19 year old's 84 cutlass build thread

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MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
Got an update for you guys. I've gone through getting my new short block prepped. It's a 010 block, but unfortantly it's not 4 bolt. Oh well it will still hold up. I kinda of changed up my directon of machine work on my block. I decide to not zero deck the block because down the road I want to go 383 and will make the decsion then to zero deck or not.

It's now .030 over I've got it painted and almost ready to assemble. I'm just waiting on my bearings, rings, and pushrods to show up from Summit. I'm sticking with my cam I ordered from Summit for now for a couple reasons. I'm going to be going with roller rockers trying out 1.5, 1.6, and a 1.5/1.6 together. With the cam I've got now my engine will easily meet my horsepower goals. Which is atleast a 1:1 hp/cu ratio. Should be around 380+ at the flywheel. Keyword should. We will see.

I've been very seriously considering going power adder route. Possibly turbo route. I've been studying up on it. I'm trying to have my car be able to run 12.99. But with my old engine setup talking to other racers and such if I went with a 3.73 I would of been in the 12's. I think if I keep going the route I'm going with my engine, run 3.55 or 3.42 gears I should be in the 12's and have a little bit better RPM on the highway.

I've got my extra 10 inch TCI converter I will be throwing on the the transmission. I believe it stalls between 2,500 and 3,000? With the better gears and the way the engine is setup should make a good combo. I've also swapped the fuel system from mechanical to electric. I just have to re route my lines a little bit. I believe I'm going to do to the dash the same thing we have in the race cutlass. Take out the gauges and the piece that surrounds the lights gauges and all that and put a piece of black lexan in there with aftermarket gauges. Haven't decided completely yet. Reason being I'm going to be cutting weight in the car because I'm installing a roll bar. Haven't decided if I'm running the rear seat saver bars in the back so I can keep the rear seat or not.

I don't really have more then 1 person with me ever. But If I go that route I believe per NHRA rules I have to seal the drivers compartment from the truck with a metal plate. So still deciding. I'm probably going to keep the HVAC unit for the sole purpose of Defrost but my biggest problem is not having the extra vacuum ports for the blend doors and such. This cam already pulls barely enough vacuum for brakes, dizzy, and modulator. So we will see how it goes this winter. If everything comes out okay them it's coming out.

Hopefully in the next week or so the car will be back on the road. So fingers crossed!
 

307 Regal

Royal Smart Person
Oct 21, 2009
1,667
915
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Northern Indiana
MPac said:
Hopefully in the next week or so the car will be back on the road. So fingers crossed!

Good luck, man! Glad you decided to keep the car.
A turbo would be sweet. Complicated, but sweet. One of my best friends tools around with a Mazdaspeed Protege (turbo/5 speed). I rarely get to drive it but it's enough fun just sitting in the passenger seat listening to that turbo and feeling it build power. I'd love to have a turbo myself. Since I'm wanting to go with a Buick 350 for my cruiser, it'll have to be that or a procharger. Nobody makes a supercharger for it. :?
 

MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
Thanks man! Ever since we got our 9 second T Type I've been hooked on turbos 8)
 

MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
PICTURE PICTURE PICTURES!!! IT's useless to have a thread without pictures! My order from Summit came in today so when I get off work I will get pictures of the finsh up of the install of my shift kit. And the pictures of the engine coming together. Engine should be together tonight!!!! :D If all goes well and I get my engine together tonight and the transmission back together then tommorow during my lunch break I will be dropping everythiing in the car and it should be running by thursday night! Just in time for the big car show that goes on in my town once a year. So fingers crossed for friday. The nice thing about this show is there is alot of car is in progress so I won't get hate for the car not being 100 done. But when I open the hood its gonna be ohhh man! SO get ready for the update tonight! BTW guys just an FYI if you listen to Montley Crew Kick start my heart whilst working on the vehicle it gets you pumped up!
 

MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
Well good news and bad news. I got my shift kit installed and done in about 30 minutes. Anybody whos conserned about it being complicated or hard it's really not. It's pretty simple. Basicly a rachet a 1/2 inch couple screw drivers and a drill and your good to go.

