Hmmmmm.....I may be up here a bit longer then I thought. Maybe I'll use the time to get the Camaro sprayed. I still have connections up here and I'm sure their overhead is lower, not to mention they'd probably be happy for the work right about now. I'll have to make some calls, I may just be able to save a couple of thousand on the paint.
Yikes. Decided it's time for a tune up. Ordered MSD cap, wires, & rotor. That was a bit over $300. Still need to buy plugs and then comes the labor. I can see this pushing $600-700 before it's all said and done. Especially since the water pump needs to come off and I can figure in another radiator flush and fill. Ouch. Oh well, it needs to be done. She kind of stutters at idle every now and then, so it needs to be addressed. And yes, I know I could've done it much cheaper by not buying MSD products. To me it's worth the extra money for high quality parts.
Cougar has been back burnered. We came across a 1961 Parkwood that the owner has just lost all interest in. He said he hadn't even looked at in in four years and probably been 10 since he's really worked on it. Just wanted it out of his hair. We couldn't pass up the price. One of those moments where you can't get the money out of your wallet fast enough. Details: All body work has been finished, just needs final blocking. All body trim is there and has already been re-chromed (that was $4500 alone) Every weatherstrip & window felt is new. Air ride (We had to put 4" blocks in the front just to get it on the trailer. It'll sit 4 inches lower than shown) Disc Brakes Roller 468 BBC Vintage Air A/C Three inch exhaust with custom X pipe already tig welded and Jet-Hot coated We rebuilt the carb, put fresh gas in and it fired right up. We're going to swap out the wheels and we need to source the interior. Color is going to be that minty green that you see as the car is already jambed and interior painted that color. Here are a few links to how it will sit when done. https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0114-174101/1961-chevrolet-parkwood-wagon/ http://restomodstore.com/1961-parkwood-wagon Edit - As you can see in the pics, it was raining. So much fun trying to strap a car down to a wet, metal trailer when the car sits 3" off the ground.
Toytoy, just do yourself a favor and buy a whole new AC Delco distributor on Rockauto while you're at it. Just use the MSD parts that you can (MSD is top of the line, and has WONDERFUL customer service). IF you want to keep the shitty Optispark. There is another option, but it's not cheap: it's the 24X conversion from EFI Solutions, and it uses a (Superior) LS engine PCM.
Did a quick search and it looks like the EFI set up would just allow me to use an LS1 brain, but I'd still be running an Optispark. What would the advantage to that be? EDIT: Just checked, rockauto only sells remanned ACDelco distributors. Jegs and Summit customer reviews for the MSD distributor kind of lean towards them being crap. Just curious, the whole Optispark idea seems like it was a good idea at the time, just poorly executed...ie....putting it under the water pump and being highly susceptible to moisture. Thus far it's worked fine on my car and my failed water pump didn't take it out. I've got the vented last gen, so maybe GM actually did fix it just before ditching it for coil packs and the LT1?
Covid blocked is now a thing, at least for me. This turbo Z31, manual transmission, digital dash, 120K beauty is 350 miles away. Yes, I can see it's been resprayed, the steering wheel looks bad and the paint is blown off the t-tops. I don't care. It's $6K. The problem is that it's in Seattle, the heart of the COVID outbreak in the country. No way in hell am I driving over there, much less convincing someone to go with me. Damn it. I want this car bad. EDIT: Wait a minute. Just watched the video again....it has a pusher electric fan (That's not turning) Z31's didn't have electric fans. I know this because I had one of mine swapped out to a puller electric fan. It was one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Not many of you will remember this:
Got the rear window molding replaced with OEM and scrubbed all the hard water stains off the glass. The only glass work left is replacing a piece of the driver's side felt, which should be here in a day or two.
Nice. I'm searching for a nice example of a 4th gen Camaro or mustang to mess around with. I guess they those model years 94-99 hold a place in my soul cause that's when I started driving and what I wanted in highschool. Ended up with a not-so pristine 1987 Subaru GL.
Right now on e-bay there is a red '95 Z28 with 20K on in for $10K. It might be a helluva deal. The only thing that stopped me from buying it is that it's an automatic. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1995-Chevr...466305?hash=item3fdef3e841:g:tzwAAOSwUfRegyAN
Not to be a dick, but I'm personally waiting 2-3 months and then will pull the trigger on a new (to me) "fun" car, as I'm thinking a ton of stuff will come up for sale soon due to this pandemic crap.
That's not a bad plan. Last recession I had to sell my '66 Impala and I really took it in the ass. The first thing to go when money's tight is the toys. And when money is tight for everyone, there's going to be plenty of toys available making a perfect buyer's environment.
