Texas82GP's GMT900
- Thread starter Texas82GP
- Start date
Ok, well it's fast enough for the roads and traffic I drive it on. I hardly ever get to really wind it up. It takes being out on a Sunday morning to really have fun with it.
Well,
The swap now has a little more than 5k miles on it. The truck has a little under 174k on it. I'm still very happy with the swap and the setup. I want to thank a friend of ours on here for a very good recommendation on the converter stall speed. At first I thought it was too high but after getting used too it, I couldn't have been more wrong. The truck will quite easily spin the rear tires (275mm) on dry pavement and pulls hard. It was a fairly uneventful 400k miles since I last posted except this happened....
Nobody's fault but mine. Backed into a gate post not watching close enough. I have a taillight to replace this one. I'm not sure what I'll do about the paint. Maybe touch up paint or maybe ignore it.
I had the truck in the storage last weekend for some maintenance. For some reason the brake on the driver's front started dragging. I couldn't feel it dragging but after about 100 miles the wheel would be black with brake dust....
I got a late start on Saturday (10:00 AM) but it was the first day of fall weather here. The temperature was so nice all day. This one is for Steve....
Since I wasn't sure what was wrong with the Driver's front brake, the truck has 174k miles on it and I wanted to do it once and be done for hopefully 50K+ miles, I replaced it all...
Hubs from Timken (one box was marked Made in USA, the other was unmarked), rotors and pads from Powerstop, Calipers and brake hoses from AC Delco. The calipers are remans but they are powdercoated and included all new hardware. It all seems like really nice stuff. It should be for what I spent. Sean showed up to visit about the time I got the brakes buttoned up so he got behind the wheel and helped me do a redneck flush/bleed on all four wheels. Dad had come over earlier and he changed the oil for me, filled up the washer fluid tank and put the fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank. All things that wouldn't have gotten done that day if he hadn't done them. By the time the brakes were bled I was pretty tired. Sean and Dad took off and I cleaned up the shop. I went ahead and put my new wiper blades on just so I could check one more item off the list. It was a good day.
Sunday morning I was at the storage as the sun was coming up....
Not as pretty as Driven's views, but not hideous. That farm is situated between the storage property and my subdivision. It gives you some perspective of how close the storage is to my house. The temperature at the storage Sunday morning was very pleasant...
It didn't last though. The cool front that came through Friday passed back over us Sunday late morning/early afternoon as a warm front and it got warm and humid again. Still, it was nice while it lasted. Some fall finally made it to Houston!
My primary objective for Sunday was installation of the thermostatic valve on the hard lines between the transmission cooler in the radiator and the auxiliary transmission cooler. If you remember, I put waaaayy too big of a transmission cooler in when I did the swap and the transmission has run really cool. On a 100° day, in the teeth of rush hour traffic on the north freeway, when I was 'hotrodding' the truck, I might see the transmission get up to 160°. I didn't think this was going to work well over the winter. This next picture is what my lines looked like when I installed the auxiliary cooler. The left hand line is the hot fluid from the radiator and the right hand line is the return line to the transmission. You can see where I cut and flared the original section of the return line and then scabbed in a piece. I decided to put the valve right at the end of the original section of the return line and then work from there. I just shortened and modified my new section of the return line, and then bent two new lines to fill in the blanks....
It turned out really well. I had bought the mounting bracket along with the valve but with it being on four hard lines, no mounting bracket was needed so I decided not to overcomplicate it. I'm pretty happy with the function of the valve but the transmission still runs on the cool side. I had read that it would run 165° all day long with a 4L80E and this particular auxiliary transmission cooler. I'm seeing temps from 150° to 170° and I'd say it basically runs at 160°. Still, it's a big improvement over what I had. I'm not sure how I could make it run warmer at this point except unless if I block part of the cooler or downsize it. I'll see how it does on a cool day.
With the installation of the valve done, I cranked the truck up to check for leaks at any of the new connections. Everything was good so I cut it off and went ahead and did a drain/refill on the transmission. This was probably overkill at 5k miles but I wanted to see how it was doing. The fluid was cherry red. I could see no darkening. There was a small amount of metal (very fine shavings) on the magnet on the end of the drain plug. I wish I had snapped a pic but I didn't. Here is a pic of the inside of the pan before I installed it back in early May....
You can see the 'gold' looking magnet on the end of the drain plug. There were enough shavings to cover the tip of the magnet, maybe a 1/16th of an inch deep. I'm guessing this is normal wear on the fresh rebuild. I sure hope so.
With the transmission service done, I moved on to installing new headlight assemblies. Mine were hazed over. They didn't look bad but even with the new LED headlight bulbs, it was basically like not having headlights on an unlit road. Here is a pic from last May showing the regular long life bulb on the passenger side and the led on the driver's side...
