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Most that have dealt with C-clip rear ends from GM and Ford know all about the good things. C-clips are easy to work on. It only takes a few minutes to get an axle out of the car. The bearings on the axle ends can be serviced with a slide hammer and rubber mallet, no …
So, this entry marks the beginning of my documentation of my engine rebuild. Any big project needs some goals. Without goals, you have no idea if you’ve been successful, or even if you’re complete. With that in mind, let’s back up and talk about my goals for next year: Multiple Optima USCA events, possibly as …
So, after my disappointing engine failure at the Optima NJMP event, I was left with the big question: What happened? Well, after pulling the engine and tearing it down and reviewing the data logs from the event, even having an oil sample analyzed, the answer is clear: Several things. Dealing with things like this requires …
You may remember my post last year about attending the Optima Search For the Ultimate Street Car event at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park. You may remember that weekend ended with the car on a trailer being towed home after some serious electrical issues disabled the ECM and later, the cooling fans. That is not …
Read More “Optima Search For the Ultimate Street Car, NCM Edition”
This past weekend I had the distinct honor of participating in the the Midwest Muscle Car Challenge, brought us by the good folks at Bowler Transmission. There’s so much to unpack from the weekend, so I’ll start at the beginning. First, the event format. It’s a track day combined with a highway cruise combined with …
Read More “Midwest Muscle Car Challenge 2017 – It finally made it”
A big theme of the last few years with this car has been fortifying it to survive motorsports better: Transmission kits, coolers, brake work, better seats, the new giant radiator – all of it an attempt to make it easier to drive and more reliable. This post is about another item that won’t necessarily make …
“If you can raid the NASCAR parts bin, do it.” – Dennis Grant So, in my last entry, I barfed out my thoughts on sway bars for my car. Today’s entry is me actually acting on those thoughts. Today is a step-by-step on how I put a three piece swaybar on my 1987 Grand National. …
UPDATE: Education and experience has changed my views on some of this! See below for an update on rear swaybars before following the bad advice I wrote up here when I was stupid. Anti-sway bars are the stuff of myth and legend. Especially for the General Motors Metric mid-size platform (the G-Body). You can …
Last year, I attended the CAM Challenge East in Peru, Indiana. I wrote up that experience, which was overwhelmingly positive. You can take a waltz down memory lane here. This past weekend, I went again. Plus more. To say the past four days have been a blur would be a vast understatement. On Friday, I …
A post on Jalopnik today jogged my memory about an experience I had owning a BMW. Below, you’ll find an updated version of a tale I spun many moons ago over on 502streetscene.com. Enjoy. Once upon a time, I bought a BMW. 1999 540i with the manual six speed transmission. I thought I’d made it. …