project drivabeater

[dusterbd13]

thats actually the sites that led me to the idea. origonal plan was a 3800 supercharged. then a smallblock. the a turbod maf equipped 3.1. now a 3400 built with a rwd block, more compression, cam, and ported and polished heads.

[bonecrrusher]

http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/stalkerv6/kitcar.html this might be a good site to source a 60*v6 rwd bell housing.

Im not sure how the 3.4 or 3.8 F-body bellhousings work. Would you stay manual or go auto?

[dusterbd13]

3.4 camaro block has the same bellhousing pattern as the 2.8 in it now. also shares it with the northstar, 2.5 4cyl, 3.1, and all 3x00 motors.
more or less modification of the factory haousing required for all non RWD motors (like the northstar)

i would also, if money were no problem, go with a 4l60E and paddle shift it.

Michael

[Ash]

Spend some time at http://www.fullthrottlev6.com, it has some pretty stout 3400's. Until I found that site, I didn't know where to begin when researching the 3400. A wealth of knowledge on Series II L36 N/A and L67 Supercharged difference, interchangeability, and overall engine characteristics. I'm going with L36 & 4L60-E (possibly upgrade it to a 4L65-E) from a 4th Gen F-body since it already has evrything for a RWD transplant. HP Tuners appears to be the standard for 3400 engine management http://www.hptuners.com/

These engines take to boosting like nobody's business and can be Twin-charged with ease.

parts:
http://www.zzperformance.com/grand_prix/weekly_pro.php
http://www.intense-racing.com/

[John Wright]

Neat lil truck...looks good in the latest pics at the track.

[dusterbd13]

well, it didnt get me home. knew it was coming due to the fuel delivery issue, but figured i could limp it till the RX7 was done. i was wrong.

so i assumed it was the fuel pump. all signs led to that conclusion.
i bought my last pump woth a lifetime warrenty. Adance was nice enough to let me upgrade for the difference. so i went with an L98 corvette pump (88 vette). bolted right in, and should be enough flow and pressure to fit ALL my plans for the 3.4. cost me an extra 8 bucks over the origonal.

so add in 8 bucks. anyone know what the total is now? there will be a test later....

anyway, my dad and i pulle dthe bed tonight. pump went in without a hitch. used the sock filter for a 92 camaro, also under the warrenty. they offered, so i ran with it.
when we got the bed off, we found more of the PO's hack jobs that i had not noticed before. like every wire to and from the pump assemble had been cut, and then crimp connectpred back together. the ground wire actually fell apart as i was removing it. that was probably my fuel problem all along, but i installed the new pump anyway. after cleaning, soldering, and heatshrinking all connections, i put it back together. also added a ground point for the filler neck.

thats it. runs and drives again.

next update after the RX7 is done
michael

[Z06killinSBF]

For the HU I would make a wood face and try your hand at fiberglass and make a pod for it under the dash. I just built my first fiberglass box and it came out great. Really easy to work with but itchy.

[dusterbd13]

pics of the rx7 that were requested.

when it was pulled in, after i had already started a bit.





as of last night











and why ive got a lot done this week


i hate snow. but enjoy wiring.

[stryfe101]

Great thread, gave me some ideas for a good project to mess around with. Also a fellow Charlotte area guy, cool!

You wouldn't by chance know of any good pull-it-yourself yards around here would you? I've tried searching on google but came up with nothing.

Gray

[dusterbd13]

my normal haunts are pull-a-part on tryon, foils in harrisburg, parkers in oakboro, and city salvage in albemarle.

if i cant find it there or craigslist, i go on the internet.

[MonzaRacer]

www.car-parts.com.
hooked up yards near you will belisted.

[cmarcus]

Michael - you have me inspired. I was keeping up with your thread a while back, and my wife is out of town this weekend, and my Saturday morning consisted of reading up on your entire thread again. I too work with my dad on cars, and he has been my inspiration all along, as well as one of my best friends. Unfortunately, my Javelin is in Michigan with my dad, I live in Boston at the moment - where my wife is getting her MSW - so I can relate to working on a budget. In fact, my dad called this morning as I was reading your thread, and I told him about it. He was actually working on pulling the Javelin out to do some work on it, and a guy walked up to him from the street as he was working on it - turned out to be a guy who is an AMC fanatic who owns 15 some-odd cars. More budget friendly connections! You know guys like that have parts just lying around. Anyways, I am stealing your thread - but wanted to share with someone I relate too. I think I am going to start a budget adder on my thread too! Thanks for the inspiration!

