1996 Impala SS - Team LoPrep's Challenge entry!

In reply to ClemSparks :

Amazingly enough, not as bad as it has been in the past.  The big danger is we have 6 cars, and none of them have the same bolt pattern.  5x5, 5x4.75, 5x114.3, 5x112, 4x130, and 4x100.  I think we are down to two of them having a spare set of tires with wheels(one for rallycross, the other, winter tires), and I did just recently acquire a set of 4x100 Dodge wheels that may end up on the Miata.  I'm sure more 5x4.75 wheels will start to grace my storage locker once I get in deep on the next S10 engine swap.

In reply to 84FSP :

Ouch on the rocker failure.  Definitely need to meet up sometime - next time the car is out of the garage and on the open road would be a good time to meet up.  I know we have other in the Cincinnati contingent that I haven't met, too.

I think I fixed the power steering leak until it broke.  Seems to be leaking worse than before now, to the point where I don't think I want to be driving it far at all.  I rigged up the endoscopic camera, and a light, and video'd it.   Sorry for the most boring 30 second video in the world.  I sped it up 8x so it would not be a lot longer.

As far as I can tell, it looks like the leak is coming from between the power steering pump fitting and the power steering pump body, rather than from connection between the high pressure line and the pump.  I can try to tighten the fitting up, but I don't think it's really designed to be snugged up beyond where it is now.  I am wondering if there is an o-ring back there that I can replace, or if it is time to give in and buy a new pump.  If you think I'm wrong, please let me know, it'd be nice to not have to pull the pump and either fix or replace it.

The book method involves draining the coolant, pulling some heater lines, and removing the pulley while in the car.  Supposedly there's a way to remove the pump and part of the accessory bracket, so the pulley can be removed while it is out of the car.  I'll need to see if I can find details on that.

Pulled the old power steering pump, and was able to navigate it past the coolant hoses without removing them, thankfully.  The plate it is mounted to came off first, and was held in with three bolts with 13mm heads, and one...with a 9/16" head.  I love transitional designs.  Going to clean the plate up a bit before putting it back in, so at least one thing under the hood won't be too dirty.  Thank goodness for the "Don't judge me" option at the concours. 

Also used some string to get a rough idea if the nitrous line is going to be long enough.  As far as I can tell, it is going to be close.  I might see about getting an AN -3 extension and a coupler for that.  I'll try to run the line this coming week and verify, if it looks like the budget is going to work out.  Also need to get a short-ish AN -4 line to go from the fuel rail schrader valve to the fuel solenoid.

With the car still down, and time running out, the door and front fender still need a bit of touch up work before they can be polished up.  So, why not just wash it inside the packed garage:

Worked out reasonably well, and after wiping up most of the water with some towels, I've got a fan going to help dry out the garage floor.  I'll try to get painting done tomorrow, so I can hit the doors with rubbing compound and then polish them sometime during the week.

Budget-wise, I think the blower motor resistor is going to have to come out for the challenge, and I may have to pull the seat covers.  Another option may be running with the old, squeaky serpentine belt.

Taped it up:

And hit it with some of what was left in the spray can.  I think I've got all the worst spots covered now, so once the paint cures, I'll start in with rubbing compound and polish, and hope the panels blend in alright with the rest of the car. 

Still need to install the lower door and fender trim, but I've already painted it, and won't worry about polishing it up, since it shouldn't be too visible, and I need to figure out if I'm going to use epoxy, or some sort of tape to reattach the door guard.

The package with the power steering pump showed up!  It also included a new high pressure o-ring, which means I can take $0.02 out of the budget, so I've got that going for me.

You want some help with the pump tonight?

wae said:

You want some help with the pump tonight?

