Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Yeah the K&N does look a little out of place in that mostly stock environment but you're gonna love the sound when you open the butterflies....

Tim H wrote:

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Stan,

That engine compartment looks great. Nice work!

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 Thanks Tim.  That means a lot coming from what I've seen of your work! 

I still need to do something with the AC box and tubing.  Haven't decided if I'm going to polish up the tubing or paint it, or what.  The whole thing is kind of hard to clean it up to look new and I didn't want to just paint it.  Any thoughts?

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Yeah the K&N does look a little out of place in that mostly stock environment but you're gonna love the sound when you open the butterflies....

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That's what I was thinking.  With the filter flow top and the cowl induction, that thing should howl! 

I can always swap it out for the stocker at shows if I'm in the 'stock' catagory.  Most shows allow up to 3 changes to stay 'stock' and I only have the aftermarket intake manifold, carb, and filter unless they count the 'non-stock' plug wires...

Tim H wrote:

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SShink wrote:

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Tim H wrote:

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Stan,

That engine compartment looks great. Nice work!

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 Thanks Tim.  That means a lot coming from what I've seen of your work! 

I still need to do something with the AC box and tubing.  Haven't decided if I'm going to polish up the tubing or paint it, or what.  The whole thing is kind of hard to clean it up to look new and I didn't want to just paint it.  Any thoughts?

 

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 Thanks Stan you're to kind

I can get you from this

 To this in about 10 minutes and for about $8

 

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 O.k. Obi Wan, cough it up.  What's your secret?  It looks great!

Tim H wrote:

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Bring

Bring your $8 and stop on by some day. Your sidekick can tag along.

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 Sounds like a good deal to me. 

How's this Mitch?  I think it does look complete now:

And I got the exhaust tips on this afternoon.

Before:

After:

And one of the more final touches :

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Looks nice........no pink surprise when you pop the hood.

Now if you're really going for originality and detail, ya gotta ditch the chrome thermo housing too. If you're running an Edelbrock carb, they make a really nice chrome fuel line with a banjo bolt that eliminates the rubber hose from the filter to the carb. You can get a small diameter filter that screws right into the line and then a braided hose down to the fuel pump. I put one on my Camaro with a black braided hose and it looks really clean.

Where did you get the exhaust tips ? They look really good...

 

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 Thanks Mitch.  I'm not going 100% stock, more of a resto-w/minor mods.

The exhaust tips came from either NPD or Ground Up.  I don't remember which sent I ordered so many parts... 

Thought the stock manifolds were going to be 'trouble free', but during a break in run last weekend I blew out both exhaust flange donuts! 

The flange bolts had worked loose from a couple of hot/cold cycles and dropped down and the blowout resulted.  I may have had them too tight too since I didn't use the metal 'sleeves' that are supposed to go inside the donuts.

A few trips to O'Reilly's and laying under the car again... and I replaced the worst side and drove home.

I pulled the other side last night and found the other donut blown out.  So, I'm putting in sintered metal ones that will hopefully hold up instead of the 'packing' material.

The left one in the pic is the blown one that went into the down pipe.  The center one is the 'packing' material style, and the right one is the sintered metal one I'm installing:

Once I get things back in and double nutted, hopefully that will be the end of the exhaust woes...

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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The sintered metal gasket "might" hold but you really should use the sleeves so the gasket has that to push against when it is compressed. I doubt the nuts came loose. The gasket failed because it didn't have the internal backing.

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 It was probably a combination of both.  I found a couple of the nuts were at the bottom of the stud threads when this first happened.  The rest were not tight at all.  The manifold stud kit I bought didn't include any kind of lock washers and the nuts are brass without a thread 'locking' feature, so nothing stopped them from backing off.  I should have thought about that when I first put them on...

Everything worked fine for the first 3 or 4 drives I took (Approximately an hour of run time), and then they blew when things backed off the studs.

Even with the PITA of working on stuff that was HOT, you had a few breaks:
A breakdown somewhere with tools.
A breakdown somewhere with a jack.
NEW parts, and bolts/nuts that work like bolts/nuts.
A way to get to the parts store.
Moral support and camaraderie.

We've gotta break the "jinx" of the P.M.C. before he hosts a meeting/gathering!

John D wrote:

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Even with the PITA of working on stuff that was HOT, you had a few breaks:
A breakdown somewhere with tools.
A breakdown somewhere with a jack.
NEW parts, and bolts/nuts that work like bolts/nuts.
A way to get to the parts store.
Moral support and camaraderie.

We've gotta break the "jinx" of the P.M.C. before he hosts a meeting/gathering!

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 All true John and I appreciate the trips you and Pushrod made to the auto parts stores and the moral support. 

I'm just looking forward to being the guy that gets to help others when they break down!  It's all part of the process.