs per hour of fuel. Its made for high HP engines up to about 1200 or so. So too much and most of the fuel gets returned to the tank or cell in my case. So after about 15-20 minutes of driving the fuel could reach temps of 120-140 degrees which then causes running issues due to the temp. Its being recirculated to much and builds heat. Now the pump itself has an issue of being choked down too much and it doesn't like that so it burns up internally, which it did.
So I called Aeromotive and they could rebuild this for 200.00. Then I would need to buy a 350.00 controller to ramp down the pump for my needs. But they said the best pump for my engine is an A750. 60psi and 450 lbs per hour. Good from 150 to 800hp engines. So it wont burn up or heat the fuel too much trying to supply more than the engine needs. And it doesn't need the controller. So I bought one that will be here tomorrow. I'll post pictures once its mounted. Will go in the place of the A1000 so it will be easy.
As for pressures. I was told by guys on here that they need a 60psi supply. With the big A1000 pump it would prime right to 60 psi and with engine running it would be 40-45 psi at idle or light revving. You need to supply more pressure than the engine needs so that the engine has extra pressure or flow when needed, like full throttle. If you are only supplying 45psi and already at maximum flow for the pump, you will starve the engine if it needs more at any certain time. So the pump needs to supply extra and that extra gets returned to the fuel tank since its not needed trough the regulator and return line. All vehicles are designed this way. I would get a 60psi pump.
Yea, I found this at my local performance shop. Its just a small black block of aluminum with an inlet on one side and an outlet on the other side. You cut your rear brake line and flare it and hook it up to this block. Press the brake pedal to build up the pressure and push down on the ball valve and release the brake. It locks the pressure inside the line between the block and rear axle. Push the brake pedal to hit the inlet side with pressure and it releases. It cost about 30.00 so pretty cheap. I hope it passes inspection with it. The store said it should and does all the time.
Brilliant! I went to eBay and found Summit sells a brake isolation quarter turn valve. My eBrake stuff is all gone anyway and Mississippi doesn't care if you die a fiery death in a poorly designed vehicle, so I'm going to put this in the cab somewhere with a bleed point! Thanks for the inspiration!
Yea, I am worried about it passing here in Tx. We need an emergency brake, and this isn't that. LOL its a good parking brake but if the hydraulics fail, I'm done. Run it into the ditch, shut it off and toss the trany in park. Which will most likely brake the trany and most likely not stop it, but I might get lucky. I can drive it with no power steering.
Installed the new fuel pump and it works great right now, time will tell. It primes to 60psi and runs at 50psi. The A1000 pump may have had an issue as it would fluctuate between 40-45 psi. This A750 holds pretty solid.
Loaded it on the trailer and took it for an exhaust install yesterday. I'll pick it up Monday am since I will be out of town this weekend. I would have built the exhaust myself but the driver side took some precise bends to get from the header flange to the straight run next to the transmission. Also found out while it was in the air for a transmission filter and fluid change, that I have no rear braking. Everything bled out fine but it now has a very soft pedal. So I will have to bleed it all again to see if it helps. Im hoping it isn't an ABS issue.
Removed the ABS system completely. Had issues with the Prop valve and didn't want to spend 300.00 for a new one. Its now all done except for the rear brake lights not working. No clue why they don't work right now. Problem is I don't have a good schematic for the wiring and I am spending a ton of time wire chasing which I hate. I am going to install the rear bumper and take it to a shop that does LS swaps and have them look at it. Im getting too old to lay upside down under a small dash and try to locate wires. Plus my eyes have gotten worse with age and all the wires are blurry since I am so close to them. Getting old really does suck.
And the last item will be finding a performance friendly inspector here in Hays county. Only thing missing is cats, but they don't sniff here since we are not an emission county.
The brake light switch is up near the top of the brake pedal. Mine just started working funny. You'll probably have to take the lower dash piece of under the column to get at it.
03-29-2015, 06:47 PM