[dusterbd13]

im glad i can inspire someone.

ive been checking on the jav too. had one i lost in a poker game one time. yours is much less rusty, and much more coplete.o you and th missus. i know how tough a masters can be. thats why i never finished mine.

michael

good luck t

[dusterbd13]

finally finished the RX7. that car was a PITA. from now on, im charging a japanese tax on customer cars. the Japanese just do everything so different and much more complicated than the domestics.




also spent 70 on the motor swap. bought a 93 lumina harness and PCM for 50, and a 2wd oil pan, high volume oil pump, and pickup for 20.
started building my harness tonight for the swap. its gonna be sweet when its over with.
michael

[joemac]

This little project has inspired me to do my own little project very similar but also completely opposite. I have a '93 ranger short bed standard cab. It is also black. It's got a 2.3l and 5 spd right now. I'm going to do some decent wheels and tires, positive rear, bigger sway bars and maybe some type of engine swap, I'm undecided on that now. I'll try to start a build thread on it this week.

[dusterbd13]

spent the day working on the 3.4. had to pull the upper intake to get to the water temp sensor. who at GM thought that was a good idea??

anyway, its going pretty well. im modifying a harness from a 1993 lumina with a 3.1, which used a 7727 ecm. got the harness and ecm for 50 bucks at pull-a-part. even talked to the PO of the lumina while i was pulling it apart, which is why i bought the ECM. i took his word for it.

anyway, this is very tedious work. start with 3 wiring diagrams, 1 motor, 1 harness. tweak as necessary.

ive got it pretty well sorted till the back of the block. after that, ive still got some work to do. should only take a fe more hours to finish.






after the RX7 and VW bug, im getting sick of electrical.

reason im trying to get this done is that ive got a leaking freeze plug on the back of the 2.8. to repair, i have to yank the trans. if im going to do that, ill swap the motor.

i have also lined up a sale on this motor, and the job of swapping it and the EFI into a 4wd early s10. that should be fun. and pay good.

anyway, im depating on painting the motor cast iron grey, or aluminum. along with the accessories. what do you think?

any other colors that would look good, and be availible from dupli-color?

michael

[dusterbd13]

joe:
well have to run them at one of the events when your done. show all the other guys what these budget built sport trucks will do.

[dusterbd13]

I never really realize how busy i stay until i look back over my threads on days im sick.

anyway, little progress update.

got the harness as finished as i can before install. im not really that happy with the way it looks on the stand, so ill see ho it looks in thr truck.

i also have spent a while checking over the 3.4. it still had the crosshatching in the bores, and the bearings looked good. so i put the 2wd oil pan on it, replaced all the gaskets (except head gaskets), cleaned, and painted it. it looks really nice, now. i did not paint the alternator yet, as i dont know if its any good. i did clean and paint the sanded compressor, as the firebird still had freon in the lines when i pulled the motor, so im assuming its good. evrything else looked great.

the gaskets, plugs, paint, wires, thermostat, etc really ate up a lot of my budget. i dont know if its worth it yet. ill find that out when i stcik it in.

heres pics:




i was going to bolt my craigslist headers on, but cant. reaon being is that the guy that sold them to me was wron in their application, and i didnt know enough about them to know any better. they fit a 4.3 4wd truck. so when i stick this in, ill be running the stock manis for now. anyone wanna buy the headers?

lastly, i dunno if i really want to do this swap. right now, my truck is dead nuts reliable, if a little aggrevating. my time is short lately, and play money is tight. but on the other hand, its my toy and my hobby, as well as a business generator. how long would you figure to yank the 2.8 and install the 3.4? im figuring an additional 10-15 hours to finalize the wiring after the 3-4 to get it spliced in and running.

anyway, no budget update, as im on the couch and dont have my reciepts with me.

michael

[joemac]

joe:
well have to run them at one of the events when your done. show all the other guys what these budget built sport trucks will do.

Still enjoying watching your progress. I've got around $1,500 in my ranger so far including purchase price. Most of it in maintenance stuff to get it road worthy. I'm thinking about doing a brake upgrade first as my right rear drum is sticking and instead of sinking money in the junk drums I figure I will just swap to cobra stuff. I'm still planning on starting a build thread, just have to get some parts. I'm thinking of naming it project alter ego, the alter ego of project driveabeater. Although I should paint it white. A white ford ranger in response to a black s10, lol.

[jackfrost]

go for it!!