The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Thanks. I still need to give you back the crank pinning tool. Stop down one of these days if you're interested.

I'll PM you my address.

I8UR4RD

iTrader: (16)

glad you painted that fast. made it look 1000x better. did you end up grabbing that kurt urban kit? i was curious to see where youd put it.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Not his kit, but I did tie together the vent lines. You can barely see it here because I used braided black lines connected to black fittings.

Here's a closeup of the passenger side...and before anyone says it, yes, I need to redo / get new valve covers.




That's where I am today. Headers are on, plugs, wires, coils are all on. Procharger is mounted up as well as all the drive pulleys and accecories. Tomorrow is the radiator/fan, and then the transmission.

98Camarod

iTrader: (43)

Looks good man, nice progress

stealth355tpi

Getting so close now. Good job on cleaning up the engine bay, looks way better then mine does.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Well, I know how Frankenstein must have felt.... she's alive. I still need to button up the charge pipes and the vacum lines, but she started right up and found idle and had ~40psi of oil pressure at idle. Now I just need to get it ready for it's maiden voyage. Not sure it'll happen today with family stuff to do, but definitely tomorrow.

RooRnZ28

iTrader: (14)

Almost there!!

a4ls2goat

Very nice.
What oil pump did you go with?

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

I went with the Melling high volume/pressure pump.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Can I pull a vacuum/boost reference off the front port of the intake manifold that typically goes to the pcv valve for the valley cover? That's all I have left to do is work out my vacuum line setup.

a4ls2goat

I'm sure you can since it is inside the intake mani. Already.

ZeeTwentyFate

iTrader: (19)

wish you were closer, i would have given you my LS1 block... lol glad to see everything worked out for you. those starter mounts break a LOT that i have seen, but it usually only pulls the outter ear off. good luck with teh tuning, i went BS3 and am about to unleash learning to tune it with a turbo car and i have NEVER touched a tune.

Tally TransAm

iTrader: (17)

if youre referring to the one right behind the tb on the pass then yes. i have my bov referenced there

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

DOH, now you tell me. Oh well. Hopefully this motor lasts me for a while.

Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about.

This whole process has been quite the learning experience for me. Yesterday I got the motor together, except for the charge pipe on the blower, so I wanted to just turn it over and let it come up to temp. Well, it started up, and I did the 3 count to see the oil pressure come up, and it didn't so I shut it down.
I see in front of the car a puddle of oil. Long story short, I forgot to put the oil galley plug back into the block, the one that's behind the alternator. So, needless to say, I pump the contents of my oil pan onto my alternator and then entire driver's side.

Pulled off the blower and alternator today and installed the plug, got everything back together and started her up and 50+ psi of oil pressure at ilde. The bypass valve wasn't working right due to vac lines not hooked up right so all I did was flip the car around after washing it.

I can't tell if I have an oil leak, or just remnants of the 6 quarts of oil I pumped out yesterday, time will tell.

Videos will certainly follow.

Thanks for everyone who's given advice and support, I appreciate it.

M2W-GTO

Can't freaking wait to hear this thing.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Off comes the blower.... lol

When I mounted it yesterday, I couldn't remember if I need the thin shim at the bottom mount, and my eyes played tricks on me so I put it in. Well, the belt is being pulled off by one rib. Luckily all I did was turn the car around in the driveway. But off comes the blower to remove the shim.

This is the fun of doing these projects, you get so close, but the little fine details make the difference between a car that runs so-so and one that is just a pure joy to drive.

1fast bird

iTrader: (22)

Congrats on getting it back together!

2000RATA

You are correct. The details are everything! Way to many guys half-*** their build because they don't have the patients or money. Usually the latter. Great looking build. I hope you enjoy more than 500 miles this time.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Well, got the car running right today. I was happy to see that the gas tank was damn near empty since the gas has sat for 6 months or more. So the first thing I did was go and get gas. I kept the rpm moving but never really blasted it hard, just 2/3 throttle up to 4500-5000 multiple times to get the rings seated. No check engine lights, no problems, no knock, so that's good. It felt damn good to drive it again after 6 months off. I will admit, there were times I didn't think this project would get completed.

Now for the items to be addressed....

One, for some stupid reason I didn't change the timing cover seal, and of course, it's leaking, so off it comes tomorrow and gets replaced. Which leads me to another observation. I was only getting 85% throttle, which turns out that when I relocated the traction control module, the lines changed and I wasn't opening the t-body all the way. Another observation is my coolant temp was 210-219 degrees, which considering I wasn't getting into boost at all, didn't seem right. But I did drain the complete system, but forgot to open the heater, so chances are I have an air pocket in the system. The other thought is this is a new water pump/thermostat combo, so I could swap out the thermostat just to make sure it's not the issue.

Other than that, the car ran great....lol. Again, it's the little things.

a4ls2goat

the major part was done! dont sweat it