I finally decided that this section was taking up too much space on my main page so I made a seperate page for the progress. It should speed up the other page in loading.
4/11/99:
Today I found out somthing I didn't want to hear: my camshaft is not my only problem, my uncle (a mechanic of many years) informed me that my cam bearings were also shot (almost non-existent) and that I would have to have them replaced at a machine shop, so I have to pull the engine. I guess now there's more to write about.
4/22/99:
Well, I've almost got my engine out of the car. A few nights ago we torched the exhaust manifold bolts off, and then took out the tranny bolts except for the top 2, since I haven't jacked up the trans yet and don't want it to fall out of the car! This weekend if I don't end up helping relatives move I'll get it taken out for sure and then start tearing things apart. As soon as I get that done, I'll update this again.
5/2/99:
Finally got the engine pulled this weekend, I've had the car for nearly a month and a half now! We used my grandpa's loader to take the engine out, but my uncle's engine stand had standard bolts in it from his 302. Stupid metric system $%@#! Now I have to go buy bolts that will fit in the engine for the engine stand, and go get the tractor again. And all this time my poor engine sits on the floor. Also since the motor's out, I had to take my car out of our shed and put it outside under a tarp because my dad wants the space.
5/3/99:
Got the engine on the stand last night, to my suprise all the exhaust manifold bolts came out with no problem. Then I found the remains of my cam bearings; in the oil pan stuck on the oil pick-up tube. Not a pretty sight seeing all that metal down there. Then when I flipped the motor back over to take off the head bolts, another piece fell out from inside the engine. I would like to have a talk with the person that put together that engine, metric and standard bolts on the same piece?!? The exhaust bolts were 1/2 inch, but the head bolts just had to be metric, and of course we don't have any metric impact sockets.
5/4/99:
Got the impact sockets, heads came off without any problems either. There was a ton of what I what I guess you would call sludge in the cylinders on top of the pistons. And the valves had some build-up, not too bad. Also took off two of the main bearings on the crank, the were brownish in color and I think there were some small scrapes. My biggest concern now is that the camshaft wore into the block, if it did very much I'll have to junk the block and get something else. ( 302 has a nice ring to it!)
5/26/99:
Well, after a trip to 2 different machine shops a few weekends ago, I learned that cam bearings have 2 layers of material, I was missing the top layer, so it didn't actually wear into the block. I started thinking about just putting in a new set of rings and running it until I got some more $$$ saved up, but it turned out that the cylinders were worn .020 over. In case you're wondering, .006 is the wear limit set by the factory. Consequently I am having it bored .030 over, the crank is being turned, the rods are being prepped, and I am getting all new pistons and bearings, etc... The machine work and parts are gonna cost me around $900, but I am going to do most of the assembly my self, along with the help of a few experienced friends. And did I mention I might be getting an ISKY camshaft? I will for sure if it ends up being compatible with the computer. (sometimes I wish I had a carb. !) That will bring some more life to the party for sure. Well, there won't be much more to update about until I get the engine back from the shop, so it might be a few weeks before any new info is up here. But check back every once in a while just to keep up with things.
5/29/99:
Made another visit to the machine shop last night, the engine is being bored .040 over instead of .030 over because there was so much wear. I don't have any problem with more cubes! Also the machine shop guy found a camshaft for me from the place that sells the rebuild kit I'm getting, and it turns out it's better than the ISKY cam I was looking at. And it only added $35 to the price. Not too bad. The machine shop guy also said my rocker arms night need replacement, so maybe I'll get a set of roller rockers if the price is right. I might also have a rear anti-sway bar lined up. My friend's got an SVO unit on the Mustang he's selling, if he gets it sold he's gonna give it to me. Then I'll be ready for the curves.
6/6/99:
Made another trip or 2 to the engine shop, I should have the engine back by next week. Then I will start putting things back together. Yesterday my dad and I moved the car back into the shed. (finally!) We were getting tired of having one person in the car steering and one pushing, so we though we'd hook up the battery charger and run the window down. Well of course it couldn't be that easy. When we moved the car I put it in neutral so the tranny wouldn't spin itself silly, and the key was in the "run" position so I could pull the gear selector down. So guess what else happens when the key is in the "run" position? The fuel pump runs. That's what else happens! And where did the fuel-pump pump the fuel? Out the end of my fuel lines that weren't hooked up to anything. And at 30-40psi, it made a nice puddle in a hurry. I was not real happy. Seriously, the pictures WILL be here by the end of the week unless something catestrophic happens. I guess that's all for this time, in the words of Apu: 'Thank you, please come again'.
6/13/99:
As promised the pictures are here. Also replaced 2 of the headlights, much improvement over the old lights I must say.
7/4/99:
Sorry for the delay in the updates, but I just got back from a fishing trip last night. Here's the current news: Before I left I went in to the engine shop and I helped the guy re-assemble my engine. We put in the cam, then the crank, all the pistons, and then the heads. If you've never put heads on a 3.8L before, let me tell you, make sure you're not going to be doing anything for the next half-hour or so. The torque sequence on the heads had 7, yes 7, steps to go through. First you'd tighten them 4 times, each time getting a little tighter. Then they told you to loosen all the bolts 3 turns. Then you tighten them back up, then a little more, then turn them 90 degrees. And that's for each head. It took us nearly half an hour to do this all. But I guess with the aluminum heads the head bolts have to be stretched. After we got the heads on he dropped in the lifters and I took off, since it was about 9pm. While I was gone he was going to finish the motor, putting in the pushrods and rockers and such. We looked at the rocker arms and determined I need new ones, and those little suckers are expensive! Factory style rocker arms were about $8 to $10 each! That's too much for a little piece of steel if you ask me. I think after next time I'm going to put all this update info on a seperate page, there's getting to be too much on this page.
