73 Camaro "Black Pearl"

[PolarBear]

Lez see if this works

[Blackbirdws6]

Madness. Congrats!

[Featherburner]

Is that a 3/4 race cam?

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Featherburner

Is that a 3/4 race cam?

7/8 and open headers

[sweetbmxrider]

That harley sounds good!

[Tru2Chevy]

Sounds good, congrats on the start.

- Justin

[PolarBear]

Thanks Justin

[PolarBear]

Got a little more done today. I cleaned up the wiring as best I can with what I had to work with, looks OK, but the fuse block is out and visible and will be with the fender on, oh well whatever.

Buttoned up all the stuff under the car, trans crossmember and related and the exhaust. I also made up a shorter fuel line on the return side so it wouldn't touch the brake booster. The stainless braid poked me under the nail and in the pad on my left thumb, then I got gasoline on it, that burned pretty good for about 10 minutes.

I also figured out that the stuff I bought to make my own PS pressure hose isn't going to work, the AN fitting interferes with the pulley, so I am going to have to figure something else out. I think I am going to try a Corvette one, the fitting sizes are correct for what I need. I think it should work, though I may have to tweak the hard lines a little, YEA! another thing to buy fortunately it is only $15

Tomorrow hope to get the rad support bushing holes ground out to fit the solid bushings. Have to also mock up a radiator, probably put the BeCool one that I have for sale on there and check what I need for hoses, I think the 4th gen stuff is going to work. I also hope to get the stock spindles cleaned up and the stock brakes and everything put back on the car. I decided to hold off on the wheels for just a little longer, I was a little short on buying the tires even though I had the wheel money.

I think I just need;
Lower rad hose, coolant, air filter, PS pressure hose and PS fluid now.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by The_Bishop

Sharp looking.

Hey, on the caliper painting front... I painted the calipers on my '98 after rebuilding/replacing. Glass beaded the outside, then painted them with Duplicolor ceramic engine paint in red. Been holding up very well, cleans up easy, and no brushing.

I went ahead and gave this a try since I am putting the stock brakes back on the car. This was an excellent recommendation, I wish I had just gone this way in the first place. The paint is easy to find and lays down very nice after the glass beading.

I painted my spindles low gloss black, calipers the cast coat aluminum and the dust shields and I am going to use the cast iron on all the steering parts as the color is basically the same as the steering parts and will protect them from rust. I'll have pictures later in the week, once I re-pack the bearings and put everything together.

[The_Bishop]

Glad it worked out for you.

[PolarBear]

Quickly put my '02 Corvette power steering hose in the car. It is going to work, I just have to tweak the hard lines a little bit to take the stress off everything. Also one of the three radiator hoses I bought will work for my lower hose although I think the one banaro79 used would be an easier choice if I have to do it again.

Tomorrow after work I should be able to get those items on and sorted, get coolant into the engine and run it for more than a few seconds at a time.

I also bought Evans waterless coolant. it is supposed to last the lifetime of the engine and never become corrosive since there is no water in the system.

[The_Bishop]

That Evans stuff is pricey as hell. Aside from it supposedly lasting forever, what other benefit is there?

Edit: Did some preliminary searching

Found this bit of info about it, and it's not all good news:

-=-=-
Evans coolant is 100% propylene glycol...no water added. Cool thing is it doesn't boil until 360F. Thats great when you think about localized boiling around the cylinders causing hotspots with conventional...with Evans there's no way you're going to get hotspots in the combustion chamber that can possibly cause knock. Bad thing is propylene glycol's specific heat isn't all that great. That effectively makes your radiator act like its smaller than it really is. That also means that when your engine makes a fixed amount of heat the Evans coolant temps will rise more than water will. That's all fine and dandy when you remember that it won't boil until 360F...it has plenty of overhead. The bad thing is the fans run more often than they should since the stock computer thinks you're getting hotter than you should be. The other bad thing is your oil temps go up from the extra heat in the block so you need a nice big oil cooler to manage things. Granted Mobil 1 says its good for 400F but I know most road racers shut things down at 300F. Other negatives to the Evans coolant are the cost and the large expansion rate range of the fluid with temperature swings.
-=-=-

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by The_Bishop

That Evans stuff is pricey as hell. Aside from it supposedly lasting forever, what other benefit is there?

