1976 Trans Am Resto-Mod

[ryeguy2006a]

It has been a few weeks since I made any really good update, and unfortunately still no big update. I am inching closer and closer to getting the car to fire up, but have hit many snags along the way. My first big obstacle was finding a fitting that would allow me to use the stock fuel lines from the 99 Z28 and allow me to run the nylon fuel lines from the block to the fuel rail. So, after many parts that didn't work, I decided that having the part made would solve many of my problems. I needed an o-ring based fitting on one end and a GM/Chrysler Quick Connect on the other. To my knowledge, no one makes such a fitting. I took it to a local shop in Binghamton, NY and they made it for me for 10 bucks. That allowed me to connect the the nylon lines to the Tee fitting on the stock lines. Solved that issue.





Next, issue had to deal with my fuel tank, not so much the lines. I was still going back and forth between how I wanted to solve my fuel level sender issue. Originally I planned on using the stock 4th gen sender, but due to some functionality issues I changed my mind. Then I thought about my original sender. It worked fine, but I had heard that it may contact the fuel pump assembly. So, I decided to check on my own, and to my surprise it had about an inch of clearance! I cut off the pick-up off the bottom, removed the vent tube, welded the hole for the vent tube, and welded the pickup tube. I needed to keep the pick-up tube in order to keep the sender in the stock location. It also solved my issue of what to do with the sender hole on the tank.

Here are some pictures of the modified sender and the clearance with the Vetteworks kit.



Now, you see it. (Picture is taken at an angle)



Now you don't. (Picture was taken straight up and down.



Here is the tank all together waiting to go back into the car for a test fit. I still need to somehow lower the tank roughly 1" to clear the fuel pump assembly out of the top. Looking back I should have just recessed the top of the tank slightly.



What I didn't take a picture of was how I have the tank setup currently. I wired the pump up and plumbed the car to check for leaks with the tank sitting next to the car on the ground. I wanted to check for leaks without having to be under the car. It worked very well, just unusual I guess. Good news was there were no leaks in the fuel system. That means I can move forward with getting the tank in place and finalize the fuel lines. I need to heat and bend the nylon lines in order to fit around components and look good.

When I went to start it this weekend, to my disappointment I have a wiring issue with the car. I need to trace back the wiring that I did and find out what I did wrong. Luckily, I was able to narrow it down to my relay box that I made for the car. I had a lot of late night wiring, so I will blame it on that. I am getting home early tomorrow night and hope to possibly solve the issue. On a good note, I was able to use HP Tuners to unlock my ECU and delete my VATS, rear O2 sensors and disable my AIR. Then I uploaded that tune to my ECU. Really cool program and I really look forward to using it to the full potential.

Hoping to have the car started very soon.