So, on Sunday, wae and I attacked the fireturd. Not many pictures, since we were racing the clock. I can say one thing for sure, I will never pull a car engine in the driveway of this house again. Had to do a few things that were a little too sketchy, safety-wise.
Once we had everything disconnected (we thought), I attacked the core support with a sawzall. Seems like the best way to pull the engine and trans together.
And, after figuring out that not everything (especially the AIR tube to the catalytic converter) was disconnected, we finally got to here:
The fireturd weighs a bit less now:
I've got an ad on CL for parting it out. The hope is I manage to get $400 out of it ($375 purchase price + $25 auction fees). I'm also hoping to hit that point quickly, so we can haul the carcass off and no longer have it in my driveway.
Nice! Are there any easy power gains to be had in the 305? I don't usually hear good things about them. Probably still better than a V6 though.
maschinenbau wrote:
Nice! Are there any easy power gains to be had in the 305? I don't usually hear good things about them. Probably still better than a V6 though.
Nothing that's really 305 specific. If I'd been able to get the same deal on a 350 powered vehicle, I would have jumped on it. Most everything in the price range(and up quite a bit) had a blown trans or engine in it. I took a chance on this one, and it sort of paid off.
If it stays TBI, I've gathered it's not too hard to go from the stock 170 HP to somewhere in the 190-200 range with some exhaust and intake improvements. Much more than that, and it gets more involved. At that point it'd probably be cheaper to find a 350 to start with. Which may happen in 2018, if I leave enough breathing room in the budget. If I really feel like pushing it, it could even happen this year, but the first priority is to get the truck together, and start sorting it out.
eastsidemav wrote:
If it stays TBI, I've gathered it's not too hard to go from the stock 170 HP to somewhere in the 190-200 range with some exhaust and intake improvements. Much more than that, and it gets more involved. At that point it'd probably be cheaper to find a 350 to start with. Which may happen in 2018, if I leave enough breathing room in the budget. If I really feel like pushing it, it could even happen this year, but the first priority is to get the truck together, and start sorting it out.
I'm 95% certain I still have the mixing bowl I picked up to use to help with airflow when I thought the Elky was going to stick with TBI that I would be willing to sell you for pennies (since that's all I'd get selling it at a yard sale). I don't THINK I still have the 454 TBI setup any more- I'm likewise about 95% certain that I sold that a ways back unless it's hiding somewhere I haven't gotten to yet. I also sold the TPI setup earlier this year, though that would obviously be a bit more involved to implement.
In reply to Ashyukun:
I have your old 454 tbi.
The 305 benefits from advanced timing, ultimate tbi mods, and better exhaust. If you can do a set of vortec heads and a single plane intake, youll be more than pleasantly suprised by the measly 305.
In reply to Dusterbd13:
I think my plan right now involves making/modding a better y-pipe, patching together an exhaust from the f-body's system, possibly a dual snorkel air cleaner, and at least some of the ultimate TBI Mods. And of course, mucking with timing to eek out some extra performance. I think if I was going to get into the heads, I might as well start shopping for a 350.
Budget is somewhat tight, considering my engine swap and suspension parts were bought new.
In reply to Ashyukun:
I might go for that. Not sure I'll see you at the pull a thon, though. I'm inclined to stay home and work in the garage.
eastsidemav wrote:
In reply to Ashyukun:
I might go for that. Not sure I'll see you at the pull a thon, though. I'm inclined to stay home and work in the garage.
If you decide not to go and there's any small/light stuff you'd like me to try and find for you, let me know. I'm also probably going to hit UP&P since they (ostensibly) have an STS I can pull some parts from, so if there's anything there you'd like me to grab I can do that too.
I ran a TBI 305 Firebird in '13 and'14. Got down to 15.1 in the 1/4 with a 5 speed and 3.27 gear on street tires. (factory is 16.1 according to Car and Driver)
I wanted to got vortec heads (must get from a 305) and carb but chickened out.
I'm using a LT1 cam from a '92 Corvette, 350 TPI exhaust manifolds and y-pipe. Had to get a chip made for it. Played with 350 vs 305 injectors, didn't really see much difference beyond the exhaust stinking more on the bigger ones. Pitched the AIR system to clean things up an dused a Canadian spec idler to eliminate the pump.
Gearheadotaku wrote:
I ran a TBI 305 Firebird in '13 and'14. Got down to 15.1 in the 1/4 with a 5 speed and 3.27 gear on street tires. (factory is 16.1 according to Car and Driver)
I wanted to got vortec heads (must get from a 305) and carb but chickened out.
I'm using a LT1 cam from a '92 Corvette, 350 TPI exhaust manifolds and y-pipe. Had to get a chip made for it. Played with 350 vs 305 injectors, didn't really see much difference beyond the exhaust stinking more on the bigger ones. Pitched the AIR system to clean things up an dused a Canadian spec idler to eliminate the pump.
How much weight reduction did you do? The S10 will start out lighter than an F-body, but there's not a lot I can remove. If the budget allows for it, I'm thinking about a fiberglass front bumper, and possibly a hood.
Spent a good chunk of today pulling parts for two different people on CL, neither of whom showed up. At least one of them texted me to let me know. Would have been nice if they'd shown up, as I would have netted over half the car's cost in selloffs.
In better news, I managed to pull the ECM and main engine harness today, so those will probably go in the S10, if it stays fuel injected. I am thinking of pulling some more of the dash harness and other parts, since the gauges in the fireturd are nicer than in the S10.
I also removed the dash pad from the fireturd. It is in extremely nice shape, and that is apparently a rarity. Hoping to score a decent amount of money from it.
Not making a lot of progress, but still getting a bit done. Installed the heater box, although still one more bolt needs to go in. I'll have to remove the fender liner to get to it. I also performed a little surgery with a sawzall on the transmission bell housing so exhaust will be a bit easier to route later on.
