What Did You Do To Your G-Body Today? [2021]

[Injectedcutty]

Drove it to work finally! Never even attempted to drive to last job due to big gravel lot, and concrete plant next door which did a great job of spraying dust everywhere.
Parking lot here is gated and concrete...

 

[DSPbuilt]

It’s not what I did to my Gbody but what it did to me… or the street.
Went to leave this morning and as soon as I pulled out the driveway I had a faint smell of atf then a pop and squirt. Made it a couple houses down then put it in reverse and back on the driveway. It made that mess. One of the trans cooler lines popped off the radiator. Now I need to figure out how to clean this up.

 

[pagrunt]

It’s not what I did to my Gbody but what it did to me… or the street.
Went to leave this morning and as soon as I pulled out the driveway I had a faint smell of atf then a pop and squirt. Made it a couple houses down then put it in reverse and back on the driveway. It made that mess. One of the trans cooler lines popped off the radiator. Now I need to figure out how to clean this up.
View attachment 184751

 

[DSPbuilt]

View attachment 184755

I might be kicking myself in the @$$ for saying this but I really can’t complain. I’ve been daily driving it for the last couple months @ 50+ miles a day and haven’t had a single issue. With my rough math I’m averaging 16mpg with the th350 and 3:42 rear. That a mix of some days back roads some day taking the highway @75-80mph.

 

[CopperNick]

Probably something along the line of Simple Green in a pail with water and a coarse bristle concrete or shop type push broom. Castrol makes a bio-degradable parts cleaning solution that can be mixed with water and flushed so possibly that as an alternative. Could also just wait for the next rain storm to do its thing but someone, I flat guarantee it, will snivel about the eco-environmental disaster in the making from all this.



Nick

 

[Ribbedroof]

More carb (mis)adventures. Installed a Holley spreadbore a co-worker sourced for me (that was a shitshow, getting the nuts on the studs is just next to impossible). Fired as soon as the bowls filled, idled nice, then I noticed both bowls were leaking at the welsh plugs in the top of the bowls. Have another QJ soaking in the shop. If this doesn't work, I guess the intake will be coming off and another route will be taken.

 

[CopperNick]

Before you go to all the pain and misery of pulling the intake, see if you can flatten out those welsh plugs by using an appropriate 1/4 drive socket and short extension and gently tapping on them to see if they sit down and seal. Usually they are slightly domed in the middle and flattening out that dome ever so little can be enough to spread out the edges and get them to seal. Failing that, those plugs should be accessible as a stand alone item from any good carb rebuild shop. I can remember them being part of the rebuild kits that used to be available. You might also source them from a local marine outboard engine shop.

As for those nuts, totally agree about the accessibility. When I went spread-bore Holley, I seem to recall introducing several of the nuts to my lathe and shaving them down to gain the thinness needed to get them into place. The other hassle was trying to put a socket or wrench on them to run them down. Forget what I ended up using, possibly a tappet wrench.

Did think about swapping the stock bowls on my spread bore to cathedral bowls but ran into major fuel leaks when I tested what I had wrought. Not sure if it was the bowls or the passages in the body not matching the metering blocks or the stock metering block needing to be changed out as well. Also the cathedral bowls turned out to have clearance issues when it came time to install the assembly and they don't work with a metering plate; so it all went back to stock.

Not sure where they landed but I think I may still have a pair of stock side delivery Holley bowls from a 4150 lurking about somewhere. Not sure if they would be correct as a replacement for your leakers; would have to try and install them on a bench queen spread bore that I am currently using as a place marker on my mill until I can re-install the good unit. The big issue might be the fuel transfer tube that runs from the front bowl to the rear. There was a change in there from the o-rings to a sort of sleeve bushing that fit over the end. If they test fit successfully, I'd be willing to stick them in a padded mailer and kite them your way.



Nick

 

[CopperNick]

Back to the rear brake project for my 85 SS. As shown by the pictures posted above, i did get the routing clearance problem for my rear end lines solved. Which brings me to my next conundrum. The lines that I removed from the rear end during the teardown and clean up miked out as being 3/16th's. Here's the thing. From the proportioning valve back to the rear end distribution block or splitter, the steel line is 1/4 inch. The flare line fitting that screws into the splitter is correct for 1/4 inch tube. The wheel cylinders are aftermarket but for stock application and are drilled and tapped for a 3/8ths x 24 invert flare nut which is supposedly the stock spec for the brake flare nuts.

Why would the delivery line to the rear end be consistently 1/4 inch until the distribution block and then reduce in size to 3/16th's? I could see it if the rear brakes were discs but this is drum brake with shoes we are talking here.

Would substituting the 1/4 inch line result in a change in brake pedal feel? By this I mean would it take more pedal input to get the rear brakes to initiate or start the braking process? Why do I suggest this? Because, although a line with a larger inner diameter allows the passage of more fluid, it takes more pressure against the fluid to get it to move. The smaller dia line permits a smaller amount of fluid to pass but also requires less pedal pressure to get a response at the wheel cylinder.

Was this some kind of engineering exercise done at the time to compensate for having to cause two wheel cylinders to activate simultaniously?

At this point I can go with either size tube. I have the cylinder adapters on hand to accept either line and the lines are being custom bent in any event. I just don't want to install something as a replacement that was wrong to begin with.



Nick

 

[Jakefromstatefarm]

Swapped from the garbage sweeping speedo to the Rallye gauges, now I just need to convert the temp and oil senders to the correct style for these gauges and I will be done. Also need to pull the alternator off as it's junk.

 

[CopperNick]

Allow me to preface this by stating poink blank that I am not any kind of hydraulic engineering techo-geek when it comes to brakes. Alternatively defined, ME Push Pedal, Brake Work! ME HAPPY!!!

Despite this early post stone age philosophy, what i finally managed to discover was that 3/16ths is both the default and correct line size for the rear brake lines in my 85 Monte Carlo and, for that matter, probably most G-Body classified vehicles of that era.

Stripped of all the math-emo-mumble, the main line from the proportioning valve gets to be 1/4 inch in order to move sufficient fluid over distance without having to employ excessive pedal pressure to do it. The lines get to change or reduce in size post distribution block, or splitter, because, although becoming smaller restricts the amount of fluid that does get delivered to the wheel cylinders, it also reduces the amount of line pressure needed to actuate them and, potentially, may act as a sort of buffer or insurance against the pistons in the wheel cyliners being over driven by excess fluid pressure and forced out of their housings, or the seals being popped out; either condition leading to brake fluid soaked brake shoes that won't brake and little pools of slimy brake fluid p*ss* ing out and onto the ground.

The net consequence of all this is that I now have to remove the invert flare x -.04 AN adapters from their present locations on the rear end and substitute -.03 ones. Which I just happen to have JIC. It also lets me use up that short section of leftover 3/16ths S/S that remained behind from the front plumbing exercise.

Inline Tube??? Why yes they do but not what I wanted.



Nick