Low Buck Chuck 79 Hurst Olds

[79Hurst]

Minor update, starting to gather steel wheels for the car so while I was out at the Turlock swap meet this morning I found a pair of 15x7 wheels so I picked them up for $20 so score 😀 I do plan on running the 15x8 in the rear but as far as I know GM never made the base rim in that size. I did however see a wheel maker there (petepaulson) and they will make me a pair of the 8" wide wheel for a couple hundred bucks.

Now, some of you think I may be going backwards in my wheel choice but I don't see a wide tire selection for the 14" originals to fit what we want in sizes. I will keep the aluminum rims for future use but for now I am going to run these. Try to overlook the Chevy bowtie on the hubcap and keep in mind the wheels will be painted Hurst gold to make it match the car as much as possible, and to have it look like a possible factory stealth look 8)

 

[79Hurst]

Well we went back to the swap meet and couldn't help it and bought 2 more 15x7 steel rims and in the spirit of saving some coin they will at least be painted and bolted on the car to see how they look.

Just found out I need to gut this 4L80 to get to the output shaft to change it over to a 2WD unit so I will dive into this myself and tackle it. Going to install a Transgo HD2 shift kit as well while I am in there. The local trans shop wants close to $900 to do this for me and that's not even rebuilding it so I feel the need to learn something new. Little nervous but I do have lots of information available to me if I get stuck or have questions so off we go....

 

[theoldsone]

Hey nice wheels and painting the wheel gold would look sick.

About a year ago I rebuilt a 4l60e for a silverado. It was alot easier than you think. Even though I've done it once or twice before that. Its real simple you tear every thing apart and throw all the pieces every where and when your done smash it all together.

Just take your time I would suggest printing out an exploded view of a 4l80e with labels/names of all the parts. Look over all of the pieces before you open it up. I expect you know you will need a pump puller and a "C" clip remover. Those clips are pretty hefty to try to remove with just a screwdriver. And if your planing on changing all the clutch packs you will need a tool to compress that awful spring.

 

[79Hurst]

I do agree with you on the trans, they have intimidated me for many years and finally I get the guts to tackle this job and of course I have a 4L80E sitting here talk about starting off easy 🙂 I am pretty mechanically inclined and adapt and improvise pretty well so this 'should' be something I am able to tackle. Now I need to figure out what parts I need to start this debacle :? Thanks for the vote of confidence too 8)

Bought some rattle can gold today that kinda matches the gold on the car, tomorrow I will have a BFG 255/60/15 tire mounted on it and bolt it in the rear to see how we look. I did search here for the paint code for the Hurst gold, wrote it down and brought it to the local paint supplier I use and they could not cross reference it to anything so I am still on the hunt for the proper color.

 

[79Hurst]

Another minor update, had the 255/60 mounted up this morning and came home to test fit. The 255 is quite large looking on the car compared to the 205/70/14 that came off of it, I could not imagine a 275 or larger for a true street car this size is good enough for this guy. I'm digging it, even though the gold does not match I like it already. No front tires yet, thinking about a 205/70 so I can lower it a little bit. Let me know what you think.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Never owned an Olds car, but plenty of Pontiacs and Chevy cars so it's not unfamiliar territory 🙂

Driven, thanks for the excellent info and links to the subjects I was going to ask about. I was going to stay with the 14" wheels for originality as my tastes swing towards keeping the cars I build on the factory look side instead of the aftermarket look but that's my tastes nothing against aftermarket wheels/suspension etc. I do plan on keeping this car in factory colors and interior layout/colors as much as I can. I do body and paint work too so this will get new paint on it too at one point during our journey and it will be white/gold.

I will plan on upgrading to 15" steel wheels to keep costs down and a better size for tire selections, paint them either gold or white and throw on some dog dish GM caps I have in the garage. They are Chevy caps but they might give it that factory hot rod look 8)

On the LS swap, I know I am up against a large task getting it CA compliant and in reality I may not achieve what I want to do with the car in this state before throwing in the towel or regretfully selling out of state. I do have all of the emissions that came with the truck, BUT I know I can't install a truck engine in the car so I will be off to look for full Vette or F body parts to at least look the part. I do have the cats, manifolds, tank evap parts, front and rear O2 sensors and harnesses, EGR etc so unless they start looking at block casting numbers or tap into the VIN in the OBC I am somewhat confident I am at least on the right track. I will be asking my tuner details about the VIN inside this computer and the ability to change or modify but those details I will keep out of this thread. I know there are ways around this stuff, but my goals are to properly get a CARB sticker as long as I can achieve it without spending a fortune to obtain the blessings of my local referee employees. It's going to be a possible long road to success and may not be able to in the first 2 years of ownership 🙁 .

ANYWAY, I will post more pics. I know the rear end has been modified at one point, there is an aftermarket cover and does have a posi unit in there with promises of a 3.73 ring and pinion as this particular car was drag raced at one point and also had a roll cage in it. Full aftermarket exhaust and flowmaster mufflers too. It did have a 455 in it (seller said) and it has a built TH trans but not sure if it's a 350 or a 400 but hope to get that out of the car today and take a peek.

