Aceshigh

NICE JOB!!!!! The belts look pretty damn good dude!!!!
I'm guessing you just cut and resewed the original top belt end up pretty solid there for the new belt holder to loop through.

Is that with a 6 speed or the 4L60e ??

Yeah I do have a lead foot, but I did cruise pretty smoothly on that St Louis trip because I didn't have any gauges.
I did the MPG math from a full fill up to a full fill up and divided the mileage. I was disappointed.

2nd gen F-body's aren't as aerodynamic as Vette's though. I think it's my tune to be honest. It is pretty aggressive.

I've seen that guys thread awhile back and I'm not so sure I could get it done that inexpensively.

No tank mods, and a few other things I think were left out. Used MAF for $40......
I tried that route.....ended up having to buy a new one for $200+

garys 68

The 68 corvette has a Richmond 6 speed connected to the 6.0.
There's a thread on pro touring in the LS section on milage, pretty much everyone is in the low to mid 20s for mpg. Maybe you were going up hill, both ways?
And yes, I just folded the old belt (it had never bee used) over the new belt loop attachment and sewed it up.

garys 68

Update, my best friend doesn't like the car................
















Because he cant drive a car with a manual trans........................
















Since he doesn't have an opposable thumb..............















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mrgm

so that was the inspiration for your interior.

garys 68

He even inspred me to get a little grey in my beard!

garys 68

OK got the car back with the downpipe finished, O2 sensors, etc...
But just driving around the parking lot let me know how SLOOOOOWWWWWWW the steering is on this thing. I'm thinking a jeep steering box is in the very near future.

garys 68

I spent the last 3 weeks in FL, only to come back and find my right front caliper froze up. It looked pretty rough so I replaced the front calipers.
Now I've only replaced the calipers, all brake lines, master cylinder and booster, and the proportioning valve. But now I've got a firm pedal and no brake light.
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Aceshigh

It's always something. Never fails.

I put no prop valve for my fronts with a 79 Vette master and an adjustable prop valve for the rears which
are Baer track disc's. http://www.brothersperformance.com/p...e+Systems.html

HWYSTR455

Something forced you to do that? Thought you had the lines and combo valve worked out?

.

Aceshigh

Which part are you asking about ??

Going Disc / Disc I wasn't going to use my aged master with different reservoir sizes.
I wanted a well known disc / disc master and the 79 Vette master is used in alot of
custom applications. It's budget friendly @ $50 for a new Raybestos one off Rock Auto.

I used the same one in my Camaro. It's big , has equal size reservoirs,
and I put in a Baer adjustable prop valve for my rear Baer brakes.

garys 68

Hmmm....if I was thinking I would have considered the disc/disc conversion. I probably have most of the parts on hand left over from my 68 corvette.
Did you buy a kit for the rear brakes or piece something together?

HWYSTR455

I was just looking at the pics and saw the combo valve on the frame, and they you mentioned you didn't use one, so thought you may have redone all those lines.

I did buy a rear disc kit, it's a SSBC kit that uses t-bird calipers. Think I got it for around $450 with plain rotors. It's a left over from my LeMans before I went C5 on it. The SSBC kit works good, even if you do have to mess with the 'racheting' calipers and all. Just remember to always set teh parking brake, that's what takes up the slack.


Can check out Kore3 as well, they sell just brackets if you want.
.

garys 68

That was aceshigh that didn't use one. I still have the drums on the back, so no way to get away from it. Even my C3 has one, but it only functions to activate the warning light.
Thanks for the info, maybe an upgrade down the line is in order.

HWYSTR455

Oh, my bad! Easy to get mixed up shuffling through the replies!

Anyway, brake upgrades, these days, I lean towards the Wilwoods and the Kore3 upgrades, most have the best out-of-the-box experience with those.


.

garys 68

Aother amature mistake. I was getting a buzzing noise through my amp. First thought was alternator, ground loop, etc.....but no. In fact the buzzing does not change with rpm. Little lightbulb goes on in my head. A short section of the RCA cables runs along the wire for the fuel sender and........wait for it..........the intank fuel pump!!!!!!
Genius right? Then why did it take me 2 hrs to figure that one out.

Aceshigh

I bought a 12 Bolt chevy rear end off a Pro-touring members Chevelle and he gave me the braking system with it.

$3000 setup and I got it for $1000 barely used.
I think this guy has money flying out his butt because he's buying BIG $$$ parts left and right,
and changing his mind. Dallas fireman living in a MONSTER house.

You might be able to. I did on my Camaro.

I have a C5 vette brake kit on the front of my 78z and drums on the back still.
I have this same 79 Vette master with no front prop valve and the Baer adjustable prop valve for the rear.

My Olds I still have the stock front discs, with these Baer rear D&S discs.
I will eventually upgrade my front discs on my Olds to a 13" rotor and much bigger calipers as well.

Both cars have the same master and only a rear adjustable prop valve.

garys 68

Aces, did you run a residual valve on the rear drum brakes without a proportioning valve?

garys 68

OK, I've driven around the block a few times, but the original steering box is way slow.
I'm heading to the junkyard tomorrow and picking up a $50 jeep steering box.
Jeepbox, off to autozone for a Dorman 31011 rag joint.
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garys 68

95 jeep grand cherokee box installed, dorman rag joint fits great, 85 monte carlo high pressure hose is a pretty good fit.
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Just took a test drive around the block, the thing feels like a slot car compared to the old steering gear.

Aceshigh

Nice work on the steering box.
You've got an array of different parts working there so I'm curious how you knew it would all work so well ??

