Priya's SX/4 project

[priya]

We finished fabricating the Exhaust system two days ago.  One Clifford Header, one 45 degree connecting pipe, eight 90 degree connecting pipes, 12 feet of straight pipe, one Dynomax 17731 Super Turbo muffler and here's what it all looks like on the car from front to back:


We used the factory routing as it didn't occurr to us until the headpipe was built that we wouldn't be putting in a cadillac converter so we could have gone straight back down the driver's side.  We used the factory mounting bracket for the cadillac converter to hold the exhaust and Ward made a flange at that point so we could unbolt the headpipe if needed to drop the trans.  You can just see the flange as the verticle black line bisecting the pipe just behind the second weld in this picture:




And of course what exhaust system would be complete without the obligatory chrome exhaust tip?  The shiny chrome exhaust tip alone adds an easy 10-15 horsepower over the stock exhaust system. 


When we bolted the header to the motor the output pipe was about 1/8 inch away from the driver's side "frame" which Ward said was not enough clearance.  I suggested grinding away the pinch weld on the frame and rewelding it to give us another 1/4 inch clearance, Ward figured it was better to heat the header outlet tubes and bend the header output pipe to get the clearance.  That's what we did but the front four inlet tubes are welded to a flange at the head and the rear two inlet tubes are welded to a seperate flange at the head.  The result was after we bent the outlet tubes the connected four front inlet tubes and connected rear two inlet tubes didn't line up to the head correctly and we ended up having to use the intake/exhaust gasket to make a 1/4 inch thick full lenght flange to bolt the header to to get the front four and rear two header pipes in the same plane and proper distance apart after heating.  If I had to do it over again I would have grinded off the 1/4 inch from the driver's side "frame" rail rather than bending the header.

The factory exhaust system is 2".  The muffler and pipe we used was 2 1/4" in keeping with building this motor aiming for a 10-15 percent increase in horsepower and gas mileage.  2 1/8" probably would have been closer to the ideal size for that purpose but the muffler I wanted wasn't available in that size.

[68AMXGOPAC]

That's an excellent job !! and - With all due respect, but I can't resist this - exactly what cadillac does your car convert to ?? : ) hey I said I couldn't resist - mainly only because I have 2 cadillacs.

[priya]

That's an excellent job !! and - With all due respect, but I can't resist this - exactly what cadillac does your car convert to ?? : ) hey I said I couldn't resist - mainly only because I have 2 cadillacs.

The "Cadillac" converter is a long time joke for me.  I posted it once before and one member thought I was being serious.

[68AMXGOPAC]

O yes, please share the joke if possible Pyria. : )

[priya]

Its not much of a joke.  Its just that catalytic sounds like cadillac if you're dumb and not listening carefully and every now and then I like to play dumb and pretend I think a catalytic converter is called a cadillac converter.  I've been doing this since catalytic converters first appeared on cars around 75 or so.  I can't remember if the "joke" was my own invention or I heard or read some comic do the bit - probably the latter.

[shaggimo]

Being in the parts business, I can't count how many times I've been asked for "cadillac converter"  , and ones who ask, typically aren't joking either, lol. I used to have a hard time holding a straight face at this, but now I'm so used to it, half the time I don't even pick up when they say it.

Reminds me of a comic I read a long while ago, I think it was a far from home.

Caption read: Due to budget cuts, the local hospital had to take on entry level employees to help the nursing staff.

Pictured: Nurse saying to her "hillbillyish" helper, "this is a Catheter, can you say Catheter?" Hillbillyish helper standing next to the bed ridden patient holding said Catheter replies "Carpet Hair" Patient wears look of terror. 

[kajsdf]

just sat and read this from the beginning...that is a tremendous transformation...i am beyond impressed.  that engine looks fantastic, as does everything else.  can't wait to see the final results -- i hope it all goes smoothly and you get it done soon!

[priya]

Thanks a lot, guys.  The most recent pictures in this thread are how the car looks now - the last little bits on the car are taking a long time as I have little to do until my husband can do what he wants to the wiring and finish reassembling the motor and get it running. Then he's going to check out the steering, suspension and brake components to see if they're all up to snuff to pass a safety inspection. He's quite busy at work and I loathe asking him to do anything on his days off  so I'm not sure when this will be finished.  He has a week off between christmas and new year's  and is planning on working on it then so hopefully we get a lot/'most of it done at that time.  Once the under dash wiring is done I can install the front seats and all the dash pieces which shouldn't take me too long and then the entire interior and exterior will be complete with just perhaps some mechanicals to be addressed.

