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The engine is finally assembled and should be between the frame rails in the next couple of days. The wiring for the ignition and door locks is also done. Need to send the valve covers out for some powder coat work. It is still really touch and go whether or not the rubber will hit the road before the snow flys!
I finally got good pics with the engine installed and mods mad to the A/C box to allow for the taller valve covers. A couple of other custom items that we have done include building a vented oil filler cap as well as creating a vacuum port on the back of the D/S valve cover. These two items will help clean up the engine compartment by cutting down the amount of hose tied to venting the crank case.
Spent sometime in the shop with the car yesterday. Took a shot of both covers as the detailing on both is now finished. What cannot be seen in the pictures is that the drverside cover has been modified on the rear panel. We built a fitting and made a series of small holes that the fitting will cover and bolt to the rear panel ( out of sight). A vacuum hose will run from this port to the rear of the Fast EFI and allow for the venting crankcase gases. I also figured out where we will tie in the inlet air temp sensor for the EFI . The attached picture of the air intake is a little dated as it is the engine compartment with the previous 455 installed. The same air intake and EFI will be going on what we have built here recently so it does share a nearly identical layout. The recent built also is using a single plane Mondello intake versus the Edelbrock.
looks great , quite the beast with them airhorns LOL
One of the challenges with this build was the clearance under the hood if I wanted to keep the original hood. My goal with the car is to have it look relatively stock at first glance and as such I did not want to mess with the hood. I tried a number of different aircleaner assemblies and found that this was the most functional that also added to the appearance in the engine compartment. It will move more than enough air for the 495 bb Olds and also has the option of extending the air inlets to the front of the car if I find the air inlet temperatures higher than what I want.
One of the challenges with this build was the clearance under the hood if I wanted to keep the original hood. My goal with the car is to have it look relatively stock at first glance and as such I did not want to mess with the hood. I tried a number of different aircleaner assemblies and found that this was the most functional that also added to the appearance in the engine compartment. It will move more than enough air for the 495 bb Olds and also has the option of extending the air inlets to the front of the car if I find the air inlet temperatures higher than what I want.
Nice, when you say front of the car you mean like the 68-69 w cars under the bumper ( that would be kind of cool LoL) I do know the issues with wrestling decisions, stock, from the factory or a better performing car etc, I know I will drive mine so that has the final word, I love both sides of the coin 100 point resto and nicely crafted upgrades, yours looks awesome!
With the valve covers in place it now comes clear that the higher covers create an issue for the air tubes. Having switched to roller rockers has really created some issues but with any luck the motor will run much better as a result. After some messing around it looks like I will run a single tube system with the air cleaner situated just to the left of the radiator. This location will give the engine access to more cool air as well as giving a better view of the engine. We also removed the single fan ( electric ) and installed a dual fan unit that will pull air through a much bigger portion of the radiator. Luckily I can still use the stock fan shroud and only have to make a bracket that will tie the fan in. The driver side wheel well cover was off as efforts are still ongoing getting the wiring out of sight..
Last edited by rummer; October 14th, 2016 at 03:30 PM.
Reason: word error
Still moving forward in a good way. Nearly got the head lights sorted. The pics do not do it justice. The outside ring of the headlights is actually a ring of red LED's. I can not use these on the road but it will brighten the car up during shows. Also finally got an air box that will clear the valves covers. Worked out how hoses ( aircon and heater) will be routed. This will require some new hoses to be made for the aircon as well as a manifold from March for the compressor. The manifold will let me run the hoses down to start instead of coming off the top of the compressor. The adapter for the rad / fan mounting is done and mounted. Looks great as it is not noticeable at all ( looks stock).
After many delays and much frustration we are once again making progress. The wiring is 90% complete and we finally got the air cleaner assembly resolved. Still have some fluid plumbing tweeks to deal with as well as air conditioner lines and spark plug lead routing. Have hoses being made that will allow the hoses to run essentially out of sight. The spark plug wires will also get routed so that they do not run across the top of the valve covers. With some good fortune we may have the BB Oldz making noise later next week. As I like to say there is nothing wrong with going" OldzKul"!
Got the engine to fire up and run today for the first time. It idled nicely around 750 - 800 RPM. It has a slight lop but otherwise sounds a bit throaty like a bb should. The oil pressure was good and steady with no external leaks. The electric fans kicked in nicely at 170 F and the engine never got past 187 F. Planning on getting the car setup on the dyno to get the shift points on the tranny set as well as load the engine a bit. Got the rim rings in and really enjoyed the difference that they made. Got a laundry list of odds and ends but it is getting closer to a street legal gas guzzler!