It’s probably a one person job due to the tight space, but if you want to come on over, please do.  If nothing else, the door and fender still need to be polished up.  I have skrewball whiskey, too.

wae stopped by last night to work on my hack paint job, while I installed the new power steering pump.  He burned through the paint in a few spots (looks like I needed to add a few more layers), so that had to be touched up, but the rest of the area he worked on is extremely smooth, to the point where I'm afraid it is going to look better than the rest of the car when it is done.

Meanwhile, the pump install went mostly okay, with a few minor hiccups.  Fewer crossthreadings this time, so that was nice.  I left the alternator off so it will be easier to check for leaks this evening.

Prior budget:  $1580.17

$67.03 - Power steering pump

-$0.02 - Remove o-ring from budget.

Current Budget:  $1647.18

Definitely going to have to start pulling unnecessary parts if I want to put the nitrous kit on.  I'm estimating $30-50 in extra parts needed to install the nitrous kit, which means my target budget before that is about $1615-$1635.  Anything that goes wrong that has a significant cost will mean no nitrous this year.  Painting the wheels is probably out, too, so I need to figure out how to make them look as good as possible in a budget neutral way.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Yeah, sorry about that.  I even left the sanding pads for the buffer in the box to reduce the chances of that happening.  It'll look pretty decent once I sand down the touch-up spots, though, and then have my wool disc dried out to give it that last bit of polishing.

In reply to wae :

I suspect the paint was just too thin and I was in too much of a hurry to get everything together earlier this year.  Definitely going to need several coats of wax on anywhere a number panel or sponsor sticker goes in order keep it from coming off after the challenge.

Been working late for the past few days, so no chance to get the car back together and running.  Hoping that changes tonight.  Judging by the looks of things, though, the power steering leak may have finally been resolved.  Here's hoping.  If it is still there, I may need to break out the gasoline and matches.

Could you just say, 'Berk it' and disconnect the power steering altogether? If you're not going to be doing anything besides the Challenge with it all the PS is really doing is adding weight...

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

My guess is that trying to drag that pig around the cones without power steering won't be very fun. 

Yeah, 4200 lbs is quite a bit to try to hustle around an auto cross course.  I even have a manual steering box that could make it easier, but don’t really want to FMV that in just for the challenge, then fix later.  Fingers crossed, hoping the problem is fixed.

In reply to eastsideTim :

I say that you dub it "Schrödinger's leak"  If you don't look at it we can assume that it is leaking and not leaking.  And then we'll just choose "not".

In reply to wae :

Based on the fact that only a small amount of the litter under the car appears to have had fluid dribbled on it, I am cautiously optimistic.

Eh, as long as it's moving the power steering doesn't do THAT much- but hopefully you were able to resolve it and it's a moot point.

Let's see, over the past couple of days, I reinstalled the alternator and the air filters, and anything else needed to get the car back on the road.  Hit any zerk fitting I could find with some grease, especially the ones in the line of fire of the ATF and power steering leaks.  Took it for a test drive, and other than the rear end noise, all seems well.  It drives nicely with the new tires.  The leaks appear to have been dealt with.  I may want to wrap a little extra hose around where the transmission cooler lines cross some metal edges, though.  I was able to fit the nitrous line, and it was long enough to do the job.  I'm also a bit dense, as it turned out there was an 18" AN-4 fuel line in the kit, which is shorter than I wanted, but I should be able to make it work, assuming nitrous is installed (more on that below).

Took it to wae's trailer, and things went a little south there.  Trying to load it was a nerve wracking experience for me, and I'm not sure much better for him.  He needed to constantly direct me, and at one point when the front wheels were on the trailer, and the rear wheels were just starting up the ramps, we had about 1/2" clearance on the passenger side and an 1/8" on the driver's side.  While it would have slightly improved once the car was on the trailer, based on the shape of the body line, that just seems to close.  Somehow I was convinced to give it another shot, and I spit a block of wood out from under the rear wheels.  This all took quite a while.  I decided to call it, and we'll either need to borrow a wider trailer, or one without side rails, or I'll just go ahead and drive to the challenge.  Right now, the latter seems most likely.