7/12/99:
More fun. Took apart the left rear brake drum, and the brake pads have passed on into another life. There's a fairly deep groove in the drum so I'll have to get another one. Also the brake pad was pushed off-center for some reason, so the piston might be shot as well. Hope the other side's not as bad. New drums are around $50 each. OUCH! I think a junk-yard visit is in order. Engine should be back this weekend, althought I'm not sure that I'll get in in and running since the radiatior still needs attention.
7/30/99:
Wow. It's been about 2 weeks since I added anything here. I'll get everyone (assuming anyone's actually reading this) back up to speed. Got the engine back a week or 2 ago (I forget now) and I got it all cleaned up and I painted it 2 nights ago. And I must say I think I did quite a good job on it. Also used a special device that I borrowed from the machine shop guy, it used a drill to pump oil into the engine and to pump it through the whole engine to prime things. I got most of the parts I need although it seems I always find another thing that should be replaced and that keeps holding up the progress with the engine. Did manage to get the driver's side shock replaced along with all the parts in the rear brake. Now I have to move the car to get at the other side since it's up against the wall. Hopefully next weekend I'll get the engine put in, since this weekend I'll be busy the whole weekend. But to get that done, I still have to change the tranny fluid and filter. Another little hang up. But it all needs to be done so I don't have to worry about getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.
8/11/99:
Finally got back around to updating this again. It's been a while but I have got a lot done. My friend that has worked on many engines came over last weekend and between Saturday night and Sunday evening we had the engine in the car with all the major components hooked up and ready to go. We tried to turn it over a few times without the coil wire attached so we could biuld up the oil pressure, but it wouldn't even turn over. So my friend commenced to "hot-wire" the car by using a screwdriver to put power to the starter. All that did was get it to turn over twice really slow and make a little puff of smoke. We tried a little longer, still nothing. So a few nights ago my dad and I decided to do some detective work. I turned the key to the start position, and he held a meter to the coil. Nothing. While sitting in the car I noticed that my back-up lights came on when I turned the key on, I thought that was a little strange. Turned out that my gear indicaton was off and when I thought I was in Park I was actually in Reverse! No wonder it wouldn't turn over. So we put it into Reverse, (I put the brakes on just in case) and low and behold, it turned over! So I spun it for a good 30 seconds to build up the oil pressure. Now all I have to do before I start it for the first time is change the transmission fluid and filter. At least that's all I know of right now..... We'll see if the car cooperates. That about wraps it up for this time, and if you're in northern Illinois in the next few weeks you might see me out on the road racking up some break-in miles.
8/17/99:
The big day has come and gone. Last Saturday I finally got the engine run for it's 20 minutes camshaft break-in period. We were in a hurry to get to a cousin's birthday party so we didn't run it any more than that. And it you've never started an engine in a car that's been sitting for a while or got oil or grease on the converters, be ready for some smoke let me tell you. When those converters started heating up the smoke was just rolling out from the engine compartment. I had my dad check and make sure nothing esle was smoking, and nothing was. They were still smoking about 10 minutes after I shut the car off. But other than that things went great. No oil leaks, no coolant leaks, no nothin'. And the next night I ran it to set the timing, which I set at 10 degrees BTDC, and then we hooked the computer back up to the distributor. I think I might advance the timing a little more because it is a little hesitant when I rev it up off idle, maybe adjusting it will help that. I hope so. That about does it for now.
10/6/99:
I know, I know. It's been nearly a 2 months since I updated anything, and I apologize. But between working on the car and school I haven't had much free time to keep this up to date. Lately I have been having problems with the engine cutting out at times, and sometimes the transmission doesn't act like it should, like not downshifting when I come to a stop. That's getting on my nerves and I am going to get the problem(s) solved ASAP. Driving in town is a pain when the tranny shifts into 3rd at only 25mph. Other than that I got some of the rusty spots cleaned up and painted, all I need to do now is smooth the edges of the new paint off a little bit to make it more seamless. I also managed to get most of my stereo system in the car, along with my gauges and tachometer. I just got my pictures back, so they should be up within 2 weeks or so. I also found out what my hesitation problem was from before: my TPS had a bad spot in it, so at a certain throttle position the signal to the computer was all messed up. Next on the agenda after fixing the engine problem is getting duals put on. It sounds decent right now with a straight pipe, but not as good as it will with pipes and 2 shorty glasspacks. That's all I've got for now, stay tuned.
10/18/00:
FINALLY!!! It's been very close to a year since I updated this. I got exhaust, but because of the design of the car, I couldn't get duals like I wanted. The fuel pump was in the way, and the gsaa tank is offset, so there was no room. I ended up having it exit out the side before the tire. The car hasn't been too much trouble, although it was stalling at stop signs for a while, but I figured out that I had set the idle too high, and the computer was trying to idle the car down, which killed it. Took me a few months before I found out that was the problem. Silly, isn't it... Well, the car runs ok, although I think it needs gears and a stall converter because of the cam I put in. It has a definate lag from idle to about 2000rpm, but it picks up from there. I think I have something loose in the valvetrain now, I am going to pull the valve covers and tr torque everything, then see what happens.
On a side note, if you have questions, please send me an e-mail. I check that nearly everyday, but I don't check the page here much. Thanks...
