Low Buck Chuck 79 Hurst Olds

[79Hurst]

This weekend we fit the engine and trans to the chassis, and quickly found out the stock trans crossmember will not work with the 4L80E. I contacted Iceman, and ordered up a fabbed piece and they say we also need an extension for the frame. I am sure we will figure this out, we were hoping we would not need it but oh well. Everything else fit well though, but did have to cut the ears off of the trans by the bellhousing area to fit the headers. No big deal, the trusty sawzall will take care of that.

Next will be pulling the tank, and fitting a FI sender and pump. Going to try and use the factory steel line to the truck fuel line at the bulkhead at the back of the manifold. Should work.

 

[L92 OLDS]

Big day for us, we converted the 4L80E to a 2WD unit. I ordered up a used 2WD output shaft, speed/reluctor ring and full gasket set. The whole trans had to be gutted down to the bare case, parts had to be swapped out and the whole thing re assembled. What a job, tell you what I have never tackled a whole transmission before and the 8 hours we spent on it today was very rewarding.

I did not do a full instructional, too involved in the job to spend the time so sorry to those who wanted more pics or tutorial. PLUS because I am one of the last people you may want telling you how to get this done, as this is the first time doing so. Any questions, please ask 🙂

Looks like a great learning process. That's an ambitious project that will save you money assuming it shifts right and doesn't leak when your done. Rebuilt 4L80e's are not cheap.

 

[79Hurst]

Thanks Anubis, totally agree this is in the spirit of saving dollars and to learn something new. All on all the trans was not TOO bad to tackle overall but I have done pumps and valvebody work before so the fear factor was med/low...I am afraid however the first time we drive it, could go into reverse when put into drive, and stay in OD all forward gears haha. Sure hope that is not the case, but it's always in the back of my mind...

 

[79Hurst]

Ordered an 'iceman' 4L80 crossmember today, when it comes in we will hopefully finally get the engine and trans bolted in place for the last time so we can start the wiring, fuel system, and sheetmetal can go back on the car. Getting excited.

Bought front tires in 215/65/15 size, looking like I want it to in a good way

 

[79Hurst]

Finally got the Iceman crossmember in today via UPS, and was able to get the engine and trans in today. No fully bolted in yet, but in an hours worth of work it's sealed deal. The biggest obstacle was the (very inexpensive) A body LS swap headers, needed to do quite a bit of massaging to get fitment but keeping the spirit of the build we are happy with what we have spent so far. Here are a few progress pics, more to come as I am on a vacation week 🙂

 

[hurst1979olds]

What color gold did you use? How close is it to original? Car looks great and looks like your doing top notch work.

 

[79Hurst]

The Dupont code is for a 'two tone' gold that I just guessed at being the right color due to the fact that the codes I was researching for this car were not available in my local paint store's database. It's 50 Gold 45278. Dunno if it matches the original color that close or not, hell it's so faded I would never know 🙂

 

[79Hurst]

Starting to look like a car again. We did lots of detail/small stuff like trans lines, oil cooler lines etc. Bolted on the fenders, and core support.

 

[hurst1979olds]

The Dupont code is for a 'two tone' gold that I just guessed at being the right color due to the fact that the codes I was researching for this car were not available in my local paint store's database. It's 50 Gold 45278. Dunno if it matches the original color that close or not, hell it's so faded I would never know 🙂

I just did a quick search and that color code is for a 1978 Pontiac. Called Solar gold. It looks good. I really want to paint the gold back on my car, but dont care if its an exact match or not.

 

[79Hurst]

It was in the old color books I looked at as a GM gold for the BOP division for 78-79, so that makes sense. Nice color, I will be spraying this on the body of the car if we ever get that far!