bczee

iTrader: (12)

Awsome !... great first drive vid !... SIX years !.. I can't believe that I have been following you and they other guys for that long.. hmmm. yeah.. I think we started around the same time and it took me about 3 year and its been like 3 years that Mine has been on the road.. Big Congrat's... I know how you feel to turn that key and take it for that 1st drive.. !!! .. and your family just make it that much more great !

BC

Jimbo1367

Wow, another great video. Cute family. But you need to get the baby in there too. LOL. A VA A/C. Would look great in there. Just saying, lol

LongIsland63SS409

iTrader: (22)

Awesome Clint!
Glad to see you got it done and enjoying it with the family!


Mike

Jimbo1367

I just rewatched this, and I must say its great to see your son so excited. I bet he'll always remember that day fondly!!!

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Thank you all! I am grateful for the encouragement and the help you've all given me along the way. It feels great to have it running, but my son's reaction to the car was an awesome surprise! He was genuinely more excited than I could ever be. There is still a lot of work to do and the car will never be done, but I'm excited to move onto actually driving the car and doing weekend upgrades instead of having it down for years at a time.

I have a short list of things to do before I head to the tuner:
- Wire the tach, including pull-up resistor
- Install/wire gauges and MIL
- Wire brake signal (needed for caselearn?)
- Install front shocks
- Install swaybar end links
- Rough alignment

69 Ghost

If you need A/C help you can PM me. As a start before you go much further I would look into getting a 77-79 Nova evaporator which will allow you to go to an orifice tube setup. The rest you can use a newer 96-04 S10 setup depending on which compressor you want to run. From what I remember you are running a fixed compressor but either a fixed or variable will work. Wiring is different but S10's used both and the parts are cheap. Mine has been up and running for the past year and worked flawlessly when we had that heat wave a few months back. Now it's time to sell the VA gen II.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for chiming in. I plan to use the original POA system rather than convert to orifice, but I probably will leave the AC alone for at least a few months while I knock out higher priority projects. When I do get to that , I plan to adjust the POA for R134a.

I'm scheduled to see the tuner on Tuesday, so I have been knocking out small items on my list like sway bar end links, interior trim, last bits of wiring, hoses, etc. I haven't taken too many photos, except when my son helped me install the front shocks. We put some new short u-nuts into the control arms that were previously missing. The new shocks (not shown) are Hotchkiss-valved Bilsteins. On this project he learned how to use a mechanical torque wrench.





I've kept an eye out for used helmets on craigslist and finally found an XL to fit my big head for autocross. As a bonus it has a highly reflective shield.



I also picked up a cover for my Hurst quarter stick. The cover kit includes a completely redesigned reverse lockout lever, so you have to take most of the shifter apart to get it on. It was a PITA to install but I'm happy with the results.



I also mounted a pair of 2-1/16 Speedhut CAN-bus gauges under the dash. I wired them up last night, but haven't had a chance to see them operate. These gauges pull the coolant temp and oil pressure signals from the ECM, and they include very bright LED warning lights. I also put a small red LED in the panel to serve as a MIL lamp. I need to redo and tuck the stereo wiring which is all over the place.



I am trying to keep my interior "classic hotrodder", so no plans for any fancy custom instrument panel in this car. I am thinking about getting Procar Rally seats in a houndstooth pattern, which should end up looking something like this:



I'm excited and terrified about going to the tuner. The drive is about 30 minutes and includes a few miles up a 7% grade. The car hasn't had a lot of road time yet so I hope to stretch the legs on it some this weekend while I'm inside of the AAA towing limit. There is an autocross going on at the local airport on Saturday so that might be a good excuse for a drive, just to spectate.

One issue I've had is the drain plug on the Autokraft oil pan is not sealing and it has a slow drip. It uses a flange bolt and a white plastic washer - I think on the first oil change I will try swapping to a copper sealing washer.

Jimbo1367

I'm surprised Autokraft would use plastic washer. At least it appears to be a easy fix.

Doug G

Great video....that boy is hooked for life now

hookemdevils22

iTrader: (12)

I assume the brake signal is required due to TCC on modern transmissions. Friendly reminder: PCM needs to see 12v with brakes not applied, and an open with brake applied. I used a late-model GM switch for a car with cruise when I installed the 4L80e - it features two separate connections for this exact purpose.

And I had Procar seats for about a week but got rid of them because they sit silly high, even with custom brackets. You should try to find a car with the Procars installed to see how you like them. And since you autocross, you might think about something better suited for corners (cough Corbeaus cough).

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

Over the weekend I took a few shakedown trips around town in the Nova. For the most part they went well. The car didn't leave me stranded and things generally seem to be working.