Who makes the air intake system that you're using(the single inlet mounted on passenger side)?
Attached are a couple of pics that clarify who built the various parts. The piece the bolts directly to the Fast EFI had to be modified slightly so that it tilts down a bit. I wanted to keep the hood stock ( 68 Cutlass S) and you actually have less clearance as you get away from the center towards the side of the car. The intake manifold is a single plane Mondello manifold which has roughly the same rise as a Edelbrock RPM Performer intake. The other issue is the height of the valve covers. The Spectre folks confirmed that the inlet assembly should support what we are hoping to see out of this 495 Cu In Olds motor. The tube between the filter and the inlet assembly is a full 4 inch diameter and was fabricated by a local pipe shop. We made a support that bolts to the cylinder head and slides up under the clamp that secures the filter to the tube. The A/C assembly also had to be changed to allow the tube a clear path. I got a manifold from March that runs down the side of the compressor so that the A/C hoses run under the compressor and are out of the way. I am hoping that positioning the air inlet this way gives us a good air charge temperature as it is ahead of the motor and low in the engine compartment. It terminates just beside the radiator / fans on the cool side of the rad so it should not get hot air from there. The positive with the EFI is that it monitors air inlet charge temp so we can see how well it is working or not. It cannot be seen in the picture but we taped into the back of the air inlet assembly and mounted the air inlet temp sensor there, The other positive is that the EFI should adjust fuel / air based on inlet air temp. I hope that this helps.
Having a snow day today so I thought that I would catch up on some of the lesser noted items in this build. The 1st thumbnail highlights the rotating assembly. The plan was to overbuild the engine. This was also the reasoning behind the girdle on the bottom end. The porting is a stage 2 CNC. The part that I liked about the porting was how smooth and clean it was around the valve pockets. The distributor cap is a good example of how often you think that you have got a good solution but it turns out wrong. Buried under the MSD cap is a Fast distributor that will work with the ignition module and EFI to manage the ignition timing. Originally I was told that the MSD distributor would work with the EFI but found out that this was not the case. The good thing is that the MSD cap looked better than the Fast Distributor cap. The core for this build was certainly not as clean when we got it but it at least had not been opened up and modified. We already had converted to disc brakes on the front so it made sense to do the rears in order to keep things simple. The picture from underneath is meant to highlight alot of things that you simply do not see unless the car was on a hoist. We were very lucky to find a car that had a good frame and was quite clean even in stock condition. Last but not least the rear wheels. The measurements up front to see what backspacing / offset we needed to fill the wheel wells without flaring the fender skirts were bang on. With any luck it will hook up as we expect some good low end torque out of the Olds BB.
We finished up the A/C hoses as well as finalizing the top radiator hose. The hood was installed and the car was put up on the dyno rollers to start training the ECU in the Fast EFI. Had to play around a bit to get the transmission linkage lined up but did manage to get the gear and the indicator in the speedo to line up. Set up the dyno so that we could confirm the speedo was right as well as rpm on the tach. Had some back firing when coming off of the throttle but that should take care of itself as the ECU learns.
I got to drive my Cutlass today for the first time in over two years. It made just over 150 Kms and ran like a clock. After not driving it for so long I had to reacquaint myself with everything. The brakes ( 4 wheel disc / hydraboost) worked great. The exhaust note sounds great. Nice to have all of the information on the engine on display with the Fast display. Boy has this been a journey but I have to say that the finished product sure puts a smile on my face. Going to have to start keeping beer in the garage again so that I can spend some time enjoying the view!
