1971 Firebird Build ("The Other Woman", a.k.a. Project "T.O.W.")

[carbuff]

Here's a little wrap-up of the day yesterday.

I was determined to fire the engine yesterday, knowing we had a lot of work to do to make that happen. I got to the shop early, and Eric and I set out on a mission.

I finished up the interior wiring of the ECU, transmission, and hooked up the gauges in a temporary fashion. I wired them up to the headlight switch to make sure that the lights all worked as well. After all of the wiring work, I connected the battery and had Eric looking for smoke. None came, which was the first big relief of the day.

Then I turned on the ignition switch and saw the gauges move as expected. I started running through the systems that I could, and everything seemed to be ok.

The last step for me was to install the Rick's gas tank filler neck. It's a little tight to do that with the tank installed, but I got it on and tightened up. All good!

Meanwhile, Eric finished up the few remaining plumbing issues. He had to remake the oil and power-steering cooler lines. He remade them this time with stainless, and he was able to reroute the lines to not touch each other.

Next we poured some gas in the tank and turned on the switch again. I saw pressure build on the fuel pressure gauge, which was a good sign that the pump, lines and gauge were all working! We crawled around under the car, and only found one very slight drip at the hardline to AN line fitting. A turn of the wrench, and that drip was gone.

At this point we poured all of the various fluids into their respective destinations, and again started looking for leaks. Radiator, check. Power Steering, check. Oil, check. Transmission, check. Differential, check. Woo hoo!

Then the step I was worried about. Because of the LS setup, I don't know of a good way to prime the oil system. This engine hasn't run for over 2 years, and it's been drained, and we've added the oil cooler, thermostat, and lines, so I knew it would take a while to get oil through all of that. Scarily, it took longer than I would like for it too. Spin, spin, spin. Finally, I saw the oil pressure gauge move a little bit. Then a little more, and finally it crawled up to about 20psi. Phew!

Now for the moment of truth... We reconnected the coils and the injectors. I crawled into the car, pushed down the clutch, and turned the switch. After about 3 seconds, she fired to life! What a sweet sound. I was watching the gauges, and we were both crawling around and under the car looking for any leaks or other signs of problems. But none were to be found! We ran it until the fans kicked on, meaning the temps were up to running temp. Then we shut her down, and let out a collective sigh of relief.

We started it up a couple more times to make sure it was still all good, and everything seems great! No leaks, started right up both times, and the ECU looks to be good. I know it's not tuned well for idle / part throttle (the IAC is definitely off), but she runs!

Now that we are past this hurdle, we should be able to make some quick progress. This week, Eric is going to tackle assembling the front sheetmetal, and I am going to work on wiring the gauge wires. I purchased some connectors to allow quick disconnects, so I need to install those. Then the dash, back seats, and console. I am taking the dash panel which Eric made to be powder coated, and once it is back, we'll get the dash finished up.

It's getting close! I'm getting excited.