1978 Pontiac Firebird Week 2009 05 25

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Well, went to the track for some test and tune May 14. Made six passes the best of which was 11.516 at 114.57. worst was 12.215 at 119.67. I was really happy because I was looking for 12.5 with this winters projects. Saturday night I spent some time in the garage and fixed the transmission brake problem and the furl pump problem (not running when cracking the engine. A friend of mine had rented the track for Sunday Mat 17 and I was looking forward to some good test and tune runs. I when and got the trailer Sunday morning and went to start the engine and it would not turn over! Did some investigation and found that the #3 cylinder was full of water. I could not understand this because it had run great the night before???

Well we have to do this right so out comes the engine and over to the machine shop it goes to check the rod to make sure its not bent. I was so intent on getting the engine out I did not take pictures of the car nuts that came to help. On Monday, I had the help of George Nick, Ken Long, and Tome Deyle.

I did not really see anything wrong with the head gasket, but that turned out to be the problem.
Off it went to the machine shop. Kind of looks like it did back in December, but guess what I am going to take it further apart.
	It is a good thing I have good neighbors on the west side of my property.  The front clip lived in my backyard all winter and is back there again.

If  you will remember I took the car for an alignment before its first outing at the drag strip after this winters projects. The alignment brought to light several interesting items. 1) There is a heaver spring in the right front, 2) the rear axle housing is toed to the right. 3) The rear axle is off center (on purpose) and inch to the right). All these things would be a setup for circle track.

Because of all the weight I removed from the car and that there is a stronger spring in the right front, the car now has 2.8 degrees negative camber on the right front.

It is thought that if I bring the front end down, and put a matched set of springs in the front (and I will put and offset pivot shaft just because (gets me 1.5 degrees positive camber)) that I can get the front end to line up. The toe in the rear can be adjusted out with the hime joints on the latter bars.

The car actually went down the track nice and straight with no bad handling characteristics.

Because the the car is down, I might as well take care of some of these problems. So out come the shocks, springs, lower control arms and right upper control arm. I will explain why further down.

Because I will be changing the ride height the “D” rings I welded to the front to the lower control arms need to be moved to another position on the control arm. this is because at the lower height the “D” ring will interfere with the tie rod end. So, I need to cut the “D” ring off and weld it into a nnew position.
	Now because I have ground of the powder coat in spots to weld, I need to remove the rest of the powder coat so that the arm will look pretty when I recoat them. Easier said then done. Powder coat is very hard to remove, that is why it is such a good way to protect metal from rust.
	Ok, the lowers are ready to go back in.
This is the right upper arm, I need to remove the stock pivot shaft and install an off set pivot shaft. The aftermarket pivot shaft will give me back 1.5 degrees of camber.
Time to start putting it back together.
Note the two inch lowering springs going back in. This should get me back to stock ride height with all the weight that has been removed.Here is the newest member to the Car Nuts, my wife.
Ok, the upper and lower control arms are back in, the spring (a job I hate) are back in. Now all I have to do is put back the shocks and brakes and I will be ready for the engine. I am expecting to pick it up tomorrow after noon. If I do it would be a good thing to have a gathering of car nuts this Wednesday.