Lime Green 71OLDS 442 convertible

[71OLDS]

I purchased the set of the factory original floor mats with the OLDSMOBILE on them in the front. I love the factory original look of these:

[deejai35]

Looking good. It's good to see you are enjoying the car along the way!

[72olds]

Just saw your updates Joe! looking great...getting a little closer on mine as well! Thanks again for your help and its been great to watch yours come along!

[71OLDS]

Looking good. It's good to see you are enjoying the car along the way!

Thanks!

Just saw your updates Joe! looking great...getting a little closer on mine as well! Thanks again for your help and its been great to watch yours come along!

Thanks! Not sure what I helped with but you're welcome Your car is looking great!!

Finally got around to doing the video. You can see the working breather installed with the Torker intake and ram air hood here:

123 - YouTube

[71OLDS]

Got my alarm system installed today. Went with the Python system that's the same as the Viper. Will activate off door pins, console pin, and had a pin added under the ram air hood and in the trunk. Blinking blue light box stays on dash in the driver's side corner of the window. Key fab turns everything on/off with or w/o beeps. Also got the tracking device installed. Plus I still use my old school steering wheel lock. Since I'm driving it about 5k miles per year (anytime it's not raining or snowing) the alarm will give me added comfort when I park it. I also upped the insurance coverage to $70k. Took it to the gym today and left it with the top down all locked down and alarmed up Will post some pics later.

[71OLDS]

Unfortunately my 10+ year old Stewart Warner speedometer wont stop "sticking". I got it all dialed in and accurate but it sticks so much that I'm not 100% confident how fast I'm going. Because it's so old and they no longer make it my only option is to send it off to be fixed or order a new speedometer that matches with all my other gauges so it still looks correct and I don't have to replace them all.

On a positive note I'm really happy with the speedometer I found. So happy that I'm buying the matching tach to go with it. It's from a company called Speed Hut and looks the same as my Stewart Warner one but it's a GPS speedo which allows it to have lots of high tech new features including a compass, digital mph, clock, 0 -60 times, 1/4 mile time and mph, and the standard trip features. The coolest thing about this company is that it allows you to add a small custom logo for $10. I found an Olds Rocket that worked with their requirements and ordered them today. Here's a pic of each one:

[deejai35]

Great choice on the gauges.

[71OLDS]

Great choice on the gauges.

Thanks! Can't wait to get them back and installed. Takes about 3 weeks for them to be made.

[71OLDS]

The metal bracket that goes from the frame to the Z bar broke in half on a drive last night. Clutch went to the floor. Have to get a new bracket welded on and see if anything else got damaged in the process. Will be off the road for a while :(

[71OLDS]

I custom ordered a new shift ball from Speed Dawg. Hard to tell in the pics but it's twice the size of the stock ball (cue ball size) and has the correct pattern for my Richmond 5 speed. Looking forward to banging through the gears with this when the z bar bracket is replaced/fixed. It took 5 weeks for it to be made but unbelievably was only $30

[71OLDS]

Still waiting on the bracket to arrive to replace the one that snapped in half (from frame to Z bar) that caused the clutch to go to the floor. In the mean time a local shop here in Virginia Beach (Rory and Son's) is making good progress with my AC. Will add the detail here in case anyone else runs into this. All the parts of the AC have been upgraded new aluminum compressor (cut the weight in half), new condenser, new POA valve, all new hoses, full R134 conversion - however there were still several problems: 1. The car would not idle without stalling with the AC on, 2. There was a huge power surge when it came on 3. It was not blowing out properly in the interior/vents 4 It is missing the duct that goes to the driver's side vent but found one on Ebay and ordered it.

So...yesterday lot of positives for the AC. To deal with the idle issue, I ordered a solenoid that goes with my Holley Street Avenger carb. This little solenoid attaches to the throttle and when the AC is turned on increases the idle to a point where the car won't stall.


Sounds easy enough but like everything else, it's not. The A6 compressors cycle on and off as the AC is running so every time this happens the solenoid would drop its hold on the throttle and the car would stall. Solution was to add a toggle switch in the interior that keeps the solenoid on at all times while the AC is on regardless of whether or not the compressor is cycling on or off. This has all been hooked up and is working like a charm now. I turn on the toggle switch and touch the gas pedal once touch and the solenoid pushes up the idle to about 1400 RPM. Then turn on the AC and it drops to about 1100 RPM and idles nice an smooth.

