82 Old Nutless to not so Nutless

[Pedrolif]

Went and picked up my new "Spectra" oil pan today. Then headed of to Michael's to swap it out.
Got it pulled all by myself, after forgetting to take the shift linkage off again. Might have to stick that in a vise later.
Gratuitous transmission pics incoming.
The lines need to be redone, and not sure what's up with where the kickdown should have been. Should have tried to take the screw out of it while I had it out, but too late. It's back in. The other two pics are just about the only markings I can find on the transmission other than the stamped number found further up in the post just bellow that single wire sensor in the middle pic. All I got from searching google for T18 was a Ford manual transmission, which this is not. Most Uni-case transmissions I've seen also have a different bellhousing shape, so I have no clue how old this thing is or what it really is.
Black wire goes which leads to the three black wires I'm holding. One to ECM (i think, it does feed back into the conduit that vanishes into the passengers side firewall), one to the nice plug on the right and one just off screen at the top. Red wire that has melted the whole damn plug goes to the plug with the orange blue and purple wires. For the time being I wrapped the melted black wire in some good old electrical tape... and the melted plug... and the random wire that was already taped up and caught under my valve cover. Wish I took a pic of that one. Covered in oil, under the tape. It was a thing of beauty.
Rats nest of an engine bay from the previous owners swap.. and me swapping out the Rochester and stock intake for an Edelbrock Performer Carb and Intake. Way too many wires going onto the Rochester in my opinion. Black circles that you can't really make out are the black wire locations. The red circle is two maybe three lines that go no where. Kinda looked like vacuum lines? And isn't that just a lovely AC delete they did? .... After I get this thing running again and home, I'll be going through all the spare wires and removing clutter. Melted wires and plugs concern me. And since I'll be doing a true AC delete the halfassed way and keeping the current dash controls, I'll probably still need some of those wires. Best to leave everything plugged in for now and rewire the bay later from the fuse block back. To be continued in next post...

 

[Pedrolif]

I got it fit back into place and added the power steering pump back onto it. Turned out to be the PS pump from a 85 or so c20, not the correct one for an 82 Olds. I think I can still make the pressure line for the 82 olds work, just have to finagle it just right. Could be a little longer hose, but... I'll make it work. Have chrome valve covers coming in the mail later this week and my AC delete box. That should be fun. Might hold off on the install and restud my stock manifolds just to get this thing fired up and moving. Would rather work in my yard than my friends. My tool sets would like me more for one. Right now all my ratchets have gone AWOL, as have many sockets. Hell, I might even risk running it home with half the front bumper in the back seat I want to get it out of there so bad. Before that can happen, I still need to wire in my new electric fan and put the radiator back in. And the drive shaft and transmission lines. And distributor and wires. And exhaust..

At least the list is getting shorter. Now if I could find a way to buy this... https://nh.craigslist.org/cto/5549620411.html I would have a spare parts car. I could use the headlight bezels, front bumper and frame, hood (my clips are worn out and will not hold on the chrome strip and black is better) psh... might as well just swap the 350 diesel for the 350 gas, swap passengers side door and be a not so supreme cutlass. But that antenna would have to go.

 

[Pedrolif]

Oh, and any info anyone might have on this transmission that's getting tossed back in would be much appreciated. Came with torque converter that bolted up nicely, is the right length and sits on the crossmember correctly so it should be of the th350 family. Bolt holes didn't line up with the mounting block, but neither did the 250c. Will it be an issue running it with the single wire disconnected and the kickdown plugged off? I've been lead to believe that no kickdown just means when I downshift it will be sudden and not a gentle drop in RPM.

 

[Pedrolif]

Update!

Headers are in the engine bay, with the engine (though not bolted down yet). Drive shaft is hooked up with a new U-joint in the back and new Energy Suspension transmission mount in the front (also not bolted down yet). The new coat of paint I put on the headers is now spread around the various clearance issues due to crappy designed cheap headers, but hey... nothing a paint brush can't fix or ignore. Patched a few crappy wires, still deciding on the best way to eliminate the computer aside to cut it all out and rewire what I need from the fuse panel forward. Save that for after I get it back home.

Also saving the AC delete for when I get it back home. Was tempted to start while the motor was up in the air again for header install, but... wires.... Want to get it fired and brought home before I cut the wrong wire and it wont start.

I would add some shoddy pictures of the recent happenings, but left my camera on the window of the car last week and have not risked turning it on yet. Let it dry for a bit longer.

