No idea how I missed that you got it running but congrats! The car sounds great. Good luck moving forward.

SO glad you posted that! Sucks you put so much energy into it. I'll scratch that off my list and stick with good old fashioned keys.

:thankyou:

Congrats on getting the car running to! That's huge man!!

Sorry to hear that. All the extra work for just more head aches. I hope it goes back together easy for you.

Thanks! I still have some work ahead of me before it's just "drivable". a few leaks to fix, speedo calibration, hood install, etc. and the computer could definitely use a better tune. it likes to idle high and the check engine light comes on for a missing clutch input signal...

Well, I haven't given up completely. I'll look a bit more thoroughly to see success stories from some name brand versions and go from there. I'd really like to get a push button start for this. Too spoiled from the convenience form my wife's car, ha ha. Not to mention the RFID should be a bit more secure than the 1960's era lock cylinder.


Thanks. Yeah, I got it back together tonight after working on it these past two nights after work. I'll try to replace the water pump tomorrow night so that should eliminate one leak at least. I will be driving it to work again this Friday as we're hosting a little car show at work as part of a retirement party for a coworker of mine.

debugging
 

Still working on getting the car sorted out. I've replaced the mufflers with larger ones and doubled up on them with a set of classic chambered exhaust. Of course, they were too big to just fit so I had to modify them in a couple of areas. It's still loud but it is quieter than before. Also tightened up a few bolts to fix a few leaks. Just about every fluid in this car is leaking somewhere. Grrr. While doing this I discovered that the heat of my headers is melting my engine mount. I'll add some insulation and keep an eye on this. Also some gunk has accumulated in the radiator already so I'll be doing a flush on that before replacing the leaky water pump. Onward and upward...

let some heat out
 

After building a wood foundation and a plastic shed kit (honeydo's) for our back yard I spent a little time on the bird's hood to cut holes for the hood vents. I quickly sprayed some Eastwood rust encapsulator on it, and the fender tops and spoiler, too. It's by no means pretty, but it'll do for now.

Where did you get the hood vents from? Looks like Mustang vents.

I've been wanting to do the same with my 400 hood.

good ol' ebay...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/17-x5-UNIVER...6cc5a7&vxp=mtr

They look nice.

Thanks, Wayne! This should help with airflow in the engine bay and a place for heat to escape. They appear to be made of Poly propylene, so I may need to also mechanically fasten them as well. My plan was to glue them down with that 3M panel bonding epoxy, but I also know that PP (the material) is not easy to glue. For now those big holes in my hood should help make alignment easier as I can actually reach in and adjust the fasteners, ha ha

That would be a trick for sure!

Now that the car is running and driving my time is spent either driving, or fixing things that are buggy. I've still been dealing with leaks on this. trans fluid leaks, engine oil leaks. I think the trans is leaking from the input shaft seal- likely because my Lakewood housing isn't centered enough. I've been reading about this and everything will have to come back out so I'm dreading this one as it involves holes in the sheet metal to access bolts. time to make a removable cover. The other has been engine oil. Turns out the shop that built my engine sold me some defective parts- the valve covers were warped! They're going to get an earful from me on this, as they upsold me on the covers in the first place, then they leaked from day one, charged me for a new gasket- which popped out and spewed oil all over. When I was fixing this is when I discovered that it was warped. bowed like a canoe. It's no wonder the gasket popped out, the cover was so warped it went off past the cylinder head. Furthermore it was hitting the rocker arms. clack clack clack and the cover would shake. not good. So ground down the inside to make more room, bent the cover back in a press and had help decking it so it would be flat again. still leaked. bad. so much oil was dribbling out there was smoke coming out from the hood vents I recently made. So I ordered new billet covers (avoiding these welded ones altogether). I had to modify the oil cap to work with my catch can assy, which I promptly ruined when trying to braze it together. Lesson learned: don't overheat aluminum. $62 later a second oil cap (yes, the cap was $50 plus tax and shipping. grrr) and some careful brazing and I think I have it fixed. At least this one. I'm still getting dribbles somewhere but I can't seem to find where they're coming from. It's dry around the valve cover yet it's still wet around the exhaust header flange/ bolts. Either it's still leaking or it's residue from before that hasn't burnt off.

