Thanks a ton for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoy the stuff I've got up there, I really enjoying sharing the hobby with everyone. Good luck with your car!
My Grand National story
- Thread starter Turbo_Tom
- Start date
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Thanks a ton for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoy the stuff I've got up there, I really enjoying sharing the hobby with everyone. Good luck with your car!
Hello everyone! I've got a giant update for y'all today. 
After the slew of updates that we had last month, I was finally getting to the end of my "phase 1" punch list. Besides a few appearance items, most of these tasks were created to ensure solid, reliable performance under both daily driving and racing conditions. Speaking of racing, there was a Friday Test & Tune at the local track and I had just two days to get this stuff done if I wanted to make it. So let's get to it! As always, I've got more photos and details on my website. Feel free to visit, I'd appreciate it!
The first job was to install a new oxygen sensor. Comparison of the old O2 sensor I yanked out vs. the new Denso unit (#234-1001) that I got from RockAuto.com
Next up was a new set of AC Delco spark plugs. It was my first time changing plugs in this car and all but one plug were pretty easy to reach. While I had each plug out, I also performed a compression test. Everything checked out great, as all the cylinders were well within 5% of one another.
After the compression test and the new spark plugs were in, I started on the next project- all new coolant hoses and a 160 degree thermostat. Here's all of the old hoses that I fought off of the car. Some of these had been on there for quite awhile and did not want to come out. I shed some blood and invented at least three new curse words. One of which was 'feglet'. Try it, it'll grow on you.
In honor of one of my favorite Internet Memes "FFFUUU", I present my own for your enjoyment. This depicts what happened when I was proudly removing the last of the various hard to reach coolant hoses.
So after that small setback, my radiator options were to repair the one I had, get an aluminum replacement ($$$), get a stock replacement ($$$) or go with a new 3rd gen ('82-'92) F-Body Radiator. I chose the F-Body radiator due to it's budget friendly price, light weight and superior cooling performance vs. the tired old stock radiator. Here it is just after ripping it of the box. I also picked up new upper and lower radiator hoses while I was at the local parts store.
With that mishap out of the way, I could get back to my task list. Here's a picture of the great silicone coolant hoses that GBodyParts.com sells. I also picked up the 160 degree thermostat and PCV grommet from their website.
Before re-installing all of the coolant lines and hoses, there was one more thing to do- valve cover gaskets. They had been leaking for some time and needed replacing. Ewwww!! As part of this job, I wanted to give the valve covers a little clean up and makeover.
Before:
During:
More During:
After! The way 'The General' should've done it!
After the slew of updates that we had last month, I was finally getting to the end of my "phase 1" punch list. Besides a few appearance items, most of these tasks were created to ensure solid, reliable performance under both daily driving and racing conditions. Speaking of racing, there was a Friday Test & Tune at the local track and I had just two days to get this stuff done if I wanted to make it. So let's get to it! As always, I've got more photos and details on my website. Feel free to visit, I'd appreciate it!
The first job was to install a new oxygen sensor. Comparison of the old O2 sensor I yanked out vs. the new Denso unit (#234-1001) that I got from RockAuto.com
Next up was a new set of AC Delco spark plugs. It was my first time changing plugs in this car and all but one plug were pretty easy to reach. While I had each plug out, I also performed a compression test. Everything checked out great, as all the cylinders were well within 5% of one another.
After the compression test and the new spark plugs were in, I started on the next project- all new coolant hoses and a 160 degree thermostat. Here's all of the old hoses that I fought off of the car. Some of these had been on there for quite awhile and did not want to come out. I shed some blood and invented at least three new curse words. One of which was 'feglet'. Try it, it'll grow on you.
In honor of one of my favorite Internet Memes "FFFUUU", I present my own for your enjoyment. This depicts what happened when I was proudly removing the last of the various hard to reach coolant hoses.
So after that small setback, my radiator options were to repair the one I had, get an aluminum replacement ($$$), get a stock replacement ($$$) or go with a new 3rd gen ('82-'92) F-Body Radiator. I chose the F-Body radiator due to it's budget friendly price, light weight and superior cooling performance vs. the tired old stock radiator. Here it is just after ripping it of the box. I also picked up new upper and lower radiator hoses while I was at the local parts store.
