Thats a clean engine!
IS the camera angle causing the new heater hose to appear very close to the exhaust manifold?

 

Thanks! And yeah, its a bad angle. Theres at least an inch at it’s closest point and more of an average of 1-3/8 overall.

 

More tuning; learning more about the power valve, my motor makes 19” of vacuum at idle in drive, but I had a 6.5 power valve in it. Moved up to an 8.5. Seems a bit better.

Started work on my vacuum lines. On the Q-jet there is a PCV port on the front, ported vac on the front for the charcoal canister, and a manifold vacuum port on the back for the brake booster. My 4160 only has one 3/8 manifold port, one 1/4 ported port and a 3/16 manifold port. My vacuum advance is taking the 3/16 port, and I have my PCV hooked up to the 3/8s. I also used a vacuum purge valve, tee’d the canister into the PCV vacuum line and ran the control side of the valve to the ported line on the metering block. Should result in a functional charcoal canister. I hate the gas smell and will do anything to lessen it.





I still needed a 3/8 for my brake booster so I bought an intake manifold tree from a 69 3x2 427 th400 car which has the 1/4 out the top for the trans modulator and out of one side for the headlights, but also a 3/8 port which I could plug my booster into. I custom made a hard line like the Q-jet had to dress it up some. Dont mind the 3/8 fuel hose, its just for mock-up until I order some correct booster hose.

 

I bought the ZZ4 manifold because it had a hot air choke and an EGR flange… then I deleted the EGR and installed an electric choke

But I'm stubborn and I didn't want to give up the look of the EGR valve that I fought so hard to keep.

the problem is that on a 4160 the 3/8 vacuum line comes out right into where the valve should be. I put another cheesy blockoff plate on, and used a strong magnet to secure the valve to the plate. Remember I welded one of those plates to the bottom of the valve to delete EGR in the first place

 

Back to school tomorrow, so ill have to slow down a bit.

Before everything iced over here I snuck in a quick test drive, my combined efforts with the squirter, pump cam and power valve have cured my part throttle hesitation.

As it sits;
Emissions system; hooked up and working. No gas smell, no vacuum in the tank.

Choke; works. Permanently wired to the old wiper motor plug.

Vacuum system; Complete. Dont think I will hook my air cleaner up.

Linkage; trans kickdown is fine but the throttle bracket needs work. The return spring location I picked out is just too weak at idle to fully pull the throttle butterflies closed against the sheer amount of vacuum the motor makes. Will edit my bracket.

Tune; 64 jets, 1 ~1/2 turns out on idle mix, 22 inches of vacuum in park, 8.5 power valve, pink pump cam in slot 2/3, 25 squirter. I have no clue which secondary metering plate is in it, but it feels perfect.

Fuel; ended up giving up for now and abandoned my goal of having a hard line all the way to the carburetor. Im using a fuel filter from a 2000 suburban with custom gm fuel line adapters I made so its an easily obtainable filter. There are two pieces of rubber hose 4 inches long to connect the carb to the line from the pump with the filter in the middle. Im using GM viton o rings to seal the lines where appropriate.

I also went and replaced the choke return spring, fast idle cam, choke element retainer, the front fuel bowl, sight plug gaskets and wired in my new ac idle compensator. Everything seems good. I do not trust it though. Like always, it will have to earn that over a few hundred miles. It took me the entirety of my Christmas break to do this swap, but I went in with 0 knowledge of a holley carburetor and Im now here with a decent grasp. Decent enough to know when I break something. It was a fun project, although it had a lot of nickel and dime parts to it.

Next up, delay wipers. Then carpet, and a proper engine bay paint/ detail

March/22 road trip

 

The Ice melted in Chicago thanks to two days barely above freezing, So I was able to get my vette around the block and for some fresh gas. My efforts with the power valve and accelerator pump were immediately noticed, not only is the hesitation gone, everything is flawless. Perfect. Zero room for improvement for further tuning of these systems. When I get some more miles on it, Ill read the plugs for jet changes and change jets and plates accordingly. I have 64 primaries in it now, I don't see anything bigger than 66s in my future. I want to use Quadrajet logic and keep it a bit leaner for fuel economy. I also remade my throttle bracket and got the AC idle solenoid installed.

 

Apparently I lost my mind.

I finished this week’s homework and spent this evening in the garage with the intent on organizing my toolbox.

For 11 months I've had poly strut rod bushings sitting on my parts shelf but I’ve been extremely hesitant to touch them because I feared that the lower shock mounts were rusted solid, because my car does see a fair amount of weather.

As I was standing in the garage I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to do them. Then I grabbed the jack. Next thing I knew the strut rods were out.





The rear suspension came apart easily because I used anti-sieze when I did the spring and shocks. The huge surprise came when I hammered on the lower mounts and they both slid right out. Not in a bad, worn out knurling kind of way, but the right way. I got the rods out, melted out the bushings and made sure my poly ones were a fit.






I also had a new rear end gasket on the shelf because mine has been weeping for at least the entire time Ive owned the car, 7 years. I have never checked the level. An oversight, I know. My bad. Luckily, the level was only a bit low, maybe 1/8 below the fill hole.

Now as you all know, to take the cover off a C3 diff, you have to get that cross member out of your way. I decided to attack the bushings at either end verses removing the bolts with it in place. After a bit of a fight on the drivers side (mostly due to lack of a good method) both bushings were free and I let the jack down to lower the rear end. I pulled the cover, and the oil is definitely ready to be changed to say the least.