Also having issues with my parking brakes. The drums are wearing against the axles. Other than the wheel cylinder there isn't anything inside to hold them in place. A stock oem assembly would have a bracket at the top, but, since this is using a universal backing plate a cover plate is there instead- and with the pressed on Torino bearings it's impossible to install one of the oem clips, so I added some springs to help hold them in place. Seems to be doing the trick.

I also hogged out my ram air vents to help with airflow in the engine bay. I'm having overheating issues with my driver side header melting everything around it. I'll probably have to throw on another (closed) set if/ when I make it to a track day so I'm not adding too much air pressure in the engine bay/ lift in front, but I would think this should be Ok for street driving. If anyone has any experience on this I'd like to hear about it.

It's so frustrating we all have to work through so many parts quality issues. You're making it happen though. :drive: Looks good buddy. I like the hood vents.

Sorry to hear about the problems with the valve covers, but glad you got it figured out. I hope the seal swap goes easy on you.

Brendon I just read your build front to back...wow what a trip! Great work on the bird...really impressed with what you've done...very cool

Dave

Thanks, guys!

This weekend I was planning on having the car dyno tuned, but apparently they want more time with the car so I'll take it back and drop it off later this week. I will ask that they take videos since I won't get to be there to watch.

One thing of interest the folks there (engine shop) told me that I have the wrong style of muffler on my car. Currently I have a set of flowmasters on there and they said that this is contributing to my excessive heat under the hood- that I need a flow through muffler design. They said this is restricting the heat from escaping which could help to explain why I have so much ehat build up in my engine bay. It's an interesting theory, so I may try a set of those Dynomax VT mufflers, as I do need to keep it quiet around the house/ neighborhood.

In preparation of the retune I installed a 160º thermostat, did another oil change, and (not essential to the tune) I added some ducting for the front brakes. I had some scoops that I had bought previously and I mounted them up front and ran some high temp silicone hoses to the brakes. Hopefully this will work.

Will the mufflers make a difference in the tune if you change them after they tune it? It sounds like it makes sense. Are you still going to have the headers coated ? I forgot if they are coated already. Glad you have options.

I have cut outs which are electric motor driven and they can tune with them open which should free up the exhaust and make it close enough.

Currently the headers are coated from Specialized Coatings shop in HB, CA http://specializedcoating.com/ceramic-coating/2018337 I haven't followed up on the Jet Hot yet. I'm now curious to see what difference the tune and other mufflers will make. If this works then I'll be happy, and, if not, I still have an option to explore.

I hope it drops the temps to an acceptable level.

Dyno'd
 

I had my car dyno tuned this past week. I had them tune it so I could run pump gas all day long which made it just under 450 hp at the wheels. There is a little more in the engine still but I'd rather have the financial freedom of not being dependent on race gas. I also took the car to the Cruisin for a Cure show this weekend at the OC fairgrounds and it got to sit out in the hot sun all day. I still have a few minor mods I need to make, but it's getting there!

Pump gas is our friend and cool to see your car on the Dyno in bare steel

Dyno run sounds awesome! I'm digging the front end work too.

Car sounds great! I wish I had 450 to the wheels. Nothing skimpy about that, for sure!

Thanks, guys!

I've signed up for a track day in January (Speed Ventures @ Fontana Raceway Jan 16th) and now I need to get the car ready. One of the things I need are tow hooks. Since my car is so customized, I doubt that I could just buy a set (and why would I want to. that would be too easy, ha ha) I had to first make a place to mount a rear hook, then the hook itself. Then I made the front hook... only I welded all my front bumper brackets when I built the car. So the front bumper assy will need to come off, cut the welds, and reassemble everything and hopefully the tow hook will fit in there.

Looks great!:welder:

Nice work!

Thanks, guys! Here's more pics from the weekend. I installed my 5th belts as well as cut holes in my seats (not without poking myself with the exacto, ha ha) and got my front hook installed. Of course, it needed trimming and I managed to destroy the headlight wiring in the process by pulling wires out from sockets as they were too short. So I had to rewire my headlights and I gave them longer wires/ weather pack connectors to allow for improved future dis assembly.

Nice job on the tow hooks, they came out nice.

what did you use for those seat inserts ?
I've got ugly gashes in my seats for the sub belts, having a nice plastic piece of trim looks a lot better.

Thanks, Wayne!

I bought this:

http://www.sector111.com/parts/inter...at_grommet.cfm

Hopefully the gashes in your seats are smaller than these.

