My little bit of everything thread - V8 content inside

Slowly but surely making progress. I decided to postpone the cam/turbo setup until this winter/spring and just get the thing on the road, I may even drive it through the winter as it came with nice snows. With a tune on the stock LQ4 it should be about 290whp, plenty of fun to burn tires for the time being. I did rig up the 6.0 to run on the engine stand and it sounds healthy.

It didn’t help that the 80E I bought ended up being totally smoked, obviously went into meltdown at some point. I think it starved for fluid as the pan was dented and the filter was cracked in places.

That put a pretty sour taste in my mouth but it is what it is, so I have another 80E on the way from a yard with a warranty this time, hopefully should turn out a lot nicer.

While I wait on the trans I have been chipping away at the other stuff.

Factory cats cut out, sold to recoup some funds.

Pulled out the 4.6/4R70W which is for sale. Motor runs great, tranny was shifting funny.

I got it covered up with a tarp, it will probably sit there until somebody buys it or get tired of looking at it and just scrap it. I don’t even know what these things are worth anyways

Between work and spending time with our 3 month old daughter I don’t take nearly as many pictures as I used to. I just get in the zone and make the most of the hours that I have. The engine bay was pretty grimy but not too bad. Powerwashed it and cleaned a ton of leaves out of the cowl drain.

At this point the chassis is pretty much ready for the new drivetrain to drop in. I pulled the 4.6 engine mounts off the boat anchor and installed them onto the 6.0 using the CJ Pony Parts 4.6 to LS adapter plates. Had to open up the forward bolt holes, not a huge deal but slightly annoying for something advertised as bolt in.

That ride height and wheel gap with no motor! I don’t plan on lowering this one, need all the ground clearance I can get for the jumps this thing will see.

Got the F-body pickup tube, windage tray and oil pan installed also. She’s ready to party.

No pics, but got the following done too:

4L80E yoke installed onto P71 aluminum driveshaft, replaced both u-joints too

New rear rotors installed, 8.8 pinion seal replaced, diff cover and bolts wire wheeled and painted

Powerwashed the radiator, condenser, tons of gunk in the bottom.

Lots of parts rolling in also, PS lines, rad hoses, the usual accessory junk to get it going. Hopefully more progress and pics to come soon. My deadline for burnouts is Halloween.

I sourced another 80E locally from a yard this time with a 30 day warranty, and dropped it off at a local builder to take a peek inside and make sure it’s good to go. I’ll still be putting the HD2 kit in that one. Not much left to do, I really need to get the trans back so I can slap it all in. I am running out of “prep work” on the chassis.

While I waited on the trans, I decided to plop in the motor from the front to see if it lined up with the crossmember pedestals. First attempt was a no-go due to the cherry picker hitting the front bumper.



I forgot how massive this boat is. Might make it easier to pull the front clip, but why make additional work for myself…just go in from the side.



The stock steel wheels on this thing were rusty and gross and had nice snow tires on them. I picked up a spare set of 17s in nice shape, rattle canned them gloss black, and mounted up a cheap used set of Michelin’s off some Mazda SUV that just so happened to be the exact same size as the Ford. Can’t wait to boil these tires off.



The M3 continues to be a great work truck, hauling transmissions and wheel sets like they’re not there. For anyone that is curious, this setup is great compared to driving a pickup all the time and getting abysmal fuel economy. Ok, the M3 gets 18mpg, but at least it’s way more fun to drive than a truck.



Once I had opened up the slots on the crossmember, the motor dropped right in. The F-body oil pan is close to hitting, but clears.





From a brief mockup it’s looking like truck manifolds will fit like they were meant to be there. I will hack off the 3 bolt flanges and weld on some v-bands, which will be handy when I go turbo next year.

I still need to figure out power steering lines, rad hoses, transmission cable, and the fuel system. I have decent game plans for all those and will document as I get there. 
 

Cool progress--more power to the truck manifolds, which always have the added benefit of retaining heat and not warping off of your heads once you have the turbo fever going.

On the point of tires, I found that the cop-rated tires have some interesting benefits, even when they're way out of date.  I had a fairly nice '08 Crown Vic a few years back, and decided to do a track day with it (Thunderhill in CA).  Aside from always being in the wrong gear, it was ridiculously easy (and painfully boring after a bit) to track (the cop brakes were rarely necessary).  I did four sessions, rarely ever getting much above 90 (too slow/weak with the 4.6).  Anyhoo, getting back to the tires, they didn't give a crap at all.  Looking at them the next day, you could scarcely tell they'd been stressed.  This probably means that they'd be good for turbo burnouts, too . . .

