Removing the engine, part 2

This past weekend I got around to getting the engine out. It wasn't all that hard, it just took some more or less tedious work. :)

The hardest part was removing some of the bolts that connected the transmission to the engine as they weren't exactly easy to reach. I broke off a spark plug and the connection from the water temperature giver but other than that all of the bolts and nuts came off easily enough.

There's a couple of parts - like the lines to the transmission from the radiator - that I need to replace. The engine mounts seems to be in need of replacement as well.

It would also seem as if my AC compressor is mounted a bit backwards, especially compared to this picture.

Only a few parts are in bigger need of a restoration than others but it'll still take quite a bit of time and money to get the engine and the engine compartment in the shape I want it.

Still, that's the fun part. :)

My credit card hurts

I just got off the phone with TA Performance, ordering some parts. The ones I needed are some oil mods (almost all of them) but I really wanted new headers as well (the super competition doesn't fit my car so the "regular" competition would have to do).

When I spoke to them yesterday they explained that shipping via UPS would cost me $677 (4840 Kr)! As always, the guys at V8Buick.com came to the rescue and hooked me up with a guy from Sweden that imports cars and parts on a regular basis. He agreed to help me out with a shipping cost of about $105 (cirka 750 Kr). A lot more sane than $677.

All in all this purchase will set me back $556 (3975 Kr) + shipping, customs and VAT - a grand total of $940 (6710 Kr).

The only comfort is that right now my Visa is only charged the $556, the additional $384 is coming later (a week in the case of the oil mods, 3 months in the case of the headers). I still need a new wiring harness for the engine though...

I got a lot done during the weekend - I just haven't had time to update. I will try to rectify that asap.

Removing the engine, part 1

Sunday I decided to start preparing for getting the engine out as I want to get started on the oil mods as soon as possible in case I run into problems.

The Buick factory manual has a checklist for this and the ever informative V8Buick.com had a number of pointers so it shouldn't be impossible to get this done properly. The guys I share garage space with has also done this numerous times before.

I really don't have a lot to write about here as it was very straight forward and if you need tips and tricks on this I warmly recommend the V8Buick.com thread.

My Picasa Web images for "engine removal".

Putting the dash back together

This Saturday I had planned to prepare for the engine removal but I realised that it would be better to get the dash back together first. Unfortunately working on the car felt like a chore the entire day.

I guess part of the reason for that feeling was that I still had some of my cold still in me. The fact that I was overconfident when I took the dash apart and had a really hard time recollecting where all the parts would go didn't make things better either.

I got the instrument cluster together except for some of the light bulbs in the instruments. The previous owners probably didn't care too much about them as I know I haven't misplaced any of them.

Another thing I couldn't reconnect due to my lackluster marking of wires is the switch to the rear window defroster. The helpful members on the V8Buick.com forum gave me some pointers that I'll try out this coming weekend.

At the end of the day I barely got the instrument cluster back in but decided to leave it at that as I needed to get working on the engine - I can work on the dash while waiting for the engine/engine room paint to dry.

The biggest headache after getting it back in was the fact that the generator light wouldn't go out even after I started the engine which means that either the generator is busted (and it worked before I stopped driving last year) or that the instrument cluster is borked.

I'll post that question to the board as well.

A timetable and a budget

After some thinking and counting I think I've come up with a plan. I won't touch the interior anymore, just put together what I've taken apart and if things needs to be repaired (like the dash, steering column, instrument cluster, etc, etc) I won't do it - I just don't have the time.

The engine is main focus right now and I will start preparing for getting it out of the car this coming Saturday. After the engine is done I'll fix the wobbly steering and then the leaky front windshield.

I "missed" two Saturdays due to extremely bad weather and then an equally bad cold so I'll spend both this coming Saturday and Sunday in the garage. On Sunday I'll get the dash and instrument cluster back into the car.

Pretty soon I'm going to have to get me another car due to me getting a new job. This means that I'll be able to go to the garage a lot more often than before. Which is nice.

Now - since I'm ordering parts from TA Performance I'll need to wait for those to arrive and since I just now fired off an e-mail to them asking how long it'll take for those parts to arrive I really can't plan too far ahead.

Nevertheless - the dash is going in this weekend and the engine is coming out the next one after that. I'll need some time to repaint and refurbish both it and the engine room so it really doesn't matter if I'll have to wait for the parts 3-4 weeks. I'm hoping to get the engine back in mid-April by the latest.

