Almost done....

[OIF1VET]

Beautiful motor! Can't wait to see it in the car and hear it running!!!!!!!!!!

[Plantfoam]

The engine and transmission are now safely bolted into the car....It's a really good feeling to have that done after 3 years of on and off engine building. It took about 10 hours to get the old combo out and the new in...there were some clearance issues with teh water pump being too bulky, so we had to do some grinding on the brackets, among other things.

Time for pics. Going to start hooking everything up tomorrow.

[Plantfoam]

Oh yeah, can anyone recommend a remedy for the y-pipe not fitting because of the deeper 6 quart pan? I thought I saw a discussion about it here before.

In case you were wondering, headers are going on in the spring.

[Plantfoam]

Another pic from today...

[Curt_irocz]

sweet. But that thing is going to be CRYING for headers.

[Plantfoam]

Update time: After some more deliberation and deciding that the manifolds would not bolt up anyways, I went ahead and got my headers. I was originally going to stay with the manifolds until spring, as the headers along with the new starter they require are over $900. However, it just wasn't gonna work.

So...I did what I hate to do...I charged it on the card, but it will be paid off by the end of the month

I went with the Hooker 2210 super comps, with metallic ceramic coating...the only way to go. They cost a fair amount, but they are worth every penny once you get them in. It's a full afternoon of work, even when using a lift. A couple brake lines needed to be relocated, the knock sensor had to be moved to the driver's side, and a few wires needed to be rerouted as well. Beyond that, these headers fit beautifully...it's like they came on the car from the factory.

Now we are just left with the small things....hooking up the rest of the wiring...'up top' stuff. It's a good feeling to have all of the heavy work done. I think that one more good day of work will get her running, barring some unforeseen issue. The throttle cable rests about an inch too short with the new bracket, but we should be able to remedy that.

[Bad_Z28]

Sounds like some really good progress being made. I'll be watching this thread for a start-up vid. Good choice on the headers btw. Glad your getting that out of the way now rather than later. It seems like everytime i do one thing to my car, i find something else i should replace along the way. These cars are money pits!

[Plantfoam]

I can't make any promises of course, but I hope to have a start up vid this weekend. Mos tof the wiring is done now, along with vacuum needs. We had to fabricate a new bracket for the throttle and TV cables, as they were coming in at an uncomfortable angle before.

[Plantfoam]

Started my car for the first time today, and I now have a grin from ear to ear I'm sure you guys fully understand the feeling. I give most of the credit of this install to my dad. His experience made this possible, and he toyed with this thing for hours on end in his 2nd bay when he did not have any work coming in. There is some fine tuning to do, but I believe I have also achieved my goal of a mostly factory look, with only a little chrome out of necessity (nobody makes natural finish stuff anymore?).

I have a startup vid, but I guess I'll have to upload it to YT since the site is giving me issues.

[OIF1VET]

Congrats man, looking forward to the vid!!

[JoeliusZ28]

VERY nice!!!

glad you got headers on it from the start, it would been choked.

[WMCCjames]

Congrats, looks good. You gotta ditch that factory TPI filter housing though...those things are major bottlenecks on an engine that can actually breathe deep.

[Plantfoam]

Well here we go....It sucks that you have to degrade the quality of a video so much to make it work on Youtube. If I upload the original .mov then the sound is off by about 8 seconds
The camera has a horrible mic that makes the engine sound like it is running faster than it really is, but this will have to do for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy0xFRZ4NdY

[Plantfoam]

Congrats, looks good. You gotta ditch that factory TPI filter housing though...those things are major bottlenecks on an engine that can actually breathe deep.

As far as changing that setup, all that I can find are examples of people that gutted the stock setup. Would that make much of a difference?

[JoeliusZ28]

pretty sure you can just run a tube off to the side with a cone filter on it.