I'm not even sure what that is to be honest.

As I said, I put a Baer adjustable prop valve only on the rears for both cars with the Vette master.
The Camaro still has drums in the rear. I have to re-bleed my brakes again because the cheap
Vatozone repop master I put in I think blew it seals. Going to get a new one.

garys 68

OK, who can spot what's wrong with this picture?
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HWYSTR455

That there's no shims or that the bolts are backwards? They're also not seated all the way...

.

HWYSTR455

You can flop them around without taking it apart, just load the lower control arm with a floor jack until it relieves enough pressure off the bolt. Then whack it out and turn it around. Use new bolts, much safer that way...

.

garys 68

Yep bolts are backwards. All the bushings, tie rods, ball joints, etc were replaced by the previous owner. So no big surprise on the lack of shims. Looks like a brain fart or beer-thirty started early that day..
I had to knock loose the upper ball joints to get them out. It would have only taken an hour to flip them but I wrecked one of the ball joint boots.
Anyway, taken care of so off to get an alignment.

HWYSTR455

Bummer on the boot. I've replaced the bolts before while in the car and not flipped around, but then again I had aftermarket control arms when I did it. I didn't replace the ones I have now on the cutlass project, should have, but I couldn't find the ones I ordered! I have a bag of them somewhere, they will turn up after I get the garage cleaned up, and will replace them then. I've heard of people having them snap off, but that's never happened to me, and I've done a butt-load of miles on cars before, never happened, so not worried.

.

garys 68

Well, I've been driving around the neighborhood all day making sure there are no leaks and everything works. So far so good.
And I was worried a 5.3 with a 2.73 rear and a muncie 2.56 firsts gear might be too tall, but it does fine. It's no 1/4 mile car with that combo, but I would have built a 6.2 with 3.91 gears if I wanted that.
Off to the alignment shop....................

garys 68

Just an update. I love the steering, the ride is great, and it has enough power for a DD, it's a joy to drive.
The issues:
The power steering pump is noisy when cold. I used a pump from a car with hydroboost with 2 return ports. I'm using the upper port and I think it's airating the fluid since it's spraying all over in the reservior. I'll swap it to the lower port.
There were a couple drops of trans lube on the garage floor. It came off the bottom of the newly rebuilt trans, not the bell housing, so I'm hoping it's from the side cover.
There are a couple drops of rear end lube by one of the tires. If I dont find a cheap complete 2.56 rear end (for better gas milage) in the next couple weeks, looks like I'll be replacing the axle seals.
My speedo is reading low, I'll need an adapter.
But overall, not too bad considering I started with an empty metal box in December.

garys 68

Update, turns out the rear end is from a 72 chevelle. That means changing seals and bearings is easy compared to the Olds axles.
The PS return hose to the lower port fixed the airation issue.
Ordered a speedo adapter.
And I still cant find where the drops of trans fluid came from.
Ordering stuff to glaize and seal the glass hood.

garys 68

New seal, bearing, and replaced the shoes all around. Leak fixed. It looks like the axle was pulled to replace a stud. And they replaced the seal, but only seated it flush with the end of the tube. Anyway, that's taken care of. And the differential gears look good, also confirmed it's a limited slip.
The drum btake cylinders look new too. That's now the only part of the brake system I did not replace.
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garys 68

Hmmm, and now I'm thinking that engine bay looks kinda empty.....
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...252/index.html

garys 68

Update, still getting a few drops of trans fluid, so guessing I'll have to pull the trans and find the problem. If I do that, I'll probably do soething stupid like bolting up a 5 or 6 speed.
And I've got a glitch with the cruise control. It's surging at hiway speed and that's annoying as hell. Working with my tuner on it.

garys 68

Update, the 05-06 has traction control setup in the ecu, looks like some of those parameters may be affecting the dbw throttle control. Brendan at LT1swap did my tune and he sent me out a new ecu the same day I contacted him. Great service like that is hard to find!

As for the trans fluid, looks like it's coming from the front, that means either the countershaft hole, although it was tight and I put RTV in it, or the early mincie I had did not have a slinger, or I could have forgot to RTV the front bearing retainer bolts (doubt that). Live and learn. I'll probably drive it thru the summer before pulling it.

Aceshigh

Oh niiiiice.......are you sure that Walbro 255 can handle that ??

garys 68

The walbro will probably hanle it better than my 8.2 rear end.

mrgm

What's that sucker sound like? need vid of your progress

garys 68

The car came with a new exhaust with fairly loud mufflers. Even though it's a faily tame efi motor, it's got a nice rumble.
I'll see if I can figure out how to make a movie on my camera next week.
As for the turbo, that will have to wait til next year.

snowballs442

[quote=garys 68;239544]
Both companies were great to work with and substituted parts for my custom installs at no cost.


It is good to know that both companies were able to help you and substituted parts for you at no extra cost. Sounds like your happy with both of them

Aceshigh

Exactly !!! Ya slacker.....
I want to see your engine bay with it all done.

BTW I loooooove that color paint job on your 442.
It reminds me of the Atomic Orange on the newer Vette's.

garys 68

I'm sure everyone here knows what it's like to have problems, especially with custom installs. And I know I'm a major PITA with my LS swaps......Vintage Air and Classic Auto Air are great with customer support and good products.
I know they're competitors, but they both do a great job. Maybe that's why they're still in business when others are not.

garys 68

Color is "sunburst metalic orange" for 06 GM vehicles.
Not my choice, it was on the car when I bought it, but I like it too.