Space City 1982 GP Build
- Thread starter Texas82GP
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You could have gone totally wild with the cam - your car came from the factory with a hydroboost!
I picked up two sets of take-off valve covers from Pace. Like yours, I got two pairs of lefts. I went to the boneyard and pulled off four breather-only valve covers, cleaned them and painted them to match with gloss black. I may have an extra if you'd like one.
If you can protect that paint job from tools and belt buckles, I think you ended up with the easy part - turning wrenches. I am not a body man, and at some point the coupe is just going to have to be painted.
I picked up two sets of take-off valve covers from Pace. Like yours, I got two pairs of lefts. I went to the boneyard and pulled off four breather-only valve covers, cleaned them and painted them to match with gloss black. I may have an extra if you'd like one.
If you can protect that paint job from tools and belt buckles, I think you ended up with the easy part - turning wrenches. I am not a body man, and at some point the coupe is just going to have to be painted.
It adds brake assist without a vacuum operated brake booster meaning the car has consistant braking power even with a choppy cam
Very cool. Doesn't necessarily mean that motor can handle the cam though does it?
no, but it means you dont need to worry about maintaining vacuum in the engine to operate the brakes
why didn't I see this thread before? Nice to see another ex-diesel car with new life (and a stick!). Yep, both the hydroboost brakes and the damn firewall insulation are from its diesel heritage. When I finally get around to doing mine all that stuff is coming off. Right now if you look at it wrong, pieces of it fall off. It was there to keep that blasted diesel clatter noise down inside the car. Did you ever replace the door panels, and if so, what do you want for the "casket handles" and woodgrain panels with the switches? 
Hydroboost question has been addressed, but let me add - if you follow the rubber lines from the master cylinder, they connect to the power steering pump. These should be replaced when you have a chance, because if you blow one, what a total mess all over the engine compartment. IMO, it's worth keeping them, but you may have to do some fabbing to replace stuff. The challenge is that the brake hoses tee into the pressure and return lines, and I don't know if truck hydroboost lines will work on the GP. If you choose to rip it all out and replace it with a vacuum booster, make sure you get the rod through the firewall to the pedal and the booster brackets from the donor car. Then post the hydroboost on the Forum, and you might make back the money you spent on your conversion from someone who wants to run a wild cam.
Yeah not having to worry about supplying vacuum to a power brake booster definitely gives more flexibility with cam selection. The crate motor came with that Lunatti cam in it and it is enough for me. This is a cruiser. I want it to sound good and run good but I want a good idle, especially when I'm running the A/C, which is about six months of the year here in Houston. I have a fairly lively cam in my daily driven truck and it is great for the most part but the idle while running the A/C is a little lumpy and gets old when you are sitting in heavy traffic for long periods of time.
Thanks for the offer on the valve cover. I really appreciate it. I bought a set of chrome valve covers that are the same style as the factory centerbolt valve covers (finned on top the same as the ones that came on the crate motor). I got them from Summit. I've never been much of a chrome valve cover kind of guy but I think they might look good on this engine. I plan on painting the intake corporate blue and going with a quadrajet so the valve covers will probably be the only "bling" on the engine. I'll probably run a stock looking air breather or possibly paint an open element air breather black.
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