2001 Firebird Project

[Drdave88]

I will probably have to reshoot the pass door, that got some bad striping in it, but so far the rest looks decent.

[TSTONE]

Looks like it's coming along nicely

[Drdave88]

Found a lovely little issue today. Looks like this car got towed or pulled by the sway bar at some point. The driver side bushing bracket is snapped off and one of the bolt holes ripped right out of the frame rail. Ripped a hole a little bigger than a quarter in the frame rail. Good news is it looks like it can be fixed so once it's back up and running, I'll take it over to a buddy who can weld and get it fixed up.

[DynoDave]

It's amazing the damage that can be done during a tow.

[MP81]

It's amazing the damage that can be done during a tow.

Well...when you tow it wrong, that is.

[Drdave88]

Finally got some time to work on this over the weekend. Got the front end dropped out of the car. Aside from the whole exhaust system being welded together and having to be cut, it went pretty smooth. I'll start tearing heads off later today.

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[MP81]

I know your pain with the welded exhaust. The whole exhaust on the '81 was welded (aside from the downpipes to the manifolds), so I had to cut it in three spots - and I used a hacksaw.

Looking good!

[Drdave88]

Yeah, the manifolds are bolted to the Y-pipe on mine too, but all welds after that.

[Drdave88]

Got the old heads off, cleaned up the replacement heads (with new valve seals), swapped the rockers and installed the new heads. Still waiting on new rocker arm bolts (early next week?), since GM decided it was a good idea to use torque-to-yield bolts for those and they're a dealer only part. I have to drill out one of the bolts in the manifold to the Y-pipe since it broke off. Got the new shock/springs assemblies installed. New upper ball joints are on the way since the boots were torn and dry, and they are the original non-greasable ones.
I now know why they had over heating issues with this engine. The coolant passages in the head gaskets on both sides were plugged up from the old dexcool that was in the engine at one point. It looks like they tried to flush it out and was replaced with green coolant, but the passages were already plugged I'm guessing. Some you could see a pinhole through, others were 100% blocked. All other areas looked pretty clean and clear of build up that dexcool leaves behind, just the gasket ports. So I should have taken care of the over heating problem that caused this car to go down in the first place with the previous owner.
I have to get a piece of the coolant elbow out of the intake manifold yet, since it broke off and is rolling around in the coolant passage. Hoping I can just break it up and shake/dig out the pieces. Other than that, I think it's getting ready to go back in the car this weekend and start putting back together.

[MP81]

Quite honestly, adding the green coolant was probably what caused it to coagulate - or if anything, exacerbated the condition significantly.

I have to flush the 3100's coolant in my brother's '01 Century because I'm pretty sure someone has thrown green coolant into it at some point.

[Drdave88]

That could have been at one point, but what I drained from it looked quite new/clean and green. I've had quite a few run-ins with the green and dexcool mix over the years, it's nasty stuff. Either way it will be getting a good thorough flush and get any left over junk out of there before getting refilled.

[Drdave88]

The engine is all reassembled (rocker arm bolts came in Friday), everything is reinstalled in the car, just some odd/ends to finish up. Hoping to fire it up tonight or tomorrow, depending on time. Had to drill out a couple of bolts on the exhaust manifolds to the y-pipe, but other than that, things when pretty smooth for re-installation. No major snags. Setting the car back down on the K member was easier than dropping an engine in and getting the motor mounts to line up lol.
I did notice once I thought I was all done in the engine bay that something looked missing.......... the steering shaft. Sure enough, there it was laying off to the side of the garage yet. That would be one of my odds/ends to finish up yet lol.
Hope the car show was good, despite the rain. I was working on this thing all day on Saturday.

[MP81]

Sounds like great progress!

And it was good, but it sure rained a lot. And it was cold. Pretty miserable weather, to be perfectly honest. It is June - I shouldn't have needed to be in a hoodie all day.

[Drdave88]

That's a bummer, looks like a pretty good turn out from the pics I saw though.

[MP81]

Yeah, it was, and most stayed for the duration, but there were a good few that left, too.

The location was great though - The HUB Staff was very accomodating.