My 76/77 Buick regals going to the darkside!

Looking great!

 

I'm so tired! I stayed up till the weee hours of the morning losing my mind as to why the fuse box connectors do not match what is supposed to be for a 2010 express van. I verified that I am using the correct documents for the year van that I verified by the VIN number. As I took a sip of whiskey admitting defeat and about to go to bed, I had a Eureka moment. It dawned upon me to check the diagrams for adjacent year vehicles. BAM!! that was it. I have the motor and trans from a 2010 Express 3500 but my wiring diagrams match a 2011 express van. .....Damnit GM!! I was too tired to continue troubleshooting my issue so I went to bed but after work today I will resume trying to find my trigger wire that powers up the fuse panel. I know which relay but I gotta find the wire. I believe that is why I am not able to connect to my PCM through the roughed in OBDII port. I wasted hours trying to verify each wire to each pin and nothing matched up. Now I know why.

 

Baked the exhaust manifolds in preparation to spray cerakote.

Also made headway on the computer. I hooked up a relay and got 12v to the wires turning it on. Read the vin and my obd2 adapter was able to read too.

 

Edit.... although still stupid, I realized that my dust collector was in fact malfunctioning so that was probably half of the problem.
This edit was written after the following----



Dead serious, I really did not think it would be that bad. .....very wrong I was. Never again!

I opened the bottle of cerakote and thought, "that is not T H A T bad". So I went for it. Since it was like 44degrees in the garage, I figured a quick spray with my downdraft dust collector sucking the air out side would be harmless. So my dumb ass sprayed the stuff. About a quarter of the way in I realize that although this stuff smells like super strong latex paint in liquid form. It will choke you when it is atomized!. Thank God the fam was not here. While the smell never really made it upstairs, I quickly had to get a better crossflow to get the fumes out the house. When atomized, this stuff gets strong kind of like oven cleaner.

What a stupid thing to do. Shame on me. I know better. I could have simply fired up the garage heater and waited a little until it was up to temps. That is where I spray my primers and automotive paints.

So there you go folks. Do not be dumb like me.

The manifolds are coated but I am still ashamed that I did it.

 

Words of wisdom for the day-
Doesnt matter how well you sprayed cerakote on your headers ......if you drop one while removing it from the hanger.

Todays progress-Cerakote cure -part 2

 

Manifolds installed with minor scuffs from installation. The oil dipstick design is stupid. Imo.

 

Success! Figured out the wiring and deleted vats.

 

Passenger side downpipe complete. Chose to mig weld for speed. It is still 304 stainless steel. I did the hardest side first.

 

Both downpipes welded and ready for service. Also won a Darwin award for the hole in the garbage can. Forgot it was hot. My bad!

 

Tranny cooler and radiator hoses plumbed. Next up radiator overflow tank will get mounted and I need to get the steam vent plumbed into the radiator. I realize that I will have to forego doing air conditioning for a while which is not a big deal. I am sure I will get it hooked up before I need it. Found an oil leak at the oil cooler plug. I may have forgotten to put the seal on. I will sort that out as soon as I can. I also forgot that I need to remove the tranny x member, sand blast it and paint before reinstalling it.


Unfortunately the weather is about to get real winter-like and I will be freezing my nads off from here on out. It might slow things down a little.

 

Fixed the oil leak. I simply forgot to tighten the bolts for the oil cooler port plug. It was barely passed finger tight.

Today I hooked the fuel gauge wire back up. It had been cut at some point. I added an extension and put a connector on it to allow more room for disassembly.

 

Last night I cut the beginning phase of the crossover pipes that will clamp to the downpipes. I am pretty sure I want to do an H-pipe instead of an x-pipe. I like the H-pipe sound better. I have to pick my mufflers now. I will probably do magnaflow.

 

Getting close to firing it up!

 

Stop It!!
I am trying very hard to ....NOT...get all super excited and giddy...But to answer your question, Absolutely. This thing is very, very close to starting!! I really could have started it already but I keep prolonging it by closing loops. I am knocking off small things until I have no choice but to have to admit that it is time to start it. I am being deliberate and persistent. I am forcing myself to just accomplish something each day. Eventually I will run out of things to do.

Tonight, I got the radiator overflow done. I got the steam port plumbed in too. For the radiator, I took a 1/4 npt stainless barbed nipple and cut the threads off to make a bung. I then welded the bung over the existing small port of the stainless tank that I had purchased. This way I do not need any sort of adapters. Then I took the brackets that came with the tank and welded them instead of bolting them on. I then used self tappers to attach to the car. I will eventually replace the self tappers with stainless nuts and bolts.

 

Well hallelujah! My H-pipe is tacked up. Im going to be mig welding it and will probably have to cut it in the middle of the H. Stainless steel likes to move alot during welding. I fully expect it to want to shrink toward the middle. No biggie though. A single clamp in the middle will fix that.

I also dropped off the driveshaft, yoke and u joint for a quote to get a new driveshaft made. Hopefully the cost won't make me poop myself.

 

Dang! the slip yoke that was removed from the Van at a cost of $120 had a micro crack in it. I just bought a new one and thank GOD that Summit had it for $69. That said, I will have a new driveshaft next week. I would have had one today if it were not for that damn expensive paperweight. For anyone looking for one for a 2wd 6l90e tranny, the part number is

ACDelco Driveshaft Slip Yokes 23251192
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ado-23251192/applications

 

Better to find out now then later...

 

I just wish I found the summit one before I wasted $120 on the other one.

 

So, I got the new yoke and dropped it off to the driveshaft place. In the mean time I can now actually shift the tranny. I used a Lokar 1804 kit and modified it to fit. The first thing was that the aluminum bracket that comes with the kit does not fit due to space constraints under the booster. After getting mad and pondering a bit, I realized that I could flip the bracket on the tranny so that the shifter lever is above on top instead of on the bottom. This makes the cable completely retracted in park instead of extended. Then, I got rid of the aluminum bracket and replaced it with a simple stainless steel "L" bracket that I drilled for the cable and for an attachment bolt. Now the whole cable operates in the opposite direction as it was intended but works. The only issue is that the gear selector does not quite line up with the selected gear which I will fix by installing a digital gear selector indicator if I cannot get it adjusted. It is not that far off though. In drive it shows neutral.

As always, here are some photos.

 

Made an aluminum bracket to adapt the pedal. After a test fit, it is great and just needs a couple holes slotted because I apparently welded it slightly crooked. Then again I could just mount the pedal cover that I will be getting to make it look 100% straight. Truth be told, it looks straight from the angle that I was in while fitting the plates. Once you sit down in driving position it looks crooked. Either way, I still have to reinforce the bracket but Im happy with my progress. Yes, welds are ugly. Lol