I will sandblast and paint all these parts before reassembly, and quite frankly I am amazed at how much easy progress I made in such short time. Im sure that bodes well for putting it back together.

 

Got everything sandblasted and painted today.

Next up; chase and paint all the bolts.

 

Got the rear end installed, strut rods in, rear end aligned with the eye-crometer and the car back on the rear wheels. Then I started to really look at the rear suspension and moreover the entire rear of the car…. And boy did the red flags start piling up QUICK

Issue 1 there is a rust hole in my frame on a support brace where the passenger frame rail meets the horizontal brace under the rear of the birdcage

issue 2 the body mounts, specifically 4&8 are much much much worse than I knew. I knew they were worn out but it became extremely apparent how bad when I tried to remove the drivers side one and it flew apart. The frame mount is rotten off, the shims are gone, the rubber has disintegrated, the body support is completely missing and the cage nut snapped off. I haven't disassembled the passenger side yet but I'm betting its the same story. I bought all new body mounts and body reinforcements, and Im going to salvage the frame mounts with some 1/8 plate.








issue 3 I knew the trailing arm bushings weren't the best but what I didn't know was that the drivers side wheel bearing has not only declared its departure, but it left the house and is half way to the curb! Tons of play. Im going to cut the drivers trailing arm out and send it out either as a core or to be rebuilt. I dont think I'm nearly mechanically inclined enough to tackle the spindle bearings myself nor do I have the tools to do so.

Edit 2/6/22 Apparently yes, I AM mechanically inclined enough! I was feeling a little down when I wrote that to begin with.. lot of things were going sideways.

Unfortunately, these are the kinds of things that are to be expected from a 46 year old car I guess. She has been an Illinois car her entire life. This body has never been off the frame, and I am confident in saying that these mounts are original

 

On the bright side, I converted my 4160 to center hung floats to make the plumbing easier, and so I can fulfill my desire to have all hardline fuel plumbing up to the carburetor. I really hate rubber hose near the engine of any kind.

 

Trailing arms are out. Hard? Yeah but not for the normal reasons.





My bolts much like everyone else’s were seized hard in the sleeve through the bushings and would not even turn no matter what I did. I was absolutely not surprised to see this and went to Home Depot for a 12 inch thick metals carbide diablo blade.

I did this job with one singular blade and a Milwaukee m12 hackzall. Yes, a 12 volt mini sawzall. The bolt is not hard to cut through and the sleeve only gave me moderate trouble. The thing that made this job so impossible was something that in all my research I have never seen happen to anyone else. My shims were slotted but they were not stainless and they had become one with the frame. Totally rusted into place. I soaked everything with PB and it took 2 1/2 hours of cutting and hammering to get the shims out of either side. The shims in my case blocked access to the bolt and I had to cut blind. Once I had the shims moving it took 3-4 cans of WD40 and hours of rocking the shims in order to loosen them up enough for removal, which I did by clamping onto them with vice grips and hammering towards the front of the car using the frame as a fulcrum point. Once I got the shims out, it was a 10 second cut on the bolt and the trailing arms fell out.


Im rebuilding both arms and wheel bearings myself. The drivers side inner bearing exploded and when I took the yoke off the stub shaft fell out. The passenger side is in fine shape, but if Im doing it, Im doing all of it.

 

If you’re keeping score - I did the strut rod bushings and diff gasket and the car sat on all four wheels for 24 hours before I jacked it up and cut the trailing arms out. It never ran in that period of time and has not moved.

Roll with the punches I guess. I can’t drive and have fun knowing what I saw.

 

Bearings apart, races replaced. Easy peasy. Blasted everything but ill have to wait on new trailing arms because mine are cracked bent and rusted apart. Again that Illinois is really showing through. Replaced the drivers side U joint yoke because it was cracked completely in 2. Restored the half shafts. All new moog super strength u joints.

 

brings back memories on removing trailing arms off my 2 rusty illinois corvettes.
i used the same sawzall blade you did and cut right through the shims, bolt and whatever was in my way. no oils or heat, only liquid i had was some good IPAS helping the job along.

 

Illinois has a tendency to really destroy cars. I keep learning that lesson over and over again. I do my best to keep the vette away from salt now, but I guess they were all new every day cars at some point. Those diablo blades are a necessity!

 

Progress

my fuel line-fiasco is over. I made a rail for the 4160 and have one solid line from the pump to the carb, exactly what I wanted. I added some insulation to keep the heat from the block and heater hose away from the long line


I re routed the heater hoses further away from the exhaust manifold now that I can design a fuel line around the hoses rather than the hoses around the fuel line.

I repaired the drivers side #4 mount and frame perch, and removed all the body mount bolts. I tapped all the captured nuts and put bolts back in 2,3 6 and 7 to hold my alignment.

 

I got the half shafts reinstalled as well. Car runs good. Awoke from 4 weeks of no carburetor no spark plugs single digit weather just as it should. Touch the gas, bump the key, lights right off. No excessive cranking, no huss no fuss.

 

Wow. Nice work.

 

Thank you much!

 

Drivers side body mounts are done. Not a bad job, but definitely the most terrifying thing I've done on a vehicle. The full weight of where my hands were was on my shoulders. I didn't like that aspect of the job. Also I really did not like how the #2 birdcage mount looked. It is definitely a little thin. Not a whole lot I can do about that though.


Left to right; 3,2,1