By the time they were shipped & duties paid I think they totaled up to $600....thank you piss poor exchange rate

I took the passenger side header out to the shed & fit it to my head....all 6 bolt holes lined up on this one! I'll take it!

Hopefully it will be in the car Monday. Looks like once I drop the starter it should slide in fairly easy.

Well, passenger side is in finally. Went in fairly uneventful from the bottom.

03000e85 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Getting the starter back in afterwards certainly will try your patience, but its in & everything clears & fits as it should.

Moving on to the extension pipes that go back to the y pipe, I've now discovered that I'll need to clearance the transmission cross member....... . After wrestling with the starter all morning, the cross member can wait for another day. Out of ambition today!

In retrospect being 80% done with these headers, if I had not had my hoist I'd have set it on fire by now. I can't imagine trying to put these things in without access to a lift of some sort.

Yeah it sucks doing lt header installs on the ground i feel your pain. Done a set on my old 94 lt1 and a set on a friend 99 ls1 on the cold garage floor LOL.

You guys are bringing up some ugly memories. I once had a 1974 Z-28 with a nice 350. Went to help a friend set up his booth at the Barrie automotive flea market. Being there early and before it opens has its perks. I found a set of Hooker Competition 1.3/4" Camaro headers with adjustable collectors for a mere $150. SOLD! I was the happiest guy on planet right up until I had to install the buggers. Both sides had to go in from the bottom and the entire car was way up high on wooden blocks. @#$%!

Well done to you both.

Vetty, looks great for a home installation.

Cheers,
Ken

Just a progress report today.

Headers/y-pipe have been complete for a while now. Definitely deepened up the tone of the car for sure.

The last piece of the exhaust puzzle arrived this week.

WP_20150331_003 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Its going to have to get located behind the y-pipe....just no where else to put it. I'm hoping it gets warm enough back there to light off easily. Otherwise I guess I'll have to drive it like I stole it before taking it in for its emission test to get it good & warm.

The other issue that has come up (and not entirely unexpected), is the car will not stay in closed loop at idle. The O2 sensor is too far downstream to stay warm enough now. Revving it ever so slightly brings it back into closed loop again, but at idle it eventually cools down enough to go out of closed loop. Once I start driving the car I'll have to determine whether this is going to cause any sort of driveability issues. If it does I guess I'll need to upgrade to a heated 3 wire sensor.

Other than that, been dealing with little detail stuff. During the header install the rad fan switch connector just crumbled to pieces & the heater valve cracked right in half, so those to issues have been resolved. While the coolant was out I put a new temp sending unit in so now my temp gauge works again!

Should hopefully be enjoying the results of all my labour within a month & be out driving her finally!!

So........I'm tossing around a new idea. This wasn't part of my original build plan for this car & I'm on the fence about doing it. My original plan was ported heads, Lunati cam, long tubes, possibly some tpi runners/ported base......normal TPI stuff. Dyno2003 is suggesting 350'ish crank hp 405'ish ft/lbs, which I think is probably fairly realistic.

Then I scored a smokin' deal on this.



I'm thinking that as much entertainment as it would be, that on top of my original build is likely asking for a very unhappy 10 bolt.....

I wouldn't be opposed to putting the bottle in my Sierra either, so it will get used one way or the other.

Thoughts??

Me thinks you opened a can of worms asking such a question.

How you use it will decide on if your motor lives or dies in the long run.

At the track. You can use slicks. But the street has all sorts of unpredictablilities. The main one being traction.

I remember a race between my 1996 Z-28 and a V-10 Viper. I should have lost by all accounts. But my lane was clean and his was dusty. An old lady turned in front of him and I got past the lady before he did. By the time he could react I quickly hit the brakes and called the race a win. The Viper flew past me doing 120km while I was already back down to 60km. I noted his unhappy/angry face as he drove by. Hehehe.

With what you already have going on, it sounds to me like you really don't need it.

Besides. It doesn't matter what you put in your car. There's always someone out there that has spent more money than you on their car and will still beat you in a race.

My advice is... Don't do it! Keep nitrous for the track.

Curious question. If you happen to be in an accident that you're not at fault but still writes off your car. Will the insurance companies find a way to nullify the policy for using it?

It will be nice to see your car on the road. Best of luck!

Ken

Today was a great day! The Formula got plated & made her maiden voyage with me......first time I've driven the car! God I missed listening to that V8 rumble away with the T-Tops out!

Didn't really venture too far from home & made sure my cell phone was charged before I left, but in the end she drove great.....no gremlins popped up yet! Put 55 kms on her tonight with absolutely nothing on my "Gotta fix that" list when I got home. Brakes were solid, steering nice & tight/responsive, suspension tight, coolant climbed right to the temp it should & stayed there, oil pressure good the entire trip. It appears that my almost obsessive attention to the details has paid off with an uneventful first outing. After driving it for an hour or slightly more, I'm cautiously optimistic that I got a good one!

Supposed to rain for the next few days so I will likely put the car up on the hoist & check everything over once more for leaks, loose stuff etc......think I'm really going to enjoy this summer!!

Congrats!

Cleared the final hurdle this morning! Passed e-test with flying colors!

Had a few little things pop up that I took care of (realized the headliner was not well secured first time I was out with the tops out, & had the LF outer bearing get really pissed off really fast), but those were both quick, easy, cheap fixes.

Enjoying every minute of cruising around in her.

Way to go! I look forward to seing it at the next meet&greet or show'N'shine.

Too bad it wasn't ready in time for the Montreal Deli meeting last Saturday.

I'll keep re-checking for the CCFBG summer meeting schedule.

Cheers,
Ken

I think some more pictures are in order or a small video of it running

Snapped a pic when I got back from having the emission test done.

030002ca by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

20 years ago when I had my '88 Formula, nobody really looked twice at it......it was just another of many f-bodies on the road at the time. THIS car on the other hand, I have yet to go for a drive in it that I haven't had somebody giving me the thumbs up, yelling "Nice car!" across the intersection, stopping me to talk about it......everybody seems to have a fond memory about these cars & its nice to see they are still very much appreciated.

*yells* "Nice car!"

So tonight I came home with the car & put it up on my hoist to pull all the wheels off. The tires I ordered for the car were "supposed" to arrive today...but didn't.

In any case after all the wheels were off, something new caught my attention.....

03000416 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

One of the welds on the RR springs perch decided to call it a career! Time to call in a favour from a friend & his Lincoln welder!

As much as I was annoyed to find another of the gremlins that I fully expected I was going to run into putting a 25 year old car back on the road after sitting for 6 years, I'm happier that I found it sitting on my hoist than having the remaining welds fail @ 120 km/hr out on the 400!