With that mishap out of the way, I could get back to my task list. Here's a picture of the great silicone coolant hoses that GBodyParts.com sells. I also picked up the 160 degree thermostat and PCV grommet from their website.
Before re-installing all of the coolant lines and hoses, there was one more thing to do- valve cover gaskets. They had been leaking for some time and needed replacing. Ewwww!! As part of this job, I wanted to give the valve covers a little clean up and makeover.
Before:
During:
More During:
After! The way 'The General' should've done it!
Another small task was to see exactly what chip was in the ECU. While I was down there, I discovered the incredibly powerful and red hot interior light. How thoughtful of GM, placing a 150 watt trouble light dangling just above the passenger's legs. I burned the feglet out of my arm on this miniature sun.
Up next was another item I picked up from GBodyParts.com, the Metco driveshaft loop. Installation required removing the driveshaft, but the whole job only took about 20 minutes.
With impeccable timing, the FedEx man arrived with my Mickey Thompson drag radials, B&M transmission cooler and used HRpartsNstuff polyurethane engine mounts that I got from the 'for sale' section here.
Removing the engine mounts took awhile! I got dirty as heck too. As I suspected the stock engine mounts were completely worn out. These new units will improve launch, shifting and all around power delivery. I was amazed that they added no noticable vibration or noise. What a great product.
After eyeballing the transmission cooler for a bit, I decided to mount it where it would get a nice blast of fresh air at all times. To accomplish this I welded a couple brackets onto one of the factory radiator support bars to hold it in place. You can't even see it with the grille re-installed.
Here's our completed engine bay! I'm liking this!
So how did that F-Body radiator work? Perfect! The temperature usually hovers around 162-165 and I never saw it go over 170 on a 92 degree day! This is a huge improvement over the factory radiator, which would creep up to 195 in traffic.
Since I got everything wrapped up, it was time to head to the track. Race mode engaged!
The threat of rain that loomed all day magically disappeared a few hours before the track opened.
I always enjoy going to the local track. I got to see a bunch of my car buddies and met tons of people who really dig Grand Nationals. It's amazing the reaction that this car gets wherever it goes.
As for the racing, unfortunately I only got two passes in. The first pass was a real eye-opener. As I started to brake boost at the line, the car pushed right through the beams! Rats! I left the line at idle and the car bogged for a bit then took off. On the next pass I stood on the brakes as hard as I could and the car still pushed through the lights. It left the line a little better this time, but still returned a horrible 2.27 60 foot time onto an 8.58@87.9mph. I am pleased with the MPH, especially running just 17psi with no tuning at all. With a decent 60 foot time, this is roughly a 12.5 second pass in the 1/4 mile. Here's a video of my second pass:
[YOUTUBE]8Cg0GWc98no[/YOUTUBE]
So why only two passes? Well, the track burst into flames (see below- acutally this was the track staff trying to clean up a MAJOR oil down) and I knew that I needed to improve the brakes before making any more passes. With more holding power, I should be able to build 5-10 pounds of boost at the line, which will dramatically improve the E.T and possibly add a couple MPH to the trap speed. That'll have to wait for a bit though, as I've got a busy couple of months ahead of me. Maybe I'll be able to sneak a track visit in before the end of the summer. Until then I'm going to enjoy crusing the streets in my old Buick!
Thanks for reading!
Up next was another item I picked up from GBodyParts.com, the Metco driveshaft loop. Installation required removing the driveshaft, but the whole job only took about 20 minutes.
With impeccable timing, the FedEx man arrived with my Mickey Thompson drag radials, B&M transmission cooler and used HRpartsNstuff polyurethane engine mounts that I got from the 'for sale' section here.
Removing the engine mounts took awhile! I got dirty as heck too. As I suspected the stock engine mounts were completely worn out. These new units will improve launch, shifting and all around power delivery. I was amazed that they added no noticable vibration or noise. What a great product.
After eyeballing the transmission cooler for a bit, I decided to mount it where it would get a nice blast of fresh air at all times. To accomplish this I welded a couple brackets onto one of the factory radiator support bars to hold it in place. You can't even see it with the grille re-installed.
