Things are moving slowly along. I ran a scope down the cylinders of my motor and saw some debris in there. I Couldn’t tell Really what it was and I debated about what to do. I ended pulling the heads and found this thin soft metal foil looking junk

anyhow I had the shop disassemble the heads and clean them and I cleaned the motor out
I bought a m11 thread cleaner and cleaned all the head bolt holes and ordered a new set of bolts
The “torque then 90 degrees then another 90 degree” stretch for the head bolts was quite disconcerting but nothing broke

i was amazed how much junk came
out of the holes

im installing a wiring harness, fuel lines and a regulator now.

I need to find some front inner fenders or decide to mount the battery in the trunk

i dont think it will start in 2023 but I’m trying to make it this winter

 

After three years I finally got sick. Wasn’t bad, I was down for a day or two but sooo tired for two weeks after.

I got the last of my interior parts today from OPGI. I would have to look but I think I ordered them in Feb of 21. Almost two years

So I’ve got a bit of embarrassment coming:
I have always had a box of “special parts” for my cutlass that came with the car when I bought it. I’ve got a dual snorkel air cleaner and a 4 speed center console.

The console was missing the compartment door and I eventually ordered one, but never tested it. The console has some screw holes I thought were for the tach and a little damage down where the shifter arm would be.
Ii have kept this on a shelf wrapped in plastic and recently brought it down and put it in the car. It fits great and everything lines up pretty well just sitting on the bare steel of the floor. The seats move freely the hole lines up perfectly with the shifter hole in the floor


It can’t be console for a cutlass it doesn’t match my door that I bought or any pictures I’m finding online.
Anyway. Here’s to screw ups ..

 

It appears that my console is from a 64-67 gto. So I’ll have to sell that

I found a guy makes some cool coil relocation brackets for the ls motors. It is tight but it moves everything to the back of the intake, behind the carb and under the air cleaner——- you know. Where a distributor would be

i powder coated the bracket and I’m happy with it.
I had to plug the rear oil sender off but there are two other locations you can put an oil pressure sending unit on this motor.

The water damage to my dash caused some of the paint to come off the speedometer face. I’ll locate a new one but for now I tried painting the lines back on.
Honestly I just want a new dash. There is some pitting or rust bubbles or something happening to mine.

 

New year update:

I thought I had a good solution for the Power Steering pump and pulley, but Ive had to punt. The ICT billet brackets bring the PS pump 1" further inboard. It was still tight even with the smallest pulley I could find. Well it turns out that the small pulley had about 8mm of the wrong backspacing and was thrying to throw the belt when I was priming the oil. The small pulley also wasn't ideal bc it would overdrive the pump and heat up the fluid. I found smaller custom made $200 pulleys with the right offset but really worried about the pump heating and cavatating. I talked with Dirty Dingo and picked up their bracket. I like it a lot more. It brings the alternator down a hair, and moves the PS pump up and outboard. I have tons of clearance now and I like the way everything looks as well. It is a better setup. I test fit it this morning and powder coated it all black. This bracket also allows me to use the full size GM pulley.

Im about ready to try and crank the motor for the first time I have 25 PSI of oil when turning it over. My wiring is getting close. AC is all installed, choke cable, parking brake, and gauges are done. Ive been slowly buying switches and ***** and dash parts. Ive got a bunch of spares now and my dash has at least 5 other cars worth of stuff in it..

 

Im not sure what your goal is but i used Ict billet mount and it worked out perfectly.

 

As for the dash i was going to do a 66 because Dakota digital does make one but i didnt like how all the reading were bunched together. I went with a 6 gauge set up and made my plate out of steel then wrapped it.

 

I don’t know if it’s my motor mounts or steering box or a combo of them but I was hitting the pulley in the box.

I’ll put in a pic of my Ict bracket, it’s different than yours but it’s the one they recommended to me

I was never a fan of my dash and always loved the ?66 or 67. The one with the two big round gauges and wanted to swap one in but this one is growing on me

i put my pressure regulator in nearly the same place you did

 

I had a few different mounts and pans. I ended up using all holley. The mounts pan and cross member fit like a glove. I think i missed what engine you running, 4.8? I picked up a so called rebuilt lq4 that wiped a bearing for $400. And replaced the rings, bearings, crank, oil pump and cam.

ICT mount

 

Well,

This is the first time this car has run since 1977 0r 78. I have 45 PSI of oil pressure at idle. The carb is fresh from the box so I haven't done anything to it. This is the second start. There is no exhaust yet.

Here's the YouTube video:

 

I mean technically it is the my first drive...

 

Very impressive metal work.

Tom

 

^ thanks

I'm working on the hood now. I had to remove the spot welds on the front edge and remove the inner structure. I replaced one half of each side at a time to keep anything from moving too much on the outer skin. I wont fully weld it up until I test fit the hod back and make sure everything is in line with the front of the fenders etc. I can’t bend super accurately so I measured all the angles and dimensions and had 4 14” x 6” pieces made at "send cut send".

I don’t have any cad experience but they have a basic parts builder app on their website. That worked just fine. I think it was 65$ shipped

I should have spent more time making my ovals look good at the start, i am going back and smoothing them up with a dremel and roll sander now.