EL CAMINO White lightning our 81 street/strip car

BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
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146
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Front runner acquired. Was supost to meet with a guy this past Saturday, turned out he posted them incorrectly they were 5x4.5 instead of 4.75

Thursday night when I was messaging him the wife and I looked at them on summit they were $127 a piece, Sunday while at breakfast I had other thing I added to the list saving them in my wish list.

notice they where no longer branded summit and they had dropped the price to $91

She goes order them,

Well sh*t that wasn’t the next things on the list but ok done and done! I’m excited to have matching wheels!
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BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
44
146
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Few week hiatus from working on white lightning got some house projects done and now it is getting to be crunch time so let the work re commence

Been watching this filter hang on the clearance rack for a bit at my local orielly’s.

one of the employees told me the longer it is there the cheaper it gets picked it up for $33
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Got the tour of destruction on the ol 19in and got to work.
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Got the kid out there and pulled the hood, I sure do like it in the bed instead of the roof
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Starter wire, torque converter bolts, heater hoses, power steering and a ground and I can give it a tug to find what I missed

I was blown away. Living in a salt state I unbolted the exhaust from the manifold. I couldn’t believe it. I grabbed my impact and did the well I’m expecting these to snap
 
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BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
44
146
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Old leaky 305 is out, feel like a dang bomb went off in the garage but forward progress, waiting for a few parts to show up so in the mean time I’ve got some engine bay clean up to do and a few wires that need some attention
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Sweet_Johnny

Has A Face For Radio
Supporting Member
Oct 4, 2022
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Wichita, Kansas
Put some new poly inserts in the motor mounts.
Agreed, but only if you get the matching trans mount. I've broken 2 trans cases by combining rubber with poly- it's gotta be all one or the other.
 
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BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
44
146
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Clean and paint and clean and paint and clean and paint is what’s happening,

getting accessories swapped over, brought my alt up to be tested I had a sneaky suspicion it was over charging at the end of last year, yup junk,

Man it is amazing what a clean up and a coat of paint will do.
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Sweet_Johnny

Has A Face For Radio
Supporting Member
Oct 4, 2022
669
1,218
93
Wichita, Kansas

BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
44
146
33
couple more parts came in, water pump, t-stat, flex plate bolts, water pump bolts, Polly trans and motor mount inserts, Sfi rated flex plate…

but I f’ed up not once but twice on the flex plate somehow I managed to order one for a newer motor… externally balanced and one piece rear main, this motor is neither of those so that’s going back I was really hoping to get the motor in this weekend but that’s not going to happen.

got the water pump painted, accessories installed, alt is just there so I could get brackets lined up. I am going to get a new one comming on my next order.

Going to order a different alt bracket as it doesn’t line up with the intake bolt location. I know I can run it that way but not a fan of how it look.

modified the power steering brackes since the a/c is gone it doesn’t need to be nearly as long so that cleaned up the look a little bit on the driver side of the motor
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BudsJLM

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Nov 30, 2009
44
146
33
not a lot has gone on in the last few weeks. We have had a lot going on in life that has been keeping me from working on it. Few house projects got done atleast

So I’ve been collecting parts, new rad, rad cap upper and lower hoses, different alt mount, gauges so I can keep an eye on the vitals, correct flex plate, carb studs, front tires, picked up a set of tall aluminum Chevrolet valve covers off market place, need to be cleaned up and painted but they were cheap! and I fell like I’m missing some stuff but those all came in,

im verry behind my personal goal of having it running and driving by this weekend and I don’t see that happening unfortunately but life will do that to a guy.

but tonight I got the front tires mounted and “balanced”(balance beads)

I couldn’t imagine trying to do a wider tire on the wheel it was bad enough trying to get a 185 on a 4 inch wheel but using tire spoons and doing it at home is a lot different than using a machine

also checked valve spring pressure to make sure I’m not going to kill the cam when breaking it in


after mounting I realized I wish I would have went up a size or two to get a little more sidewall. These are 185/60r15 on a 15x4 kind of wishing I would have went with a 185/65 or 70

these are a 23.7in tire and a 65 would be 24.5 and 70 would have been a 25.2

but ya live ya learn they were cheap and I’ll run them till they are gone or I’ll toss em on the back and burn em off at the end of the season
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