Project Knightmobile

[IronCastKnight]

More cubes is best cubes, after all! I'd like to do a stroked Olds engine at some point, but for right now I'm just doing a fairly vanilla stage 1ish decently high performance engine.

I also got a Hotchkis steering rebuild kit, tie rod sleeves, a Dorman pitman arm, and a set of Eibach pro-kit lowering springs on the way from summit, so as soon as I yank the 307 I can crawl all up in that b*tch and rebuild the steering with bearings and bushing that haven't been lubed maybe three times in the past twenty eight years. Now I just need a good rear end with 3.73ish gears and Posi, a clutch, and a auto-to-manual conversion setup, and I'll be good to finish up the rollin' bits.

I wonder if GBodyParts has any GM 8.5 rear ends in stock? Hm. Not quite as beefy as a Ford 9" from Quick Performance, but about a thousand dollars cheaper and a proper GM part.

 

[olds307 and 403]

Does your car have factory F41 suspension? The Helwig bar and adjustable lower arms are supposed to be a good idea. My car handles awful and without slicks is plain awful at the track, I need to upgrade. You built that bottom end right and Edelbrock's will really boost your combo. I plan on the same thing, mild #8's then Edelbrock's next year.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Nope! My Cutlass is(for now) a grannymobile to the core, ultra-soft floaty springs and hideously slow 2.14 geared rear end and power everything, which is why I've sort of gone overboard purchasing upgrades to stuff in once it stops being quite so consistently cold. Overkill is the best kill, after all.

I've been looking into various body and frame braces as well, and I'm currently planning on boxing the frame when I get it all disassembled in order to stiffen it up a little... not to mention open up the possibility of eventually either stuffing in a 455 or slapping a centrifugal supercharger on the 350 without the possibility of twisting the frame like a pretzel(at least, not without wrapping it around a tree in the process).

Though I've sort of gone about it *ss-backwards, my priorities for upgrades has always been handling and suspension then driveline durability then power, and, after all the important parts are done, cosmetics. I'd prefer it turn on a dime without spilling a cup of water on the hood, even if it does so slowly, but if I can get it to haul *ss in the process why not?

 

[olds307 and 403]

That is the right way, these non F41 cars handle awful. Mine had a 2004R that shifted at 3000 rpm full throttle and a 2.56 open rear. I have my Challenger if I want fun in the corners, mine Cutlass is for burn out fun.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Update!

After something like 20 solid hours of pure misery I've finally finished portmatching and polishing the heads, so now all I need to do to finish the 350 is portmatch the intake, which is made of aluminum and thus won't be a problem, and bolt everything together.

Once it finally stops being so miserably cold, I'm going to move onto the next step: Fully disassembling the Cutlass so I can rebuild and replace pretty much everything. That'll be fun.

 

[deflepnut2003]

You sir/madam have made this post rather enjoyable to read as someone else has said.

Also, you are motivating me to want to continue with my '86 Base Model Olds Cutlass.
When I say base model, I mean no bells and whistles, and it came with the Carb'd 3.8L V6 that was a small production run for that particular year. She doesn't even have the fancy side mirrors, she has the chrome ones.

So my plan is to update her a little bit, convert it to a manual, fix up the interior, and re-paint her. Depending on the paint color, the interior will probably be changed to fit better, which could turn into a massive project...

Anyways! I'm going to bookmark this thread for the enjoyment, and because I would love to see how your lady turns out

Keep up the good work dude.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Thanks for the kind words.

Hm, I'm kind of jealous considering that I've basically spent most of the time turning a Brougham into a base model in a mad attempt to sacrifice creature comforts for less weight. I wasn't originally intending on drag racing the Knightmobile, but at this point I might as well just to see how fast I can get it to go.

Update!

