Operation X

Aaaaaand…………. they are back to being one! There is only about 4 more hours more and then I’ll be able to turn the key.

Well, she’s back together and she cam’d. Let me tell you, the past 3 weeks have kicked my ass.

I didn’t have time to play with the lighting. I had to get it to a shop today to get the headers welded up. Also, for some reason, my power steering fluid is leaking. I put a hose clamp on the line. I hope it stopped leaking. I drove it home at 1am. it is loud lol open headers. anyway nuff talking all you guys want to see is a vid.

The wire mod (I had to take a pic before I covered)

1AM

……. and the vid

The exhaust is welded up. But she’s still not on the road. I think my front main seal was leaking. turns out my harmonic balancer has a groove in it which probably (I hope) caused it. But also my powersteering pump or a seal is leaking. Uggh, I want to drive it… but can’t. Tomorrow I hope autozone is open to go get another PS pump. one thing at a time.

and the final exhaust vid headers welded

Well….. there were a few bugs to iron out but… she’s keeping the roads warm again.

-The front main seal just wouldn’t seal. See the thread here .Thanks John (on call lol) and Brent for the help.

-After 3 days of pulling the balancer off again…and again…. and again… I finally get that fixed and a rocker goes loose….. and I’m like wtf. I got that torqued back down. Thanks Brent for getting me off my ass today and get that fixed.

-I changed the fuel filter… ( I oops’d and didn’t change it until now.. see the pic below to see what came out of the old gas tank in a year ewww)

See the clear liquid on the floor at one end, that’s gas..
Tthe pile of mud on the other, well… thats whats was in the tank.

The creeper and I, well…. I exchanged a few words (better left not repeated *@%#!!) and we parted ways.

Now I have a shop full of garbage and equipment that I don’t know what to do with. They don’t exactly fit in the closet.

Phase 1 complete:
-rebuild
-cam
-headers
-tune

Well, just an update.

I got a egr block off plate that works now. I had to make a plug for the hole on the exhaust. The intake block off plate works great without the plug.

Also, I had a p0113 and a p0155 code which are both connection issues I think. I re-seated the PCM connectors and cleared the codes in hopes that it fixed it.

There’s still a few bugs yet:
-I’ve got a misfire. I believe its just the plugs. i’m going to pull the plugs and check them.
-There’s a noisy pulley and is sounds like its in the alternator.

Next weekend I’ll be junkyard diving for the center channel for the t-tops. Which will be happening next along with some custom head lighting R&D…..should be fun.

Tomorrow, I’m going to get a few take off vids for you guys. I’m sorta interested how it sound outside the car. I know the muffler is crappy so expect lots of rasp.

Well as for the fuel pump issue, I’ve narrowed it down to the fuel pump connector. I know the connector melted a bit from the old pump. Why it’s just now starting to give me problems IDK. I’m not sure what to do to fix it. considering is in the tank. I’ve got an idea though.

On a lighter note, I went to the junkyard and got a few things. I can now start phase 1.5

-Radio Bezel
-“A” pillars for the conversion
-the center channel for the t-tops
-Battery tray/overflow bottle
-and Dash pad.

Now before you look and see the dash pad, i want to tell you it was completely intact as one piece in the car…. i was amazed. I knew it would likely brake taking it out, but 4 pieces is a lot better than what i had… see below

My old dash pad…

Its sad when you stack the pieces and they fit in your glove box.

I finally tracked down my fuel pump issue. it wasn’t the relay…. it was the connector to the relay. The connections had become loose in the connector and the terminals inside the connector were bent up a little. So vibration and my foot hitting the foot rest would cause it to cut out. I just bent the pins on the relay a little to get them to push against the side of the terminals and now it works fine.

So… with Christmas coming up it’s likely to have to wait till after Christmas. I get a whole week and a half off for Christmas and New Year’s.

So…Phase 1.5 is scheduled in 2 weeks.

Well, I know I told you after christmas … but, I couldn’t wait.

Cleaned the shop up.. again.

Start disassembling the interior

AND…… chop

The Rear corners are done!! now to do the front… I’m sorta worried about hammering near the windshield. Oh well i got to do it!

I hate spot welds. I drilled them on the passenger side… that’s much easier.

Driver rear corner done!!

Both rear corners done!!!

T-tops are in! no leak tests yet.. although it was a perfect night for it. The bottom fell out just before I put the other side in. The hard part is over. It actually wasn’t that hard. I logged about 20 hours total to get to this point. The interior is still empty. Next I’ll be cleaning that up and putting her back together along with some leak tests.