I will probably get sh*t, for this but junkyard ls swaps are no longer legal in Ca. For a used ls swap to be legal you must install the OBD2 gas tank from the donor vehicle to maintain the enhanced obd2 evap system, which is impossible in many cases. The stock g body gas tank is not compatible with modern enhanced evap. There was a guy in CA who did a complete ls swap with all the obd2 emission controls, but was still failed because of the gas tank. The guy was forced to swap the used ls out for a crate ls Erod kit which is fully legal.

Modern gas tanks are pressurized and use a pressure sensor to detect evap system leaks. G bodies use older style evap and gas tanks that are not designed to be pressurized like what the Ls engines use. According to the law you are not allowed to delete anything, even the pressure sensor, and when you install a newer engine into a old car, it must meet the standards of the year of the newer engine. Erod crate motors do not come with gas tank pressure sensors in the first place so they are not required and can be used with the car's original gas tank. If you plan to stay in Ca, your best bet is either going with a Olds motor or Erod crate.

 

[theoldsone]

Dont we all love the U.S. of A.!

 

[79Hurst]

I will, after the car is done in the best fashion I know how, take it to the referee station and see what they say. Hell I MAY out of necessity even hook up a pressurized plastic tank out of an F body or OBD2 vehicle and mount it in the trunk if that is what it takes to see if it satisfies the judges.

I do want to try this, will it work? Dunno. But in in my core honest personality and values give this my best shot and follow their rules as best I know how. I will have a limit though, and use alternative ways to obtain legalities to get this car on the CA highways if need be, but that's not what I am striving for. My efforts and time/money will be the deciding factor to how far I want to go with it to make it as legal as I can following rules.

I do however have to fight logic here, even if it's simple logic, to make me believe that under the best intentions or goals on the owners part why the state would not encourage owners of older cars to recycle and make older cars cleaner to the environment beyond the laws specified when the car was built is beyond me.

Probably has to do with tax base and the amount of money that feeds into the state even though recycling IS a primary encouragement for a consumer. Cleaner air and trash, but the consumer pays for it and makes 'them' richer not me.

Off my rant, I did not intend this build thread to get political.

 

[HAFROD]

I'd sure like to buy your Hurst wheels

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

I will, after the car is done in the best fashion I know how, take it to the referee station and see what they say. Hell I MAY out of necessity even hook up a pressurized plastic tank out of an F body or OBD2 vehicle and mount it in the trunk if that is what it takes to see if it satisfies the judges.

I do want to try this, will it work? Dunno. But in in my core honest personality and values give this my best shot and follow their rules as best I know how. I will have a limit though, and use alternative ways to obtain legalities to get this car on the CA highways if need be, but that's not what I am striving for. My efforts and time/money will be the deciding factor to how far I want to go with it to make it as legal as I can following rules.

I do however have to fight logic here, even if it's simple logic, to make me believe that under the best intentions or goals on the owners part why the state would not encourage owners of older cars to recycle and make older cars cleaner to the environment beyond the laws specified when the car was built is beyond me.

Probably has to do with tax base and the amount of money that feeds into the state even though recycling IS a primary encouragement for a consumer. Cleaner air and trash, but the consumer pays for it and makes 'them' richer not me.

Off my rant, I did not intend this build thread to get political.

They simply don't want people to disable or tamper with any of the emission systems, including the more advance ones found on normal production LS motors. A good amount of pollution from cars are the vapors coming out of the gas tank when the car is parked. No matter how clean a engine burns, it doesn't effect gas tank emissions, only exhaust emissions when it is running. The evap systems captures the gas flumes to be burned later when you start the car. It is also illegal to install a motor that is older than the car, so you can't downgrade the emission systems. Only same year or newer are legal, so you either maintain or upgrade the emission system. You see they want you to be clean, but being clean is not as easy as you think and they want everything swapped over, even the ALDL port and SES light.

Most of the other states are not so strict and allow people to do halfass LS swaps, delete all of the emissions, many of the sensors, and even the EFI and get away with it, CA is not that way. Under the law when you swap a new motor into a older car, the car is now considered the model year of the engine and must meet the emission standards of that year. Swap a 2014 motor into a 1984 car, the car is now considered a 2014 car and must meet 2014 emission standards for example. The problem is some of the more advanced emission systems that are required for a legal swap are just not compatible with older cars. They probably would not allow a gas tank mounted inside the trunk as that would be a safety issue. You don't want gas leaking into the passenger compartment if you are ever rear ended. Two other options are to find a crooked referee that takes bribes, or turn the car into a track only racing car that will never see the street which would make the car exempt.

One of the issues here is that with modern OBD2 stuff, inspectors just plug into the ALDL port in modern cars and use the car's onboard sensors to check emissions output and ensure everything is ok. Old stuff they ran the car on a treadmill and stuck probes up the tailpipe and manually checked stuff, with OBD2, no need for all that. However if you are missing the pressure sensor, they can't test the enhanced evap for leaks and fail you. Anything that prevents an inspector from testing something is an automatic fail, even a OEM cover over the ALDL port. Some places even check the ECM if it has been reflashed as that can also be an automatic fail. Sorry for the wall of text but it is a complex issue, I wish you luck in any case.