[TheSilverBuick]

A 250 1bb harmonic balancer was used. The balancer weight was turned down on a lath so there is an inner lip for the very tightly fitting iron ring to slide onto. Then of course a set of bolts to truely secure it. The overall setup supposibly matches the weight of the 250 Sprint balancer.

[wayne228]

I was wondering if you are using the 'H' grind camshaft or a custom one ? If you are using the 'H' where did you source it ?

[TheSilverBuick]

I am using a custom one ground from an E cam, but there are a few H-cam reproductions on E-bay right now (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pontiac-OHC...oAAOSwwbdWJtpw) and a few semi-blanks (I have one).

I need to find or buy new bolts for the balancer and get it to the machine shop so they can do the final balancing. Hopefully it's zero balanced or I can ask for it to be.

Got the 4L60e I'm going to have professionally built put into a GM transmission crate I'm borrowing from a local guy that is on one of the inline engine forums I'm on. Hopefully will be shipping it out this week.






In the mean time, after I get the Firebird up and running again, I need to install this older 4L60e that I put a mild shift kit in but is really in unknown condition otherwise. I can "practice" my transmission tuning and setup on this one to make sure I have everything setup right before the good transmission gets back.

[TheSilverBuick]

I realized I hadn't posted some of the exhaust pictures from February. I've made a few small changes since these pictures that pull the exhaust a bit more away from the firewall, but gives an idea how the exhaust is plumbed from the engine bay. The big question is do I put a reducer on the down pipe to 3" or 3.5", or leave it at 4" all the way to the rear axle then reduce to 3" to go out the tail pipe. No muffler.

I took about an inch off the exhaust at the turbo flange end. Cut it at the back side of the welded seem and re-tacked it to the flange.




I need to re-make the transcooler lines.


Again, it's about an inch further forward now.

[wayne228]

to match the OE 4bbl balancer that is near impossible to find (can't even find a picture of one on Google!).

.

I took 2 shots of my engine balancer for you
(had to attach it as I'm still not skilled enough to insert it here.)

[TheSilverBuick]

Thanks Wayne! Mine appears to be the same diameter. I put some 1/4-20 allen headed bolts in it and dropped it off at the machine shop so they can complete balancing.

The diameter I hope doesn't cause me any grief with the crank trigger. My crank trigger is like 8" across, and I went looking for a 9" or 10" one and didn't come up with much luck. My current plan is the shim the trigger wheel out about a 1/4" from the hub and hope the sensor can pick it up without interference from the iron ring.

I think it will be okay, as my Skylark's trigger wheel is smaller than the pulley it's behind, but not by much and certainly is not right next to the sensor. And it's been that way since 2011.

[TheSilverBuick]

Monthly update. I'm still waiting for the short block to be done. Its about 2 weeks overdue. I may see it this week though. The transmission has been rebuilt and will be shipped back to me this week.

It's been hanging around 100ºF, and I miss my high elevation and shop, but making due. I replaced the body bushings and installed sub-frame connectors.




I may mig them to the frame later.


I've since put a protective wrap on the power wires.


Then I moved over to the shed to start work on the turbo headers.


Step one complete, the tubes clear the intake manifold.


Step two, welded the tubes fully to the flanges.





I got the water pump wired in and setup to adjust its speed with the megasquirt. However the frequency of the megasquirt is limited to 250 Hz, and the pump likely wants around 1500Hz. I have an adapter board to wire in that should get me the frequency I want, but I have not yet wired it in.

Hopefully I'll get the engine back this week or next so I can assemble it. This week I'm also hoping to pull the car into the garage and install my first 4L60e transmission to test my transmission controller before installing the professionally built transmission. In the mean time, I'll keep working on the header.

[TheSilverBuick]

Oh, I can finally access the thread!

Been getting work done little by little.

I got the 2004-r removed and the professionally rebuilt 4L60e transmission showed up yesterday and is ready to go in. The Summit discount shelf torque converter I bought for it said it was a 2,500 stall, but the stamping on the converter say its a 3,200 stall! I'll take every bit I can get. It is still a lock up converter so if its a bit loose I can lock it up as early as 2nd gear.


A welder I ain't, but a little paint and thermal wrap will make that go away! Finished the rear collector and did basic mock up of the front collector. I need to cut the holes and then really weld it back together.

[TheSilverBuick]

Mostly finished the header the other night. I had to go work out of town for the weekend, so I dragged my welder and stuff with me to work on after hours. I am going to cut the collectors down for 90º bends when I have it mocked back up on the engine. I'm going to paint, then wrap it. That ought to hide my welds!

[TheSilverBuick]

Finally got the transmission in and driving. Had some electrical issues when my ground wire pulled out of a connector unbeknownst to me, but got that sorted. I didn't initially believe the line pressure being read by the sensor because it was so high, excess of 250psi, but put a mechanical gauge on it and it confirmed.