As for tow pigs, the M-series is righteously odd, however the Corvette was a bit cooler and weirder.  

Bit behind on updates, but a lot has happened. 

I got tired of wiring and general mechanical work so I pulled off the rear trunk plug where the antenna used to be...so that I could install a junkyard antenna off a GM car. It serves no purpose and is totally nonfunctional but completes the look of the Covid Cruiser as I've begun to affectionately call it.

Magic eraser wheel continues to save fingernails around the world

Mocking up the harness to figure out lengths and routing. I'm using an HPI Harness I bought on Amazon for under $300, it's a turn key unit. For the price it looks to be of nice quality and the customer support has been great. I can't imagine ever depinning and reworking a factory harness when you can just buy one of these, it's a fantastic value.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W3YXY48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1[/URL]

Once I got everything just laid out and connected I tried to start the car, it wouldn't crank at all even though the Ford starter wiring hooked up directly to the GM starter. After some head scratching and reading I realized the Ford starting circuit uses the PRNDL switch (MLPS or Manual Lever Position Switch in Ford speak) to ensure the trans is in park before it allows current to flow to the starter so you don't accidentally run over your dog. My solution was to remove the entire engine harness from the 4.6 and cut out any wire that wasn't plugged into the MLPS - essentially thinning out the entire harness down to a MLPS bypass. Bolted the MLPS to the front header panel, plugged it in, and voila she cranks.

At this point there wasn't much left to prevent me from starting it, so I hotwired the fuel pump by jumping pins at the Fuel Pump Driver Module (FPDM) in the trunk (Ford really loves their 4 letter acronyms). Motor fired and sounded good, but putting the trans in Drive did nothing as the car didn't move in any gear.

So, off came the trans pan...which got hung up on the crossmember and dumped everything all over my floor. Thank god for epoxy flooring and a drain.

I found that the snap ring for the boost valve in the HD2 kit was loose and shot out, trans was bypassing internally. Must not have seated with my E36 M3ty snap ring pliers, so I ground down the tips of some needlenose which worked far better.

Once that got reseated she made pressure and this was the result:

The cluster is laughably angry, this is going down the Thruway at 80mph:

November 2020: 

Drove it for a week or so, first impressions are good. Lots of mid range torque, but definitely runs out of breath above 5000 rpm. The Express Van tune is hilariously bad. Besides only calling for something like 10 degrees of timing at WOT, it was shifting the trans at 5200. Just by putting some timing in it and raising the shift rpm points the car was a new animal. That being said, I immediately got bored with the power level. Let's take apart a running car. PAC 1218s are already installed, going in is a SS2 cam and Siemens 80# injectors.

Got sick of doing the "pull the starter, install the lock tool, then do the reverse later on" trick to hold the crank pulley, so I made my own lock. Works awesome, will be doing it this way every time from now on.

Traditional picture of a new cam on my kitchen counter, been doing it every other year or so since 2014

Going to also clean up some stuff that I wasn't happy with. Upper rad hose wasn't supported and was flopping around, hitting the tensioner pulley, and blocking the path of any sort of intake.

December 2020:

Been driving this thing for a few weeks now with the new cam and beating it up. One Friday after work I met a buddy to cruise over to another friend's for some beers, he is following me in his N55 E70 X5. As I pass him doing about 80 (moderate throttle) there's an explosion under the car and I lose forward thrust. Ruh roh...I knew right away it was the driveshaft. Stock aluminum P71 shaft with brand new u-joints.

I was laughing my ass off watching the remainder of the shaft slide into the ditch like a spinning frisbee.

Damage is surprisingly minimal for how violent it sounded, probably due to how soft the aluminum is.

Some minor marks on the body

slip yoke took a beating, will probably replace it

Exhaust got whacked, but as you can see it wasn't exactly robust to begin with

After a quick tow home I just hopped in my M3 and still got to enjoy some brews with the boys.

I'm going to call Denny's driveshaft today for advice on a replacement. Thinking steel will be stronger but I'm concerned about it having a lower critical speed. I'd like this thing to be able to hit 140 comfortably, don't need to go faster than that.

