The New Project: Part Deux!

[Grant Didmon]

Hi Steve,I noticed that you have started slacking it a bit working on the Formula,there must be at least three or four hours out of twenty four,that you are spending sleeping and not working on the car.What's up with that?
I was studying the pictures of the Formula back in 1993,and saw that the owner had already pulled the HO hood signs off the car,and the fender emblems off by then to hide the true identity of the car to on lookers.Also what blew me away,it still has the original 72 deluxe seats in it in 93,and I was told the interior was stolen in 1986,so it happened much later.
Also he took off the roof drip moldings,and then installed them back on much later,as they are on the car when the motor was being done.He still had the wheel well moldings on in 93,and they were all off the car sitting in the garage when I first went to see the car in July 2011,and by the time I bought it,they had disappeared out of the garage.Those were the same tires on the car also as when I bought it,so that is why I bought the new TA's with in two hours of owning the car.
Have a Merry Christmas,
Grant

[njsteve]

Hey Grant!

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I was out in the garage finishng up the prep for the start-up tomorrow. All that's left is to prime the oiling system one last time, put in the distributor and turn the key.

I'll update everyone tomorrow. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[Igosplut]

Reading through this thread I remembered a friend having a (I believe) 72 ram air Firebird. It was black with a white interior, 455-4 speed, and looked just like yours. It was bought new here, and a local couple used it for everyday transportation up until the late 70s. It had been painted once, so I don't know if black was the original color but I would believe so. By the time we got our hands on it, it was on its 5th or so motor, and was pretty rusted. Here's a picture of us flat-towing it to put yet another engine in (and the picture makes it look closed than the vehicles were to each other....

[njsteve]

Hard to tell what year, 71, 72 or even a 73. It has a blacked out grill though the grills are supposed to be silver on a Formula. I think I can faintly see wide grill blocks that would be 73 grills. The 72 grills have a definite honeycomb with no horizontal bars. The 71 grills have a fine square block pattern.



1971:



1972:



and 1973:



Also I notice it does not have a nose emblem on top of the beak which only the 70s' and 71 Formulas had. 72s and 73s did not have the emblem.

[njsteve]

I tried to get the engine running yesterday but it turns out the Delco battery (which had a 1995 date on it) didn't want to play. It had 12.7 volts, but had no cold cranking amps remaining. This was even after I had it boosted with a charger and booster cables to my truck. And to think, the battery worked fine before I rebuilt the engine. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img] Typical! It also didn't help that it was 40 degrees out.

Oil pump was primed for several minutes. Distributor is installed correctly. I was able to get the timing light working to get the timing adjusted properly while cranking for a second or two (with the wife behind the wheel). Oil pressure was immediately right up there at 60 psi. Spark plugs are sparking. It just doesn't seem to be enough voltage to ignite the fuel with the HEI. So it ended up flooding the plugs. I switched plugs and it did the same thing. I looked in the spark plug hole and could see the fuel pooling in the valve reliefs on top of the pistons. So I left the plugs out and let it &quot;air out&quot; overnight.

So I ordered a reproduction R89 800 CCA dry cell battery which should be here Wednesday.
http://restorationbattery.com/gmproducts.html

[napa68]

Lookin GREAT Steve!

[jannes_z-28]

It must be that new crank seal you put in and it creates more drag.

Looking good [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]


Jan

[Igosplut]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hard to tell what year, 71, 72 or even a 73.


Also I notice it does not have a nose emblem on top of the beak which only the 70s' and 71 Formulas had. 72s and 73s did not have the emblem.
</div></div>

You hit that one. I had gotten a ticket in that car (and had my license suspended for it) and I looked to see if I still had it (the description read &quot; Vehicle entering Rt6 allowing rear tires to make noise, and rear of vehicle to fishtail&quot. It was a 73. Hard to believe that the rear of the car was so rotted out for being seven years old, but that's the Cape for ya.

Nice job BTW, Oh and better check the oil for gas contamination if you fouled two sets of plugs.....

[mockingbird812]

Hey MacGuyver, it's Wednesday already! Dju get that battery?!!!! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/laugh.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Got the battery. Still no luck in getting it to start. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img]

Got oil pressure, got spark, got fuel, got valves moving and adjusted properly. Distributor is not 180 off. Swapped distributor parts from Grammas Firebird with no improvement.

Barely get a pop or two in the exhaust, no matter where the timing is set at.

Not happy at the moment.

Too damn cold to get an engine running.