Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

Glad you took my advice on this one. Fair warning, that little $14 venturi vacuum pump needs a bitching air compressor to run it. They work every bit as well as the electric driven ones though. I like to suck down my AC systems for at least 30 minutes to boil off any possible moisture in the system. I have a 6hp 60 gallon that runs continuously to get the job done. I assumed given the amount of car work you do, that you probably have a very decent air compressor. I replaced both HVACs on my house as well, and sucked them down with that same stupid little $14 pump. Worked perfect, and the AC in my house blows ice cold as well.

Kurt
Hmmmm.
Let me check.
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I think I'll be OK...just gonna have to run a bit.
 
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Well,...i’m here you bunch of non-participative mother fckers.

Im waiting on daylight tomorrow..Cause tomorrow the monster rolls.
Tonight i’m sitting on my deck enjoying a 65 degree night, a bottle of Jameson..an Old assed slow 70’s-80’s music playlist, and the hottie that is Kate sitting across the table that has fire burbling out of it..
 
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Well,...i’m here you bunch of non-participative mother fckers.

Im waiting on daylight tomorrow..Cause tomorrow the monster rolls.
Tonight i’m sitting on my deck enjoying a 65 degree night, a bottle of Jameson..an Old assed slow 70’s-80’s music playlist, and the hottie that is Kate sitting across the table that has fire burbling out of it..

Maybe just half the bottle, or it may be a little past daylight! Lol
 
Tool time tomorrow..I’ve rented a truck so I can go and get 800 lbs of HF tool boxes..Hoping that I can roll the 550 lb son of a bitch that is the base chest down a ramp, and then add straps to the 265 lb top chest so that my hoist can lift it. And after getting it to set on top, be able to roll that whole jug :leghump: into place at the front of my garage.

Right after I get the seats in the Monster,...and get him back on his tires,...then start him, and back it out of harms way...so I can take all of that 20th century Sears stuff out, to make room for all of my 21st century HF sht. :shrug:
 
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it’s always way less than half the bottle. ;)

Just enough to celebrate another day on the Earth, my good fortune, and the love of good woman.

These days when it’s all too easy to complain about everything going on, sometimes you have to look around and just see what you’ve really got! Well said! I’ll drink to that! :cheers:
 
Well that worked so well, it almost seemed too good to be true.
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Its only rated to pull 28.3" of mercury at seal level, and it appears that that is all its gonna pull. Its gonna have to do.
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But for 13.99, this beats the hell out of the 369.00 deposit i had to give oreillys to "borrow" their non working junk.
 
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My eyes are watery, and my hands are shaking...this is an entirely new Monster.
15 psi shreds the tires on the one/two gear change. The converter is sufficiently loose ( probably 3000 stall) I have 4 gears and converter LU.
I nothing feels weird, nothings dripping,
Its all too fcking perfect.

I can't stand myself im so excited.
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When was the last time i posted this pic?
 
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Tool time tomorrow..I’ve rented a truck so I can go and get 800 lbs of HF tool boxes..Hoping that I can roll the 550 lb son of a bitch that is the base chest down a ramp, and then add straps to the 265 lb top chest so that my hoist can lift it. And after getting it to set on top, be able to roll that whole jug :leghump: into place at the front of my garage.

Right after I get the seats in the Monster,...and get him back on his tires,...then start him, and back it out of harms way...so I can take all of that 20th century Sears stuff out, to make room for all of my 21st century HF sht. :shrug:

Chaulk tool box on ramp. Tow strap around your waist, and get on all 4s. Back down the ramp slowly with the box behind you, and you can grab the rails with your hands so there is no way it's going to get the best of you. I did this several times when I moved the same 800lb safe from place to place.

Glad you got it running. Now finally go have some fun in it.

Kurt
 
Holy Crapola It moved under its own engine power!!! Made it out of the garage too!! Shreaded the tires!!!

This Triumph Conquering of the hard path you picked is truly an Accomplishment !!!

Kudos to you Mike, fricken awesome, now we want pictures of it out and about (with the hood shut).

Time to cruise for burgers.....
 
