My 76/77 Buick regals going to the darkside!

Would ja look at that! Just look at it! Isnt that somethin? Driveshaft is done.

 

Went with 14 inch magnaflow mufflers after much deliberation. I don't want too loud so I was going to go with the 18 inch version. In the end, the 14 in was available locally and I figured, its gonna be a hot rod. If it ends up being too loud for my tastes, I will just change it. Thats what is so great about being your own builder! If there ends up being drone, I will build a hemholtz resonator like I did on my srt jeep to target the exact frequency that is the problem.


Anyways, tonight's progress is not much but significant since I did weld the H-pipe up completely and cut the crossover in half to enable installing the clamp which will give me more wiggle room in the exhaust. As I welded the h-pipe up, one of the properties of stainless steel came to visit. Stainless likes to move around more when welded from heat. Not a big deal with the clamp installed.


I also picked up the hose needed to complete the remaining cooling stage of the car which is the heater lines. Once I install them and fix the heater control valve vacuum line that I broke, the cooling system will be 100%. This will also mean that all of the old hoses will be gone finally.


I did not want to spend almost the same amount for single hole overlap band clamps as I did for the double hole butt joint band clamps so I bought extra of the the doubles and cut them in half on my bandsaw. Worked extremely well and I saved money. The single hole ones were not available to ship fast enough so this worked out well

 

Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother, man? (Shaft)
Can ya dig it?
Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about? (Shaft)
Right on
You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother (Shut your mouth)
But I'm talkin' about Shaft (Then we can dig it)
He's a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman

 

Exhaust is almost complete. I installed the downpipe seals and torqued the bolts. I may take the bolts off again one at a time since i forgot the the antiseize on the bolts. Need to install the 02 sensors, 2 hangers and 2 turndowns (temporary) and I will be complete with the exhaust until I decide what I want to do instead of the turndowns. I will drive it that way in the mean time.

If you did not get the joke in my previous post, the point was that the new driveshaft is installed. I used lyrics from an old song called shaft to make my point.

That is all for tonight. Im tired so gotta sleep.

Tomorrow I plan to install the heater hoses and fill the radiator as well as finish the exhaust. I still dont have the fans but that wont keep me from starting it up which will happen soon.

 

Turn down for what! Exhaust complete! Made some hangers and a couple turndowns. Tig welded the turndowns but mig welded the hangers to the turndowns while upside down under the car.


Earlier, my 8 yr old son and I finished adding the coolant after I hooked up the heater hoses. Coolant system is complete too. He was very interested in watching the bubbles with my flashlight. It was great for me because he asked to come check out what I was doing without me prompting him. I was so proud! He even got some coolant on his hand while holding up the heater hose. I assured him that he had not been poisoned

 

Success is not always easy. Sometimes it represents a series of tries and failures to achieve your goal. Tonight, success was just outside my grasp. I settled into one of those failures but I am fine with it.


I had started my video recorder and wished myself well. I had put exactly 5 gallons of 87 octane in the tank. I verified that the fuel gauge works. Success!....verified the battery was hooked up in the trunk after installing the circuit breaker. Success!....I had replaced the old radiator cap with a fresh new one from the local O'Reilly's. Success!....


Finally, the time had come. I looked the car over and made sure that the fuel was not leaking anywhere and readied the key. I gave it a few moments to get fuel pressure.Success! ..then....crank.....


Failure prevailed! While she cranked well, I realized that there is something wrong with my wiring. I am not getting spark. I spent the rest of the evening going over the wiring and decided to make a stand alone harness which I got alot accomplished before settling in for bed.


I will get it....just wont be tonight

 

How exciting! The time has come.
Looking forward to hearing that thing...

 

Yes, it is exciting. I have laid on my back under this thing for what seems like forever and I am excited to be close to hearing my baby cry for the first time!

This is my current checklist-

 

WTF! no fuel pressure!!!

 

So, the good news is that I was able to find that there is no fuel coming out of the fuel line. I was also able to hear her try to run with starter fluid sprayed into the intake. The bad news is that I will have to drop the tank to see why the fuel is not getting to the rail anymore. The first time I primed the fuel, I checked and there was fuel pressure in the rail. Now there is nothing. The feed line inside the tank may have come loose somehow. I honestly will probably cut an access hole so that the tank does not have to be removed. Either way the show must go on. If the pump stopped working, I will have to warranty a replacement.

 

Ok. Dropped the tank. Found the issue. The wires on the inside were swapped. After looking closely, they are different sizes which should indicate the right polarity but it was not marked. I fixed a few bugaboo items when I reinstalled the tank.


Tested it but still no start. The fuel verification test was a success though. Plenty of pressure there. Photo shows the fuel that pumped to the bottle from the tank.


I also installed the crankcase breather filter. I did this to allow me to not have to drill a hole in me intake tubing.


Over the next few days I will sort out the wiring issues and try to fire again. One thing is for sure, I wont be recording the start until I know it will start. Sorry, just superstitious

 

As a sign of confidence, I am going to post this photo where I am pretty sure in the next 15 min I will have fixed my issue. I will explain then.

 

If you look very closely under the red wire there is a single ground wire that I completely overlooked. while troubleshooting, I saw that little sucker laying there. When it contacted the head, I heard clickity click. Now, I can connect to the motor PCM again. Now I am just troubleshooting the last (hopefully) few things that are preventing me from running.

 

The ground wire

 

Well folks! At 11:35pm after having an epiphany as I lay in bed for yet another desperate youtube and google binge... Glory!!

I have finally heard my beast roar! It was not obnoxious like I prefer. It was very, very nice!

So as I was in bed I was reading another guys post having the exact same issue as me, I realized two things. First, I knew exactly what his issue was. He never deleted VATs. Then Second, I realized what I did wrong. I never disabled the starter fault checks! I could not help it, I got up and threw on some clothes and leaped into my crocs to get to my tuning computer and straight to the garage. I quickly made my change in hp tuners and started the longest 10 minute wait ever. So now I did a quick ignition test and then quickly turned it over when all of a sudden.....Woomf!!!

I did it! I took a small video we will call first startup take 2 and now I am in the bed all giddy because I know that this phase is almost wrapped up. I need to sleep but that will be hard to do for obvious reasons. I will upload a proper video as soon as I can. For those watching and waiting with me I know you are excited to see this loop closed! I still need fans but for now......

.....I am elated!

 

Congrats, it will be a blast to drive, I am sure. Way to do it.

 

Thanks! I have been doing the shakedown before deciding that it is good to drive. I have some definite exhaust leaks at the clamps. I an going to have to get that figured out.

I had a radiator fluid leak that was due to a missed partially tightened hose clamp.

So far so good though. I have to resist the urge to drive it until everything is buttoned up.

Still overjoyed to have this thing fired up.

 

Video? Or Audio at least?

 

Here is a short video of the car running yesterday morning.

 

Awesome. Sounds strong. It does sort of sound like there is a wobble in the idle speed? Like a vacuum leak maybe? Nice job.