Should have sanded and painted those headers with some high temp paint (BBQ paint works well) before installing them. After a while they turn white and in some spots start to rust. I'm pulling mine back out this week so I can redo them. Nice to see things are coming along.

 

Hey guys! I took my headers back off, painted them with high temp paint, installed my sway bar, rebuilt my power steering rack to be a manual (check my write up in 93-02 general), and installed my radiator and trans cooler!

Here's my write up on my radiator install:


I bought a set of summit racing radiator mounts, used the side mounts for the bottom and the bottom mounts for the side. We heated them up to match the angle of the radiator core so the radiator would be vertically level.


I then cut out slots in the bottom of the core so the notches would fit the mounting brackets.


Using a torch with iron/copper pipe is going to be the best way (I think) to weld this because an arc welder would cut through the think metal of the core.


Red means hot!


There ya go!! Its in there so tight! and I don't have to unbolt my side brackets to take the radiator out either! I don't think I've ever seen a radiator installed so solid before, not even stock. I forgot to take pics of the side mounts but I'm uploading a video to my youtube channel and I talk about them better in there. We basically cut a 3" piece of pipe and used it as a spacer between a hole we drilled in the side of the core and the actual mount. Worked really good and looks great


Still have room for a fan yet!


Then we installed my tranny cooler real quick


Pretty big readiator, huh? Well we made our mounts so the stock hood would still fit flush and the radiator does sit about 3 or 4" lower than the core but it is still higher than the k member and I figured I probably have another 3 or 4" under the k member of space as well so I am confident this will work. Should keep the motor cool while I'm spraying it

 

After doing all of that, me and my two friends stopped at steak and shake for a quick snack and I ate a large fry and two triple burgers (Just in case it was my last meal and the world ended hahaha)


Then we went back to the shop and we rebuilt my rack and pinion, removed the power steering, greased it all real good, and it feels like, if not better than a manual rack. Now i don't need all those hoses, it's simple, and I can turn the wheel with my pinky finger.


I also put a couple stickers on my K member

 

More picture! Nice work so far, and thanks for making my hungry!

 

Alright! Soo I have a little update. Haven't really done a ton on the car yet but I got a lot of parts together and things are going to get going real quick here.


I got my transmission back from George's Transmission a few weeks ago. It is a 1987 700r4 with a beast sun shell, modified full manual valve body, trans go reprogramming kit, corvette servo, aluminum pistons, high rpm 3-4 clutches, alto red frictions, thicker steels, kevlar (I think? Might have said stronger than kevlar but I forgot) band, hardened input shift and drum, he used the output shaft out of the 1984 700r4 I had because it was the same spline count as my driveshaft, also swapped a VSS sensor tailshaft on it, high gear lockup kit, and a few other misc parts also. Should be great for the power I will be making with an occasional 200 shot of nos if i'm conservative with it.


Here I got my new raybestos ball joints and outer tie rod ends as well as new moog strut mounts.


I know a lot of people have bad things to say about aftermarket strut mounts but these things definitely look a lot higher quality than the stockers, although that may just be because of the wear on them. I do know that the rubber coating is quite a bit thicker though. I'll let you guys know how the bolts thread in.

I also took my steering knuckles, lower control arms, and strut assemblies to the suspension shop by my house (Shout out to Tires 2000! You guys rock), and they pressed out my old bearings and ball joints, as well as decompressed my spring and took about the strut assembly for me.


Got to work on removing the rust off the lowering springs and the knuckles, then sanded them good and gave them a few liberal coats of paint.


Here is how I have been removing the rust, using electrolysis, its sooo easy and works great! right now I have my lower control arm baking in there, gonna leave this one in over night.

 

Also, in that pic above I got a lower and upper bushing kit from energy suspension. They are polyurethane which is suppose to make cornering a lot firmer. People say they bind up and squeak but I'm going to install some grease fittings and I think keeping them greased up will stop that but I'll let you guys know. The main problem i'm at right now is you have to reuse the old bushing sleeves and washers but they weren't able to remove them without keeping them in tact... So i have to figure out how and where I'm going to get these sleeves and washers. Napa didn't have them, autozone doesn't have them, the dealership doesn't have them.

Actually the guy at the dealership tried telling me that these bushings on the LCA weren't even replaceable and wanted to sell me a new LCA for half the cost of buying tubular ones... lmao he was a total jerk to top it off and he did not know what he was talking about.

I think I am just going to have to buy another set of rubber bushings from autozone and pull the sleeves and washers out of those.. waste of money but oh well.

So now I just have to finish cleaning up my upper and lower LCA's, paint them, install the new bushings, and put the front end back together.

 

Im still waiting for some more parts to come in the mail as well. My old struts were rusted on the top so they had to cut the nuts off with a torch. I ordered a pair of KYB AGX adjustable struts, I got a killer deal! $170! So those should be here any day as well as my coil spring insulators and my rack and pinion bushing.

After I get my front end put back together I only need a torque arm relocation crossmember and a torque converter. I think I'll be going with a summit racing 3000rpm stall, pretty cheap at $340 but it has a warranty so we'll see.

The relocation crossmember from UMI is $260 but I'm thinkin about getting this instead 1993 - 2002 GM F-Body Tunnel Brace Mounted Torque Arm - Long Tube Header Set-ups [2202] - $389.99 : UMI Performance, Inc. because its only another $120, and its tunnel brace mounted and comes with an adjustable torque arm. i wonder how this will be for a dual exhaust.. Probably gonna have to get their panhard bar relocation bracket so I can run duals over the axle.

Let me know what you guys think!!

 

Nice update, keep up the good work. Can't wait to see the front end start going back together.

 

You have done an enormous amount of work so far. So much of what You have done, there is no "shop manual" for. From the photos You post,it looks like it's being built right. Where do You live? From your screen name I'm guessing Maine.The cold snap here on Long Island has slowed Me down quite a bit. (even w/a heated garage). My 94 was involved in a hit and run before the holidays. I replaced the entire front end,and some lighting
I will wait till spring to do body work.Needless to say I'm impressed with your continued progress.

 

Thanks! I appreciate it a lot! I can't believe how much I have learned since I started messing with cars. Bought my camaro two years ago and didn't even know how to change the oil on the old motor. Now I can probably rebuild every part in the car haha.

I really want to do everything the best way possible. The older kid who had it before me cut corners on EVERYTHING! just a total cobble job, speaker wires spliced like 3 or 4 times with 5 different color wires haha.

Yeah the cold is really getting to me right now haha. it was 10 degrees in my garage last night!! but i just throw a snowmobile suit on and don't even feel it. I love michigan though! Great highways by my house, and great roads for cornering! I plan on visiting the circuits in my area like Grattan Raceway and Owossa and stuff! Get my autocross on! I was thinking about modifying my steering knuckles to get more steering angle by shortening the arm that hooks up to the tie rod but i don't know how I feel about welding cast iron....

My last name is Ellsworth which is why thats in my username haha, I don't live in ellsworth