78 caballero

[The ghoul]

Thankyou gdwrench!

Before you go any further with a T56 swap, decide if you want to do an LS swap. You won't be disappointed with an LS swap and you won't have to convert the trans later.

FWIW, metric trannies have been behind SBC's since the late 70's and are still going with the 4.3L v6's in the pickups.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

I'm really leaning to a stroked lq4
But yeah, I plan on doing them at the same time, unless I get a flywheel/clutch setup dirt cheap.

I really don't care about what trans is in it now as long as it gets the car down the road for a season or two. Just thought it was cute, haven't seen a metric trans in about ten years

 

[The ghoul]

Trying to make a bit of room in my basement so installed a few things

I'm very pleased with the dash pad, I'm glad I took the extra time to paint the cap to match the rest of the plastics

 

[The ghoul]

Nothing major going down;
Decided the wobbly steering wheel was a result of the columns upper bearing inner race slipping out of place so I shimmed that into submission (replacing next season so good enough works for now)
Then attacked some dash plastic repair

The chromed grade 8 socket head cap screws for the intake manifold and timing cover arrived today;
I will be picking up my upper end gasket set and timing cover gasket set tonight.
And I ordered a new speedometer cable
($15 shipped from rock auto vs $59 from elcamino store?! Wtf!!)

 

[The ghoul]

Taking on an interesting bit...
found this radio bezel on eBay for $15 shipped
seems it was a NOS piece that melted.
Plan A heat it in an oven with weights trying to straighten it enough to be semi presentible

Plan B streighten the corner that is broken and missing from mine and grapht it in

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

Is it a tilt column? Usually it's a couple of screws that start to back out way down in the column. I'm fixing mine this winter. See: http://www.elcaminocentral.com/showthread.php?t=27192

 

[The ghoul]

Hu,
I saw that and dismissed it thinking it was meant to fix the slop between the column and tilt section....
I'll try any thing twice (might have Fed it up the first time!)

 

[mikesfastss]

Is it a tilt column? Usually it's a couple of screws that start to back out way down in the column. I'm fixing mine this winter. See: http://www.elcaminocentral.com/showthread.php?t=27192

very common on gm older tilt columns theres 4 screws I think but one can be accessed with out some special tools to pull the tilt piece but gettin the others will do the job.

 

[dave89iroc]

very common on gm older tilt columns theres 4 screws I think but one can be accessed with out some special tools to pull the tilt piece but gettin the others will do the job.

If you decide it is this, get a hold of me, ill tear your column down and tighten all the screws

 

[The ghoul]

If you decide it is this, get a hold of me, ill tear your column down and tighten all the screws

Thanks man, but it will probably not happen...
Like I said I found other issues with the column, and I'll eventually just swap it out for a floor shift one so my time and energy will probably be better spent adapting one of them...

 

[The ghoul]

Got a few little things knocked out.
Had to get a little creative when finding a bin to soak my longer parts... Lucky it's winter so I found a tibogin that should work out

I then turned my attention to the nastiest 350 ive seen in a while!

Started off by stripping the chrome and fragile stuff...
had a happy discovery

after about a half gallon of simple green and an hour of scrubbing she looks some what clean...

 

[The ghoul]

Got some real work done today!
Ripped the engine down to a short block,
Checked the torque on all the bolts in the rotating assembily
And that all checked out. I was pleased to discover is a 4bolt

Also discovered (and I don't know how I missed this last time) the valve train is sporting double valves

I was able to clean one of the pistons without destroying the stamp on it

Looks to me she was bored out...
Every thing cleaned up nicely

I got every thing re-assembled with new gaskets all around, and cleaned for paint (hopefully I can get that did tomorrow!)

 

[The ghoul]

Ok,
Weekends work is done
Time to catch up on my sofa time with a little doggie that's gone neglected..

As you can see, repainted the headers, the intake manafold and polished out the timing cover, valve covers and air cleaner that came with the car.
The chrome intake manafold and timing cover bolt kit were well worth the money (elcamino store clearance)
Do your self a favor and buy two of the timing cover kits.. They are 1/4-20 socket head cap screws and work perfectly for valve cover bolts.... I didnt and ended up spending $7.50 buying stainless hardwear (patents is a vertue I haven't had the time to learn yet!)

So here's the final "death toll" for the weekend.. 2 cans of high temp flat black for headers, 3 cans of high temp Chevy engine red, 1 can of garfiti remover that did not work!!!!, and the rest are ghoul go juice and break cleaner (I like things clean)!!!!!

 

[mikesfastss]

Dam shes lookin good I should have painted my motor that color instead of boring black lol.what kind of paint did you use on the dash cap? Ive heard the best one to use is s.e.m but im not sure I need to do my inyerior panels and dash soon, keep the updates comin

 

[The ghoul]

Dam shes lookin good I should have painted my motor that color instead of boring black lol.what kind of paint did you use on the dash cap? Ive heard the best one to use is s.e.m but im not sure I need to do my inyerior panels and dash soon, keep the updates comin

Sem is good stuff (I used there Adheasion promoter on my plastics and dash) but all the shops in my area wanted $24 a can....
I used the dupli-color vinyl and fabric paint (autozone $7 per can)
Used it on the seatbelts too. Btw, the seatbelts I took them out of the booth today... They were stiff at first but after I slid the buckle down the lenght of it it loosened up and none of the origional color came thru...
Love this stuff!

 

[The ghoul]

Had a bit of time tonight so I addressed the nasty pullys.
Used a verrible speed buffer and some sand paper to remove the old clear coat and sand out the imperfections...

DON'T USE A GRINDER it spins way to fast to be safe!!

The water pump pully cleaned up nice but the center had some deep nasty pitting so I just painted it black then re-cleared them both..
Not amazing, but not bad.

 

[The ghoul]

Been making progress but nothing really all that picture worthy.
Last night I snuck all my random brackets from the engine into work and shot blasted them. Then I painted them all black when I got home along with the quick ratio steering box.
I guess I can throw in this pic;
The new aspect of my project, I hope to have it cleaned tucked and painted in time for this weekend so I can get the drivetrain back in place (really looking forward to seeing that 350 between the rails!

 

[FAST93]

This is a really cool thread!

Nice pics, congrats on the progress and keep on with the updates!!

 

[BB71Mopar]

I have never had any luck using the high temp exhaust paint. I started using BBQ paint and have had much better luck and it looks good.

Looking good so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[Fryguy302]

Looks great man, keep the pics coming.

 

[The ghoul]

thank you all!

I have never had any luck using the high temp exhaust paint. I started using BBQ paint and have had much better luck and it looks good.

Looking good so far. Keep up the good work.

Sadly, I have read many things along those lines....
this is my first experence with it so we shall see...
Like I said, Im planning to swap this in a few seasions any way. So if it dosent last no biggie