If I drive down, I am seriously considering not installing the nitrous.   Having it give me practically no budget room if something goes wrong, and I really don't want to have to strip it off in the parking lot in Gainesville.  Also, I'll want the car to be  running well for the drive home, and am a bit worried about pushing it in the drags until something goes.  Admittedly, this also means I could go buy a cheap stereo for the drive down, and not be stuck with just short range (the antenna won't go up) AM/FM on the car's speakers

In other news, I think the transmission is a bit overfilled, so I plan on siphoning out some ATF this morning, then taking it for another highway drive, as it is going to be raining.  I want to see if I can replicate the behavior I thought I felt before where it may have been missing during steady state driving in the rain.  I'd like to know if it is really a problem before I commit to a multi day drive.

Another consideration is what tools to bring.  Right now, the only jack I have that can lift the front end weighs well over 100 lbs, and is fairly large.  The rear sits low enough I don't want to put it in the trunk.  It probably won't fit on the floorboards.  May have to grab a lighter weight jack, and just lift one side of the other of the front if need be.  Without a big tow vehicle, I also won't be bringing tools for every occasion.  Will just have go with the basics, and assume I'll buy or borrow something if I have a failure that requires specialty tools.

Harbor Freight aluminum jack.

Get a Bluetooth boombox thing that doesn't stay in the car for the drive down.

Lug wrench or electric impact and wrenches and other basics. Odds are if you have something weird break you won't have the tools even if you pack a ton.

Get the nitrous all wired and plumbed in and don't use it if you need the budget elsewhere?

In reply to solfly :

I do have a HF aluminum jack I was thinking of bringing.  I need to find where on the front half of the frame the car is allowed to be lifted.  The body is crusty enough that I do not trust the jacking points.  I do have a boombox somewhere that I will likely just go find new batteries for.  As for the nitrous, even if I don't use it, if it is on the car, it needs to be in budget.  Not sure I want to be pulling lines out, especially since the one to the bottle will require trim being removed.  Not to mention, I am a bit more worried about the transmission now.

I am not sure if it is in my head or for real, but after getting the transmission fluid level right, which in a 4L60E seems to be something of a dark art, but I could have sworn the drivetrain whine was louder, and coming in at a lower speed than before.  Makes me nervous something inside the trans is making noise.  Still it is mainly under load, nowhere near as loud when coasting.  Almost makes me want to overfill it a bit again.  It appears the difference between overfilled and not showing up on the dipstick is less than one liter, as that is all I initially pulled from the transmission.  Went through a few cycles of adding and removing until it was somewhere around the "cold" spot on the dipstick (which appears to be around .1-.2 liters different from the "hot" marking at most), and went for a test drive.

This morning's drive was not as long as I wanted it to be, as weather was clearing up, and I wanted to go home to recheck the transmission fluid level.  Also, I seem to recall mold release gets worn off new tires very quickly, so this may just be an aspect of its handling, but on damp pavement the back end wants to step out at way lower speeds than I would expect, and I've owned quite a few RWD cars in the past.  We're talking sliding at 35 MPH on a corner my Mazda5 can take in hard rain at 40+.

On a final note, despite it whining almost as much as I do, the power steering pump still appears to be not leaking.

Did a little bit of cleaning in the afternoon, and also touched up a bunch of rock chips.  They don’t look great, but should make the car look a lot better from ten feet or so away.

Leaning toward making this a lazy trip down, taking off Monday evening, and getting to the space coast sometime late Wednesday morning, visiting family, then heading north on Thursday to Gainesville.  I could use a slower-paced trip than I usually do.

any chance the noise is from the rear end?

solfly said:

any chance the noise is from the rear end?

I am certain at least part of it is.  

Would it perhaps fit better on a UHaul car hauler? They're lower than Bill's trailer by a long shot so should be a lot easier to load onto. Would obviously cost more for the trip, but wouldn't be a budget hit.