In theory, someone's coming by tomorrow to check out some parts from the fireturd. We'll see if that happens. I have my doubts.
Woohoo! Someone stopped by on my lunch break to buy some parts. Sold some interior trim and the t-tops for $120. That moves the selloff on the fireturd to $125. Figuring I should be able to get $100-125 when I scrap the cat convertor and the shell, I need to sell about $175 more to be able to zero out the car. It'll be nice to have the budget leeway if that happens, if not for this year, then for 2018.
Not a lot more to note, been traveling a lot lately. However, I've managed to sell some more parts on the Firebird, so selloff on it is up to $185. It'll probably be hauled off for scrap soon, id like the driveway space back. I did pull the exhaust, and some more wiring off it. Still need to grab the wheels and steering box from it, but that'll wait until the car is on the trailer.
Since I have Friday off for Good Friday and SWMBO works the whole day, I'm considering hitting the LKQ up in Cinci and seeing if they have any STS's I can get a sway bar off of. If I go, is there anything you want me to try and grab for you either for this or your other vehicles?
I'm still considering the fireturd's spoiler for the Riviera so if it's still around when you go to scrap it if you wouldn't mind pulling it I'll take it. I can't think of anything else that would be useful for me off of it- I know there's a mod to the Rivs using F-body brakes, but I'm now sure which generation of them the brakes would come off of.
I actually sold the spoiler yesterday, or I'd be happy to keep it before scrapping the car.
May be hauling away the turd on Friday, and if I have time, trying to set the engine into the S10 if you want to stop by when you're done at the junkyard. If I end up being free when you get up here, might join you at the lkq, just to take a look around.
Sounds like a good plan. If you're out at your storage unit and can grab the Neon surfboard wing I might give that a try.
Ashyukun wrote:
Sounds like a good plan. If you're out at your storage unit and can grab the Neon surfboard wing I might give that a try.
The locker is close to home, so should be no problem to grab.
Cool. If all goes well, I'll be driving the Riviera up there- it's got only marginally less cargo capacity than the Patriot, and it's a toss-up as to which is more intent on killing me: the steering column on the Riv or the front suspension on the Pat... 
No real progress on the S10, but Ashyukun brought my welder up, so I can weld a nut onto a broken exhaust manifold stud to remove it, at which point the engine will be ready to go in the truck. I still need to do a few minor things to the S10 to make it ready.
We ended up at the junkyard, and it turned out they were having a 40% off sale today. Mostly, we were seeking parts for the Riviera project, and while there was a 2WD Blazer there that I could have grabbed a rear axle from, it wasn't positraction, and we didn't really have a good way to haul it. I did go a little overboard once I realized horns were just a smidge over $2 each:
Full A C D F set, plus a couple of spares. At the very least, the S10 should get a nice four tone setup, and if I'm feeling really ridiculous, all these horns can be combined with what was already on the S10 and Fireturd, along with a few spare relays from the Fireturd's wiring harness, and the S10 will be very noticeable in traffic. 
It's still sitting on a trailer, since it took so long to strip the last few parts we needed that the scrapyards were closing on Saturday by the time we were ready to get going. As usual, the fireturd fought the whole way.
Once it was on the trailer, wae and I pulled the wheels, the steering box, and the steering column. The steering box required an angle grinder to remove, since I yet again had forgotten that when unbolting parts that need some sort of separator tool, remove the nut all the way, then thread it back on a little versus just loosening it most of the way.
$103 dollars for the fireturd shell! Between that and some recent parts sales, I'm at $368 recovered, and still have a few parts to sell, along with the catalytic converter, so full recoup is pretty much assured, which will be a first for me in the challenge 
I still need to do a bit more prep work on both the engine and the truck, but I am hoping to get the motivation to get that done soon. After the last two nights of trying (unsuccessfully) to remove an exhaust manifold stud, I'm probably taking a break tonight. Extractor set should be here on Friday, so if it's not removed by then, I'll attack it with that.
Now that the exhaust manifold adventure is over, I was able to chase the threads on the studs on the driver's side manifold, install new studs on the passenger side, and make a few other minor adjustments on the engine. It's pretty much ready to go in now.
The engine harness has been disconnected from the ECU, pulled through the firewall, and ziptied out of the way. I've seen competing info regarding whether I can use the original hole in the firewall for the V8 harness, or whether I'll need to move it over a few inches. It looks like the place it would be moved to (if needed) should be able to be drilled out by removing the passenger side fenderwell, so for now, I'm just going to leave it as is, and see where the engine sits, once it is in.
Today there's a warning to others, some good news and some bad news. We'll start with the warning:
If you have hoarding tendencies, be forewarned, this is what your workspace/car could end up looking like when building a challenge car:
And that's only after hauling junk out of the garage:
On to the bad news. The engine is in the truck. Not normally what would be called bad news, but it took several hours, may have damaged a few parts, and it is not in correctly.
To get it most of the way in, I had to remove the passenger engine mount, and even then, couldn't get it lined up right. I think it is hanging up on the driver's side mount, but there just isn't much maneuvering room. I think I will try removing the transmission crossmember to get a little more wiggle room, but it may all need to come out and the engine and trans may need to go in separately.
Finally, the good news. Now that zeroing out the fireturd is practically guaranteed, once I sell the converter, I changed my CL ads to take trades, partially in the hope of getting a four barrel carb. That's not what I got in trade for the dash pad. I got something way better:
Nice vintage minibike frame with ape hangers, and a 5 HP flathead Briggs & Stratton engine, that supposedly runs, at least on starting fluid. The wheels/tires are pretty much trashed, so they likely won't get used, but who knows. If time allows, plan on seeing this thing at the challenge