The "must have" items from TA are the oiling system mods; TA1502 (adjustable oil pressure regulator) and TA1510 (oil pump booster plate) so I can get the oil pressure up to proper levels.

If shipping doesn't kill me I'll also order a pair of TA2012CH (competition series headers) but that's not as crucial as the oil mods.

The oil mods are roughly $45, the headers $445 and I have no idea how much shipping is. The engine and engine room paint is another $100 I would guess.

Fixing the wobbly steering column won't cost me all too much I'm hoping but I just realised that the instructions I was about to follow is for a tilt steering column only - which I don't have. Oh well, I'll take look at it while the engine's out - should be enough wiggle room then I suppose.

Replacing the window is roughly $110 - or at least that's what I've been told. I might just do this before I get the engine out, all depending on how long shipping from TA takes as I need to drive the car to the shop that does this.

So, that's the plan - at least the bigger picture. I might be able to fiddle with the interior, trunk, paint, etc as well but I'm not counting on it. I'd rather get the engine well done than rushing it in order to get everything done before the summer.

I have to have something to do this winter as well...

Home sick

Yesterday I caught a really bad cold and can hardly think so I'm going to have to stay home today. Previous Saturday I was home due to the very crappy weather so I'm running out of time.

I'll try and sit down today and see if I can't estimate how much time I really need to "finish" the car before early May. I can always skip certain items on my to-do list but I need to get the engine out so I can fix the low oil pressure.

Shouldn't be impossible though, as long as I get to the garage that is.

New headers will have to wait

I just spoke with the company that helps me find parts for my car about headers as the one on the passenger side of the car is busted.

Initially I was told that they'd cost about 2000 Skr ($280) but I wanted to go for the TA Performance headers so I asked them for a price quote on those (they cost $445 in the States at the time of writing).

They couldn't get headers from TA but quoted me for a pair of Hooker headers instead. Unfortunately these would cost me 7595 Skr ($1060). A lot of money indeed.

So now I'll have to wait with headers until the next winter and then I'll most likely get the TA Performance headers directly from them as those are the ones I want (plus, they'll most likely be cheaper - even after shipping, VAT and customs).

For this summer I'll just weld the existing ones into usable shape.

Almost all the dash electronics done

The parts I ordered for my car came in this week; a new wiper/washer motor/pump (I was told it'd be new but it was in fact remanufactured), a relay for the fan motor and light bulbs for the dash lights.

First up was the fan relay as this was the easiest one. It's not ideally located but I've got long arms so I got it back in there. Only problem was that when I went to test it all out the fan only worked at the Low setting. Sigh.

I took out the voltmeter and checked all the connections and they all had proper voltage. I followed the wiring, testing bit by bit, until I got to the fan resistor. After jostling that about the fan worked as it should so I'll take a closer look at it later on.

Next up was the wiper motor. As I mentioned above I was expecting a new unit but got a remanufactured one. There's still warranty on it and it's not extremely difficult to replace but it'd be nice to have a new one in there.

The mechanical installation wasn't all too difficult. I had to widen the gap in the plate that connects directly to the motor shaft as it was 0.1 mm to narrow. The real worries began when I hooked up the electronics.

At first it all seemed fine; the wipers and the washer pump all operated as they should but when I tried to turn the wipers off - they just kept going up and down in very small movements just at the lower turning point.

I was stumped and had no idea what it could be. I started measuring voltages just about everywhere but it all looked just fine. I finally realised that I should probably check the Fisher Body manual and after about 10 minutes of reading I located this exact problem and how to troubleshoot it.

It turned out to be the ground to the dash controls for the wiper/washer. When testing I just hooked the control switch on to the connector so there was no ground what so ever. After temporarily screwing it to the dash sheet metal the wipers worked as they should.

Rejoice!

Reijo was going to help me listen for unwanted engine sounds but he was away on an errand so I started removing old tape residue from the vinyl roof while I waited for him. As to why there's tape residue to begin with I have only myself to blame.

When the car started to take in water during the autumn rains that plagued Sweden for the better part of three months I taped over every trimming on the roof, hoping that It'd keep tight(er). It didn't help at all.

All that it did was cling to the chrome and vinyl making it almost impossible to remove. First I tried with paint thinner but it seemed a bit too aggressive against the vinyl so I bought another solvent, designed to remove old glue. I got most of it off but I'll need to go over it again later on.