Christmas 2020: 

Get the new driveshaft in and it drives fine with no vibrations, but I'm hearing what sounds like the starter sticking when it's cold started and some marbles in a can noise. I put it up on the lift and go to remove the bellhousing cover when I notice something that just made me laugh. I pulled the trans. 

I had planned on pulling the tranny in the spring anyways to install a new converter with a higher stall to suit the future turbo, so this just accelerated those plans. The trans is out being welded up right now, I think it should be fine. Time will tell. Full send!

Now it's just a matter of waiting on the converter to come in from Circle D, and enjoying the wonderful weather (24" of snow right there per my scientific yard stick)

Um... All I can say is keep doing awesome things!

Whoa, way behind here....time for some updates. 

Got the tranny bellhousing all welded up by a local guy. Before it went back in I got my long awaited Circle D 3200 budget converter filled up and installed.



Once I got the fluid level figured out I took it out and WOW what a difference even non-turbo. The motor flashes right up into the torque band and really gets the heavy car moving quick even at part throttle. This thing is going to be fun with double the power. One of my biggest gripes with my old sloppy turbo Silverado (4.8/7875 and 4.10s) was that it was a total dog off the line even with a 3200 converter. I think it was a combination of a heavier chassis, much less displacement and a weak timing curve (my fault).

Before I get the turbo kit started I wanted to iron out a couple other small complaints I had with the driving experience. First off was the total lack of gauges; since the 2011 Crown Vic cluster operates on a CANBUS network off the Ford PCM, it is totally dead with the car moving. My solution was to source a used Mercury Marauder cluster as it incorporates a tach and uses traditional analog signals to drive the gauges and dummy lights.

Using a GM PCM bench flash harness as a power supply to light up the cluster once I got the pinout figured out.







I also updated the mileage in the cluster to match the actual chassis mileage (156,xxx)



The other gripe that I had was the Ford column shifter being kinda wacky in how it shifted the 80E. It “worked” but wasn’t really accurate since the Ford shifter uses a PRND21 pattern and GM uses the PRND321. I spent last Saturday morning at the local junkyard looking for GM center consoles/shifters that might work. Initially I was hoping to get a Trailblazer or GMC Jimmy unit, but all of those were trashed. The ticket ended up being a 2004-2008 Grand Prix, which has a “utilitarian” look to it, the right shift pattern, and a SUPER long shifter cable to work with almost any swap.





Mocked up





Ugly but functional bracket to mount the cable to the trans



Quick spritz of paint in my professional paint booth



Finally, underhood shot of the current state. I also picked up a truck intake to replace the van intake since it has a threaded boss for the beauty cover which I like to run.



I need to finish splicing the cluster harness and bolt down the shifter/console as well as connect the shift cable. There is also an annoying oil leak I can’t seem to find, got it all cleaned up and will try to find the source by running it on the lift.

 I took a break from the tune stuff and started on the turbo kit itself. Got the crossover all mocked up and tacked, log mounted with a new v-band ring welded right to the inlet. Oil feed and drain are made, need to be connected and secured. The area right in front of the T4 flange is crowded with heater hoses and wiring, so I will most likely be sticking the wastegate right on the housing (at a gradual angle). Pics to come

Turbo just sitting on the log flange. Cold side will be a pain, lots of stuff in the way



Plenty of room for a 3" downpipe, I'm going to cheat it over towards the frame rail to avoid the plug wires and allow easy spark plug access. The log manifold needed a a bunch of deburring and grinding to give some breathing room to the plug boots. I'll have to keep an eye on the wires and see if it burns them.

Mockup...




Spring testing, going to run a spring that cracks at 4-5psi and is fully open by 7-8

Smashed out a bunch of progress over the weekend and got it running. Ran out of mandrel bends to run the downpipe out the bottom so upwards we go. Temporary setup just to say I did it and cross it off the bucket list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czGep6TbUVY









Weather is getting better so I took the cover off the M3 and went for a spin



Winter sunsets over Lake Erie are the best, I love living in Buffalo.



Anyhow...still need to install the intercooler and cold side, and I'm still fighting a really annoying oil leak from around the oil filter. Probably the high pressure blockoff plate, or maybe the oil pan gasket?

[QUOTE=LQ4-E39;20339178]Finally got the majority of stuff buttoned up and started driving this thing under boost.

Got the bumper off and intercooler mounted. Just some sheet metal bent into right angles bolted to the support beam. I had to cut out the brackets for the old push bar, but might add that back one day as I think it's funny as hell.

