That is something I've definitely considered. I've got lots of projects and this one would be a great candidate. As I said, I'm going to put a carburetor on it for now. There's a good chance that'll never change. But I'm not opposed to fuel injection somewhere down the line.
I actually have a friend that has done a couple of the FItech swaps. I gather from him it's a pretty good setup.
I recently had a hand on a FiTech install on a 76 corvette. After some fiddling I was able to get it running pretty friggen good. Excellent power, torque and response. But the real question is long term
I tell you what though. I'm more interested in working cruise control than fuel injection.
Does anybody know what it s like to use factory cruise control stuff form '80s GM? This car is factory equipped with cruise control. I'm sure it'll take some fiddling to get it hooked up to a carburetor. Not sure if anyone here has any experience hacking old cruise control...but it's something I'd like to get to on this car (eventually).
In reply to ClemSparks :
Ive never fux with them. Im sure there is probably a few guides out there about them
Finally...this came home this week:
sweet
My transmission builder did this one up right. Shift kit with a fancy servo, a whole new solar system...the works. The torque converter is a "sport stall" or "street stall" torque converter in his words. Evidently just a little more loose than a factory stock one. He felt it would work good with my combination (considering the cam and the car it's going in). I've never had a car with higher stall torque converter (I generally avoid torque converters altogether) but after talking to a few folks, this may actually be pretty fun.
Yesterday I got some flexplate bolts and bolted the transmission to the engine and then set the engine in the car.
Is that real gravel or a floor paint to look like REAL GRAVEL!!!!!.......You get the 'HEMan' award for pushing that mess around...WOOF!
759NRNG said:a floor paint to look like REAL GRAVEL
Ha!
759NRNG said:Is that real gravel or a floor paint to look like REAL GRAVEL!!!!!.......You get the 'HEMan' award for pushing that mess around...WOOF!
That's what I was about to post. How in the world do you get these engines moved around. I get that you just move the car out from under the engine when it's on the hoise, but how do you move the hoist/engine/engine stands around after that? Or do you just have really good spatial planning and/or some kind of machinery that has hydraulic lifting ability?
It's all about planning, I guess. the engine hoist can be dragged around in the gravel ok when it's empty (gravel isn't optimum for ANYTHING but I just can't begin to think about justifying the cost of concrete in the barn anytime soon).
In this case, the engine block was bare when I started...and I can carry that short distances, no problem. I simply built the engine in a spot it didn't need to move far before rolling the car under it. When jockeying around complete engines...you need to plan ahead for access with the pickup truck.
I did move an engine with a gin pole on my old 8N the other day...but that was just to stash it away for storage and that's the first time I've done that.
With patience and planning (I over-plan and move super slow) you can do pretty much anything. The downside is that my projects take forever and there are usually multiple bouts of analysis paralysis in any given project.
But...I WORK on my projects (however slowly). I don't kid myself about deadlines. I have to be careful and keep projects that I'll want to work on (it's really hard not to drag home every intriguing deal I run across). If it's daylight and/or not completely miserable (temperature/humidity/chiggers)...I'll get something done every day. Today it was shelves in the barn to help store stuff I've been tripping over. Yesterday it was putting an engine in the RegalWagon. Tomorrow it's probably going to be a rack bellows boot on the winter beater Subaru.
I've been busy with property projects for the last month but I jumped back on the RegalWagon project the last few evenings for a few minutes.
I put the core support back in place and did some test fitting of exhaust manifolds and accessory drive setups.
I have a pair of '80s GM truck exhaust manifolds that I picked up a year or so ago just because I know they fit well in G-bodies. So I set these in place just to be sure.
Yep:
So the next thing with the manifolds is to have them blasted. Then I think I'm going to try POR-15's manifold paint. I saw some on a customer's car and it looked great.
Then I got out a some accessory drive stuff I have. The first one I tried is off a Vortec engine from a '99 body style chevy full size pickup. I figured it would probably be too tall to fit under the hood...but it has the Sanden (I think) style a/c compressor that I hear is the one to go with IF you can.
But...I can't:
The steering pump is also too-close-for-comfort (or function) to the steering box. I think I remember there might be a different, smaller pulley I can put on...but it's moot.
Next I have serpentine setups from a 4.3 S10 and from a TBI ThirdGen Camaro. I've read that either of these should work well. Here's the F-body (Camaro) setup loosely set in place. Looks like it'll work well:
This uses the other style of compressor (R4, I think. Not installed in the photos). I guess they're not as robust as the newer style but whatever. Gotta work with what will fit. Plus, I think the aftermarket might have some retrofit options. I looked into it briefly and will share what I learn when I do some more research.
The steering pump pulley is also pretty close to the steering box on this setup. So again, I remember reading about a different, smaller pulley somewhere. I'll have to see if I can re-find that info.
The other twist is that this car has hydroboost power brakes (remember, it was originally a diesel). I ran into this same thing with my old suburban. I hope it's as simple as getting a pump for a 6.5 suburban and plumbing it appropriately. We'll see soon.
More progress then ive gotten done on either of my 2 gbodys lately. Im waiting on some spare cash to buy an oil pan gasket so I can put the pan back on and paint the motor. But then I want to replace the motor mounts and while Im doing that i might as well wire brush the frame and rattle can it some just to spiffy things up. LOL snowball effect
I got the driver side exhaust manifold mostly blasted this afternoon and ordered some POR-15 gray exhaust manifold paint.
I blasted off the manifolds, sprayed them down with phosphoric acid, and slathered them with a couple of coats of POR-15 Manifold Gray.
It was AFTER I did all that that I looked at the flange studs and realized one of them needed to be replaced. D'oh! So the passenger side one will get a do-over paint job (after lots of heat, oil, brake clean, gravel dust, standing on it, lots of cussing and consternation.)
I ordered an O2 sensor plug for the driver side manifold and tracked down a couple of plugs that I think will work to block off the smog (A.I.R. tube) ports on the front of each manifold.
Necrothread!! I demand an update!!
We all want to hear how the September 2019 cross-country road trip went
You two already got an update, lol.
This project has been ignored, unfortunately, for the past couple of years. But, I got excited about it this week so possibly I'll have an update at some point (probably won't be soon, unfortunately).
One reason the project stalled was wiring. Whoever originally started converting this to a gas engine took apart some of the wiring and it came with an extra wiring harness for the engine and I got confused and turned my effort to lower hanging fruit (different project cars).
I have a Fischer service manual on the way to me which I hope will help me get the wiring all sorted out and maybe I'll make some progress.
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