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This year's plans are simple: Figure out the front end rattle. Get the underside POR 15'd. Get the Interior cleaned up.
Long term goals: 11 sec quarter mile. 383 carb'd motor. Car that looks and handles pretty good.
She's already a mystery with the Rochester Carb, Electronically Controlled distributor (I think) and 4 fuel lines. I'm starting to think it's not the original 305 in her.
Anyone wanna weigh in on the rust and call me crazy? Or give some feedback on the purchase?
Not to steal your thunder (hehe) or anything, but isn't "Thunder Chicken" usually a dig on Thunderbirds? Most of the time I hear people call Firebirds a "Screaming chicken" or other similar things.
That said, cool project. When I saw the first picture of the interior I was like "That interior is mint except for the headliner!" and then I saw the DS seat. Still, not too shabby. I'm on year 3 of mine.
Not to steal your thunder (hehe) or anything, but isn't "Thunder Chicken" usually a dig on Thunderbirds?
That's likely. I picked it up from somewhere and it stuck.....I'm not known to be a bright man....
When I saw the first picture of the interior I was like "That interior is mint except for the headliner!" and then I saw the DS seat. Still, not too shabby. I'm on year 3 of mine.
DS seat and center console are complete messes, otherwise the Interior is in great shape. Wasn't a big fan of the Red/Grey to begin with, but it's quickly warmed up to me.
There's essentially 4 different fuel distribution systems that 82-92 cars came with. Crossfire Fuel Injection, Computer Controlled Quadrajet, TBI, and TPI. Crossfires were early models only, and really weren't all that great from what I've heard around here. The other three all have their strengths and weaknesses.
I actually like the LG4s. Super easy to deal with unlike the headaches ive fought with some of my TPI engines. You can make good power with the old 750 cfm Quadrajet and once you get it tuned in its usually trouble free as long as you run non-ethanol gas.
Lots of people swap to carbs, but I don't think you can just strip the electronic bits from the carb itself. You're better off just fixing it if there's something not working right. The only time that the stock CC Carb is really worth getting rid of is if you're planning on putting a cam in it that's too much for the computer to handle.
To convert it to a standard carburetor, you'll have to change the distributor, carburetor, torque converter lockup, etc.
Headliner still likes to sag. I suppose I'll live with it until I wanna shell out $250 to hawkes.
Got new LEDs in. Replaced the remote dimmer. That job was extremely difficult. Wound up zip tieing the mount back in. Couldn't get it bolted for the life of me.
Dimmer is located here for anyone looking at this
Took this picture on my back with my feet towards the rear glass. It's a real bitch to get to.
Dash lights work now! They're pretty dim in daylight. I'll have to see how they look at night. Will drop a few pics of the dimmer location and the lights when I get them downloaded.
Hoping to get the dash put back together tomorrow with the new speakers, and drive the old bird around for a bit.
Both sides of the outer window sweep are replaced. Took me nearly three days to do the Passenger (couldn't figure it out). Got the driver done in two hours.
Finally found some Radio mounts in the Junkyard today. Painting them (seriously GM, why leave them bare and let them rust?) and getting my radio officially installed.
Initial plans were to do an old school 383 swap. Starting to be on the fence about that one. Considering a Carb'd LQ4 or LQ9 swap now. Would be more expensive up front to buy all the supporting pieces, but would give me more overall power potential
Radio's mostly in. Still need to work on it. Would like it to fit a bit more flush
Did a POR 15 test yesterday. Stuff is pretty legit. Got it to chip a tiny bit by hitting it with the corner of a ball peen. Tested just painting a rusted area, and it was pretty tough there as well. Doing the whole underbody this weekend.
Got it up on the cousins lift and POR 15'd most of the underbody while drinking beers.
Didn't drop the exhaust or rear end, but did drop the driveshaft
Took a look at it the next day and don't like the results. I'll have to give it another try when I get the engine, trans, kmember, exhaust and rear out from under neath it.
Got it up on the cousins lift and POR 15'd most of the underbody while drinking beers.
I can't speak for you, but for myself, and with some POR15 experience, I know this would be a recipe for waking up today with a lot of semi-permanent black spots on my skin.
I can't speak for you, but for myself, and with some POR15 experience, I know this would be a recipe for waking up today with a lot of semi-permanent black spots on my skin.
Yep. Legs and forearms are covered. I'll be wearing this mistake for awhile
Been a little busy lately, haven't been able to give the car the attention I want to give it.
Bought a house last year. So the Chicken now has a semi-permanent home. Work ground to a halt because of the move, then winter hit us early and hasn't let go.
Poor car has become a snow bank.
The good part about winter is that I've had plenty of time to think about what I want to do. Sticking with a 6.0L (or 5.3 if I can't find one cheap enough) LS swap carbureted. Probably going to pull the entire drivetrain out and reattempting POR15 underneath. Going to be a busy spring.
Also - if you guys haven't seen these you should check em out. Had to buy myself a pair.
Spring hit early
Pulled an LM7 out of my local U - Pull it with the help of some good friends. Truck had 270k on it, but looked to be very well taken care of up until someone sideswiped it.
Yard had a couple LQ4's in some questionable vehicles. I went with one I knew would run.
Getting ready to pull the ol 305. Popped the AC stuff out first. I perfer 2-40 Air Conditioning anyway.
Engine's been fun pulling stuff off. Only have two broken exhaust bolts.
Of course my extractor broke, so I guess I have to pull the heads. ****ing craftsman.
Engine's good and stripped down. Still need to degrease the sides and back. I'll be throwing a cam and valve springs in and prepping it to go into the Chicken soon enough.
Weather doesn't look great the next couple weeks but I'm hoping to get the 305 out by the end of April.
Do you have any pics of your subframe connector install? I have an 85 that looks strikingly similar to yours (except T-tops) and am struggling to get my passenger side SFC into position so I'm curious how yours went in.
Photos you asked for. They're UMI, so there's an arm that goes up and around the exhaust. Would have been easier if we would have cut the Y-pipe down, but it seems to work well.
You have waaaay more clearance than I did! I had to leave out that third piece. Hoping to fab something up in place of it.
Did you burn through the frame on any of your welds?
Corona Quarantine has me pretty productive out in the garage lately.
Got the cam swapped and valve springs in. That was a pretty easy job really. Watched Sloppy Mechanics do it a handful of times on youtube and pulled it off in an afternoon.
After talking to FTI, I decided that the 700r4 has to go. It might stand a chance against the motor when I'm running NA, but as soon as I hit it with NOS it'll probably wind up in a bundle of parts.
Current plan is to find a TH400 locally and slap it in with the Hooker Blackheart X-Member. Should make exhaust clearance better.
Should be able to get ya'll some pics when I start pulling more stuff from the Chicken.
Also - does anybody have suggestions on how to run the PCV system on a Carb'd LS?
Some progress! Slowly working my way through the wiring. Passenger side passthrough is giving me fits, but I'll get it figured out.
C100 connector is out. I'll be cutting into this bad boy soon enough.
Plan on leaving the body side wiring alone besides possibly moving it somewhere 'cleaner'
Passenger side is out! If I'm reading my diagrams correctly I should be able to toss pretty much all those wires except the trans speed sensor. Carbs are fun.
Got a little tired of tearing things out of the car without putting stuff in, so I did a little battery tray rust repair
Ground down to bare metal as much as I could after this photo (I suck at documenting things)
Little primer makes me feel better. This week's battle is getting the K Member out. Should be an easy job, but every bolt is rusted to hell. Already had to cut the passenger side sway bar end link.
After that pig is out, I'm close to start prepping the rest of the engine bay for paint.