They aren't kidding when they say these cars are easy to repair and work on. Half a dozen bolts and the bumper slid right off. I'm used to the German stuff where there are 50 clips, bolts, brackets and one time use fasteners that always break.



The majority of the intercooler was hidden directly behind the crash bar and the bumper cover. Cut out a big portion of the crash bar sheet metal and brought out the trusty ole 3" hole saw...




Quick license plate relocate and we're back in business



Plenty of airflow now. I am seeing IATs of no greater than 75F driving around beating on it.



Since I don't own a TIG welder (yet), I'm limited to cutting down aluminum intercooler piping and rolling beads to fit my setup.



Not a bad result for the world's ugliest tool which happens to work great.



Building up a MIG bead and reshaping the male/female ends with a die grinder worked great.





Ugly arrangement of couplers coming off the TB, but hasn't leaked up to 10 psi. I got the wrong coupler from On3 and needed to improvise.



Initially I installed the weakest spring, which netted me about 5psi. Fun but not really overwhelming, so I added another spring which got me up to 10psi. I don't really trust the color rating scheme so I just install what I think works and then hook up a high resolution regulator to cycle the wastegate manually with the engine off and see where it cracks and opens. Finally, I added a ball/spring type MBC and will work on turning up the boost this weekend. The goal is the typical 14psi/14 degrees on 93 and just have fun for a while.



Next up: making it livable. The hater pipe will be replaced with a real downpipe that connects to the stock exhaust, with a 3" boost activated cutout under the passenger's feet.

I also need to figure out the Marauder cluster a little more.

-The fuel gauge works perfectly
-The tach WAS working with a pull up circuit, and then stopped. Possibly bad connection on my part
-Coolant temp works once I wired it to a '98 Camaro 3 wire ECT sensor, but is offset to read just above cold when the engine is warmed up. I need to pull off the needle and reclock it slightly.
-Speedo reads 30mph when I'm not moving, reads 100+ at 70mph. I can fix that part of it in the tune using the VSS pulses, but it is also jumpy and sometimes sticks in certain areas.


 

This brings us to today...

Spent some late nights after the baby went to bed and finished up an actual exhaust the connects to the stocker. Nice and quiet now, although I have a few small exhaust leaks I need to chase down. The good news is that it's so much nicer to drive now, and does a pretty good job wasting tires on only 8-9 lbs. I am still on 93 pump with about 14-15 degrees timing at this level. The response is pretty good and once the loudvalve opens it's a party.

It needs a good wash and maybe even a polish to get rid of some of the water spots it had from sitting for a couple years.









Wheel-well self-rustproofing application



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JR3vnOjVlg

The bad news is that it doesn't want to make more than 9ish lbs. I started to slowly turn up the boost controller but ran out of daylight and didn't want to play with it at night in case something blew up. It may just need some more turns on the controller or I may have a boost leak somewhere. Thinking that's not the case since it held up to 14psi a few weeks ago, but we'll see. I am also thinking I'm going to get bored of pump gas power levels, so I'm already thinking about adding flex.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbnUvBwNbvk

Testing out the setup on 9 lbs, waiting for the rain to dry up to turn it up to 12-14 and do some more tuning. I also need to finish up the cluster as it's annoying driving around with no speedo or tach. After that, it should be ready for state inspection...
 

Excellent progress--dig the overall quietude of the VS turbo.  Got one sitting on my desk that makes no noise at all . . .

Thanks, it's very quiet until you get into boost. 

I took her out for some tuning last night, got it turned up to 12psi, then ran into some spark blowout. Ran strong, but just got some popping and spitting at WOT. Pulled the plugs, turns out the TR6s are gapped to .033 right out of the box. TR7s are going in tonight, maybe we'll try to shoot for 14psi...

Over the weekend I took a quick trip along the lake to Cleveland with a friend and his E39 M5 to get away from the hectic pace of life. Put about 500 miles on the car (all Thruway there, all back roads via PA Allegheny State Forest on the way back). Averaged about 18-22mpg pushing the car and with a significant aerodynamic disadvantage...

Doing touristy things:

Tucked away underneath the hotel for the night.

The next morning we made a quick pit stop in Mentor Ohio to pick up a new toy. Covid-based demand for outdoor equipment has forced people to ask outrageous prices for used kayaks locally and they are unavailable locally new, so this was the closest location that had the model I wanted. Enter the M3 truck: 

Aside from wind noise you wouldn't even know it was there, and rock solid even up to triple digit speeds. 

