79' Cutlass. Over due budget build, LT1, 700r4, etc.

I've been on the forum for a few years now and I'm always looking at other peoples builds and have got some good inspiration. I have done a lot of work to my ride over the years and I feel I should have been keeping better records for myself and everyone else out there trying to flex their mechanic muscles.

Like I said, a lot of the work has been done for a long time I just wanted to start sharing with some like minded individuals! Hope you like it.

Here is my ride, got her thanksgiving of 2001 from my grandmother. She bought it new in 79 and she kept good records all the way through. It's been a lot of fun working on a car with such detailed history, not a lot of people get that opportunity.

Originally I used butt splices to graft the multiple wire harnesses together but figured it was time to make it official and solder all the joints and use heat shrink. The difference is amazing. You can tell the electricity is moving better.


I used a fuse/relay block from a mercury grand marquis. I worked that together between the stock cutlass harness and the 94 camaro harness. Here is a back side shot of the fuse/relay box. The wires from this went out to the 4 camaro harness plugs.


The mess of wiring layed out over the floor. It's nice to have an open area to work with out kids or animals or roommates tripping all over your goodies.


It's good to have an excess amount of every color of wire and then some because some of the plugs have 5 pink wires all in the same connector so you have to break it down and give each wire a new color.

After 2 days of painting and soldering joints this was the end result.

It's a dream. I had a power tune done to it, 1.6 rocker arms and other than that its stock internals. I was getting 25 mpg the other day before I started tearing it apart again.

It has stock 2.23 locked rear gears but I'm the cruiser type so it works great for me.

It's got a 92' 700r4 transmission, the overdrive let's the car spin @ 2k rpm at 70 mph all day. Very nice on gas like I said. But it will let you burn rubber when you want. It's fast on the freeway, borderline scary in a 33 year old car.

No cats, summit racing dual exhaust makes her sound like a beast.

There is more to come...

I did custom door panels and trunk, along with dvd player and screen in the visor. Lots of little things that I'll post up later. I'm working on my phone so all my uploads happen kinda slow.

A lot of people give the LT1 a hard time but I like it. Looks cooler than the LS motors and its different than the TPI setups. Just put on a new opti-spark. For the third time. I wish I had the money to invest in ac delco parts but the one I've been getting comes with a lifetime warranty. Sucks to pull the water pump by at least I get to inspect the oil and water seals on the pump and opti.

SWAPPING OUT OPTI-SPARK DISTRIBUTOR

You have to pull the air pump, water pump, belt and wiggle the crank pully off. Then you can get to it.


Then you can get at the 3 bolts bolting the opti down.