Edit: Did some preliminary searching

Found this bit of info about it, and it's not all good news:

Your standard coolants become acidic over time because of the water and other additives. In theory Evans can never become acidic so you shouldn't have issues with galvanic reaction like you would with a traditional coolant over time dissolving the aluminum in the heads or radiator if the coolant isn't tested and replaced as frequently as it should.

Since this is supposed to last "forever" if I ever had to do any maintenance I would collect and re-use with any work, so I wasn't concerned with the cost since I don't ever PLAN on selling any of my vehicles, so the cost over time is way less than buying a traditional coolant, the initial "investment" is only about double that of traditional. Since this engine will not really see any track use it should not be an issue of the "over heating" problems described above. This will be a "test" for me as I was planning on using this in all my cars, one of which would my toy and see track time, if it doesn't work out, so be it and I am only out a few extra dollars.
The other benefit is that since it is propylene glycol, you can actually drink it, it is completely nontoxic and I would feel better about having my dog in the garage when I work. If she wanders in there now I am always paranoid she is going to find some ethelyne glycol and drink it.

[PolarBear]

Got out to the garage for a few minutes tonight. I got my power steering hose on and tweaked. It's from an '02 Corvette. It had the proper size fitting ends, I'm using a Corvette power steering pump and since the Holley accessory brackets are really close to the factory GM stuff I thouhgt it was worth a try. It fit pretty well after a little tweaking



I also figured out my belt length needed for the accessory's

[PolarBear]

Well I got the car back on the ground today, after a LOT of bleeding the brakes, thanks to zorns for the help pumping the pedal for probably over an hour





Have a few issues so far, the power steering pump pulley is out further than the crank and the belt walks off the crank. It wound up throwing it after I started it up for a second the last time. The pulley can only go on a small amount more than it already is, so I am not sure what I can do to fix it if pressing it on the remaining amount doesn't work. I used all the parts that Holley recommended, may wind up calling them if nothing works. They did have another pulley they recommended, but I think it was the same offset as what I used, just a different diameter. If I can't get this resolved, the car wont be going to Island next weekend.

Even though the car is on the ground, it's WAY too low, I need to jack it up about 2 inches or I won't be able to get in and out of my driveway. I need a spanner wrench, and Phil has one, I am going to go to his place tomorrow to borrow it. Sucks not having all the tools needed to get the job done, unfortunately this is one I didn't know I was going need.

I also got my lower cooling hose figured out thanks to NastyZ28, but the hose contacts the idler arm and the idler arm bolt. So to protect the hose I took a piece that I cut off for the length and wrapped it at that spot and put some hose clamps on it to hold it. Looks a little strange, but for now it is going to have to do.

[Featherburner]

I have a spanner you can borrow tomorrow when you pick up the power steering pulley tool.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Featherburner

I have a spanner you can borrow tomorrow when you pick up the power steering pulley tool.

That'd be cool. I didn't think anyone else was going to have them. That would save me over two hours of driving tomorrow. Thanks, I'll you tomorrow

[The_Bishop]

Install looks good, everything is very neat and tucked away.

[PolarBear]

Water pump leaks, I am now despondent. filled the block and radiator with coolant and started the car for a few minutes. When I shut it down I saw coolant on everything and a small puddle on the ground. Cleaned up and went in the house for the rest of the day.

Ordered a new water pump, air filter and spanner wrench. Should make the October meet with the car at this rate....

Oh, I also got the belt problem fixed. I borrowed Featherburner's power steering pulley tool again. I ground the shoulder off the back of the pulley a little and then pressed it on again and, although it is off, it doesn't walk the belt off the crank pulley now.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by The_Bishop

-=-=-
Evans coolant is 100% propylene glycol...
-=-=-

Well apparently this is wrong info. Says right on the bottle contains ethylene glycol and it is poisonous.

[sweetbmxrider]

Sue for false advertisement. Acquire all teh carbon fibear!

[Jersey Mike]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

Sue for false advertisement. Acquire all teh carbon fibear!

Hiyoooo

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

Well apparently this is wrong info. Says right on the bottle contains ethylene glycol and it is poisonous.

Ethyl is such a whore.

[Tru2Chevy]

From what I remember, only their original NPG coolant is 100% ethylene glycol free.

- Justin

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

From what I remember, only their original NPG coolant is 100% ethylene glycol free.

- Justin

They still sell it, but it looked like that was really for racing so if you dump it on the track it doesn't mess up everyone's day. I didn't think I needed that