BUILD THREAD 86 GP 2+2~Blown 6.0

[81cutlass]

I intended to go to the salvage yard today, grab some 3" ball couplers at the exhaust shop on the way there and look at a 78 AMC spirit with a 401 today but I found out the yard was closed Christmas week (I've been burned with that before) and my plans flipped.

I intended to work a half day but that turned into almost a whole day and I didn't get into the garage until almost 5. Spent part of the afternoon trying to find a carbide burr to oval some holes and ended up going to 3 places before I found one.

Regardless I managed to get the bell housing modified and installed. It didn't sit fully into the block flat and I putzed around until I realized the pair of rear cover bolts were hitting the bell housing where it transitions into the cylindrical part. Those bolts have burned me before, when I bolted this 6.0 into the car originally 5 years ago with the 2004r.

Cut the slave cyl mount off too, ovaled out the last of the holes to mount the bell to the oil pan and cut some clearance around where the drivers side header goes. And took the burr after the bell to clear the rear cover bolts.

Not sure if modifying a $700 sfi bell retains it's rating or is something an intelligent person does but it's the game I play haha.

Cleaned up the trans too since no reason to put it in dirty. Almost put the trans in and caught myself and decided to finally put off what I've dreaded, cleaning the 30 year old oil and sand mix stuck to the trans tunnel. When I got the car the 2004r (that's now behind my turbo 4.1) had no joke 2" of oily sand goo on the sides. Same went for the trans tunnel in the car. The rear main on the 305 must have been shot and the car was a northern MN farm car so it got a nice coat of oil and sand every drive it made. I've slowly scrapped the goo off the floor over the past few years but never had the trans out long enough to actually address it. Burned a roll of blue shop towels and 2 cans of brake clean and part of my wax and geese remover gallon to get the floor clean but it's reasonably clean now. I don't get gravel in my eyes anytime I'm under the car now which will be nice.

Every one likes a clean transmission

Rear cover notches

Drilled 2 new holes for the Holley pan and ovaled a 3rd

Bell is on
You can see the moon shaped cut on the drivers side for the header and the lack of slave cyl bracket

Curse of the exon-valdez sbc rear main circa 1995

Too many towels later. Nobody will ever see it but it will keep crap out of my eyes so it's worth it.

Trans might finally go in tomorrow, depends on my motivation.

And my bad desire... The cash from selling the wagon roller really needs to go into a race car chassis but theres something about a 401 spirit....

 

[motorheadmike]

I intended to go to the salvage yard today, grab some 3" ball couplers at the exhaust shop on the way there and look at a 78 AMC spirit with a 401 today but I found out the yard was closed Christmas week (I've been burned with that before) and my plans flipped.

I intended to work a half day but that turned into almost a whole day and I didn't get into the garage until almost 5. Spent part of the afternoon trying to find a carbide burr to oval some holes and ended up going to 3 places before I found one.

Regardless I managed to get the bell housing modified and installed. It didn't sit fully into the block flat and I putzed around until I realized the pair of rear cover bolts were hitting the bell housing where it transitions into the cylindrical part. Those bolts have burned me before, when I bolted this 6.0 into the car originally 5 years ago with the 2004r.

Cut the slave cyl mount off too, ovaled out the last of the holes to mount the bell to the oil pan and cut some clearance around where the drivers side header goes. And took the burr after the bell to clear the rear cover bolts.

Not sure if modifying a $700 sfi bell retains it's rating or is something an intelligent person does but it's the game I play haha.

Cleaned up the trans too since no reason to put it in dirty. Almost put the trans in and caught myself and decided to finally put off what I've dreaded, cleaning the 30 year old oil and sand mix stuck to the trans tunnel. When I got the car the 2004r (that's now behind my turbo 4.1) had no joke 2" of oily sand goo on the sides. Same went for the trans tunnel in the car. The rear main on the 305 must have been shot and the car was a northern MN farm car so it got a nice coat of oil and sand every drive it made. I've slowly scrapped the goo off the floor over the past few years but never had the trans out long enough to actually address it. Burned a roll of blue shop towels and 2 cans of brake clean and part of my wax and geese remover gallon to get the floor clean but it's reasonably clean now. I don't get gravel in my eyes anytime I'm under the car now which will be nice.

Every one likes a clean transmission
View attachment 165073

Rear cover notches
View attachment 165074

Drilled 2 new holes for the Holley pan and ovaled a 3rd
View attachment 165075

Bell is on
You can see the moon shaped cut on the drivers side for the header and the lack of slave cyl bracket
View attachment 165076

Curse of the exon-valdez sbc rear main circa 1995
View attachment 165077

Too many towels later. Nobody will ever see it but it will keep crap out of my eyes so it's worth it.
View attachment 165078
View attachment 165079

Trans might finally go in tomorrow, depends on my motivation.

And my bad desire... The cash from selling the wagon roller really needs to go into a race car chassis but theres something about a 401 spirit....
View attachment 165080

Those bolts and that grime.
That all too familiar sting...

 

[81cutlass]

I felt the sting repeatedly today too from the dozens of small cuts I got cleaning the floor last night.

But I went back for seconds tonight. Planned to see some family and hit the road this morning but we finally got whalloped with a snow storm and was informed to stay home by the inlaws. Rained this morning and was in the 40's but around 1pm today the rain turned to snow and we're forecast for 8-12". Good reason to stay inside and install a trans!

