1980 Pontiac LeMans Station Wagon - G-T-faux (stuck with it, and can't shake it... like a bad case of herpes)
- Thread starter motorheadmike
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Regular registration is 65 a year or something like that for older stuff here.
The Malibu has "classic" plates which have a bunch of rules governing use but cost $35 up front and $1/year afterwards. Not subject to emissions or sound laws but can't drive it all the time either.
The Malibu has "classic" plates which have a bunch of rules governing use but cost $35 up front and $1/year afterwards. Not subject to emissions or sound laws but can't drive it all the time either.
When I got my classic tags last week they asked if I drove it all the time. I see cars that def look like daily's with classic tags. Local law enforcement doesn't have time to mess with us car guys over something like this when there are bigger fish to fry. You get into small town America and I bet it's a different story.
This is exactly why I don't have heritage/classic/antique plates or limited use insurance on my cars. I have them insured for full coverage so I can drive the wheels off of them - I cannot take them with me when I am dead. Plus, I live in a small town with some very bored (but, decent) cops - I don't want to give them any excuses.
They were actually enforcing it for awhile because of the rash of people that got these plates and used the car for commuting. My car is a little on the deep end of modified for the rules of that plates use in the first place so I don't need to give them more reasons to look into it or me.
I'm not always easy. Downtown Boise has has a weekend night cruise scene since long before I came along. Some self loathing stool pigeon got his thong twisted up over the noise of the cars and said he couldn't rent out the rooms in his swank hotel that faced the street. He and the tool mayor joined weak suck forces and the cops were out in force to try and put a stop to the cruise. Classics being exempt from the noise laws worked out nicely. 4" turbo back with a turnout toward the sidewalk. Sounded like a Powerstroke pulling a landscape trailer through downtown at full throttle. Could hear the turbine whistle echoing off the buildings. The fuzz wouldn't even make eye contact. It was way too loud for me so I put the muffler back on but it was fun to be a menace to the clowns for a bit.
Tossed the registration sticker on and got reacquainted with how well this car blows the tires off for 20 minutes this afternoon. Oh, how I have missed the song of my people!
Potato! potato! potato! blllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarhh! potato! potato! potato!
Potato! potato! potato! blllllllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarhh! potato! potato! potato!
This thing. Is expensive.
Fat tires and wide wheels cause problems on stock-style suspension. Last year's tall upper/lower ball joint and 5664 swap didn't render quite the results I desired. Why? Still not enough negative camber (static or gained). The tires are pretty much vertical - and if memory serves we are looking at only about 1.25 to 1.5* of negative camber leaving the UCA about 1/8" from the header primary tube with the shims maxed out - and keep smashing into my ultra-rare inner fenders. It is annoying.
The next bandaid? Expensive upper control arms (that have more negative camber built in with lots of camber gain under load) and set of Dorman (31064) ZQ8 progressive bump stops. So a call on UMI for these was made: https://gbodyforum.com/threads/umi-releases-new-product-adj-upper-a-arms-for-the-g-body.54205/ without balljoints... I'll swap the Proforged units over and if those don't do enough of what I want I'll shove these in: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qa1-1210-285b And if all else fails: narrower front tires.
Hooray for project creep!
I do have plans to auto-x this thing later on this year - so there is that justification for all this effort, right? Right.
Fat tires and wide wheels cause problems on stock-style suspension. Last year's tall upper/lower ball joint and 5664 swap didn't render quite the results I desired. Why? Still not enough negative camber (static or gained). The tires are pretty much vertical - and if memory serves we are looking at only about 1.25 to 1.5* of negative camber leaving the UCA about 1/8" from the header primary tube with the shims maxed out - and keep smashing into my ultra-rare inner fenders. It is annoying.
The next bandaid? Expensive upper control arms (that have more negative camber built in with lots of camber gain under load) and set of Dorman (31064) ZQ8 progressive bump stops. So a call on UMI for these was made: https://gbodyforum.com/threads/umi-releases-new-product-adj-upper-a-arms-for-the-g-body.54205/ without balljoints... I'll swap the Proforged units over and if those don't do enough of what I want I'll shove these in: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qa1-1210-285b And if all else fails: narrower front tires.
Hooray for project creep!
I do have plans to auto-x this thing later on this year - so there is that justification for all this effort, right? Right.
Here's the other thing I am looking into resolving. Valve train noise... the classic LS1 sewing machine sound. Now unlike so many folks who slap cams in these things I did a very detailed cycle of measurements to get the numbers in spec: https://ls1tech.com/forums/generati...34-build-sanity-check-measuring-pushrods.html In the end it called for a 7.350" push rod.
But, those numbers have always troubled me as everything in the engine was stock dimensions. A stock length pushrod is 7.389", but typical cam kits throw 7.400" units at the problem as it generally falls within GM's very forgiving design specs. So I placed an order for two sets of 11/32" pushrods from Frankenstein Engineering today - 7.375" and 7.400" respectively. I am hoping that an additional .025" is enough to clean up the noise - however, the 7.400" are still an option. Too long is also non-advantageous (for reasons outlined in the thread below). Either way I should have a suitable set of pushrods for the 4.8L depending if I mill the heads or not.
There is lots of interesting preload theory being discussed here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced-engineering-tech/433948-lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up.html
Now for the non-LS crowd here are a couple of really interesting posts about setting hydraulic preload:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced...lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up-2.html#post4085433
https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced...lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up-2.html#post4085434
I used to use between 3/8" and 1/2" turns on my old Vortec 355 and that thing was something special for an engine made of nothing at all special. Kinda miss that thing. However, I don't miss doing hot engine preload adjustments.
But, those numbers have always troubled me as everything in the engine was stock dimensions. A stock length pushrod is 7.389", but typical cam kits throw 7.400" units at the problem as it generally falls within GM's very forgiving design specs. So I placed an order for two sets of 11/32" pushrods from Frankenstein Engineering today - 7.375" and 7.400" respectively. I am hoping that an additional .025" is enough to clean up the noise - however, the 7.400" are still an option. Too long is also non-advantageous (for reasons outlined in the thread below). Either way I should have a suitable set of pushrods for the 4.8L depending if I mill the heads or not.
There is lots of interesting preload theory being discussed here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced-engineering-tech/433948-lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up.html
Now for the non-LS crowd here are a couple of really interesting posts about setting hydraulic preload:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced...lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up-2.html#post4085433
https://ls1tech.com/forums/advanced...lilfter-preload-vs-pump-up-2.html#post4085434
I used to use between 3/8" and 1/2" turns on my old Vortec 355 and that thing was something special for an engine made of nothing at all special. Kinda miss that thing. However, I don't miss doing hot engine preload adjustments.
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