We wound our way through the Ohio back roads and entered NW PA, crossing the Pymatuning Reservoir...

...and stopping for a quick break at the Kinzua Dam. 

The car performed flawlessly; my only complaint was that the exhaust droned a bit at highway speeds. I really need to start that vacuum cutout project...

Back when I owned my C5, I had always dreamed of fabricating some ITBs for that car, and having some nice open velocity stacks to listen to. Life got in the way, we had a baby, and I sold the car for the M3, but I never got over the idea of those stacks...

Enter the $200 spare intake plenum.

After a couple hours of careful cutting, the 1 piece plenum is now a 2 piece

Lid will go back up on the wall as decoration

Cut out the unnecessary bits, but keep the oil drain ports and PCV barbs for future mockup

Some more work with a belt sander to remove the sharp corners and smooth out the sides and they're ready to be bolted back on. 

The sound is simply amazing as I expected. This car has a stock axleback and test pipes, but those are totally drowned out by the sonorous, pulsing intake music. 

Next up I need to figure out filtration (probably some ITG filter socks) and PCV/oil drain back breathers. 

Long time since an update but a lot has happened.

I sold my 2009 E90 335xi 6MT; really enjoyed that car but it was too small for the upcoming addition to our family.

The next logical step was an F15 X5 35i in Sophisto Grey. This is seriously my favorite car in years. It just does it all.

I knew it would probably be fine on the all seasons in the winter but decided to make it my own by bolting on the old 7 series wheels from the E90 to use as a winter set.

Patiently waiting on new tires to come....there they are.

Loaded up in the work truck to go get mounted:

Had a good friend modify some spacers for me and off we go to the local wilderness spot.

With reliable winter transportation sorted out I could turn back to the fun cars. On the turbo Crown Vic E36 M3box I never was happy with how the exhaust turned it. It was a 3" downpipe mated up to the stock Ford 2" dual system which had all sorts of leak flanges and holes in the muffler. Rattled and leaked and just generally sounded awful out of boost. In boost it didn't matter because the cutout would be wide open, obliterating eardrums of those around me.

I cut off and ditched the stock Ford exhaust, and welded up a quickie with a leftover 3" resonator and a generic Amazon chambered muffler. It sounded decent dumping out in front of the RR wheel.

Took the kid to one last car show for the year. She didn't seem to mind the vibrations/noise.

While doing the exhaust, I realized that my annoying engine oil leak was coming from the oil pan, and that my welded bellhousing had given up and cracked again. At this point it made sense to just pull the drivetrain out of the car over the winter to make the necessary repairs...

The more I worked on the car the more I realized how uncomfortable I would be putting a freshened up motor and trans in a car that was starting to rust out. The body was ok on the exterior but the passenger compartment floor and trunk floors were really getting bad, along with some spots on the frame. I probably could have spent a ton of time grinding rust off and playing the POR15 game but didn't think that would really net me a big return on my time invested. 

So, I pulled the body off the frame, sold the 8.8 and IFS, and am parting out the rest. 

Enter the Jaaaaaaaaag. 

It's a 1984 Jaguar XJ6 that was owned by the PO for almost 2 decades, and doesn't have any rust at all. He babied it as a weekend cruiser and had a bunch of pricey service done including refreshing the rear brakes/bearings (weirdo inboard IRS setup), new tires, and a new paint job. Conveniently, the stock 4.2 I6 cranks but won't run due to the overly complicated fuel system and questionable compression numbers and leaks fluids profusely from the engine and trans. Yes....excellent....

Loaded up the ole family truckster and went to snatch it. Towed excellent once I unbolted the driveshaft from the rear diff and rat E36 M3 strapped it up out of the way. 







Since this is all a one man show I needed a way to pull it up on the dolly. Welded a HF worm gear winch to one of their 2" receivers...





I will have to upload some more pics of the Jag but overall it's a ton of car for what I paid. The plan is to:

-Fix the oil pan leak on the 6.0 and figure out how to convert the FEAD to be a little lower as I refuse to cut the hood on this car (truck intake won't fit). 
-Teach myself to rebuild 4L80E's and put the good guts from the broken case into the good case I have that had broken guts in it
-Most likely ditch the stock 04 van PCM and standalone harness. I have never enjoyed using HPTuners since I first picked it up 5 years ago and am ready to make the jump to the ease of the TerminatorX
-Build a fuel system with enough headroom for E85. It's going to be a fuel cell since the Jag has a crazy twin (but separate) tank system. Still trying to learn about the pros and cons of in tank vs external pumps, filters, etc etc. 
-Regear the diff, I believe it has 2.88s in it now but is based on the Dana 44 so gear swaps are not impossible. 
-Burnouts? 

