Grandpa Car

[izzo]

Haha. how'd that toggle work

[DRIVEN]

Actually worked fine. Only used it on the freeway. Once I'd get up to cruising speed I'd flip the switch and the RPMs would just barely noticeably drop. When I'd come up to an exit or a traffic slowdown I'd disengage. But if I forget to, it's like coming up to a stop in a manual transmission car and not pushing in the clutch -- kills the engine. This kit has a vacuum switch and brake switch that makes it fully automated like any car should be. The lockup function of this transmission was originally controlled by a computer. My car has no computer.

[izzo]

Ahh, that's what I was wondering, how it worked lol. Got it now tho

[DRIVEN]

Oil change.

Diff service with new cover.

Installed G-force crossmember. Before and after for comparison.



That poor, poor exhaust system. Had to shift the cat over a couple inches. Couldn't find a band style clamp so I'll order one at work tomorrow. Next spring I'll be doing new exhaust from the front to the back.
Also completed but not shown, installed Painless lockup kit.

[510freak]

That tranny k-member looks beefy!
The diff cover looks purdy on there

[DRIVEN]

I'm pretty impressed with the quality...not necessarily the price.

I'll have insurance on it in a couple days. I know I had planned to not drive it until the '35s chassis was done but the weather has been sooo nice and the Pendleton show is in less than a month. I just wanted to make sure it's ready for the trip. Next on the list is AC repair.

[510freak]

It looks to be made well!
I bet, Driving weather is in swing!

[DRIVEN]

Ordered up an AC kit yesterday to do my R134 conversion.

Went in to the shop this morning and did the deed. Evac.

Remove compressor, receiver dryer and hoses. Flush hoses, condenser, evaporator core with solvent and blow everything dry. Replace all O-rings and the orifice tube. Add oil to system. Reinstall everything and recharge to approx 2/3 R12 spec. Once the system is up and running I slowly added a couple more ounces until the gauge readings were where I wanted them.

One other component we've found necessary for most 134 conversions is to add foam around the perimeter of the space between the radiator and condenser. In this case there is almost a 2" gap. This is typically worth 5+ degrees from the vents.


Normally a compressor replacement isn't necessary for a conversion but in my case the original compressor was really noisy when I last used it. Once I got the system opened up I found that the system had no oil in it -- at all -- anywhere. There was powdered metal piled up behind the orifice tube and I'm honestly shocked that the compressor wasn't locked up. No huge surprise that all the threads in the new compressor were different pitch so I needed to round up a few new bolts as well. Now I shouldn't have to worry about it unless the 37 year old hoses start to leak.




Now this thing needs a bath.

[510freak]

Nice upgrade, re-read this thread earlier today,man Jess this is one hell of a clean cutlass

[DRIVEN]

Thanks, man. Probably never would have gone looking to buy one of these but this thing really has grown on me. I just really like driving it. A lot.

[DRIVEN]

Stretched it's legs at about 6am Saturday morning. It goes infinity.

[510freak]

^^ Sweet!

[DRIVEN]

Friday was Napa Drags 2015. The shop I work for is an AutoCare Center and once a year Napa rents Woodburn Dragstrip for a day and invites us to come play. The boss closes the shop. Last year I was out of town and the year before I ran my 510. This year I decided to find out exactly what a bone stock 305 will actually run. So here's my specific combination; 305 with all stock internals, fresh timing set, new tune-up parts, unaltered Quadrajet, aluminum L-82 intake (looks identical to the factory intake only lighter), stock exhaust manifolds, single exhaust including cat, stock 200-4R w/2200 converter, 3.42 gears with limited-slip, the obligatory BFG T/As.

Tech inspection line...

Our group: My Cutlass, a customer's SRT-8 Grand Cherokee, customer's Lexus IS-F, boss' Cobra, boss' son in his SRT-4 Neon.


I made 7 passes and tried several different techniques and ran the best shifting myself with cool, dry tires.

My best was...


On my last time trial pass, as I was driving around the water box, I could feel something chunky. There wasn't any audible noise but I could definitely feel something in the car. My first fear was that a planetary was coming apart. The decision was made to make one last run and decide whether to run the eliminations rounds or just sit it out. The car did fine but I wasn't feeling confident so it was my last and I became a spectator.
Car was fine all the way home and after thinking about it some more I've come to the conclusion that it was probably just clutch chatter in the limited slip as I made a sharp right then sharp left around the water box. I used the Valvoline oil that is supposed to have the friction modifier but maybe it needs more. I'll add some and see if the problem is solved.

[wayno]

From the numbers it looks like you were beat off the line, but your hole shot was better(better gearing?), but once you were passed it was over with, who and what was the 208 car?

[DRIVEN]

Those were just heads up time trial runs so it wasn't really racing. IIRC the other lane was a '65ish Mustang with GT350 striping and a license plate that was something like XRACER or XRACECAR. No idea what it really was. Sounded really nice though. You might be right about the gearing.
My excuse list is as follows:
1. No shift kit so my transmission shifts pretty early when left in D.
2. No tach so I can't manually shift with any repeatable accuracy.
3. 4spd auto with a 3spd auto column shifter. When I pull the shifter all the way in to low it actually only pulls the transmission in 2nd. Then when I launch I get an early 1-2 shift but can hold 2nd until I want to manually shift 2-3.
4. Gearing is happy medium. Way better than stock and still nice on the freeway. 3.73s would be better with the current engine as I still had more left in 3rd gear when I got to 1320.
5. I need waaay more practice at the lights.

BTW, my boss won the street tire class. He had to slow his car down to stay legal and was dialed in with a 13.86 (odd number). On his final elimination pass he ran...13.86. Pretty hard to beat that.

[DRIVEN]

Put away for the winter but not without a last minute trip through DEQ. All I did was disconnect the vacuum advance to retard the timing and it blew zeros. Plan for the spring is to hang new exhaust and pick up some SEM to refinish some faded interior panels. I had considered redoing the rearend with new parts (instead of used) to take care of the slight howl that it has but I think I'll hold off on it until I see how noticeable it is with louder exhaust.

[DRIVEN]

Exhaust parts on order. Ordered Grand National pieces so I can use bolt in parts to get dual exhaust. I'll only need to bend up head pipes.

[izzo]

Old thread update! Sweeeeeeeeeeeet. What size exhaust you going with?

[DRIVEN]

Just 2 1/4". Still should flow twice as freely as what's on there though. I have a feeling it might be quieter than I was hoping for but that's not really a bad thing. There's nothing stupider than loud-ass dual Flowmasters on a 140hp car.
The system that's on there is just shot. All the pipe is really thin and starting to swiss cheese in several spots. The muffler sounds like it might have a loose baffle too. You can also see the hacked in cat install. Luckily, that's going away since I shouldn't ever have to DEQ again when it goes to Idaho.

[DRIVEN]

Exhaust is done. Sounds waaay better now.
I didn't take a single photo.

Also, another trip to Pendleton has come and gone. Daughter rode along and wife stayed home. Jerod was committed to a bunch of graduation BBQs and stuff so he only hung out for a couple hours. His stepson, Jake, was there with Jerods old Impala that just recently came back into the fleet. It was pretty warm so we abandoned the show for the underground tour which was a nice reprieve, for a couple hours at least. Left home at 4am and was home by 7pm. Car ran great.
I didn't take a single photo.