I bet he’s hustling saki burner racers to pay for the transmissions and tool boxes.

Edit: is it a domestic or an import car now? Even the first engine experiment brought up that thought. And, if it is fast, looks good and sounds good, does it matter?
 
Chaulk tool box on ramp. Tow strap around your waist, and get on all 4s. Back down the ramp slowly with the box behind you, and you can grab the rails with your hands so there is no way it's going to get the best of you. I did this several times when I moved the same 800lb safe from place to place.

Kurt

Not sure how Mike’s bionic knees would like that, but it sounds like a safe way to go about it.

Mike, congrats on the successful maiden voyage. I’m very happy for you to have such good results.
 
The garage was a disaster.
A year of this, and then that, and then that, and then this has left the place in the most epic of messes.

Couple that to the fact that I just can't bring myself to throw things away.

The old Monster engine is now on the curb.
Sitting out there with 800.00 forged pistons, a 500.00 roller cam, a 200.00 timing chain,, and 400.00 worth of BBF roller lifters....( and thats just the parts) all waiting to go to scrap.
It took me all day just to get the thing to a place where I could say I was half done.

Another thing that I couldn't do was transfer all of sht that was piled up in the drawers of the old boxes into the new drawers..

So,..I ended up moving piles of sht from one place to another..more than once.
Despite that, I threw away stuff that I've had laying around for years....
And there is still an assload of stuff to deal with.

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The box is huge in the garage..i still have several drawers that have nothing in them.

But...the way I'm going, theyll stay empty..
Im not gonna fill them with junk.
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Man what a day yesterday was..

The first thing I wanted to do was get the AC system charged, then get the seats in it, and take it for a quick spin before renting the truck, and getting the tool box.

The AC system wouldn’t/ didn’t charge properly. Due to the omission of the heater control valve. Now because I’ve done that, hot water flows through the heater core continually which shares a common plenum with the AC evaporator.
The AC system won’t work when competing with 200 degree water.

So,..... :nonono: Back up in the air the car goes, and the radiator gets drained yet another time. I’ll have to put two manual ball valves in the water lines, and create a bypass using T’s, so i can shut the back flow off to the heater core, while still allowing water to move out of the back of the head to the inlet on the back of the water pump. I’ll shut the water off in the summer, and open it back in the winter ( for all of the freakin driving I’ll never do in the winter anyway).

Ive got no speedometer despite having it hooked to the sender. IDK if it’s the way it’s wired, or if the sender is somehow incompatible. One way or the other, that’s gotta work..even if I have to buy a GPS based sender.

When i first drove it, and the console was back in, and the shifter cover installed, I backed the thing out, put it in low, and pulled out of the drive. I thought “Man, the converter is really loose”.
After driving it, I counted the forward gears.. 1,2,3, neutral.. WTF? either I had no low gear, or the shifter was adjusted wrong.

Turns out, the console, and the shifter cover are going to have to be modified. The handle hits the both in low.

Andd...”modifying“ the console while in place, tore a huge chunk of paint off one of the bars..I don’t even know if I can get the cover clearanced enough to allow the handle full rearward movement.

The trans is noisy in low gear..Googling that reveals that that might be normal for a 4l80,..something about the cut on the gears in the planetary..or, they may be worn. ( or, when the sht fell out of the trans when I dumped it, i may have hurt them):shrug:
Ill find out soon enough i guess.

The one-two shift creates a real un-nerving torque related lurch to the right when the tires break loose..I dont feel confident that i’d keep my foot in it when this thing is making real power...I also don’t think i’m revving the engine into the higher rpm where it’s gonna get even more weird when I shift. The old Monster made enough torque down low to spin the tires almost off idle in low, and when shifting, the tires were already blazing,..now, this stupid thing comes into power exponentially, the longer you keep it in gear, the more power it starts making, and by the time you’re at shift point, it’s ready to raise all kinds of hell....
And i’m not itching to get added to somebodies “Cars and Coffee drive out fails” video.


Its all a new kinda learning curve..20 psi...is gonna be the game changer I think.
 
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