My 83 Monte Carlo SS carb LS build

[Injectedcutty]

My other thought is the calipers might be somewhat stuck not allowing full travel of the piston to engage the pads onto the rotors. Or the drums for that matter, just a thought.

I can't be of much help on the shadow box setup as i basically took apart my cluster, trimmed the side pieces off, and glued them to the gauge surround which essentially makes my custom cluster appear kinda factory looking. I'm sure it would be similar to that process and the shadow box just takes the place of the oem cluster in the dash. HTH

 

[6spdg37s]

My other thought is the calipers might be somewhat stuck not allowing full travel of the piston to engage the pads onto the rotors. Or the drums for that matter, just a thought.

I can't be of much help on the shadow box setup as i basically took apart my cluster, trimmed the side pieces off, and glued them to the gauge surround which essentially makes my custom cluster appear kinda factory looking. I'm sure it would be similar to that process and the shadow box just takes the place of the oem cluster in the dash. HTH

was thinking that too !

chasing down some electrical stuff now... the courtesy fuse blows as soon as u put anything in going to check the usual cig lighter, light stuff... anything else obvious?

I changed the headlight switch and the dimmer switch and the headlights work now ...but no tails or running lights... now I realized i may have clipped the switch in wrong way (brain fart) and that could be it... .

 

[Opie Knievel]

Glad to see you got it running!

 

[6spdg37s]

current issues I am working on are

1) courtesy fuse blows right away....
2) headlights and brake lights work, I have no tails or running lights my understanding is that runs thru the fuse which has power, somewhere between the fuse and the light switch there must be a break
3) the brake thing still I don't think that the new booster is bad, and I do believe that the car is making enough vacuum.... I want to do the blazer drop spindles and blazer calipers, rotors, hubs etc; so that would potentially solve the issue if it was seized and such...
4) need cooling fans still (I have my camaro ones i might try to make work)

tons of other stuff but this is what is currently bothering me.

 

[6spdg37s]

so I did a little more investigating into the brake booster issue today and put the car on the lift and each will spins freely when u brake the wheel stops. the master is working properly, i am going to try another booster... I am getting 12" of vacuum at idle but the pedal feels exactly the same as when u rev it up and get the vacuum up to 20"

do I need a vacuum canister or do I need an electric vacuum pump ? kind of stumped here

I also did a little more digging into the wiring issues I was dealing with and since the cluster and other things are removed already from when I did the heater box and cluster I am just going to pull the dash out (6 bolts) and clean up all the wiring the correct way.

there were tons of aftermarket things rigged into this car and its just a mess....

this is kind of discouraging because I feel like im taking a big step back here....

now im debating if while the dash is out should I just pull the front seats, replace the whole carpet while im at it...

 

[Texas82GP]

I don't think 12" of vacuum is enough for the booster. How are you getting more vacuum by revving it up?

 

[Injectedcutty]

Agreed with Jared....im pretty sure the power booster needs 16-18" of vacuum to work right. IMHO, i think the vacuum cans by themselves are a waste of money....i had one and it didn't really help.

With the addition of my electric vacuum pump my brakes operate better than factory without a doubt. It wouldn't hurt to have a canister inline with the pump so it could store the unused vacuum, I'm considering adding a canister but i want it hidden and that's hard to do with the layout of my engine bay. However, my summit pump has the relay/switch built into the unit and it shuts off at 22", once the level drops it cycles until it reaches that again.

Beauty of the pump is it can be mounted anywhere....i have mine mounted on the trunk ledge as to not add stuff into the bay.

 

[Injectedcutty]

In addition to you're other issues, if the dash wiring has been screwed with, i would yank the dash and clean up the wiring as you suggested. Wiring gives me anxiety lol, but I'm fairly good at it and have redone almost all of my wiring here and there by removing butt connectors and t splices i put in when i was young, and soldering/heat shrinking everything back together.

Might as well pull the seats....it's what 8 or 10 nuts to remove and the seats are out, carpet kits are reasonable via rockauto which sells the ACC brand (best for our cars imo).

