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rebuilding my original owner 94, 396cu in and RMCR centrifugal

15093 Views 161 Replies 19 Participants Last post by  nsaness, 
nsaness
2
So my engine has the Torqhead installed (crank hub), the transmission is done and it was finally time to put the engine back in this weekend. I failed. My lifting chain was done all wrong and I ended up 2 inches short of getting on the motor mounts. The chain was hitting the firewall cowl, and would not push in any further.
I re-rigged the chain and will try again this coming weekend.
Ugh 😓
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nsaness
4
So, been busy with work and personal life, but I got new brake lines in (hard lines with flexible braided ends). Got rear springs in (so much easier than front springs!). Also got my rear wheels back from Weldcraft for being widened to 11”. 315 tires arrived too, below is a pic of the wheel next to my old 275-40-17 tire.
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nsaness
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Had the wheels mounted and balanced today. The worst of the two took 1 ounce of tire weights to balance. The tire shop was very impressed and wanted Weldcraft’s contact information. I’m happy, just wish they were wider...
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nsaness
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Did rear upper and lower control arms this past weekend. I could not get a good picture of any of it! Sorry...
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nsaness
Still haven’t installed the Hotchkis/Bilsteins yet (26 year old
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old decarbons)
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nsaness
5
New fuel lines run

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96Lt1civi
Nice work! Looks like it's coming along nicely!
And I love those wheels!
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S
I'll second the QuickJack - same story - short garage, didn't want to have to deal with concrete work, love the portability, and having to deal with floor jacks and jackstands gets old fast. They even have 12V versions you can use ANYWHERE, like at the race track. BL-5000EXT works great for a B-body. I shopped a LOT of lifts before buying this one and have no regrets. Home Depot also retails them and they do go on sale fairly regularly.

The only downside is that it tends to attract non-running cars. My Impala's been on the jack over two years now. Same as you, hoping spring 2021 is the completion date!
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Caddylack
You guys may have convinced me on the QJ.

I would be okay with mounting to concrete, but height will prohibit me from putting in a real lift. Also, I've been dealing with constant physical ailments lately related to wrenching, and I'm not getting any younger. Anything I can do to mitigate that stuff is a plus.

Being able to bring it with you to the track or to a friend's house or whatever is a nice bonus, as well.
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nsaness
Caddylack said:
You guys may have convinced me on the QJ.

I would be okay with mounting to concrete, but height will prohibit me from putting in a real lift. Also, I've been dealing with constant physical ailments lately related to wrenching, and I'm not getting any younger. Anything I can do to mitigate that stuff is a plus.

Being able to bring it with you to the track or to a friend's house or whatever is a nice bonus, as well.
Click to expand...
Yes, any mechanical and physical assistance is appreciated since I hit the big 5-0.
I will add that shortly before I decided on the QuickJack, a person who I respect as a very safe and very expert mechanic almost killed himself when his pick up partially fell off his 2 post lift. Something about the pucks on the articulating arms slid on him.
Now, being on a creeper to do everything I am doing is not a best case, but I feel very safe compared to a jack and jack stands like I used to use.
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nsaness
96Lt1civi said:
Nice work! Looks like it's coming along nicely!
And I love those wheels!
Click to expand...
Thank you, it is a terribly slow go with a 60 hour per week job and constant family obligations.
I never anticipated having to spend $450 on Earl’s Speed Flex fuel hose, not to mention the $30 per fitting. I would really like to harm the people who ripped my good and (then) functioning fuel lines out!
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S
nsaness said:
I never anticipated having to spend $450 on Earl’s Speed Flex fuel hose, not to mention the $30 per fitting. I would really like to harm the people who ripped my good and (then) functioning fuel lines out!
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I wouldn't sweat it. The stock 25 year old nylon fuel lines are pretty brittle at this point. It's smart money to replace them. I'll be doing that on my next project.
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nsaness
No car progress this weekend but I did install 42,000 lumens (7000 lumens x 6 fixtures) of led lighting on the Impala side of the garage. I should have done this a long time ago! The garage is no longer a cave, and I was able to eliminate 3 extension cords.

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S
There's been a revolution in lighting over the past 5 years. I have two of those Harbor Freight LED shop lights that I use UNDER cars when I'm working on them. Which fixtures did you go with?
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95wagon
So they aren't filming the sequel to Revenge Of The Mole People in your garage now ??.

LED over heads👍👍

While I have enough light they are the old power guzzling florescents..
At least most of the ballasts are solid state.

Second Joels question.
What did you buy ?
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nsaness
I went to Home Depot and bought their "Commercial Electric" brand. Being in American manufacturing, I looked for non-Chinese alternatives, but I could not find any.
I had put one of these Commercial Electric lights over my workbench the week before, and I was so happy with the amount of new light (as well as the color temperature), that I went out and bought 8 additional fixtures for the 2 car garage. I ended up mounting 6 of those on the Impala side. While I do probably need suntan lotion on for working under that much light, I am so happy with it that I am going to put 6 fixtures on the remaining side of the garage too.

This is what I bought:
www.homedepot.com

Commercial Electric 4 ft. 4-Light 80-Watt Integrated LED Heavy Duty Utility Gray Shop Light with Pull Chain, Bright White SHOP/4X4/840/HD - The Home Depot

Commercial Electrics 4 ft.4-light Plug-in Integrated LED Heavy-Duty Utility non-dimmable shop light, uses 80-Watt and comes fully assembled with an ultra-light weight design that can be used in hanging
www.homedepot.com

$60 each isn't cheap, but I needed to do it. My house is old and crappy, so I had the garage door opener light and a single pull-chain over each bay.
If you already have florescent fixtures, you might want to look into the led bulb retrofit kits, rather than mounting new fixtures?
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nsaness
3
Upgrading fuel pump and wires. Trying to figure out how to make a big fuel pump fit on the stock sender assembly (and keep the correct sump height).

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SSandman
Build is coming along great! Any summer updates?
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nsaness
7
Back after having 3 months of laziness and real obligations at work.
Upgraded my fuel pump and harness; finally got the tank back in.
Few more things left, but I am planning on using my Xmas bonus to finish all and have it tuned... it will definitely be done shortly before I’m dead.
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nsaness
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Fuel pump was a pain:
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buickman1
Not to be the voice of doom and gloom, but I hope you got the rubber hose on the fuel pump rated for gasoline. There were a few posts over the months that the hose supplied with some aftermarket pumps were not rated for gas, and disintegrated fairly quickly. Other than that It's looking good.
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