I know you shot me down on giving me your bonnie when you're done with this Firebird. So I can I have your other Firebird when you're done?

You'll have to arm wrestle my son for it.

Or we could race for the pinks.

If I get a 5 sec head start...

I've probably put 100 hours into this beast in the two months I've owned it. Haven't added up all the receipts......might shock myself

A very productive day today. Up early and cleaned up a few more parts .....pushrods, painted the starter, removed the oil pump, then cleaned myself up and took the family to church.

There sure was a lot of chunks inside the oil pump screen. Looked like pieces of the missing valve stem seals.

Cleaned up the interior floor pan and discovered 3 more small rust perforations. Sealed everything up with seam sealer and it'* ready for painting.

Used my disc cutter to remove the rest of the exhaust system.

Finally loosened off the body mounts and they're ready for the new urethane pucks. They were incredibly tight. Had to use a 3 foot cheater pipe on my 1/2 rachet.

Drilled out a sheared off front bumper bolt and replaced it.

Removed the rest of the lifters. Stubborn buggers took a while to pull out.

I don't believe it
I'm sooooooo pissed

So I removed the crank harmonic balancer bolt and got ready to install the puller......the harmonic balancer fell off in my hand.
The key was triangular.

THE CRANK IS FRETTED at the balancer fit

OH NOOOOOO!!!!!!

I really didn't want to replace the crank. What to do.....what to do......

I'm kicking myself right now thinking that I really should have waited until the engine was totally apart before investing in all the parts I've already got.

DAMN.....****

It'* cool now. I had some time to clean it up and look and think about it.
The crank is not damaged bad enough to warrant replacement. The keyway is good. The keyway in the trashed balancer is only half there. It'* really bad but I have a replacement for that. Now I know the consequence of not having a balanced balancer.
Took off the timing chain and gears. They really need replacement too. Chain was very loose. Both sides would touch. It could have easily jumped a tooth but hadn't so far.
Heads won't be finished until next week and the new cam hasn't come in yet.
Doesn't matter too much cause I'm away on business for the next few days.

The new oil pump has the pick-up screen brazed on for security now.

So what I decided to do to fix the loose fit it to peen the shaft fit with a center punch to knurl a tighter fit, then use some Loctite 620 hi temp retaining compound. Should work fine. The bolt that holds it on is the tightest on the whole car at 220 ft-lbs.

I'll post some more pics next week.

I'm going to pop off a cap or two to check the bearing clearances. Might as well now that I'm this far into it.

That'* probably more torque than my L36 currently

Pulled out the old cam tonight. It was worn pretty good. Looks like is was the original piece. The new one I have coming has a little more duration and lift.

i dont know if you covered this awhile ago or what, but what shape is the paint on the outside of the car? Will it need to be repainted before you are done?