Buinicorn my 1964 wagon

Discussion in 'Drag'n Wagons' started by superbuickguy, May 21, 2017.

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  1. GS464

    GS464 Hopelessly Addicted

    Wow. Sat down for a quick read and into bed at a reasonable time tonight. Found this thread and here we are four hours later, 12:30 am, just finishing it up. Love the long roof builds. One of these days (don't we all say that too often?} my shop will have an actual heater and I'll be able to comfortably work when it's cold outside. Being a mechanic by trade, it can be hard to motivate out to my own shop after 8 - 10+ hours at work. Documented builds like this get my motivation working again though. Guessing I'll be working on the latest project tomorrow!
    Great work on the wagon. Going to follow this through the end!
     
  2. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    it's actually kind of amazing how warm I can keep my non-insulated shop (roof is insulated).... I can usually get 20 or 30 degrees above ambient with firewood and used motor oil... biggest trick is have a box fan in the ceiling aiming down
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  3. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    tonight's fun.... tighten crank bolts
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    check the rings.... .018 and .019 2nd.... need to file fit to .020 and .022
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    which stops that because my filer is broken....
    how I keep the rings square
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    got stopped now waiting for parts that may or may not arrive on Thursday (we have a snow 'event' - which usually means nothing gets delivered)
     
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  4. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    It's springtime
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    one of these is not like the others
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    apparently they needed to replace a stock spring and used a similar spring to what I replaced the stock springs
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    dog bone or bar bell goes this way
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    rear main installed
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    and head dowels
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    rings ground
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    first piston ringed
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    the rest of the rings installed
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    ring compressor ready to go
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  5. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    assembly continues
    pistons in holes
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    high dollar crank turner
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    pan test fit after installing the oil pump
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    notice no oil pump spacing.... I did a check, GM doesn't say to space, and some guy on Corvette Forum, who owns Mastiffs, said he didn't space them either.
    Mastiff owners know it all, so I went with it.
    and you all think Google is my final authority
    heads look nice on there, too bad I bought the wrong ARP bolts
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  6. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    so there will never be a day when they build skins for 4 door 64/5 Buicks, and this skin is a billion times better then what came with the car.... so a skinning I will go
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    and drill a bunch of spot welds off
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    I even saved the bottom of the door because it's not rusted out.... probably overkill, but it wasn't more work
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    and a skin
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  7. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    so I spent some time on the motor.... glad I did because I need to call the rocker manufacturer and find out what they were thinking

    first front cover install (and oil pan)
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    and water pump
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    lifter install
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    then onto figuring out push rod length
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    the issue with the rockers - there's a cast piece that holds the stock rockers in place - that has a radius to match the rocker. The new rockers come tied together and have spacers - ostensibly to replace that part - but that puts the rockers way too low.... so I dunno, time to phone and find out what to do.
     
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  8. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    and maybe the most important thing.... I have a Microsquirt that I was going to use on the FJ40.... zero new dollars and zero new cents is very attractive


    feel free to discuss here


    - and as he mentioned in the video - the transmission could be the issue. I can buy a GM pre-wired harness from 150tunes for $550 - and that is already wired to run the 4L80e.... that said, this motor is temporary to the car (whatever that means) and my goal is a no-limits 3800 V6 - which leads to transmission concerns..... and I have the 200r4....
     
    Last edited: Jan 22, 2020
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  9. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    So you are using a dual pattern 200 trans so you can use either chevy or Buick engines without a trans swap. I have a few of each the BOP and dual pattern 2004r, I didn't even know there was a BOP only version of this trans until I was looking at my stash the other day.

    Cool project, I build a lot of LS engines, they are very user friendly.
     
  10. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    I have a 85 GN motor and trans - the trans is a 200r4 dual pattern. I could put that trans behind the LS but in their stock form; the 200 is pretty weak - add to the mix that I have no idea whether or not it works (it should, but without tearing it down, it's a risk)....

    there is a TH200 (3 speed) that I know of that came in Buicks, but I have no idea all the combinations that GM came up with in their 4 speed automatics. Ultimately, I want a V6, but if that's happens, the more gears the better - so that is also rattling around in the back of my head - adapt a 6L80e, 8L60e, or even 10L60e to the BOP bolt pattern. That also confuses the issue just a bit because - while it would be cheaper to use the GM controller with the 4L80e/LS combo, I can't use that same harness on a V6 so there would be a stand-alone if I went with the 4L80e behind the V6 (or any of the other choices)
     