My son helped me put the front bumper back on and test turn signals/running lights. Afterwards he begged me to go for a drive, so I strapped a carseat down and we headed out. So far there's been no bigger joy from this car than sharing it with my son.







With the car up to higher speeds, I discovered the transmission (TH400) was acting up. After up shifting to 3rd, it started cycling back and forth between 2nd and 3rd at light throttle. If I gave it a little more throttle it seemed to stay in 3rd, but in light throttle it was acting up. I tried playing with the vacuum modulator adjustment and replaced the vacuum line with some even thicker fuel line just to make sure it wasn't collapsing, but observed no change in behavior. The kickdown switch is completely disconnected. I checked the shifter cable adjustment and it was spot on. I talked to the tuner and we decided if we couldn't get it to hold 3rd, we could do the tune in 2nd. Theoretically it should not affect the tune, but would show lower numbers due to 2nd gear being a bit less efficient.

So yesterday I drove the car 20 miles to New Era Performance in Agoura Hills to get the engine tuned. Along the way I stopped for gas - figured I might be burning through a few gallons on the rollers.



With fewer then 50 miles on the new engine, the car went onto the dyno at 11:30am.







With the car strapped down, we found the transmission would also downshift 3rd to 2nd under hard throttle. It would not hold 3rd unless it was at part load/part throttle - at light throttle it would cycle back and forth 2-3-2-3-2-3 and at hard throttle it would just downshift and stay in 2nd. We checked to make sure the kickdown was still disconnected (it was), we disconnected the vacuum modulator, and we tried starting at different rpms to see if it would hold 3rd, but no luck. So we had to use 2nd gear for WOT tuning.

After a few hours of adjusting things on the dyno, the tuner was happy with where it was running and took the car out for a drive to log and make further refinements. Then he had me drive while he continued. I found the car had a bit of a stumble on hard throttle transition. He confirmed the car was going lean and was able to tune out the stumble by adjusting the power enrichment tables. At this point the car was running pretty good so we called it a day. I left a few dollars poorer and a few ponies richer. I even got a piece of paper with some graphs and numbers on it.





So in 2nd gear, the car put down a peak 408rwhp @ 6,000rpm and 393ft-lb @5,200. Based on experience, the tuner estimates it would pick up around 10-15hp in 3rd gear and he offered to make another run once I get the transmission sorted out. If I believe it would pick up 10-15 horsepower in 3rd, that would be around 420rwhp peak which is right about what I expected looking at similar builds.

Mostly I am happy nothing exploded on the car and it got me home again without any major problems. Now I just need to figure out what changed on the transmission that would cause this goofy shifting situation.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

I came across conflicting info on whether the E38 needs 12v with brake applied or not applied. Based on this thread, I think it needs 12v brake applied and ground brake not applied. So I wired it to the taillight side of the brake switch. https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...ch-wiring.html

The main reason for hooking this up was to hopefully get a caselearn done, but unfortunately with the VSS reading 158mph we were not able to do the caselearn or clear the code. We checked all the settings we could find in HPT and could not get the E38 to read the VSS - it is probably still expecting the VSS to come across the CAN-bus from the nonexistent TCM. We'll see if this causes problems with driveability. For now I still have a CEL.

I feel ya. I am 6' tall and the seat height is very important for me. Which Procars did you try out? I am looking at the Rallys and expecting to do custom brackets and modify the sliders to get them to the floor, but I really need to find someone with these installed so I can sit in them. The Rally seats have some side bolstering which should help for autocross. My main draw for the Rallys is they look period correct while most other aftermarket seats do not. I know this must sound crazy from a guy that put an LSx in his car, but I really want the car to look and feel like a vintage muscle car.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

My dad is visiting from Texas this week, so my son and I took him for a spin. Here's a little video of our shenanigans. My son (6yrs old) says we were "twisting noodles" in the Nova.

Jimbo1367

LOL> Motor break-in was complete? Looks like fun. What was the redline ?

frojoe

iTrader: (10)

Nice progress! Man that's got to feel good after all these years, eh?

I think I'll have to make and upload a video of twisty noodles before I take the car off the road for the spring/summer to rebuild the engine amongst a list of other things.

-TheBandit-

iTrader: (1)

This is part of the break in procedure - vary the rpms and slosh the oil around! It was certainly no worse than putting it on the dyno. I have no idea on where redline should be.

Jimbo1367

LOL> I knew you were going to say something like that. LOL. You left out " no WOTs"

Jimbo1367

I was wondering why you were dynoing it so soon. Glad to see your venture into engine building was successful.

ls1nova71

iTrader: (4)

Nice!!!!!! Looks like its running pretty good!

Jimbo1367

Clint,
You kept the stock solid intake valves didn't you? If so, do you recall what the seat and open spring pressures were from TSP?

Thanks,
Jim