You can kind of see how cloudy the lens looks and how scattered the light is. The headlight assemblies came up on my eBay feed for $90 for the pair so I couldn't pass them up to get a fresh start....
By the time I had it off the stands, had the wheels torqued, had the grill and bumper cover back in and everything picked up it was around 3. I still had to haul the rotors and hubs off to scrap, haul the cardboard off to the recycle and get the Impala back to the house. It was a long day. I'm pretty happy with all the work. I'm disappointed with the headlights so far. I still need to aim them and I'm not sure I have the bulbs in right. The LED's shine light in two opposing directions (think up and down). I have them shining into metal reflectors in the housing. This makes the most sense to me but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just not going to get a ton of light out of these smoked housings. I'll keep working on it.
Still on the agenda is replacement of all the hoses and the thermostat. The hoses on it are all original and one of the plastic quick connects on the heater hoses is looking suspect. Also, I've had two lower temp thermostats in it and invariably, after some time, I have trouble with the engine not warming up fast enough and then the computer has a tantrum. It turns the fans on to the highest speed, displays a message in the Driver's Information Center "Engine Hot A/C Off" and makes the temperature gauge go all the way to the coldest reading. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I'm just going back with the stock Delco thermostat at this point. I already have all the parts so that is the project for Saturday. At that point, I'm going to try to get off the truck for the next 5k miles and get on the GP. The front coilover conversion may have to wait. There hasn't been money for it lately. I want to work on the GP hard all fall/winter/spring and hopefully have it running by early summer.
That's it for now friends. I'll probably post up next week with the outcome of my hose project. Until then,
Best,
Jared
The swap now has a little more than 5k miles on it. The truck has a little under 174k on it. I'm still very happy with the swap and the setup. I want to thank a friend of ours on here for a very good recommendation on the converter stall speed. At first I thought it was too high but after getting used too it, I couldn't have been more wrong. The truck will quite easily spin the rear tires (275mm) on dry pavement and pulls hard. It was a fairly uneventful 400k miles since I last posted except this happened....
Nobody's fault but mine. Backed into a gate post not watching close enough. I have a taillight to replace this one. I'm not sure what I'll do about the paint. Maybe touch up paint or maybe ignore it.
I had the truck in the storage last weekend for some maintenance. For some reason the brake on the driver's front started dragging. I couldn't feel it dragging but after about 100 miles the wheel would be black with brake dust....
I got a late start on Saturday (10:00 AM) but it was the first day of fall weather here. The temperature was so nice all day. This one is for Steve....
Since I wasn't sure what was wrong with the Driver's front brake, the truck has 174k miles on it and I wanted to do it once and be done for hopefully 50K+ miles, I replaced it all...
Hubs from Timken (one box was marked Made in USA, the other was unmarked), rotors and pads from Powerstop, Calipers and brake hoses from AC Delco. The calipers are remans but they are powdercoated and included all new hardware. It all seems like really nice stuff. It should be for what I spent. Sean showed up to visit about the time I got the brakes buttoned up so he got behind the wheel and helped me do a redneck flush/bleed on all four wheels. Dad had come over earlier and he changed the oil for me, filled up the washer fluid tank and put the fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank. All things that wouldn't have gotten done that day if he hadn't done them. By the time the brakes were bled I was pretty tired. Sean and Dad took off and I cleaned up the shop. I went ahead and put my new wiper blades on just so I could check one more item off the list. It was a good day.
Sunday morning I was at the storage as the sun was coming up....
Not as pretty as Driven's views, but not hideous. That farm is situated between the storage property and my subdivision. It gives you some perspective of how close the storage is to my house. The temperature at the storage Sunday morning was very pleasant...
It didn't last though. The cool front that came through Friday passed back over us Sunday late morning/early afternoon as a warm front and it got warm and humid again. Still, it was nice while it lasted. Some fall finally made it to Houston!
My primary objective for Sunday was installation of the thermostatic valve on the hard lines between the transmission cooler in the radiator and the auxiliary transmission cooler. If you remember, I put waaaayy too big of a transmission cooler in when I did the swap and the transmission has run really cool. On a 100° day, in the teeth of rush hour traffic on the north freeway, when I was 'hotrodding' the truck, I might see the transmission get up to 160°. I didn't think this was going to work well over the winter. This next picture is what my lines looked like when I installed the auxiliary cooler. The left hand line is the hot fluid from the radiator and the right hand line is the return line to the transmission. You can see where I cut and flared the original section of the return line and then scabbed in a piece. I decided to put the valve right at the end of the original section of the return line and then work from there. I just shortened and modified my new section of the return line, and then bent two new lines to fill in the blanks....
