L67 Fbird Revision B

[81cutlass]

Dad unceremoniously ripped the drivetrain out of rusty red today

And yeah, it's a 61 international 560 diesel Wheatland. Tin was mint and he pulled it off to install the loader and repaint it, but it hasn't made it back on.

Pontiac life

 

[81cutlass]

In a long enough timescale everything becomes collectable I guess!!!

When dad and I picked up rusty red 97 in 2011 when it really wasn't that rusty, but the front brake lines were stuck when I loosened them from the ABS module and we ended up having to redo the entire lines on the front, and over the years ended up working our way the entire way through the car with new lines. Nothing was available obviously so everything was parts store sticks and bending on your knee or a roll of raw tube and flaring. What a disaster!!!

This 99 has the same issue, previous owner went ape on the front lines removing them to drop the K member and they need to be patched and reconnected to the ABS module.

Enter the passage of time, inline tube makes entire repop brake line kits. WAAAY better than trying to build individual sticks out of parts store racks or bend and flare my own. Really the 99 lines aren't that bad rust wise but the hassle of trying to patch stuff together vs. all new made replacing everything an obvious choice. Trying to future proof I guess.

Something about spending 18% on the purchase price of the vehicle just for brake lines makes you question HotRodding decisions sometimes though haha...

Oh and good news, the previous owner actually did not totally butcher the fuse panel under the hood. It's mostly untouched which is great. Still need to figure out the PCM harness to chassis harness connectors and PCM harness to dash harness connections. GM moved some wire connections from under the dash to under the hood between the LT era 93-97 cars and LS era 98-02 cars that I need to solve.

Plus, 99 was DBW so no cruise module where 97 has a box under the hood to pull the throttle. Need to splice that in somehow.

Eventually the 99 dash will need to come out and get replaced by the 97 dash harness and gage cluster, but the goal is to get the car running and temporarily splice the OBD2 and limited connectors from the 99 dash into the 97 PCM harness.

 

[81cutlass]

Dad hauled the engine down. I need to clean it up, see if any seals need changed and address the fuel system.

There was a bit of hackery here. Dad has his f350 half parted out for his f600 project which isn't done and ended up welding up a stand with sliders and picked it up on saw horses with the tractor and slid it into the Yeep. Then we just slid it out of the Yeep and onto my sawhorses with a ratchet strap.

I need to borrow my friends forklift to install everything when I get to that point.

Trying to get done with my 2004r first....

 

[81cutlass]

Totally tubular

Trying to fit my Inline Tube kit.

As mentioned, the car needs front lines because the previous owner went ape over the K member to ABS module lines and there isn't much to patch into.

Plus the entire kit is cheaper and easier than BSing with making my own.

They only offer traction control TA style kits and this car is a lowly V6 car so i've had to reflare one line, toss 2 out, and do some bending tweaks but it's at least 80% of the way there.

 

[81cutlass]

Hooked up the battery to make sure everything powers up.

It's only got 110k, total surprise there, actually had no idea

Despite the power window motor wiring being cut it has power and works perfectly fine

Radio even works and the HVAC, power seats and lights work.

I need to get the rest of the rubber parts for the brake system on order

 

[81cutlass]

Ok, so 2 big updates I need to make on the L67 before it gets installed

1- Convert the 97 mechanical throttle/analog gauge harness to a 99 DBW/CAN gauge harness. The 97 harness is a bit ugly so going to something that's cleaned up a bit is a good call. I found a 99-02 DBW harness and think I can add the IAC and TPS pins, remove the DBW stuff, and flash a 98 computer with a 98 3800 mechanical throttle tune. Then it will talk via CAN to the gauges and do DBC stuff.

2- add a return style fuel pressure regulator. This setup was put together by 17 year old me and generally works, but with it being returnless I got some fuel pressure loss and occasional airlock. The tight blower elbow means I don't have room to use a standard 90 degree elbow on the back.

So plan, drill & tap an AN 90 into the side of the rail, weld the hole in the back of the rail shut, weld the 90 into the rail (since there isn't enough meat in the side of the rail to not leak) and run a return hose to the drivers side.

I was able to sneak an ORB to JIC tee on the back of the drivers rail and fish an AN 90 off the back. Just barely..

Lathe savin the day again

 

[Supercharged111]

Did that big old honkin' inlet elbow do anything productive for you?

 

[81cutlass]

Did that big old honkin' inlet elbow do anything productive for you?

Made the throttle body not exist where the radio does 🤷‍♂️

 

[Supercharged111]

Made the throttle body not exist where the radio does 🤷‍♂️

Ahh, derr, this went into a longitudinal drivetrain. I was thinking you'd opened it up and you did, but no before/after data as it's always been a thing.

 

[81cutlass]

Ahh, derr, this went into a longitudinal drivetrain. I was thinking you'd opened it up and you did, but no before/after data as it's always been a thing.

Correct.

The 2-3 other people that have done this have either made a rectangle box/elbow thats aluminum and welded to the blower housing, a steel 2.5" muffler pipe that bolts onto the blower housing TB flange (but requires the firewall to have a notch welded in)

I used these 2 schedule 40 aluminum elbows, yeah, they are much larger than the throttle body diameter, unnecessarily large, but it made connecting everything more easy. The OD of the schd. 40 pipe was about the same as the outside casing of the blower housing so we didn't have to make any filler pieces.

Probably makes no additional power if the diameter stepped down 1" but woulda made mounting everything more difficult.