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Old 05-23-2018, 11:34 PM   #41
IROCZman15
10 Second Club / Meet Coordinator
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Roxbury, NJ
Posts: 2,100
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Mid May 2018 update

so since the last update I have gotten the car completely back together and back on the road

I left the rear end "as-is" with the hopes that it can survive through most/all of 2018 while saving up for a new purpose built rear (as earlier discussed above by us all). so, the exhaust, heat shields, rear axle, brakes, suspension components, lines, etc are all done. I installed new slightly longer wheel studs in the axles because I wanted a few more turns of thread engagement, and now I feel better having about 7.5 turns of thread engagement when bolting on my rear wheels. I upgraded the rear shocks to the Koni Yellow 8241-1140sport adjustable shocks...which are specifically for 93-02 fbody. the reason i got these instead of the ones for the 82-92 fbody is because these are ON-CAR adjustable, while the 82-92 versions have to be taken OFF of the car to be adjusted and then reinstalled. the 82-92 are dual valved though, and these are only single valved.. but the on-car adjustment is important to me. my rears are currently set at 1.0 turns up (out of a total of 2.5)






reinstalled and rewired the repaired MSD Digital 6 ignition box also. installed a new speedometer cable because the old one had a split in the housing where it mated to the transmission and leaked fluid slightly. ATP cable #03159 P/N Y815 80" long. got both of my oem sun visors recovered at a local upholstery shop because the fabric was getting loose and that just didnt jive with my mint headliner.

Decided to do the "4th gen coolant tank mod" and get rid of the location of my factory tank from the passenger inner fender. cut out most of my battery tray since it had become rusty and because I had to cut a pear shaped hole in it anyway to install the tank setup. replaced the tray with a piece of 1/8" sheet aluminum which I cut the pear shaped hole into. primered and painted it red and dressed the hole with some rubber vac tubing to eliminate any tank rubbing on the sharp edges. filled in the holes on the inner fender with epoxy, then body filler, sanding, primer, paint etc. cleans up the engine bay a LOT by not having the bright white goofy plastic tank there. my battery now sits higher but does not come close to interfering with the hood.






















...finally got the transmission back from the builder who upgraded it after repairing the worn 3-4 clutch pack and also resurfacing a few components that had some wear. he also found that a plunger in the valve body was stuck in place by a piece of metal that somehow found its way into the system. it COULD be from the old exploded transmission which COULD have left pieces of metal in the system... However, in 2016 I did do my very best to flush the lines, and the trans cooler inside the radiator using TWO cans of the trans system flush aerosol can product after explosion of old trans. I now have installed an in-line magnetic transmission fluid filter made by magnefine in case there are any additional particles that may be in the system. trans has been beefed up to" hold 750-800" flywheel hp. details here: https://probuiltautomatics.com/shop?...scend_by_price
-- (actually it looks like Dana just changed his website around and now doesnt list the full details of each product on the website anymore?? hmm. interesting. oh well)
- put a drain plug in the pan also to help prevent any future messy trans fluid spills when removing the pan. While installing the crossmember, 2 out of the 4 bolts started to become stripped. I know this is a common thing for these unibody fbody crossmember setups and happens after repeated removal/installs due to the cheap-o metal captured nuts that GM welded inside the frame. I did my research on thirdgen.org and I was successful with the easiest repair method.... This simply involves re-tapping the bolt holes to a larger size and installing larger 7/16" bolts. the other methods involve cutting side access holes into the frame, or removing the interior and carpet to drill access holes through the floor to weld in new nuts. perhaps in the future i'll do that if the interior is out, but for now the new bolts are holding snug.







Installed the front Koni yellow struts P/N 8741-1030Sport. these are specific for the 82-92 fbody. I currently only have them cranked 1.0 turns up from zero. greased all steering and suspension components and cleaned up underside of the chassis. brought the car for an alignment and got everything sorted out how I wanted it to be. also set the driveline angle at 3deg according to my tremec driveline angle finder app. (cool free app by the way)









after a few short test drives and another bolt check underneath the entire car I took it out for a good 20 minutes and everything felt fine. the trans doesn't seem to like shifting from 1-2 at very low rpm throttle input, it kinda bucks two or three times after the shift...again when basically coasting. I'll see if this goes awayand do some research as well.
I checked fuel pressure since I was worried that the new upgraded fuel pump/system might have disrupted the psi and found that when I dialed the pressure down to the stock 48 / 42 psi settings (vac hose off/on) the engine did not like it at all. It seemed to run the happiest when at 51psi/44psi so I left it set at that. Got the nitrous tank filled at Bruce's Seed shop and did a few quick 3-4 second rips with that to ensure that my nitrous related MSD box wiring and fuel system stuff was in order... and it was.


So for now it will be on the road for a while. I have no immediate plans on the calendar yet for any autocross or drag racing. I do want to do some autoX at the Meadowlands this year, but might hold off on drag racing since I am still driving around with the hurt rear and do not have the $ to buy a new beefed up one. I plan on some long fun cruises, cruise nights, car shows, the UMI autoX event, and some general thrashing when appropriate. I will need to do a full blown intense wash, strip, claybar, polish, sealant, wax session in a few weeks when the pollen is all gone. I stopped by CTW Paul's house and picked up a LOT of awesome detail supplies from him for a great price. (also picked up a full cat-back Magnaflow exhaust setup for my truck). Thats all, just wanted to update. Still slowly saving for a rear axle and for the big engine project. hopefully this winter, but dang my wifes college bills have really been eating into my engine savings account! oh well. thats life.
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1987 IROC-Z - modified


Last edited by IROCZman15; 05-24-2018 at 12:44 AM.
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