Took the car for the first top down drive in over two years. The engine and transmission worked great. The TH400 shifts nice and firm and is a nice change from the 2 speed powerglide that used to do shift duty. The hydro boost and Wilwood discs really bring the car down from speed. The combination of the Hotchkiss Suspension and the big rubber makes corners alot of fun. As well the engine ( 495 stroker) provides much more motivation than the 350 Rocket that it replaced. The engine coolant temperature was very stable never getting over 192 F. The Fast EFI works well but I am disappointed that the readout has no way of giving you oil pressure. I just do not feel good about living and dying with the factory oil pressure gauge. Will likely install a separate Oil pressure gauge to resolve. The Hedman Headers work well but I am finding that they are very easy to plant on mother earth. Have already booked the car to go to a fabricator to get custom stainless headers built. They will be much tighter to the under carriage at the collectors. The fellow doing the work has a great reputation for quality work. He built a roll cage for me on a car that I previously ran and it used to get lots of comments at the shows. As well I have the car going to a body shop to work the inside of the fender wells to keep them off the side walls on the rear tires. They do not hit hard but anything the causes the rear shocks to compress results in the sidewalls getting scuffed. Overall I am pretty happy with the build but am a little frustrated with a couple of the issues as these could have been caught with a little more attention to detail that goes with building highly customized cars! The next 6 months or so will be used to iron out the wrinkles. It is just great being able to fire up the engine, listen to a throaty big cu in motor, and enjoy copious amounts of torque with the roof down!
Rummer, It's a beautiful build. Can you tell me more about those headlights? Pretty sexy.
I'd like to do something like that on my '69.
If you goggle Oracle headlights it will take you to their site. www.oraclelights.com/
They are a 5.75" Sealed beam with the led halo. They can be ordered with a number of different color halo's. When I bought mine they were around $90 each so they are not cheap. My plan was to use them when I am showing the car.
The car is presently in the body shop as the rear tires were rubbing on the wheel well lip. When we went to address this we found that even though the quarters looked good we found some really poor body work practices in both rear quarters, By the time the car gets out of the shop it will now have 100% metal rear quarters and will have been completely resprayed. The gaps on the hood and doors are now as they should be.
Just when you think you are nearly at the finish line you end up getting blindsided. I know that underneath the car it is very solid and rust free. I had to get the rear wheel well trim adjusted slightly as it was rubbing slightly on the side walls. Found some shoddy body work that was hidden by the paint that came home to bite the build in the butt! As the grinding was taking place bondo started to fall out and reveal some rust growing in behind the previous body work. Once we got into it I asked that we get the car back to 100% metal. As a result the car now has two new rear quarters and alot of metal fab work done at the rear of both front wheel wells. We sprayed the inner part of the front fenders just to make sure that they do not start having rust issues. While we were at it the hood had some wows taken out of it and the gaps set properly in the hood and doors. It just got its first coat over the primer this AM.
DS 1/4 - combination of bondo , glue and metal patches
Great looking car... It's too bad you had to deal with the extra body repairs... But at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing the job is done correctly...
Just a heads up on the Wilwood brake master cylinder. They just recalled them if built after 2006.
Looks great
The recalls was for master cylinders with a bore of 7/8 of an inch. The unit installed on my car has a bore of 1.125" and as such are good as is. Thx for the heads up on this as it did make me check it out..
I'm surprised, with the crap work that was done on the rear 1/4's, that the front fender heels were done properly. Those are usually the first place that a body guy will cut corners. Usually the rust is small but requires a rebuild of the lower part of the inner brace
I'm surprised, with the crap work that was done on the rear 1/4's, that the front fender heels were done properly. Those are usually the first place that a body guy will cut corners. Usually the rust is small but requires a rebuild of the lower part of the inner brace
Normally when you see shoddy work in one place it becomes the standard for the work everywhere. This was very true in this case. As you noted the front fender heels are susceptible. We had to completely rebuild the inner braces on both sides as they were done with a combination of metal , bondo , and glue. The new braces were hand fabricated and are now all metal. We resprayed the inner part of the fender to make sure that the fix lasts a little longer. Unfortunately I did not have any pics of the original inner mounts as they were found. The positive is that the repairs done now are metal and I now feel good that I do not have any parts of the body corroding away being hidden by paint!! What started out as a small fix ended up with the whole body being gone through and a total respray. The other positives are that the hood is now blemish / dent free and that the body gaps are right.
When I bought my car this rear 1/4 was seemingly solid. Turns out it was artistically fabricated with Bondo and Budweiser cans. I wish I had a pic of it when I stripped it
Hey Rummer,where did you get that upper radiator hose set up? Not the red one.
Steve:
The piece is hand fabricated using Stainless pipe , a pipe bender , and a little welding. We used hose clamps and radiator hose to secure it. The tube coming off of the air inlet ( Spectre )follows the same type of mindset. We did alot of custom stuff in many places on the car but we kept the car as a whole true to the Oldsmobile brand ( drive train , interior , exterior ).
September 7th, 2016, 06:22 PM
