Part XIII

1989 RS Camaro

With the engine finished as far as we wanted to take it on a workstand, we were ready to put it in the car. The motor mounts decided that they were going to have a go at us just to make things interesting. Not quite sure of how much time it consumed, but with the knowledge that the motor had been in the car before (remember we mocked it up with the transmission to build the transmission crossmember), we about drove ourselves crazy trying to get everything lined up correctly. After a suitable amount of moving the engine this direction and that direction along with the attending swearing and cussing, it finally went into place.

Now, you might notice that the MSD piece that was installed earlier is not there now. It ended up that it was interfering with the centerlink of the steering. So, we flipped it over and moved it to the other side of the engine. The alternator will go on the driver's side now, once we figure out a suitable mount for it.

Bit by bit over Saturday and Sunday we have installed a lot of minor items. Just making up the ignition leads took about an hour, then you have to hook up the oil pressure line and the lead going to the coil.

Underneath, a new SFI flexplate was bolted in place then the transmission/convertor assembly was put in place and bolted down. We picked up a Hughes Transmission locking dipstick a few weeks ago and installed it. The B&M transmission cooler was mounted in the area previously occupied by the catalytic muffler that was under the passenger seating area. The braided lines for that are not quite finished, but the oil temperature gauge hookup is done. We need to obtain the correct shift lever for our transmission before we can finish the B&M Prostick installation. A lot of minor items that in some cases have been 1/2 completed have just been waiting for the engine/trans to be in place.

We still have to rebuild the carb., setup and install the fuel regulators, finish the alternator, bolt in the starter, weld in the header tubes for the pan evacuation system and run those attending lines. The radiator and driveshaft need attention too. So there's more to come with this project, stay tuned - we're almost there.

check out Part XIV