The way it works is the Microsquirt transmission computer commands the pressure relief valve to open or close a certain amount, but does not directly command a pressure. So a sensor is needed to see how much pressure it's making at a given opening. Fortunately there is plenty of control on it and I am easily able to bring it down to 90psi in neutral, 150psi under normal driving conditions and 200psi at WOT. This is good for the transmission, transmission pump and for the engine thrust bearing surface.

I have not foot braked the converter, but locking it in high gear and hitting the throttle puts the rpm right at 2,700rpm while the car continues to accelerate. It really does not start moving the car until about 1,500rpm, which is a new experience to me. Fortunately it's a lockup style converter so shouldn't have any issues slipping in the long run. I can lock it up in 2nd gear at low loads. I have a terrible video of going for a test drive at 10:00pm, but photobucket is taking its sweet time loading it up.

I'm using a ~2005 4L60e and its longer than the 200-4r I removed by about 3". This is the second time I've cut the driveshaft and welded it back together, lol. However this time, the shortened driveshaft just has to get me by until I put a 9" rear axle in then the new driveshaft on the left will go in.


Using LS transmissions on old engines is tricky. I read in a few places that I needed a .400" thick spacer, but when I put it together the torque converter was bottomed in the transmission and buried in the crankshaft. I determined I needed a ~.625" (5/8") spacer to pull the torque converter off the transmission by about 1/8". Fortunately Summit sells BOP adapter plates that are 5/16" thick, so I bought two and had one water jetted to clear the flywheel.Then every thing lined up.


I used the same dipstick and tube as I had on the 200-4r, but moved the mounting tab down to account for the different location of the dipstick hole, as well as marked the dipstick for the proper "full" level.


Bought the longest dowels I could too. The deep skirt nature of the OHC L6 puts the starter in a lower position than most GM engines, so I had to trim the bellhousing to clear the starter nose cone.




Started back on the exhaust plumbing. Short of going all the way back past the transmission then front again the cross over pipes were going to hang low. So I went under the oil pan for the time being. I bought a few sets of flanges so I can unbolt the cross over, but summit was one flange short for how many I needed so I am waiting for the last flange to come in to finish up the pipes and welding. Then I'll have to plumb in the wastegate. Going to put it on the passenger side and will likely dump right into the down pipe.

[rohrt]

Nice work.

[azmusclecar]

There is a very old TV advertisement for the US ARMY that said:

We do more by 6 AM than most people do all day.........

I believe this applies here in a sort of complimentary way of saying WOW!!

We understand your need to stop and update us with pics and notes but we do expect progress...........so back to the shed for you son..................

[TheSilverBuick]

I felt like I was on fire after work today. In 2.5 hours I had the rear axles out of both my Skylark and Firebird! I was hoping to at least get the rear end out of the Skylark after work so the Firebird was bonus.

Pulling out the 8.5" with 3.42 gears for the 9" with 3.89 gear. I need to move the wheel studs from the 5" to 4.75" holes and swap the brakes. Hope to finish tomorrow.

[TheSilverBuick]

Finished the rear axle swap. Ended up being a bigger pain than I anticipated because I forgot that the axles had to be pulled to change the brake backing plate. Then the backing plate of the drum brakes had a smaller diameter hole than the disc brake with the 9". I tried purchasing new backing plates but the plates I bought ended up having a smaller hole than the description online stated. So I ended up getting a hole saw out and opening it up. I would have just stuck with the disc brakes except they are on a 5x5" bolt spacing and my Firebird rims wouldn't fit. Then scope creep happened, I put new leaf springs and bushings in too.

Then I started on the exhaust. Finished tack welding the turbo header pipes together and did about half of the finishing welding before the wind picked up. So I switched gears to the main exhaust. 4" from the turbo to the rear axle then 3" over the rear.

3" over axle pipe fit as advertised. I aspire to some day have fireballs popping out of this on the 2-step.





The 4" pipe fit surprisingly well. It does not even hang as low as the 2.5" system I have on the car. I did end up flattening a 12" stretch by about 3/4" to clear the floor board of the rear seat. I need to add two exhaust hangers for the long stretch of pipe. I have a piece of wood holding up the front of the exhaust system because I do not have the v-band flanges welded on yet. If you look close I installed a driveshaft loop as well.






From the other side. Cannot even see it past the 2.5" exhaust.


I am going to need to re-route a handful of wires and fluid lines to clear the exhaust pipes, but nothing too bad, mostly needs good underhood housekeeping. The exhaust cross under is definitely going to be the low point of the car, and I'm sure I'll need to re-visit it sooner rather than later.


Next up is finish welding the whole system up, checking the best I can for air leaks and addressing accordingly, run a large pipe cleaner or such through the system to knock all the crap out of the tubes.

Due to time constraints, and going to the drag strip, I'm not going to put my good short block and head in it until after Drag Week. I do not even have the short block back yet. I have another 250 in the shed I'm going to open up and take a look at the rings and bearings and it may end up being my turbo test mule. If I put that short block in, I may put new NOS valves in my current cylinder head and clean up the ports a bit more than I have to match the intake and header port sizes. I wouldn't worry too much about the exhaust port being smaller than the header, but would want to gasket match the intake port with the intake runners.

