Recent content by gto78

I've been told that you can register pretty much any plate you want. You have to mail the old plate to some special tag office that the county tells you to send to. Then it's inspected and if it's in good enough shape, and the numbers aren't already in use, then they will register it for you and...

I can say that if you replace the radiator, you definitely need to do a flush of the cooling system since you had corrosion. With that being said, I can almost gaurantee that a 43 year old pump will start leaking very soon after you do a system flush. The system flush is going to loosen all...

I've always been able to tell the difference by noting that the 8.5 has a much rounder cover when looking at the cover from the rear of the car.

Sounds like a great find, not many of them out there. Does it have the factory stereo, and a/c or heat? Some of them were special ordered with radio delete etc. My 79 Grand Am came stock with a 301 and automatic transmission, and I think 3.23 gears. I put in a 4 speed, Pontiac 400, and 3.73...

When you adjust them, remember to have it as hot as you can. When the engine heats up (especially if aluminum heads) the rocker clearance will tighten even more and more. So if you adjust everything cold, it will be too tight after it warms up. Another thing I always remembered was looser is...

Oh I didn't realize you had a flex fan. There are a few different styles, some work and some don't. My Grand Am had started running hot after I changed cam and intake. I figured I'd try a flex fan and see what happened. I installed a flex fan with pretty big blades, not the little tiny stiff...

My first thought is possibly a head gasket, starting to fail. Second thought is the % of anti-freeze. My dad had the same issue on an old Ford truck with the 300 cid inline 6 cylinder. Started with a bad leaking water pump bearing. After replacing the pump the truck always overheated. We...

The fork I have is slightly curved, almost straight.

Do you still have catalytic converters? Just thinking the smoke could actually be steam burning off moisture in the converters.

Re: Surprise - A glimpse of what I've been upto! I like the white/black look. The colors are pure contrast, when done right the color itself makes a statement. It's a pretty bold combination. Then just the right ground effects make it even better. Some cars are just plain white, but not yours...

I wouldn't open the EGR or heat crossover ports unless the emissions people inspect for that. Also, new design type heads make more power by being much more efficient. Part of being more efficient is burning less fuel, and also creating less wasted products in the exhaust. I'm pretty sure that...

Sounds like a common problem, and the engine has relatively low miles on it. If it were me I'd keep it very simple and not turn a common head gasket leak into an engine tear down and overhaul. I'd just pull the heads and check them to make sure they aren't cracked. If not, then either put new...

Lets get a supercharger on that sucker. Force feed some cubic inches into those cylinders, not too much just 3 or 4 psi...Get the exhaust system flowing with real dual pipes and headers like others just mentioned. Can you swap an older non computer distributor into that version of the engine? I...

It can get pretty frustrating trying to set the timing curve. I've been playin with springs and weights a little bit lately trying to get it exactly the way I want it and it's a pain in the *ss. My goal is for a total timing of 36 degrees @ approx 3,000 rpm. Doesn't sound too hard, just throw in...

I've had this problem in the past. Each time I just put my ammeter between the battery and the battery cable with the car turned off. You should only have a few milliamps for the clock running. However in my case one time there was about 1/4 amp draining. I pulled fuses one at a time until I got...