Tomorrow after work, loosen cross member so the transmission mount will line up with the hole, put motor mount bolts back in and torque down to "yup that's good", cross my fingers and hope the headers don't need to be clearance to fit the starter back in, and remove the fuel return line that ... has a breather filter on it. As of right now the pass header is sitting against it and will not mate flush to the head like it should. Granted, motor still needs to be set right.

 

[Pedrolif]

First off.. no, it's not running yet. Was hoping tonight would be the night, but work tomorrow and things happened, as they always do.

The list from last post:
Headers in and bolted on (they'll clearance themselves with the first few good revs)
Transmission all bolted down, new lines installed like an amateur, but they're all new steel
Defunct fuel return line is out of the way and will eventually get sent up by the filler neck as a vent. Hopefully getting rid of that pinched corner will help the tank fill better.

The new and what's holding me up:
All cooling lines hooked last night
Filled the radiator up last night in prep to get it running, it pissed all over the floor...
Third oil filter installed, first took the install hard, second wandered off after I took it off to install the headers
Power Steering pump has fluid in it and all lines tightened up (now it just needs to be run and filled/bled)

Today:
New Radiator installed, all lines back on and it's holding water. Electric fan remounted and ready to go.
Distributor and wires installed, went to fire it up for 2 seconds just to listen to it with nothing but the headers on and....

Main power cable to the starter is just chillin on the header... loosened it up to see if i could reposition it and noticed the new crimp for the starter solenoid decided to uncrimp itself. Reposition starter positive... and I'm positive it's too short to get safely away from the headers. Pick up a new longer one at work tomorrow. And rethinking the spark plug boots.

No pics from tonight's shenanigans, but here's a few from the other day.

 

[Pedrolif]

It's alive.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1127747107291660

Still need to do more break in, but with the headers glowing red hot, we need to revisit that after we painfully idle it at a lower RPM to get it dialed in, maybe change plugs. Any recommendations for plugs appreciated. Early 80's 350 with 64cc vortec heads from around '95-96? Performer intake, carb and cam. Stock pistons. Have NGK v-power plugs in it now, want to say 5755 but can't remember. I'll look it up tomorrow when I buy a new timing light to replace Michael's that we kind of melted.... The Cutlass engine bay doesn't like his electronics it seems. It's melted his phone and now his timing light. He needs to stop placing things on top of my exhaust manifold/headers.

Now to put the front end back on, register it and burn the weather-cracked tires off it.

 

[Pedrolif]

Add some photos soon, but for now, it moves under it's own power, shifts like a manual (still need to go over the trans and add the kickdown) and is legally on the road again (almost, inspection tomorrow).

Still to do:
Fix interior up, redo dash, install window motor or maybe two, some body work, speaker work, maybe go floor shifter... and whatever else pops into my head at the time.

 

[Pedrolif]

Today, made a quick backing plate for a gauge install. Think next go around it will either be thicker aluminium, steel plate, thin plywood or CNC'd for the third go around when Michael is back in school and can make me a sweet cluster. The holes came out slightly oblong given that the whole saw would drill through one spot of the thin aluminium sheet, and then promptly catch next time around. Drill press might help, but you work with what you've got. Didn't take any pictures of the work being done, but here's the crappy ending.

The pictures actually look better then the real thing, at least the small versions do. Was hoping to get them to fit inside the original lens.
I winged it on the spacing of all the guages, and guestimated on where the four screws needed to be to bolt it in place. Then had to trim the aluminium backing plate to get it to sit in there. It's not flush. The 3 3/8" holes were made with a 3 1/2" hole saw (couldn't find a 3-3/8") so the tach has quite a bit of wobble room between the spare 1/8" and oblong hole. Tach needs to move a smidge to the right, right hand side fits in.
Speedo doesn't work. Stock cable is held in with a clip, this one of course threads on. Even bypassing the "Cruise Control" that doesn't work doesn't help. I would have to unmount the cable and run it right up close to the headers which seem to get pretty damn warm.

2" holes were drilled out with a 2-1/16 hole saw and I think next go around I'll just use a 2" and add the extra notch to lock them in place.
Water Temp still needs to be placed into the block. The port in the front of the Edelbrock intake, just below the gooseneck is not deep enough for the sensor to fit into. Lost only a little coolant there.
Tach works! ... for a v-6 ... Need to take it all back out to hit the button and swap it to v-8. And install a speedo cable.
The rest of the gauges work, though I think the oil pressure gauge is leaking and haven't verified the Voltage is reading accurate. High beam indicator... good god is that thing bright. When I turn on the headlights it flashes briefly. Need to do something about that. The directional indicators don't light up even though they did before and I know I connected the right wires to the right places. Or I think I did. Figure it out when I tear it apart. If they are as bright as the Blue one, I can see those tiny 1/4" indicators my dad was supposed to have in stock going into the next cluster.
Yes... I painted the damn aluminium sheet primer grey. Just looking at that bare aluminium in the sun was blinding. Don't want that to happen going down the road. ACE had this nice chocolate brown color I almost picked up, but... 4 bucks a can. I'm stingy. Just got paid and already thinking I'm out of money. That and I have left over semi-gloss black paint sitting around somewhere.