It turned out really well. I had bought the mounting bracket along with the valve but with it being on four hard lines, no mounting bracket was needed so I decided not to overcomplicate it. I'm pretty happy with the function of the valve but the transmission still runs on the cool side. I had read that it would run 165° all day long with a 4L80E and this particular auxiliary transmission cooler. I'm seeing temps from 150° to 170° and I'd say it basically runs at 160°. Still, it's a big improvement over what I had. I'm not sure how I could make it run warmer at this point except unless if I block part of the cooler or downsize it. I'll see how it does on a cool day.
With the installation of the valve done, I cranked the truck up to check for leaks at any of the new connections. Everything was good so I cut it off and went ahead and did a drain/refill on the transmission. This was probably overkill at 5k miles but I wanted to see how it was doing. The fluid was cherry red. I could see no darkening. There was a small amount of metal (very fine shavings) on the magnet on the end of the drain plug. I wish I had snapped a pic but I didn't. Here is a pic of the inside of the pan before I installed it back in early May....
You can see the 'gold' looking magnet on the end of the drain plug. There were enough shavings to cover the tip of the magnet, maybe a 1/16th of an inch deep. I'm guessing this is normal wear on the fresh rebuild. I sure hope so.
With the transmission service done, I moved on to installing new headlight assemblies. Mine were hazed over. They didn't look bad but even with the new LED headlight bulbs, it was basically like not having headlights on an unlit road. Here is a pic from last May showing the regular long life bulb on the passenger side and the led on the driver's side...
You can kind of see how cloudy the lens looks and how scattered the light is. The headlight assemblies came up on my eBay feed for $90 for the pair so I couldn't pass them up to get a fresh start....
By the time I had it off the stands, had the wheels torqued, had the grill and bumper cover back in and everything picked up it was around 3. I still had to haul the rotors and hubs off to scrap, haul the cardboard off to the recycle and get the Impala back to the house. It was a long day. I'm pretty happy with all the work. I'm disappointed with the headlights so far. I still need to aim them and I'm not sure I have the bulbs in right. The LED's shine light in two opposing directions (think up and down). I have them shining into metal reflectors in the housing. This makes the most sense to me but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just not going to get a ton of light out of these smoked housings. I'll keep working on it.
Still on the agenda is replacement of all the hoses and the thermostat. The hoses on it are all original and one of the plastic quick connects on the heater hoses is looking suspect. Also, I've had two lower temp thermostats in it and invariably, after some time, I have trouble with the engine not warming up fast enough and then the computer has a tantrum. It turns the fans on to the highest speed, displays a message in the Driver's Information Center "Engine Hot A/C Off" and makes the temperature gauge go all the way to the coldest reading. It's the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I'm just going back with the stock Delco thermostat at this point. I already have all the parts so that is the project for Saturday. At that point, I'm going to try to get off the truck for the next 5k miles and get on the GP. The front coilover conversion may have to wait. There hasn't been money for it lately. I want to work on the GP hard all fall/winter/spring and hopefully have it running by early summer.
That's it for now friends. I'll probably post up next week with the outcome of my hose project. Until then,
Best,
Jared
The Impala is a nice car. I've been luck to have the use of it when the truck has been down. It was mom's car.Jared, how did my Impala make it to Texas?
Thanks for the update on the swap. Any chance that you'll be getting back to working on your Grand Prix this winter?
I had hoped to be on the GP by now. I've spent the last several weeks cleaning and organizing the storage to get ready. As soon as the truck us good to go for the winter, I'm on the GP until it gets hot. Hopefully it is running and driving by then.
Got all the hoses swapped yesterday. It was a fight. I hate those spring loaded hose clamps. I have the special pliers. It still sucked. I hate the quick connect fittings on the heater hoses at the heater core worse. Still, it now has all new hoses and a new thermostat. It's all Delco stuff. Hopefully I'll get another 11 years out of these hoses. I filled it back up with the pre-diluted Prestone extended life coolant (yellow stuff). It turned out good.
Got it cleaned up good today. Was pretty happy with the progress. Then this happened...
Hit and run. Sometimes you just can't catch a break. I've decided to fix it myself. I've ordered a bumper, bumper cover and a fender. All GM parts. I'll find someone to paint the fender and bumper cover for me. The parts will ship to a local freight terminal. Once I get them picked up, I'll put it in the storage, pull it apart and see what else is broke. I thought I was going to work on the GP next weekend.
😕
Got it cleaned up good today. Was pretty happy with the progress. Then this happened...
Hit and run. Sometimes you just can't catch a break. I've decided to fix it myself. I've ordered a bumper, bumper cover and a fender. All GM parts. I'll find someone to paint the fender and bumper cover for me. The parts will ship to a local freight terminal. Once I get them picked up, I'll put it in the storage, pull it apart and see what else is broke. I thought I was going to work on the GP next weekend.
😕
Bummer man, hate it when asshats hit your stuff and take off! It'll catch up to wh ol never did it.