Here's what I've got to say about the "fucking" Optispark and the EFI Connection kit: Toytoy, the installation of that kit is pretty intense, even for a guy like me (I would totally do it, though), and I wouldn't recommend you trust that to a shop you don't know and trust. But there is a very good reason to get rid of the factory setup. The EFI Connection setup eliminates the Optispark distributor, and changes all of the engine management to the VASTLY superior Gen III system, with individual coils. The LT1 is a great example of how GM screws things up: they built arguably the best old-style small-block Chevy ever (Best heads, reverse-flow cooling to allow higher compression) and saddled it with the shitty Optispark ignition system. On top of that, they only offered it for a few years ('92-'97), and only in a small selection of vehicles. "What's so bad about the Optispark?" you're probably asking. Well, it's basically 1970's technology on an engine that was supposed to be state-of-the-art. It's an optically triggered (OPTI in Optispark) photocell distributor, meaning that it uses a light source and a wheel with 360 holes punched in it to determine ignition timing. This, as opposed to a conventional (for the time) distributor that use 8 magnetic posts in a distributor. GM High Tech Performance Magazine once had a great article about the development of the Optispark ignition system (Which was developed in the late '80s.), which WAS arguably better than the HEI system that I have on my own Firebird. However, there are many, MANY, MANY problems with the way that they implemented this system. 1) They mounted the distributor ON THE FRONT OF THE DAMN ENGINE, BEHIND THE WATER PUMP, AND BEHIND THE VIBRATION DAMPENER. If you have to change that fucker, or if it's seal starts leaking, there are numerous special tools required. And you have to drain the coolant. 2) Because it's on the front of the engine, it's mounted very low (the LT1 was never offered in trucks, for the record. I think that was a big mistake.). Because of this, it is very susceptible to water/ moisture intrusion. Remember what I was saying about '70s technology? Mechanical distributors lose a SHIT-TON of spark-energy just trying to bridge the gap from the rotor to the terminal on the distributor cap. Moisture in the air makes it a lot worse. There is a reason why NO MANUFACTURERS use distributors anymore. Here's the real catch: GM had superior technology YEARS EARLIER. Have any of y'all ever heard of the Oldsmobile Quad-4 engine? It was a four cylinder engine with four valves per-cylinder and coil-on-plug ignition, and it was made in the late '80s; I remember back in the mid-'90s, my first automotive instructor's wife had an Olds-something with that engine, and he wouldn't shut up about how great it was. GM HAD DISTRIBUTORLESS IGNITION TECHNOLOGY IN THE 80S, BUT THEY DIDN'T THINK TO GIVE IT TO THEIR FLAGSHIP CAR, THE CORVETTE. I have never heard ANY good reason for why GM did this. My only guess is that they made some kind of deal with a supplier of the Optispark distributors, and they were tied to the design (trust me, weirder things have happened with car companies).
Thanks for the write up, but why would a person do the EFI set up to convert a LT1 to coil packs and an LS computer instead of just doing an LS swap? I like my LT1, but I can't see spending that much time and money converting it to be more like an LS. I'd just as soon do an LS swap. I'm guessing it's pretty much a bolt in and plug and play to stick an LS in an original LT1 car?
Good call. I will not own an automatic transmission, RWD v8 car. I'll be driving curvy, mountain roads with it and a stick is just more fun. I will probably never drag race it. I know they're not the fastest car for the driving I'd be doing, but I had a '95 mustang GT briefly back in bout '01 and I'm just drawn back to them.
I had one of that era, and trashed it in high school The long wheel base on that thing was simply a hindrance, compared to the shorter Mustangs of that time period. My friend's Mustang GT was FAR more fun than the Z's. They are seriously boats.
This must have been a buddy of one of my college friends. His parents sat on an automatic 90s Camaro which I think wasn't even a Z28. In 2005 they had put 9k on it. I wondered what the fuck they were thinking it was going to be worth in 20+ years....
Depending of your budget, there are some serious sports cars out there for little money. 2006+ Corvette Z06's are now in the mid-high $20k's. There is one in California with 110k miles for $20k. That's 427 cubic inches revving to 7000 RPM churning out 505hp. That car is faster around the 'ring than a Porsche GT2 RS, Ferrari Enzo, GT-R etc etc. For $20,000 dollars!! WTF! Horsepower is so damn cheap now. It's almost a good thing that this generation of kids don't care about cars because I think a large majority of them would end up in a ditch.
I'm sure Dixie can chime in better since he's doing a third gen swap which is probably a lot closer to your fourth gen than the swap I did on my Nova. But in short, no. I mean, there are companies that make enough parts that nothing has to be "custom" but virtually everything needs to be changed. Radiator, making all the front accessories fit, different exhaust manifolds, ABS?, etc. I know 98+ 6 speeds are different than yours but can't remember if yours will bolt up or not. Then there is merging the new ECU to work with all your gauges. I've seen a lot of guys take a stock 98+ F-Body wiring harness, stripping the whole thing down, repinning all the connectors and just shoot me. I HATE wiring. That's why I bought the Holley kit where the ECU has all the wires are already set up with the factory style ends and was plug and play. But even then I had to have someone set up the Holley system and then have it dyno tuned. If you had a matching motor & ECU, you might be able to skip that part. Then there is the smog issue depending on your state. In CA it is crazy expensive to do an LS swap and have it 100% smog legal.