Looking forward to this!

This thread delivers! Enjoying following along!

Threads like this one make me feel like such a bum.  Good work.  Keep it up.

In reply to bigeyedfish :

Don't be that guy. Get out there, do things, enjoy them, and take credit for them. I'm just one regular dude who is working his ass off and trying to have fun before I get too old to do this stuff. 

Incredible thread man, it's been super entertaining. Totally know that life of working in the garage after everyone is sleeping --- it's pretty satisfying haha. Keep it up!

Excellent choice with the Jaaaaaaag!

Love this thread. I'm doing similar LS Swap things now in my garage. Harbor freight crank thing is awesome. Stealing that idea. 

Some more photos of the car...















It has a super weird twin (but separate) fuel tank setup with a filler cap on each side and a driver operated tank select switch. I plan on ditching the tanks and going with a fuel cell but I really want to keep the dual fillers as they're super cool. 








The 4.2 boat anchor cranks but doesn't run and has had many cases of "here, let me take a look at it". It will get pulled and listed for some die hard Jag purist to pick up. 










This build will have a couple unique features for me...

-Oldest car I have ever owned, and has the styling/smells/vintage feel I like from that era. No ABS, no airbags, we die like men...

-Being pre-1996 that means it will not require a state emissions inspection which has always been a hassle for my swapped cars. Furthermore, since I don't need to run emissions, I don't need to use the stock Express PCM, so that has been sold off and I will be running a Holley Terminator X Max. I never enjoyed the HPTuners learning curve and am looking forward to the self tuning feature. Anybody want to buy my MVPI Standard? 

-Plan on running a flex fuel setup and enough fueling to support 700+whp. Never run E85 before so this should be fun. I will need recommendations on an ethanol friendly fuel cell, and need to decide whether to run a couple in tank pumps or one external. Never messed with fuel cells so that will be a learning experience. 

-Still going to run the 6.0/80E that came out of the Crown Vic. Most everything is staying the same internally (SS2 and 1218s) but I'm going to need to revise the front accessories to be able to run the LS1 intake to clear the hood. The car will stay 100% stock looking, no cut up Draguar hood here.

The rear is most likely a 2.88 open so that will need attention, but being based on the Dana 44 with some minor differences a gear swap shouldn't be hard. The entire IRS drops out as one assembly. Driveshaft is already disconnected from the diff from when I towed it on the dolly, too. I'm thinking a 3.54 or similar ratio to allow for easy highway cruising on the 26" tire. 

I'm on the fence about AC since it doesn't get that hot here in WNY, but the exhaust will definitely utilize a 3" cat that then feeds the stock Jaguar exhaust that I'm sure is whisper quiet. 3" boost activated cutout will dump post turbo, pre cat. I absolutely plan on keeping the cool s-shaped tail pipes. 
 

Holiday update time - hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed it despite how crazy the world is right now.

I finally made the room in my garage to be able to get the Jag home - so we loaded it up on my buddy's trailer and hauled it home.









Rolled her big ass into the garage and got it up on the lift. Initial impressions are good - little to no rust on the unibody underneath, really just surface rust on some subframes and pinch welds. That'll be easy to grind down and paint black - no body work needed.



I will admit that my time working in the garage has been extremely limited lately - preparing for my son's arrival in February while watching my year and a half old daughter takes up the majority of my time. Anyhow, I was lucky enough to get out there for a whole day and remove the bonnet (lol), and pull the stock boat anchor.



Looking like the rear sump Camaro pan will work, and the subframe has nice flat pedestals to work off of for mounts.



37 years of oil leaks, grease, grime, and filth. I powerwashed as much as I could - no photos of the after since I was pretty soaked.


Anyone want to buy the stock motor/trans? I've never pulled a motor this old (1984), that actually has roots dating back to the 50s. Everything is so massive and overbuilt...




Next up is removing lots of unnecessary junk from the engine bay, cleaning it up, and maybe shooting some paint onto the frame rails. Looks like someone spilled brake fluid at some point, nothing that can't be fixed with a rattle can.