My 40k btu heater I put in last winter is coming in pretty handy. The garage is well sealed but not insulated so it does lose heat. Let the heater run about 4 hrs before I go out and it gets to a comfortable 55-60 so no complaints. I'll see how it manages when it actually gets cool out (below 20F). I changed both solid wood single pane doors to new steel ones this summer so I think that's helping quite a bit.

Anyways car stuff. Did a bit of reinforcing on the crossmember before I put it back in. Dad made the stock crossmember dual exhaust capable 5 years ago at my request when I was still in college (err I guess the first time). He just grabbed a piece of 4x6" chisel plow tubing that was drop stock from work, welded the crossmember to a big plate, cut a 6" gap out, spliced in tube and welded and then cut off plate. It worked good but made the exhaust unserviceable. I cut the bottom half off when I pulled the trans and gusseted it a bit.

Stabbed the trans back in, installed the driveshaft, safety loop, shifter and some wiring. Basically done! Still need to get the exhaust in but am getting couplers in so I can actually service the trans again relatively fast.

Gussets

In we go

Home again

And my mess that is the mid pipes. I didn't have enough parts supplied from pypes when I bought the exhaust and needed to make it the next weekend to power tour so I kinda hacked it together. I need to weld some stuff instead of clamping it and maybe with couplers it will be serviceable.

 

[fleming442]

I'm digging your driveshaft loop- nice work!

 

[64nailhead]

I'm digging your driveshaft loop- nice work!

Agreed - very tight setup. I wish he'd made it bolt to the crossmember though. The floor mount is safe to everything except the floor.

I like the crossmember exhaust cutout. I can't go along with spending $300+ for an aftermarket member that is heavier than the original. He's inspired me to do the same thing!!

 

[81cutlass]

I'm digging your driveshaft loop- nice work!

Thanks! A former coworker that used to be an aerospace welder did it for me. At the time I had a 3.5" nascrap driveshaft and since a t56 is pretty long none of the off the shelf options worked, they were either too short or too thick between the driveshaft and floorpan.

Agreed - very tight setup. I wish he'd made it bolt to the crossmember though. The floor mount is safe to everything except the floor.

I like the crossmember exhaust cutout. I can't go along with spending $300+ for an aftermarket member that is heavier than the original. He's inspired me to do the same thing!!

Bolting it too the crossmember makes sense. Didn't think of that before. Yeah I'm not sure what Gforce's issue is with making giant crossmembers. They can't hold more than 400 lbs in the car and see little to no torque load but are made to hold 10,000 based on their size.

Outsourcing fab work to Dad doesn't usually result in what I expected but it always works out!

 

[81cutlass]

Really a nitpicky project. Redoing my power steering hoses and changing the gearbox input seal since it's shot. I don't have a snap ring plier the right size so I gotta grab the one from work next week.

Dug through my parts boxes and found the original SBC power steering hose. Wondered why I didn't use that instead of the too long GMT800 hose I have had on for 5 years and realized it had a big split down the side.

The GMT800 2500 feed hose was like 18" too long so I am going to replace it with some saginaw to -6 JIC fittings and then get a hydro hose made. Return is a going to get redone too and I got a 90° elbow barb and grabbed dads crimping tools and just make a simple loop.

Also ordered my summit body bushing kit. See how that project goes! Hopefully I don't have any destroyed frame holes and all the bolts come out relatively smoothly.

 

[81cutlass]

Oh and moderate rant.

Went to order my ball coupler exhaust joints for my headers to midpipes so I can get the exhaust done.

I have used a few of these and I really like them. They are made by a local Central MN company (hearthrob exhaust) and are good quality. They don't rust solid like slip couplers and don't rattle loose like typical ball couplers. Summit has them but I wanted to order local, and whoever summit uses to make them must use the same tooling for 2.5 and 3" so the 3" ones are just belled up from 2.5 to 3" instead of 3" straight through.

$120 for couplers seems expensive but they are really nice. Usually I stop at the place on the way to my favorite salvage yard since its on the way but it's late season so I thought I'd just order them since I don't think I am going to make it any time soon now with the snow.

Go into shipping, yeezus. $56 to ship 6 pounds an hour east? Holy hell. Looks like I am going to the salvage yard and freezing my butt off just to save $55 on shipping by stopping at the factory on the way there.

 

[Injectedcutty]

Yeah man shipping is nuts right now. I ordered some custom made stuff from a guy in Idaho last week, only weighs 2lbs and us $45 to my door. The box is a couple feet long, but still!

 

[81cutlass]

Onto exhaust.

Got the 3" Euro joints Monday on my salvage yard trip and started piecing them together. This is a Pypes 3" kit and it was decent from the tailpipes up to the X pipe but Pypes didn't seem to provide enough pipe to get up to the headers. I pieced stuff together at the time I installed the exhaust and decided I would clean it up this time around. I had 2 3" female couplers to make things work and 1 was welded in and the other was just sitting loose.

I should be able to get rid of at least 3 maybe 5 muffler clamps and I am welding everything from the couplers back to the x pipe. Biggest pain is going to be welding the couplers to the headers since I am too lazy to pull them off the car. Honestly it's pretty easy, just removing the 'mid' pipes and replacing them with the couplers. Then I can take what is left of the midpipes and replace some of my hackery.

Honestly I really like exhaust work (at least this stage) where you are bandsawing and welding.