[azmusclecar]

Does that little tyke of yours ever get a rest? You sure have him busy fabing all these mods..............can I borrow him for a few jobs I'm to old to do anymore?

And here I thought it was you doing all this work...........

[TheSilverBuick]

HA! Yeah he speeds things up a bunch

[azmusclecar]

Is he UNION, or working under the table..............great pic...........
I took a photo of my grandson under the wife's Honda Accord as
"WE" were changing oil and sent it to his mother.

I was sent to MY room and he was sent to HIS room and I was
told by my STEPdaughter that she did NOT want him growing up
to be like me.

I'm glad she sugar coated the vitrol hatred she has for me...........

Life's good............it's the others that just don't see it!!

[TheSilverBuick]

Been busy. Finished welding up the exhaust! Welded all the pipes! The challenge was finding a place that I could put the wastegate that would pull from both tubes. Planning on painting and heat wrapping it all today.

The exhaust pipe coming out of the wastegate isn't welded on, I'll make a final one in a day or two. After Drag Week I'll probably work on plumbing it into the 4" exhaust. I tried to preserve the twin scroll exhaust plumbing as best I could, including running a divider plate to the wastegate valve face. its not a tight seal, but better than nothing. There seemed to be some flex in my turbo mount once I added more downpipe to it, so I welded two pieces of angle iron to the support to be very sure it won't break on me.






Took an intake tube to a weld shop to install the BOV flange and intake air temperature sensor bung.


I had ordered a custom trailer hitch from U-haul on August 2nd with the hope it'd show up with enough time to install it. Their website says it can take 20-45 days... Called U-haul last Monday for a status update and the guy said it was scheduled to ship September 14, which is too late for Drag Week. I told him I was hoping to have it by the end of the month, he said he'd see what he could do. Then last night (Wednesday) it showed up! I mocked it up this morning and looks like it's going to be a perfect fit. it mounts to the license plate bracket, so will sit more flush once I really install it. So relieved, while at the same time now I have to get the trailer ready too! (You can see in the background where I added an exhaust hanger on the 4" stretch of exhaust pipe to take weight off the turbo mount)

[TheSilverBuick]

As the deadline for Drag Week marches ever closer getting more things checked off the list.

Bolted up the trailer hitch. Only took about 20 minutes and went smoothly. Now I need to re-pack the trailer wheel bearings and do the trailer wiring.


Hiding my questionable welds, I've painted the engine bay exhaust parts in flat black and have started to put thermal wrapping on them. I didn't have long enough ties for both pipes so zip ties are standing in until I pick some up today.


Then because my good engine will not be out of the machine shop in time I looked around at my stash of engines and had two options. One is a 230 short block that still shows cross hatching on the cylinder walls and the other an un-opened 250. A 250 head on the 230 short block would put the compression in the 7's, so I pulled the oil pan off the 250 for a peek.


Looked clean enough. If the chevy rebuild orange wasn't obvious enough it had markings on the rods to indicate a rebuild at some point.




But things went downhill from there. Pulled the head and the pistons all had a bunch of trash on them. So I vacuumed it out, sprayed a bit of WD40 around the cylinder walls and gave the crank a turn, and it turned easily, and other than looking well used the cylinder walls looked surprisingly decent. So flipped it back over to check bearing clearances.




I pulled all the mains and they all showed copper, with the #1 main being a little rough, but figured I may be able to polish it up for a short term engine. Plasti-gaged them and the clearances were pretty consistent 0.004", which is out of spec but all the bearings were worn too. Then I moved on to the rods, and thats when I found #1 was completely trashed. Rocked loosely on the journal. The journal was just scar'd enough that even I wouldn't try to polish it at home and run it. The good news is it looks like all the bearings were standard size so the crank is salvagable for future use. Also the bearings are all dated 11-77, so its been a long time since it was rebuilt. I checked the clearance on two of the other rods and they too show copper and came in at 0.004".
https://www.facebook.com/randal.burn...31384087063048




So my plan is now to use the engine that is already in the Firebird. I am a bit concerned about the oil pressure so I'm going to double check it with another gauge on it to verify the reading and probably run a very thick VR1 oil. Good news is it just free'd up time to work on the trailer. Plan on doing the battery disconnect switch, yanking the intake/exhaust manifolds off the car and finish wrapping the exhaust today.

[azmusclecar]

I always enjoy a good pictorial and tutorial and editorial with my cuppa joe in the morning..
wow couldn't believe the trash on those pistons..............

you work your magic and I believe your helper deserves a bit of credit and a raise........rumor has it he may go union on you...........and then where will your help be??????????????????????

If I'm not careful I may just learn a thing or two from your threads.............

but this is FREE information I'm gleaning so don't try to make me pay.......
;
okay back to work..................for you ...................