Hey, is there anybody in there, at all?

Sooo... Quite some time since I posted the last time and to be honest not a lot have happened with the car except that it seems to have broken down for real (screeching noise coming from the drivetrain).

I have bought a house with a proper garage though!

As of now I have taken the rear axle out off the car for two reasons: A) I think this is where the noise is coming from and B) I need to change ratio to 3.08 from 4.11 (or 3.89, can't remember right now).

While it's out I'll refurbish it, the springs and the shocks. I'm hoping that this'll be done within the month.

A quick update

I just realised that I haven't posted in a while and I just wanted you to know that the exhaust is in place, although not 100% perfect but still much better than before.

There's an issue with one of the bolts to the headers not tightening properly but I'll use Loctite or something like that on it and hopefully get it to stay in place.

It seems as if my gearbox is in need of a rebuild though and that seriously sucks. :(

I'll see how things pan out but if this is the case then I don't know what to do - I have no money at all to spend at the moment...

Some progress!

My brother Mattias and I was out at the garage this past week and I was there by myself yesterday as well and we're finally getting somewhere.

I bought some 3" exhaust pipe that we cut to length. We then cut off the 2.5" adaptor pipes that TA sent me. After we rigged this properly under the car one of my new garage buddies spot welded everything in place.

Yesterday I decided to make sure that the headers was bolted on properly, as well as all the other bolts I've had to take out during the installation. When I loosened the header on the passenger side I thankfully didn't have to remove the starter to fasten the engine bolt which, even though the header was already on tight and snug, saved me quite some time.

There was one bolt missing on the drivers side and the new ones that TA included didn't fit properly. Fortunately the guys at my old garage could hook me up with a bolt.

Of course, when I came back to the new garage there was still one bolt missing but on the other side. I knew I had these bolts when I took the old headers off and after some careful searching I found one wedged in between the tubes coming from the head on the drivers side down to the collector.

Just to make sure that the engine ran as it should I started it up and let me tell you this - I'm glad that I had ear protection. Damn, it makes some serious noise.

This Tuesday a buddy of mine who knows how to weld will help me out with the rest of the exhaust. I don't want to risk anything by doing it on my own.

Changing the headers, part three

This is turning into a major pain in the ass.

The header on the passenger side went on without much of a problem - besides the adapter being rotated 180 degrees - but the one on the drivers side was almost impossible to get to fit properly.

After some cursing, thinking and frustration I realized that the pipe for the back-most cylinder was bent, moving the holes slightly when the other bolts were attached. This resulted in me using a big bar in order to adjust it temporarily until I could screw it in there.

On the passenger side I'm currently struggling with getting the engine bolts back on. The new headers are different from the old ones in more ways than one and where I previously could use my hand to hold the nut for the engine bolt in place I can't, no matter how I try, reach in there now.

So I need to remove the starter in order to get enough space for my hand. To do this the cooler pipes for the transmission has to be removed...

It never ends!

As for now the headers are on and the starter is almost coming loose - I just need some help with it as it's too cumbersome to replace on my own (I can do it but I usually end up messing up my already bad shoulder so I won't).

I bought some ready made adapters between the headers and the exhaust so that I could keep the amount of welding I had to on my own to a minimum. Stupid me thought that all headers have the same adapters but Hooker doesn't fit. They just cost a lot.

So now I have to build them myself anyhow. :(

Changing the headers, not as easy as I thought

Over the past few days I've been trying to replace my old headers with the brand new from TA Performance. This has proven more work than I cared for.

Getting the old ones out and the new ones in was only time consuming as we needed to lift the engine and the real work started when I was about to reconnect the existing exhaust to the new headers.

First off I noticed that I couldn't get the exhaust out from under the car as it's all welded in one piece.

Then I notice that not only are the bolt holes rotated 180 degrees but the exhaust pipe is about 3.5 cm to short which means that I had to cut off the old adapter and weld the new one in place.

The problem with this is that the new headers points in a slightly different direction compared to the old ones which means that I need to realign the new adapter.

On top of this the new adapter is also too small - 6 cm in diameter compare to the old 7.5 cm - so even if I can fix the alignment it's not going to fit properly. The only option left is to buy a new adapter pipe.

So it won't be done for at least another week due to easter coming right up.

Changing the headers

I decided to take a stab at changing the headers while the engine hoist is still in the garage (it's a loaner).

Over at the V8Buick forums there are some that claim that you can change the headers without lifting the engine out of the car but I must say that with a big-block it's a very tight fit and I'd rather spend an hour lifting the engine.

Today I only managed to get the car up in the air, disconnect the exhaust and disconnect the headers from the engine. The hard part is tomorrow when I'm actually going to raise the engine and put the new headers in there.

Street legal!

Woop!

I just got off the phone with the authorities here in Sweden and it turns out that my car is street legal after all!

I have until May 2009 to fix the mufflers and other assorted issues that might prevent it from passing the DMV inspection, something that should be doable now that I have a proper garage.

Adjusting the timing

Yesterday me and my good friend Ulf was out at the garage trying to adjust the timing as the car didn't run properly.

Following this excellent thread on the V8Buick forum we set out to do good. Only to find out that nothing we did seemed to correspond with the information in the thread.

The idle timing seemed way off and the 30 degree mark climbed way past the timing tab as soon as I touched the throttle. Still the car ran decent so we adjusted it as good as we could and took it for a short test spin.

Sure enough, lot's of tire smoke and "oomph" as well as big grins on our faces. Seeing as the weather was great we decided to take the car for a longer drive and during this we felt that there was something lacking still.

We started adjusting the distributor cap in small increments and finally dialed in what seems to be the perfect setting. The car really flies and has a lot of torque. The only problem is that the timing still seems to be off.

I'll try and double check this later today but I need to wait for a buddy or brother to assist me.

Update: The timing was only off by 2-3 degrees when we checked so when I get the time I will adjust it to the proper setting.

A new garage - a new start

So, I finally moved to a new garage and let me tell you, it feels great to be able to start working on my car again.

There's a couple of things I need to get done though, setting up a work bench and stuff like that, but I can more or less get cracking on all the things I have been postponing for several months.

Unfortunately the engine still runs a bit crap so I need to take another stab at the valves and the ignition before I begin with the interior (no need for a fancy looking car that won't go anywhere).

I also discovered a lot more surface rust than when I parked the car last autumn so I need to get cracking on that before it eats through the metal.

For a couple of pictures of the old garage and the new one, start here.

A new garage

Yesterday I found a new garage! It's almost twice as expensive but it's a lot roomier, a lot cleaner, somewhat closer to home and the guy owning the place seems to be very straightforward and serious about the place.

The biggest drawback is, besides the cost, that it lacks quite a bit of tools. No welder, no motor lift, few compressed air tools, etc, etc but that isn't all bad as I need to start getting those things of my own anyhow. Plus I'm not at a stage where I need those kind of tools right now.

The guy owning the garage, Kevin, is also best friends with the manager of a big tool retail chain here in Sweden so he can get really good discounts on pretty much any kind of tools which in a way compensates for the lack of tools at the garage.

He said I'd be able to move in the weekend after this so all I need to do now is make sure that the guys in my old garage get their cars out of the way in time (I'm parked at the very end of the garage, as I've mentioned before) but I hope they respect this.

I'll get back with more pictures after the move.