One more thing I'll say about this wonderful Eques gauge set up that you can't see from the pics. Brand new bulbs, I put the blue caps on them to change the color. Look ok, but they are still just as dim as the original cluster was. Even at max. Might be brighter if I take off the blue caps, figure that out later. Or may just toss some LED bulbs in there with the blue caps. See how that goes. Also thinking I should have gone with the smaller triple gauge cluster. Then the Fuel would be larger, but It would give me more room to fit everything in. Still need to add red lights for a couple of dummy lights. Just a few. Brake light would be good. I don't need to know I'm not wearing my seat belt. That damn light never went off anyways.

 

[Injectedcutty]

Today, made a quick backing plate for a gauge install. Think next go around it will either be thicker aluminium, steel plate, thin plywood or CNC'd for the third go around when Michael is back in school and can make me a sweet cluster. The holes came out slightly oblong given that the whole saw would drill through one spot of the thin aluminium sheet, and then promptly catch next time around. Drill press might help, but you work with what you've got. Didn't take any pictures of the work being done, but here's the crappy ending.
View attachment 52025 View attachment 52026
The pictures actually look better then the real thing, at least the small versions do. Was hoping to get them to fit inside the original lens.
I winged it on the spacing of all the guages, and guestimated on where the four screws needed to be to bolt it in place. Then had to trim the aluminium backing plate to get it to sit in there. It's not flush. The 3 3/8" holes were made with a 3 1/2" hole saw (couldn't find a 3-3/8") so the tach has quite a bit of wobble room between the spare 1/8" and oblong hole. Tach needs to move a smidge to the right, right hand side fits in.
Speedo doesn't work. Stock cable is held in with a clip, this one of course threads on. Even bypassing the "Cruise Control" that doesn't work doesn't help. I would have to unmount the cable and run it right up close to the headers which seem to get pretty damn warm.

2" holes were drilled out with a 2-1/16 hole saw and I think next go around I'll just use a 2" and add the extra notch to lock them in place.
Water Temp still needs to be placed into the block. The port in the front of the Edelbrock intake, just below the gooseneck is not deep enough for the sensor to fit into. Lost only a little coolant there.
Tach works! ... for a v-6 ... Need to take it all back out to hit the button and swap it to v-8. And install a speedo cable.
The rest of the gauges work, though I think the oil pressure gauge is leaking and haven't verified the Voltage is reading accurate. High beam indicator... good god is that thing bright. When I turn on the headlights it flashes briefly. Need to do something about that. The directional indicators don't light up even though they did before and I know I connected the right wires to the right places. Or I think I did. Figure it out when I tear it apart. If they are as bright as the Blue one, I can see those tiny 1/4" indicators my dad was supposed to have in stock going into the next cluster.
Yes... I painted the damn aluminium sheet primer grey. Just looking at that bare aluminium in the sun was blinding. Don't want that to happen going down the road. ACE had this nice chocolate brown color I almost picked up, but... 4 bucks a can. I'm stingy. Just got paid and already thinking I'm out of money. That and I have left over semi-gloss black paint sitting around somewhere.

One more thing I'll say about this wonderful Eques gauge set up that you can't see from the pics. Brand new bulbs, I put the blue caps on them to change the color. Look ok, but they are still just as dim as the original cluster was. Even at max. Might be brighter if I take off the blue caps, figure that out later. Or may just toss some LED bulbs in there with the blue caps. See how that goes. Also thinking I should have gone with the smaller triple gauge cluster. Then the Fuel would be larger, but It would give me more room to fit everything in. Still need to add red lights for a couple of dummy lights. Just a few. Brake light would be good. I don't need to know I'm not wearing my seat belt. That damn light never went off anyways.

Awesome gauge setup, looks similar to my setup i made a few years ago! I updated it with real carbon fiber and have blue leds in all the gauges.

 

[Pedrolif]

Awesome gauge setup, looks similar to my setup i made a few years ago! I updated it with real carbon fiber and have blue leds in all the gauges. View attachment 52037

Does that fit under the original plastic covering? If so I may need to borrow blueprints.