Here's our completed engine bay! I'm liking this!
So how did that F-Body radiator work? Perfect! The temperature usually hovers around 162-165 and I never saw it go over 170 on a 92 degree day! This is a huge improvement over the factory radiator, which would creep up to 195 in traffic.
Since I got everything wrapped up, it was time to head to the track. Race mode engaged!
The threat of rain that loomed all day magically disappeared a few hours before the track opened.
I always enjoy going to the local track. I got to see a bunch of my car buddies and met tons of people who really dig Grand Nationals. It's amazing the reaction that this car gets wherever it goes.
As for the racing, unfortunately I only got two passes in. The first pass was a real eye-opener. As I started to brake boost at the line, the car pushed right through the beams! Rats! I left the line at idle and the car bogged for a bit then took off. On the next pass I stood on the brakes as hard as I could and the car still pushed through the lights. It left the line a little better this time, but still returned a horrible 2.27 60 foot time onto an 8.58@87.9mph. I am pleased with the MPH, especially running just 17psi with no tuning at all. With a decent 60 foot time, this is roughly a 12.5 second pass in the 1/4 mile. Here's a video of my second pass:
[YOUTUBE]8Cg0GWc98no[/YOUTUBE]
So why only two passes? Well, the track burst into flames (see below- acutally this was the track staff trying to clean up a MAJOR oil down) and I knew that I needed to improve the brakes before making any more passes. With more holding power, I should be able to build 5-10 pounds of boost at the line, which will dramatically improve the E.T and possibly add a couple MPH to the trap speed. That'll have to wait for a bit though, as I've got a busy couple of months ahead of me. Maybe I'll be able to sneak a track visit in before the end of the summer. Until then I'm going to enjoy crusing the streets in my old Buick!
Thanks for reading!
Curious - what did you use for an oil cooler?
Oh, and I had JUST finished doing the same thing to my valve covers about 30 minutes before I read your post - I did it ass-backwards though.
I sanded and prepped, then taped off the ribs. I used Rustoleum low-gloss engine enamel.
Oh, and I had JUST finished doing the same thing to my valve covers about 30 minutes before I read your post - I did it ass-backwards though.
I sanded and prepped, then taped off the ribs. I used Rustoleum low-gloss engine enamel.
Been following your work, good stuff. I'm an older amateur at this but I've got my dream car. When you all clean up your turbo shield's, valve covers, and other pieces of the like are you hand sanding, brillo'ing, sand blasting? Any chemicals, primer, or just spraying the Dupli color engine paint right on top the cleaned part? Time to get the hobby rolling more serious.
I'm running a B&M cooler and custom lines for the oil which I'll include in a future post. Your valve covers look good! As for painting them, either way works great really.
Thanks for the kind words! To answer your question, I just use a good degreaser (I like the Zep orange stuff) sometimes brake cleaner, then sandpaper and/or 3M scotch brite pads. From there I just spray the dupli-color ceramic paint right over the part. I've always had good long-term results with this process. Good luck!
TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
- Messages
- 12,713
I like the way this guy works! Great writing and pictures!
Hey SuperSix, I wish I had something exciting to share! I've just been working my tail off and also hauling butt to get my new garage finished. I feel like I can see the finish line, as I just moved the Grand National in today. Here's a quick picture. The GN is parked where the two post lift will be installed when it warms up. No more working on my back!
Have a great 2012 everyone!
jasjamz
THS Racer
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2004
- Messages
- 5,982
Great thread!
xtremexnyc
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 29, 2001
- Messages
- 1,288
I'm enjoying this thread. Very cool!
Hi Everyone! Long time no update from me. Like many of you, I've just been driving and enjoying the heck out of my Grand National. While I don't have any exciting news to share, since we're all into turbo cars I thought you might like to see my new video project. Basically it's me monkeying around in the garage and filming it. The Grand National will definitely be featured in a future video too. Thanks for reading and watching!
Here's part one
Here's part two where we fire it up and go for a ride!
Here's part one
Here's part two where we fire it up and go for a ride!