  11. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    I have thousands of hours behind the wheel of my 2012 GMC 2500 with a 6.0 and 6 speed. I run a BTR stage 2 cam, 3800 stall Hughes triple disk lockup converter, 3.73 gears, and 35x12.5-18 tires. I get 17 mpg at 1870 RPM at 75 mph. It took a lot of custom computer tuning using EFI live but I have a super great combo. It weighs 8,000 pounds. I highly recommend the 6 speed. The 6 speed with 3.73 gear has the effective gear ratio off the line of about a 4.56 rear gear vs a 4L80e. The first gear ratio is way higher. It is a big heavy trans but it’s amazing and it doesn’t need major mods to handle big power. I have several 2004R trans that hold up to big power. They normally cost $2500-$4500 to build though.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
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  12. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    alright, here's your porn pictures....
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    and a gratuitous money shot
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    there, y'all happy now? good, now wipe the drool off :)
     
  13. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    oops.... I thought I'd pushed the lifters down, I didn't... they work fine and I've ordered the upgraded pushrods
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    I'm not sure the gasket is going to work better then the o-rings.... fight for another day, though
    you can see the valve covers don't clear - ordered new valve covers (which were actually cheaper then a 1/2" spacer)
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    in other news, I'm going to use the microsquirt to control the 4L80e - when I looked for a wagon before, I was thinking of putting the 430 TT motor in it; I may do that to break in the 430 motor - bonus is it would literally be plug and play since the wiring and sensors will be the same - I just have to think about wire length when I wire up the motor. The benefit, to catch people up, is it makes the motor or trans different units - to the point I may use two sensors (the trans controller needs water temp, rpm and tps) - if I use MS on all the various motors, it's a can bus connection; however, I may avoid that so I can keep the flexibility
     
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  14. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    the most important tools to work with electronics
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    what grease looks like when it's no longer good.... not shiney
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    as you can clearly see in this picture, the head bolts have been torqued to 25/50/75 for the big bolts and 25 for the small bolts
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    more picture taking goodness, what you see here is a head bolt with 4 slots cut into it so it can be used as a ream.... ARP wants $53 for a ream, yeah, no
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    time to pull injectors and get bathed in gas....
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    pulled, this is the moment I realize I don't have new seals
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  15. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    *sigh*
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    the longest/hardest part is getting rid of all the stuff I don't need
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  16. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    Good plan on the 4L80E I’ve had great luck with them too.
     
  17. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    onward
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    the valve covers came with nice, aluminum brackets to mount the coils... they don't work, so cleanup the old stuff
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    oh how not much fun this is
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    it's really not hard work, basically you're just removing all you don't need (call it an even 2/3rds)
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    side note, I've been griping about missing parts - like the gaskets and the fittings for this... found them stuff inside the TB
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    this is supposed to be the MAP sensor.... too big, don't know what I'm going to do yet. fortunately I can mix and match sensors so it's not a huge deal, but it's still an issue
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    unneeded wires.... the problem is I have to add some back in because I changed sensors and I'm using drive-by-cable rather then drive by wire
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  18. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    last night I was shopping for all the connectors I need and stumbled across EFI Source - who builds a harness. It's on its way. The 'other' choice that led me to spend the 16 or so hours this would take is that the price was 2k - efi source is 10% of that.... annoying that I didn't find it earlier, but it will save me lots of time - and in an effort to have the two projects done this year... it is what it is.... that and the cost of those connectors was $100 - which is 1/3 of the cost of the completed harness.

    https://www.efisource.com/wp/shop/ls...composite/#ecu
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
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  19. sean Buick 76

    sean Buick 76 Buick Nut

    I agree it’s a better way to go
     
  20. superbuickguy

    superbuickguy Well-Known Member

    New injectors... the only thing you need to know about these is you must replace the lower seal with a smaller one - otherwise they fit perfectly

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    I should have bought a tractor first...
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    gas tank, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I have the tank that is for the Fiat and already has an aeromotive fuel pump in it. This tank I could make work, nowever, because it's less than 7" thick, an in-tank pump is a tough fit. Because it's a wagon, the tank is different (side fill v. rear fill for the cars with trunks)
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    problem 1 with the rockers... there is not even .0015 of space between it and the rear wall
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    but if you grind just a bit off.... it fits
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    and interference fit between the ICT bracket and the no-name valve covers
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    fixed
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    then fix the fit between the alternator housing and the covers
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    installing the ps pump
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    onto the intake lots of ports, not all needed
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    injector fitting
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    hard to see, but two, different sizes of o-rings (the blue is the smaller version)
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    top pops in nicely
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    and getting closer
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