After Reijo got back he brought out the stethoscope and listened to the engine for 5-10 minutes while I took it from idle to about 1500 RPMs. The good news is that he couldn't hear any actual noise coming from within the engine besides some very minor rattling from the valves but not enough to worry about.

There still was a sharp, clonking noise coming in relatively regular intervals. I've always attributed that to a header hitting the frame as it goes away as soon as you rev the engine past idle but Reijo wanted to listen to the oil pan with the stethoscope as well before dismissing internal problems. To do that we need to lift the car off the ground which we didn't have time for yesterday.

Still, here's hoping that all I have to do is upgrade the oil system and not replace the main and rod bearings.

The clock to tachometer conversion

Yesterday I was determined to get the clock to tachometer conversion done. I had planned it all out in my head and knew exactly how I wanted to do it.

I had bought a clear plastic sheet about 2 millimeters (mm) thick as well as some black, semi-gloss paint, the rest of the tools needed for the fabrication should be available in the garage.

I had already disassembled the clock and tach a week ago so I started out by measuring where the new holes was going to end up. After I created a template it was quite easy to mark and drill the holes.

Now I needed to figure out how much the old spacers in the tach had to be cut down in order to fit behind the plastic cover. 10 mm had to come off but it turns out that the inner threads for the fastening screw didn't run all the way down so I had to find a new solution.

Reijo suggested using old fuel line copper tube cut down to 8 mm (the original rise of the existing spacers were 18 mm). This worked out great and after clamping the copper tube to the screws the spacers even stayed put when installing the unit into the old housing.

Next up was to fabricate a new black cover since the tach was smaller than the clock. Again Reijo chimed in and came up with the idea to reuse the cover ring from the Autometer housing in order to create a very nice looking cover.

The only complication with this idea was that the rev limiter lamp sticks out a bit which meant that I had to mount the inner cover ring "inside out". Not a big deal, it's just a less snug fit against the face of the meter. After a couple of quick layers of paint I then secured the ring to the outer cover with some glue.

Here's the unit without the plastic cover. Speaking of which, the plastic cover was the next thing on the list.

I traced the outline from the old cover (which I couldn't use for two reasons; it was concave, touching the needle, and it had a hole for the clock setting knob). It turned out that the plastic I had bought cracked far too easy and I had to scrap my first attempt.

Despite doing my best not to scratch or crack the second cover it still cracked almost everywhere. At least I avoided the scratches and it turns out that when the unit is mounted in the instrument cluster the cracks aren't visible. If I had more time I'd redo it until it's perfect but I have to settle with this as I do not have more time.

Still, not to bad for a days work if you ask me.

Vacuum, interior and clock/tachometer swap

Unfortunately I didn't bring the camera with me this past Saturday as my brother needed it. Unfortunately because I actually made some progress as far as getting things back together in working condition instead of just taking things apart.

The first thing I got up and running was the vacuum for the heater system. I didn't test all vacuum diaphragms but those I did test worked so I'm cautiously optimistic as for the state of the others.

I also got the clock out of it's housing although I had to resort to violence as one pin broke loose, preventing me from removing the nut from it. I've been told that there's plenty of clocks to go around though so it wasn't too bothersome putting the hacksaw to it.

The next thing was to take apart my external Autometer tachometer which didn't prove to be all that taxing. After disassembling it I did a quick test fit in the old clock housing and I'll need to do quite a bit of fabrication in order to marry the two but it should be quite doable.

That's how far I got with the clock/tachometer project as I also started to straighten out and re-fasten a trimming that has come off from the roof on the drivers side (this is the best "before" picture I have of it).

This proved to be harder than I thought as I'm most likely missing some sort of clips or similar to fasten it with as no matter how I re-shaped it, it wouldn't stick to the ceiling properly.

I got a proper price estimate for a couple of parts ($50 for the wiper motor was some sort of delirious dream); the wiper motor is $165 and the high-speed fan motor relay is $19. Considering that I'd need to pay VAT, shipping and customs on these parts if I brought them in on my own from the states it's a very decent price.

Next up is to ask for a price quote on a couple of oil system mods from TA Performance that might be what I need (I had some concerns about the oil pressure of the engine when I got the car).

Oh, and I need to talk to the bank about a loan as well.