Wow where does the time go.

Well since my last post I pulled the motor back out to finish some details. I painted all the heater lines black. They look much better. I also cut part of what would be the battery tray if this were a TI (the battery on my car is in the trunk). This gives plenty of clearance to work on the relocated heater valve if ever necessary. I also remounted the ABS again in a slightly different location getting it a little farther from the header. Let's see what else. Oh I made a heat shield for the RH motor mount. I added some heat barrier to the transmission tunnel and a number of other small items (including new set of spark plugs).

I then reloaded the engine into the car for hopefully the last time!! Whoo hoo. I bled the clutch and it releases easily. I need to clean up a few more wiring looming issues, reassemble the interior, Mount the A/C condenser and do a little suspension work. I'm thinking in a week or 2 I'll take it for a drive. It won't be done but it I feel I deserve a trip around the block. Things that will have to be done after the first drive are rear differential stiffening, New struts, Rebuild the steering rack and perhaps a new sway bar or 2.


More later.

Getting there!! Light at the end of the tunnel

Wow, a lot has happened since my last post. Due to trips and Internet problems I have gotten behind. Here is the update:
I finished my fuel lines all the way to the engine. I've attached some pictures showing the aluminum fuel line and the beading tool used to construct the lines.








The beading tool is Earl's part# 008ERL



Heater lines. I wanted to use some hard line instead of rubber line for the heater runs to keep the OD of the lines down and less worry about being close to the exhaust. I ended up going with copper pipe. To fit copper lines to the 3/4 rubber heater lines I had some standard copper fittings machined to .75 dia (thanks Lee) and then sweat soldered a ring to keep the hose from slipping off. For the 5/8 dia line a the standard 1/2" copper pipe was just right with a ring sweat soldered on it in a similar way. I'm sure there was probably a better way out there but that's what I've done. I spent about a day cutting, fitting and soldering. After all that time I have what is in the pics. Looking at it now I think it turned out but took way to long.
















I also finished the shifter close out. I want a nice fit to keep the noise and heat out of the cabin. I used the rubber boot from the f-body car. I removed the metal from around the perimiter and cut it smaller and rewelded it together. Then cut the boot down as well. Seems to work just fine.









I currently have the engine loaded into the engine bay with both headers on this time (to help set the placement of the heater lines and shifter closeout etc). I couldn't resist. I plugged in the wiring hooked up the battery and attempted to connect through the OBDII port with my laptop. Wouldn't connect. After some trouble shooting of the wiring I found it was just the software I was using was getting impatient and the autoprotocol feature wasn't working with the PCM. manually set the protocol and...Hello. hey PCM is working, engine's in.... SO I ran a quart or two through the fuel lines to flush out any dirt or metal in the section after the filter. Connected up the fuel line and....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T4qxA7LEkI

Only ran it for a few seconds since I don't have the cooling hooked up. Oh I also finished the throttle cable.

I think the next step is to pull the motor again and finish the hold down's on the heater lines. Misc work on the ABS mount. Clean everything up and add some heat shielding.

Clutch line and ABS relocation.

This week I worked on the clutch line. Since my car was an automatic I had to weld on a bracket to hold the adapter at the end of the hard line. SInce I was welding it on I decided to try angle it so that it would best fit my set up. I also cut the factory T56 clutch line down and attached a -4 end on it. I've attached a picture. Don't mind the scribbled "clutch" on the chassis. I'm not sure how i managed to write upside down like that at all. I'm a little concerend on how easy it will be to install the line with the headers on. I'll guess I'll find out later.

After modifing the clutch line I pulled the engine ando finished mounting the ABS in it's new location. I need to adjust some of the lines for better fit but the mounting is done. Now that the engine is out I'll finish the fuel and lines and work on the heater lines. For the heater lines I'm looking at making the bulk of it out of Hardline. I'll see how it turns out.