Did you ever decide what you are going to do about a remote key less entry / push to start system? I looked at the Advanced Keys stuff in the past but you are the second person I've heard of that couldn't get their product to work as desired.

I looked around a while back but didn't find anything that jumped out at me. It seemed like several of the brands out there use the same parts as the A/K version was made from. I may look around again this winter.

Ok, then I'm not crazy - at least about that.
I haven't actually talked to any vendors, but last year when I looked I saw pictures and thought "gee, that looks familiar" a few times.

There is probably some company that builds and sells this stuff wholesale then these companies simply add their name, logo and packaging. The irony is the A/K stuff shows a 2010 - 2013 Camaro on their main page, yet several people on the Camaro forum say their hardware will not properly interface with and reliably bypass some of the electronics in those cars. That was two years ago and their site still looks the same and doesn't mention any incompatibilities or even potential pitfalls. WTF

Speed Ventures
 

I took my car to the track last weekend. Speed Ventures @ Fontana. After getting my trailer (stored 2 hours away), prepping my car, my wife even made a crock pot with pulled pork bbq sandwiches, lugging everything to the track, paying extra $$ for a ride along instructor, I got out on the track and literally 1.5 laps into it my engine puked oil. What tipped me off was the huge smoke screen I made as I came around a corner- I felt like I was driving the car from Spy Hunter. I immediately pulled into the pits and oil was trailing/ dripping underneath. Oil was covered in the passenger side of the engine bay, cross member, steering linkage as well as underneath. Fortunately, I still had oil pressure. Today I took some time to look into it further, and have concluded the following:

- catch can assy wasn't set up right/ working effectively to relieve crankcase pressure
- oil blew out past the dipstick tube
- very high oil pressure coming from engine

my oil pressure when I'm on it was around 80psi and that's with thicker oil (Valvoline VR1 20w 50. it's what my engine builder said to use) Today I put some thinner oil in and my oil pressure goes even higher. it jumps up past 80 when accelerating moderately (estimating around 85). Also swapping the oil will help tell me if the oil I'm cleaning up is from last week (dirtier, darker color) or it'll be very clean oil if it's still spraying out today.

I replaced the o-ring on the dipstick tube and revised the catch can assy and it should be good. it's a closed system now (was open before). I'm also going to look into an electric vacuum pump for the engine- something I can switch on for track days and leave off for regular driving. I'm also going to call Melling- the manufacturer of my oil pump and see what they say. I did a bit of research and it turns out that the oil pump used in my engine can have the spring swapped out. Now it has the heavier spring in it and the lighter spring will reduce about 20 psi.

Attached is a pic of my car at the track. Fortunately, the folks who do photography there (Caliphotography) caught me on the first lap, or I'd have no pics at all, ha ha.

Hopefully my next track event will be more successful

Bummer Brendon but at least it sounds like an easy fix for the most part. Good luck getting it back out there!

Hot Wheels of my car
 

Hey everyone, just thought I'd share this- the Hot Wheels 1:64 of my car is shipping and will be in stores soon, assuming I don't get there first to buy it, ha ha. It'll look like this

I'll be looking for one! That!s so cool!!!
How have you been? I hope you've been enjoying the heck out of it!!

Hey everyone,

Long time no updates, so it's about time I provide some. First, my Firebird:

1- Last year two more Hot Wheels versions of it were introduced- both in the premium retail line and in the ID line. While they look the same, they are entirely different castings/ tools made at different plants.

2- I did get a little track time in last fall as well, but definitely not enough.

3- Last fall it was at SEMA representing Borla Exhaust.

4- had a sweet photoshoot with Justin Keys of Keys Cars photography. Highly recommend him if you want your car photographed. He's here in Ca.

While all that was going on I also built another car. It's not a Lateral-G build, in fact it can barely turn at all, but it was fun. More about it here if interested:

https://www.motortrend.com/features/...eels-designer/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmqxb3wNCyg&t=9s

Last fall this '68 Firebird 400 came my way. It was the one I had looked at a few years prior (I had posted previously on this) and I was at the right place right time and I couldn't say no. I would have loved to have kept this one, especially with all the parts that came with it, but I also acquired this on the weekend that the first Pomona swap meet post covid was happening so I had it brought there with a high price on it and it was sold by 8am. The proceed paid for an engine rebuild I needed on my '55 so it all worked out. Except no new Firebird, ha ha