Next issue was the power surge. Turns out this was related to my electric fans. Apparently all the new cars have an overide that when the AC is turned on, the electric fans come on and stay on the entire time. What I didn't know is my elec fans thermostat setup (hidden away in my fake battery shell) had a spot open and ready for the AC to be hooked up to. The guys wired it properly and all good there. Now when the AC is turned on the elec fans come on and stay on until the AC is turned off then it goes back to the thermostat settings.

The not blowing on the inside through the vents turned out to be a vacuum line that was not hooked up correctly behind the dash.

So I 3 of the 4 issues are resolved now. I sat in the car and tested everything and it blows ICE cold at idle on an 80 degree day here in Virginia Beach and idle is smooth right around 1100 RPM. Turn the AC and toggle switch off and it drops back down to about 800 with the nice lope from the cam coming back. Will have to do some real life testing with some hard core street driving and cruises with the AC on and off to see how well it's working, does it stay cold at all times?, any power loss issue while it's on? etc etc Will add some details when I do. Still have to add the duct for the drivers side vent but will get to that down the road.

[71OLDS]

Broken z bar bracket has been replaced and all is good there. The one that broke was NOT correct. It was a custom skinny piece of metal that was welded on. The stock correct piece is bolted to the frame and is much thicker metal. Hoping it can hold up to the abuse I'm going to create banging through the gears for many many years.

Custom reverse light switch was added to the Richmond 5 speed. Works great and I don't have to have the car in reverse or 5th to take the key out.

Got lots of driving in with the AC over the last few days. It's been in the 90s and 100% humidity here in Virginia Beach and the AC worked like a champ and kept me nice a cool driving around. It's bad ass to be in a convertible with the windows and top up at a stop light on a 90 degree day. This is my 13th 442 or Cutlass for my lifetime and I've NEVER had working cold AC in any of my cars. What a concept!! So I tried to get on it a few times with the AC on and the butt dyno feels like about a 20% drop in power. Still cool to light em up with the AC blowing cold but definitely a power sucker.

That's all the good news. Bad news I have 2 new issues that came up with all this heat. Oil temp is hitting the 240 degree mark after about 30 min of driving in this extreme heat and humidity - especially with the AC on and me getting on it. Then related to this I started to have some vapor lock. Very strange. When this happens the RPMS just don't want to go above about 4000 and it runs like crap. As soon as the temps cool down the lost power and RPMs are back. I think for starters I'm going to do an oil change. I've got about 1,500 miles on the new motor and it's a regular 10/40 blend used to break the motor in. I think I'm going to swap it out for some mobile one synthetic and see if that helps bring the oil temps down a little. If not a may consider adding an oil cooler. I know 240 degrees isn't terrible but if it starts to creep up higher that will concern me and keep me from getting on it. The water temps are staying around 160 -180 but I have the dual electric fans and huge Be Cool aluminum radiator keeping that cool. The oil is still crystal clear, there's good oil pressure, and no smoke or anything so I don't think there's an issue but I want to be able to drive the car hard in any conditions without any worries so I will get this worked out one way or the other.

I talked to Frank Trimble (my engine builder) about his custom fuel pump and he has a plan for the fuel lines to help with the vapor lock. Will definitely make some changes there to prevent that from happening.

[71OLDS]

Oil change is done - went with Mobile 1 Synthetic 10/40 per the suggestion of my engine builder. Also did some carb tuning. It's always run a little rich. Both idle mixture screws on the 770 Holley street avenger were out 2 turns. I tried turning them in 1/4 turn at a time and both the idle and vacuum went up all the way to a full turn. So now they are only one turn out instead of 2. The air fuel gauge shows around 12.5 to 13 now instead of being pegged at 12 (the lowest reading) meaning it was probably less than 12. Pulled some plugs and they showed the expected results that it needs to be leaned out. May drop down a size in Jets but will check the plugs again in a few weeks.

Also having some other strange issues with the carb. It usually idles around 850 when warmed up but now when I drive it, it won't go below 1,100 when I stop unless I tap the gas. Almost like the choke is sticking or something is binding. Also the first 1/2" or so of the gas pedal/throttle when leaving from a stop is "sticking". It won't let me leave the line slow. I have to get it past this sticking point which makes me lurch off the line from a dead stop. I can also feel it stick on the 1-2 shift when I'm Granny driving. I wondering if these 2 issues are related. Trying to trouble shoot both. Won't do much driving until these 2 are fixed. Not fun to drive like this.

[71OLDS]

New GPS Speedo and tach arrived today:


Hope to get these installed in a few weeks. Really happy with how they came out. Love the Olds rocket on there!!