[priya]

The motor assembly is coming along slowly.  When I last posted a picture of my motor it looked like this:


Ward installed the GM HEI distributor:


And proceeded to modify the wiring for the new distributor and remove any extras for carb, etc that were no longer needed:

As you can see I need a blue or black HEI cover, the red clashes with my engine compartment!  We searched Saskatoon to find a black or blue one and no one had any so finally ordered one out of Tennessee.  Some 6 weeks later it arrived only for us to find the screw holes for it were in a different place than the original cover on the distributor.

This is the rat's nest Ward cut out initially to adapt the wiring:


The Clifford 4 barrel intake and header went on next:



Then a test fitting of the 390 Holley:


Since the summer I spent maybe a dozen hours searching wreckers for an air cleaner to fit the Holley.  We bought a couple thinking they were likely candidates but discovered they didn't fit - should have known!  I got smart then and measured the Holley base for the air cleaner and went searching for one of the same size.  I finally found an air cleaner on a 99 Dodge Dakota with a fuel injected V6 that fit the Holley.  Several weeks later after having painted it and seeing pictures of various stock 258s on the Eagle nest I thought "I bet this isn't going to clear the master cylinder".  Checked it out and sure enough, it didn't.  
We pondered modifying the stock air cleaner to fit and decided the filter element in it looked pretty small so decided to cut chunks out of the Dakota air cleaner and make it work.

I started with a cardboard pattern of the bottom of the Dakota air cleaner and then cut it to fit in the space available:


Next was surgery on the Dakota air cleaner and a test fitting:




Patches formed and all welded up:

The metal was under tension from the stamping process and when I cut the pieces out of the base and lid the metal sproinged at it took a lot of bending and  tweaking to get the two pieces to mate satisfactorily.

Painted and assembled:


And voila, a motor that's starting to look mostly done:

[Prafeston]

Dang, that looks sharp. Gonna be a real sweet ride when you get it done. Gonna take it to some car shows I presume?

[priya]

Dang, that looks sharp. Gonna be a real sweet ride when you get it done. Gonna take it to some car shows I presume?

I'm thinking about it.  It isn't quite as pristine all over as I think a car at a car show could be but the last car show I was at I saw a lot of cars that were a bit rough so I don't think it'll really be out of place.  It certainly would be different than anything I've seen at a car show recently!

[rollguy]

How tightly does the air cleaner element fit?

[68AMXGOPAC]

Looking awesome Priya !! Is that header from Clifford? and is it the one for the 258 cu. in. head ?? I forgot if you did a 4.0 head or not. Any issues with the fit ?

[priya]

How tightly does the air cleaner element fit?

To be honest, I haven't tried it out since the modifications.  I'm pretty sure its not going to be a problem as the mating surfaces on the air cleaner for the filter have sharp curves around them that weren't cut so I don't think that part of the air cleaner base or lid sproinged when I made the other cuts.

Looking awesome Priya !! Is that header from Clifford? and is it the one for the 258 cu. in. head ?? I forgot if you did a 4.0 head or not. Any issues with the fit ?

Yes, the header is from Clifford and it is for the 258 head.   When we first bolted it up the  output flange was about 1/4 inch from the pinch weld on the "frame" and Ward said that wasn't enough so we heated the pipes with an acetylene torch where they join together at the output end and bent the output pipe about an inch.  Trouble was the flange that joins the input pipes at the head is in two pieces so 4 of the input pipes were then in a different plane than the other two.   We took the intake/exhaust head gasket and marked out the openings for the intake pipes on  a piece of 1/4 inch plate and drilled holes for the bolts, bolted the flange with 4 pipes to it and then heated the other two input pipes where they joined together at the collector and then bent them into place and clamped them to the 1/4 inch plate guide and waited for it to cool.  This got the input pipes close to the proper places but it still took some prying to get them all bolted to the head.  Ward says the first few times the engine heats up the intake pipes will set in the proper place on the head and it won't be a problem.  If I had it to do all over again I'd have done like I initially planned and cut away the pinch weld on the "frame" where the header output pipe was close and then re-welded the "frame" pinch weld and left the header as it came from Clifford.

[Prafeston]

Your car is plenty fixed up enough for a car show. I've taken mine to a couple when it was all original. Of course it did only have like 35k and was pretty pristine...it still has some rough areas.

You're car would be very well appreciated at a car show...especially if you make a scrapbook of the build process with before and after photos.