On Engines, and Whining (not from the engine)

"My bird IS the word" (mybirdistheword)
06/04/2019 at 12:46 • Filed to: Trans am, headers, install

Getting the engine ready to start up.

Heat wrapped the drivers side header, apparantly to prevent the starter motor cables from melting, hence the less than total coverage. this stuff is made out of fiberglass I guess, and as a consequence it’s a major health hazard.

Took me (and my dad occasionally) 5 hours to get both of the headers on. For those of you who say old cars have a ton of room to work in, I have nothing else to say but fuck you. F or anyone else doing this, do the passenger side first.

had to remove and reattach the damn motor mounts, and I still don’t have the thing bolted in a whole day later. the engine weighs too much and I can’t push it myself because 1. the crane isn’t big enough 2. I can’t get it close enough to the engine because I left the front in place 3. clearance of the headers, the ac box, the firewall, and the crossmember are so damn tight that maneuvering this thing is impossible.

Restoring cars is awful. Restoring cars when you don’t have a covered area (where you can leave thing sit and not have to clean every single time you do anything) is awful. Not doing the entire car at once so everything is dissasembled is awful. This is awful. I don’t want to do this anymore. This engine better start and run flawlessly.

I finally found a job that will hopefully give me the “experience” I need. I won’t be making hardly any more money. I think the stress of not being able to support myself (regardless of the fact that my parents are ready and willing to help) makes working on this really hard, it just doesn’t seem important to me anymore. I hope that changes when I get everything sorted, as this hobby was my main motivating drive before.

DISCUSSION (9)

lone_liberal > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 12:55

Putting headers on most cars is a pain in the ass. Putting them in a second gen F-body makes it worse, and then add in the Pontiac engine? Yech. They make it look very easy on TV but they have lifts so they can angle the damn things differently than those of us working on the ground. You notice the shows like Garage Squad where they do swear about the headers don’t have lifts. Some cars require you to put the headers in the bay before the engine and wire them out of the way.

Tristan > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 13:02

My interest in projects waxes and wanes. At one point, I thought I had cars out of my system, so I bought a nice, new, reliable, economical car. My God it was awful. I had it for 6 months before I had to trade it on on something older and shittier that I could enjoy again. If you can shelve the project for a bit, do it and come back to it when you’re in a better frame of mind, and remember how big your smile will be when you’re finally driving it and hearing that big carbureted V8!

My bird IS the word > Tristan
06/04/2019 at 13:07

I have a FOST but i just can’t feel like I can enjoy it since it’s my DD and I can’t risk smashing it.

TheRealBicycleBuck > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 13:13

Chi n up! Things could be worse. At least you have pavement to work on. Plus you have a ton of space to work with in that T/A. Try working on a modern car. Changing the spark plugs on my wife’s Explorer required dropping the engine.

Tristan > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 13:14

It’s still a far more enjoyable DD than the 2009 Focus coupe that I bought when I thought I didn’t want to mess with old cars any more!

I might be a bit of a hoarder... On the rare occasion I only have one running car, I get incredibly nervous about it breaking down, even if there’s no reason it would. But I’m still far meaner to my DD than I should be.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 14:43

For me... I will buy a project car when I have enough money to take the ‘Jay Leno approach’ of doing the fun stuff myself and paying other people to do the hard work for me.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > My bird IS the word
06/04/2019 at 16:13

I’m not saying that what you're doing is easy, headers almost always suck. But take solace you're not doing it on an SLS.

My bird IS the word > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
06/04/2019 at 19:03

Tbh thats the way to go. That or just buy a nice car off the start.

My bird IS the word > Tristan
06/04/2019 at 19:08

Im definetly spoiled. I just dont feel like i can enjoy being spoiled.