1989 stock, auto trans, 50,000 miles

I can't believe it. Three months, two head gaskets, delete egr, delete air pump, new injectors, delete cats, new mufflers, both heads rebuilt, it started on the very first crank and runs great. No more rough idle or loss of coolant. Still have to make a couple of tweaks, but that's it. Not bad for 65 year old dude that did not have much engine experience. ( chased bad guys my whole working life). Thanks to everyone on this forum who helped. Could not have done it without you and the FSM. Did not have anyone to help me other then my wife. She even crawled under car with me ONE time to help. I'm so pumped, anyone need me to rebuild their complete Vette, just kidding LOL

 

 

- good job!

 

Congratulations Brother ! Care to share how you deleted the air pump. I am thinking of just disconnecting the tow wiring clips and let it stay on for a few days, make sure no codes or performance issues then pull it.

 

Removing those parts were easy. I just removed air pump, air deverter unit, air tube from deverter down to main cat, cut off small air tubes on each manifold and had them welded close I then added air pump delete pulley so I could use same belt. Works great and makes working in engine compartment much easier. I saved all parts so I could give them to new owner if I ever sell car. I also took off main cat so I didn't have to plug the air inlet tube on main cat. No codes and no smell , but quite a bit louder with no cats, but I like the sound.

 

Very good. Now get the fine tuning finished and take it for a drive.

 

Congrats! Now enjoy the ride.

 

Congrats. I also have not done any rebuilding in a lot of years but I'm starting to get back into things slowly.

 

Thanks

 

Thanks ! Mine is not belt driven, but I think it will definitely clean up the engine compartment. I probably would not mess with it but my CAT is going away so then I started to wonder what to do with that line.

 

Why 2 head gaskets? That's a lot of work. Glad your engine runs like you want. Congrads. I have my own horror stories on pulling off the heads but completely satisfied with the results.

 

Doing good for 65!
Least the notorious HG problem is out of the wa now go enjoy!
Nice low miler sounds like.

 

I meant one gasket for each side. Only number 7 blown, but thought I better do both while I was down that far in engine.

 

Thanks I can still chase the women if my wife don't catch me and they are older and slower then me. Not sure what do to if I catch them. The fun is in the chase anyway

 

nice work. i remember when you started. amazing how tight it is now hey?

 

It does seem so long ago when I started this project

 

nice ride! - how about some details on that 89. can't tell for sure, but it doesn't look black, but dark charcoal, and it looks like it's over gray. if so, nice color combo.

 

when you did the head gaskets, did u get the heads milled flat or was it not required?

and did you use any gasket sealer when you layed them in?


and any other tidbits of experience you can share? ill be doing my second car (87) this winter having done my 85 this pst winter.

 

I did have heads milled flat. I did not check to see if they needed it. I found an engine machine shop about 40 miles from me that rebuilt both heads for 350.00. I did not use gasket sealer. I also bought all new head gasket bolts. If I remember right there are 3 or maybe 4 different lengths of bolts, so take notice when you take bolts out. I made card board templates so I could just stick bolts I took out into holes on template. The specs on my year car said my head gasket was .028. Because there were so many options, I just went to GM dealer and bought them They were .051, but with heads milled, and using compression calulator, the final compression was very close to stock The one template I did not make, but I should have, was where bolts came out of upper and lower runners. There are about 4 or 5 different bolts there The best tool I had was a good magnet It was the kind that was on the end of a bendible piece of metal about 12 inches long. the head of the magnet was about the size of a pencil eraser. Take LOTS of pictures. I just realized I sound like I know what I am doing, which I really don't, but am proud of myself for doing this, especially in the very hot garage, could only work for a couple of hours at a time. Save lots of money

For me on my 89, deleting air pump, air deverter, exhaust manifold air tubes, and egr made engine compartment much easier to work in. I hope I don't ever have to do it again, but if I do it will go much faster with that stuff gone.

The worst part for me was I was afraid I was going to adjust rocker arms wrong and not put distributor back in correct, but with help from many on this forum, it was a breeze.

To finish job, I need to have muffler shop tweak my exhaust system. I replace complete system and mufflers don't point out the back straight and are too close to bottom of plastic bumper

Remember, I am new to this, so check with others on this forum who really know their stuff

 

It is just one color, charcoal gray with light gray perfect interior. Bought it four years ago with 43000 miles. Now has just over 50,000. Right after I bought it I drove it over to Tennessee from Texas to attend Gorden Killibrew's c4 school. I was the only one there,

so we spent the whole time on just my car. He told me he wasn't use to seeing c4s at his school in as good as shape as mine. Even had stock mufflers on it. I found person in my area that refinished all four wheels for 300.00 total including painting the dark areas the same color as car. I added 1/2 inch high lip on rear deck to make very small spoiler