After several hours spent reaming out my valve spring locators to fit on the stems, I had the idea of actually measuring my available height to find that, if I actually use my locators with my kind of tall beehive springs... they'll be about .050 shorter than the recommended installed height for my springs. So, I can either go "**** it" and suffer a bit of increased spring pressure, go "**** it" and just use shims because the engine will likely rarely ever get over 3000 RPM anyways(yeah, we'll see how long that lasts once I start driving it), or take the heads into the machinist to get the spring seats machined a little deeper... which is basically what I was avoiding doing by using comparable beehive springs instead of COMP's suggested dual spring setup that would have required modifying the stems for positive valve seals.

I swear, sometimes I amaze myself with my ability to find the dumbest way to do things.

Also, I've decided that the poor WC T5 doesn't deserve to be exploded all over the road the first time I hit the gas too hard, so I'm saving my pennies for a TKO 600. It's about two thousand more expensive than my T5 was, but the future-proofiosity of a transmission that can handle pretty much any upgrades I throw on the engine, up to and including replace said engine with a similarily overkill 455, is worth it. The T5 will find itself a nice home in my 1950 Chevy truck behind a mild straight six, where it can shine as a smooth clean shifter.

I'm still debating over whether I should try to find an 8.5" 10 bolt rear end or going maximum overkill with a Quick Performance g-body 9". The 8.5" is a proper bit of durable GM kit, but finding one without having to drive halfway across Texas is the trick. The QP Ford 9", however, is yet more durable, but is made by... Ford. I'm not sure if I can stand the sheer heresy of putting anything Ford in my Cutlass. Also it's expensive.

Finally, I'm considering doing a full brake upgrade instead of just converting the rear drums to discs. I've been trying to decide between Wilwood Dynalites and a SSBC setup.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Update!

Spent most of today measuring and shimming the spring seats, torquing down the heads, and installing the valve springs. Those of you who just went "Wait, he torqued down the heads THEN installed the valve springs?" get a gold star for reading comprehension, and yes, I did do it in that order because all I had was a spring compressing lever thingy for swapping valve springs with the heads on. It was a total pain in the c*ck.

Also, to my infinite and overflowing disgust, I checked the runners on the Performer RPM intake manifold to the gasket I ported the heads to, to find that the runners on the manifold are a good bit smaller than those on the heads. On the plus side, at least the air is coming out of a smaller hole and going into a bigger hole, so it's not going to slam into anything and lose too much velocity. I am, admittedly, stronger considering going "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck it" and slapping the b*st*rd on with no effort in porting the manifold, on account of the twisty curvy dual plane design seeming like an even bigger pain in the *ss to port than the heads and my getting too old for this sh*t.

Mock up pics! Slapped the heads on pre-springs and the manifold to get a picture of how it'll look eventually. Not bad, in my opinion.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Got a hardtop conversion kit from Rangertom for the Knightmobile. Great seller.

I'm still a big fan of the vinyl top, but, in the end, I'd rather strip it off, fix whatever rust is under there, and get it painted up real nice, then pursue the plastidip route for maintaining the style of the original halftop without the risk of rust chewing holes in my roof inherent in covering it with vinyl. Plus, if I think the plastidip solution looks bad I can just peel it off with no real financial loss.

 

[IronCastKnight]

Oklahoma and its crazy *ss spring weather that makes me feel like I've been worked over by a bunch of baseball bat wielding robots can go choke on a dick. Hot, cold, hot, snow in mid April, hotter than hell with the thermostat turned up, overcast, clear, overcast, clear, clearvercast, below freezing in the morning and mid eighties in the afternoon. Seriously, just pick a season and stick with it.

On the plus side, finally manned up, installed the rockers, and set the preload. Now all I have to do is bolt on all the covers and pans and manifolds and sh*t, and the engine will finally be complete.

Good old COMP Magnum roller-tip rockers. Durable, correct geometry, and cheapish.


Bought a set of tall valve covers from Dick Miller Racing, on account of my valve train being too lofty for my poor stock covers. They are disgustingly chrome.


Going to order the new rear end tomorrow, probably.