Don't get discouraged man, the end result will be a ride that's in better shape than when you got it. Hell, you did the swap in like a month or 2!! If it makes you feel any better, my cutlass has been under the knife for 5 years...1-1/2 without a fresh motor, and probably another year before its done!!!

 

[Rktpwrd]

Agreed with Jared....im pretty sure the power booster needs 16-18" of vacuum to work right. IMHO, i think the vacuum cans by themselves are a waste of money....i had one and it didn't really help.

With the addition of my electric vacuum pump my brakes operate better than factory without a doubt. It wouldn't hurt to have a canister inline with the pump so it could store the unused vacuum, I'm considering adding a canister but i want it hidden and that's hard to do with the layout of my engine bay. However, my summit pump has the relay/switch built into the unit and it shuts off at 22", once the level drops it cycles until it reaches that again.

Beauty of the pump is it can be mounted anywhere....i have mine mounted on the trunk ledge as to not add stuff into the bay.

Just out of curiosity Scott, I've never run a vacuum pump, but may possibly need to in Olds Cool if I get any more aggressive with it. How loud/noisy is the pump?

D.

 

[6spdg37s]

I don't think 12" of vacuum is enough for the booster. How are you getting more vacuum by revving it up?

it went up to 18-20" it is definitely not enough

Agreed with Jared....im pretty sure the power booster needs 16-18" of vacuum to work right. IMHO, i think the vacuum cans by themselves are a waste of money....i had one and it didn't really help.

With the addition of my electric vacuum pump my brakes operate better than factory without a doubt. It wouldn't hurt to have a canister inline with the pump so it could store the unused vacuum, I'm considering adding a canister but i want it hidden and that's hard to do with the layout of my engine bay. However, my summit pump has the relay/switch built into the unit and it shuts off at 22", once the level drops it cycles until it reaches that again.

Beauty of the pump is it can be mounted anywhere....i have mine mounted on the trunk ledge as to not add stuff into the bay.

I am going to do a pump

we tested it today by running a vacuum line from my buddy's 87 s10 RWD blazer to my brake booster and running the s10 and checking the brakes and yes the booster is functioning correctly therefore I need more vacuum at the booster...

could there possibly be a vacuum leak in my car...highly doubt it because if I unplug the hose it spikes the idle up high and when u plug it back up it drops the idle down. so I just think the cam simply can't make enough vacuum at idle or low RPM for that matter.

In addition to you're other issues, if the dash wiring has been screwed with, i would yank the dash and clean up the wiring as you suggested. Wiring gives me anxiety lol, but I'm fairly good at it and have redone almost all of my wiring here and there by removing butt connectors and t splices i put in when i was young, and soldering/heat shrinking everything back together.

Might as well pull the seats....it's what 8 or 10 nuts to remove and the seats are out, carpet kits are reasonable via rockauto which sells the ACC brand (best for our cars imo).

Don't get discouraged man, the end result will be a ride that's in better shape than when you got it. Hell, you did the swap in like a month or 2!! If it makes you feel any better, my cutlass has been under the knife for 5 years...1-1/2 without a fresh motor, and probably another year before its done!!!

I personally hate wiring as well but it is doable. My boss knows the G-body better than anyone i ever met , he was a tech for GM in the 80s, in fact he took a piece of paper and off of memory drew out all the wiring harnesses, colors and order off of memory...

my boy also has a electronics business and is insane with wiring so he could always help me out if need be


also the dash apparently does not need to be removed to do the carpet so I will just address that at a later time once the car is drivable (all electronics functioning, new cluster that I am making installed, fully functioning brakes, etc
especially cause at that time i might do a bucket/console shifter swap as well but money is tight right now from doing so much in such a small period of time.

just got the window motors and door lock actuators in the mail today so i have to install them soon.

on the vacuum pump note... what is the best brand/price/model?

I saw JEGs an summit both have pumps for mid 200s , then there are pumps that cost over 500 bucks... so what is the difference? I prefer to be in the mid 200 dollar range obviously !