[71OLDS]

Carb issue has been solved. We figured out a much tighter throttle spring eliminates the idle not coming down at stops (staying way up at 1100 to even 1500) but made the gas pedal super hard and the car almost not able to be driven at slow speeds, then a soft spring eliminated the hard gas pedal and made for easy slow starts but then the idle wouldn't come back down from the higher RPMs w/o tapping the gas pedal and sometimes that didn't work. The carb guy I was working with suggested going with a medium spring that was just enough to pull the RPMs down at stops and then suggested moving the throttle cable ball attachment to a higher hole on the carb bracket for better leverage with less effort. Once moved the pedal was soft and the RPMs come down with the medium spring. Can't believe how easy the fix was. Below is the "before" pic. The ball/cable was moved to that empty hole just above where it is now:

[71OLDS]

Had more issues that came up. Electrical this time. My subwoofers (2 x 10" JLs) blew which is not the end the of the world or that surprising since they are 15 yrs old but the chain of events that happened from there was very frustrating. I stopped by my local stereo guy but he's was booked up for a week and as I was leaving his shop I got a pop up on my phone that my battery was low. That is a feature on the new alarm system I didn't even know I had. I looked at my volts gauge and sure enough it was showing around 9 or 10 volts. My battery is in the trunk so I checked it out. It's a yellowtop optima and they usually last forever. The date showed 2012 so I figured it must have lived it's life. Found the best deal and replaced it. Drove the car again and still got the pop up and sure enough the volts were back down again but this time with the new battery. I called the stereo guy to see if he had any ideas and he said when you have blown subs and the amp keeps pushing 500 watts to the subs it could drain the battery. Go figure. So I disconnected the entire stereo including the amps/subs and the volts went up to about 12 but if I used any electrical items (AC, conv top, pwr windows etc) the volts would go back to 9 or 10 and not come back up. So I check my 15 year old 140 amp alternator and sure enough it wasn't charging. I got a new Powermaster alternator (150 amp this time) and all is good. Sadly my 2012 optima battery was probably fine but strange that the subs and the alternator both died only a few days apart. Getting new subs installed tomorrow so hopefully will be all set on these issues and get back to all the other projects!!

[deejai35]

Thanks for sharing your progress. My next muscle car will have AC.

[71OLDS]

Thanks for sharing your progress. My next muscle car will have AC.

Glad to share my progress. Just in case someone else has some of these same issues I'm sure it will help. Nothing is better then when I have an issue and I find a resolution online and can get it fixed. AC is a huge undertaking if I"m being honest to get it all done right but well worth it when it's done in my opinion.

The new sub is in and I'm very happy with it. Went with a kicker 12" this time instead of 2x10s. I think it sounds a little better than it did and it sounded great to begin with. It's called the Kicker Comp RT "loaded enclosure. Here's the detail on it:

Kicker's 43TCWRT124 loaded enclosure puts a thumping 12" CompRT subwoofer and a second passive sub behind the seat of a truck or in any vehicle that's low on space. The rugged sealed box was designed specifically for the subwoofer, so you can count on getting maximum performance, no matter what kind of tunes you enjoy. The second sub (called a "passive radiator") reacts to the air pressure produced by the active sub, creating lots more bass without producing any port noise.

Strange to see one of them is "passive" but the sound is amazing and the entire box setup was almost 10 lbs lighter than my previous one. Can't beat that. The box has to be small for my car since it's a convertible and the convertible top well has to remain open. This kit fit in the same spot perfectly so it was an easy decision especially when I heard how incredible it sounded. Here's a pic of the sub box:

[Mr Nick]

The reduced effort on the pedal came at the expense of reduced travel at the throttle arm. Make sure you are still getting WOT with the pedal floored.

[71OLDS]

The reduced effort on the pedal came at the expense of reduced travel at the throttle arm. Make sure you are still getting WOT with the pedal floored.

Hi Nick - no issues with WOT - Lots of "testing" on that all weekend. Probably 20 or 30 times so definitely no issues there. I did discover the trans shifts smoother and faster at 6000 RPM than at 5000 or 5500 or even 5800. No idea why but made for some fun drives. Took out a SRT 4 door charger (not sure what year) and got my lunch handed to me by a Z06 but was really happy with how the car was running. Man that 650/650 Z06 was impressive. Didn't notice the Z06 badge until it was way too late but not one to turn down a challenge. At least I know where I stand - somewhere between a Hemi charger (4 door to keep it real) and a Z06 -I'm guessing it was 2015 or 16?? .....but WOT is working great.