Never used this B&M Shift improver kit before but we will see how it does. Got started on my engine tonight it's been going great! Went out got the main bearings in then I dropped the crank in and plastigaged. I was very pleased with my clearance being at .0025 pretty much right where I wanted it to be. Pulled the crank again lubed up the bearings installed the rear main seal dropped the crank back in and torqued everything down.

It had taken me awhile and I should've called it quits then, but, I kept on going. So I started to put the rings on the pistons and drop them in. Get 2 done and on the 3rd one I broke the freakin' second ring! I'm pretty P.O.'d I did that. I deffinatly make mistakes when I get tired. So now I have to find a way to pull money out of my but to buy and ring and get this slammed together. But any hooters enough rambling I've got some pictures but they ain't the best.
 

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307 Regal

Royal Smart Person
Oct 21, 2009
1,667
915
113
Northern Indiana
It really threw me off when you said "But any hooters." haha
When I put my Transgo shift kit in my 200-4R I had to rebuild my valve body. You didn't have to do that with the B&M kit, did you? Also, tough luck on the piston rings but hey, at least you get to build an engine! 8)
 

MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
Lol yeah I say that all the time. With the B&M kit you don't rebuild it. It's weird that I've put plenty of manual valve bodys in to our race cars but never done a shift kit lol. But Luckly I went to the guy we get our machine work done at L&M Automotive. And he gave me a free ring! I was really happy with that. 8) :D But I've got the roatating assembly together now and the cam in. When I get home from work I'm going to be putting the oil pump on, painting my heads, and getting the engine buttoned up. About another couple hours of work pretty much. If the weather holds and if I have light I might get to drop it in tonight! :mrgreen: fingers crossed! :banana:
 

MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
Engines done finallyyyyy! I love bolting on new parts! :wink: All that's left is pull it out bolt on the transmission and drop 'er in! I'm tired and sore from shooting my gun today so if I say something that don't make since I apologize. But any way enough gabbing it's picture time! 8)
 

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MPac

Greasemonkey
Apr 5, 2012
154
0
0
New Carlisle, Ohio
So the past couple days I've taken 1 step forward and two steps back. Sunday I installed my engine that went smoothly went to install my transmission and somehow managed to break an ear off. F!&)@!*!!!! Well I was trying to figure out what to do weld it, buy another transmission, or rebuild one of the extra race car transmission. Well I decided against getting it welded because I feel like the heat would distort it making it impossible to mount, I didn't want to spend money on an unknown transmission either.

So I decided to use the first turbo 350 we had in the race cutlass. It worked good till it lost all forward gears unless you revved the hell out of it. Then I thought to myself well my transmission is in great shape minus the ear, what if the other one just needs clutches and steels? Hmmmm. So tonight I tore that transmission down and low and behold the clutches were burnt out. Yippy!!!

So I pulled the front drum assembly and the one with the imput shaft on it out of my good transmission and put it in this one, while I was at it I put my new shift kit in it. Got it all back together and bolted up then I saw I left the planetary that went on the sun gear out... :x You've got to be kidding me....

Since it's 3:30 in the morning and I've got to be to work at 8:30 I'm just going to leave it till tomorrow. So I'm going to have to tear this transmission apart once again. Ugh this is just not my week. FYI guys I've never been into a transmission other then to do a fluid and filter change and just so you know if you have never rebuilt a turbo 350 before and was considering it you should go ahead and do it. It's very easy just make sure you set the parts out in order the you took them out. The hardest part is getting the pump off. But once you get past that it's a cake walk.


No pictures right now but tomorrow I'll get a picture of the engine bay and pictures of me teaing in to the transmission. Till then keep it between the ditches ya'll.
 

86monte

Apprentice
Apr 30, 2012
99
54
28
Vermont
8TRAY said:
86monte said:
Sounds like things are coming along good. I cant find any of the parts i need for my monte. It sucks.
try checking the for sale section of the forum, craiglist, ebay, local yards.... the parts are out there, just gotta go get em. trust me, the longer u wait, the longer it will take for u to even be motivated and then it really sucks. theres always somebody on here or other gbody forums selling something.

Well you were right. I found an 86 SS Monte for $700 bucks. Has all the parts i need! Looks like things are Coming along good keep up the good work!
 
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