69 GTO Build

['71cutlasluvr]

Gus,

You're absolutely right, hearing it fire and rumble almost made me cry. As well as looking at the stance... a very emotional day, ha ha...

Baer vs. Wilwood? It's a tough decision. Frankly, I don't remember why I went with Wilwood. I seem to recall they had a better price point? Your question about Silicone brake fluid... don't use it. It's for show cars, that don't get driven hard. It has a low boiling point, and the last thing you want coming off of one of those tight radius off ramps in New England, is your foot to hit the floor cuz your brake fluid is too hot.

A video? Ha! If I find the time, I will...

Eric and I are definitely running power brakes. (I'll be shocked if Eric corrects me) I don't know about Eric, but I'm running Hydraboost. Come to think of it, I've never posted engine pics, have I? Well, here it is... it's the original 400, bored .040" over, Edelbrock RPM intake, Mild Cam, DUI HEI, Speed Demon 750, Doug's Headers, 2.5" Magnaflow Exhaust with X Pipe, dual Carter fuel pumps (one electric, one mechanical), HyrdoBoost with CPP Master, BeCool Radiator, with dual fans, trunk mounted battery, ohhh, and a full MARCH belt kit with A/C. This was an A/C car, but I installed a smoothie panel and went with a Vintage Air R134 system, which is mounted under the dash. Those are the original valve covers, which I'm getting sick of looking at. Rev II of this project, probably five years from now, will be a Butler 461 Stroker.

Pardon the rats nest... haven't completed the wire looms yet. Almost there!!!

Hey Mike,
Awwww, no vid? No worries. Use the time to work on getting that Goat on the road. And getting some sleep?

Ok, I give up. No silicone brake fluid for my baby... If I were a perfect brake line fabricator, I'd be ok with that, but I'm not, and the krinkled mess on my 'verts frame just under the master cylinder and around various fitting connections confirms that! Gross!

So, hydroboost eh? I would have thought using a big brake kit would allow manual brake use? But I DO want serious braking, so thanks for the input. The time to do all that plumbing is before the body is on, so will do. May need to pick your brain on the HB install, but it seems to be a popular upgrade and well worth the cost and installation effort.

Thanks for the engine pics and specs. She sure looks shiny! Nice job! A nice compliment to that stellar paint job! Dougs headers? How was the fitment? I have a set of headers of the vert but they were punctured by the drivers side a-arm during the crash last year (it will be a year tomorrow since I swerved to avoid a deer 10pm at night and hit a telephone pole, totaling my beloved '71 cutlass vert) I posted pics somewhere else on the forum I think if you're curious about it. But here's a pic of the header damage. I thought I'd try my tig skills on a repair but not sure how it would come out since they are coated. Perhaps a set of doug's may be in order. My engine is a 468 cu in ('060 455) and I believe I may get a bump in hp/tq if I run a 3" exhaust but will need somewhat larger primary headers to do so. Perhaps that would be the way to go, although my is a torque engine, not a high revving chebby bb, so perhaps staying with the smaller primary headers may be the way to go since she runs really well as is. I have a qj, torker intake, edelbrock heads, hei, etc, much like your setup. a pypes x exhaust kit from summit and flowmaster 50 series keeps the drone manageable with the th350, but the od of the th2004r should make it better. The bedliner undercoating and lizard skin on the interior metal should help too. Dynamat or a cheaper equivalent will probably be done also... But I digress... sorry.

I really like the March serpentine setup. Good choice. Did it make the hydroboost install easier or create problems??

Neat that you kept the a/c. Mine was an ac car also but I decided to delete it. If it's warmer than 85 and more than 60% humidity, I wimp out and stay by pool anyway. Comes with getting older.

Also neat that you did the smoothie panel. I was considering the one from ABC but thought it might add a lot of weight. Since you did add one to your build, was the panel light enough so it wasn't a concern? Where did you get yours?



Thanks again for you input and excellent advice Mike. As always, much appreciated.

Well, I finally welded up the angle iron frame supports/levels. Funny how my mig welding skills go to hell after a mere 8 months of non-use. But the grapes got smaller as I worked through the job. Good practice for the important stuff. attached a few pics for anyone else considering the ABC kit. Quite a lot to do before the actual mods take place, but it's all important to prevent twisting and misalignment during the cutting and welding process.

Well the Mrs. has made me lunch, which means, as usual, I have spent waaay too much time on email and forums and half the day is gone, so sandwich then out to move my mig welder to the detached garage in the rain so I can weld the levelers on.

Happy 4th to you Mike, Eric and everyone else! Enjoy the holiday.