Thats perfect! thank Mike.

 

Monday, we got the cap on, hooked up the throttle cable and got the coil fixed. Tuesday, we got all the spark plugs and plug wires in. Spent like 45 minutes having to bend my dipstick out of the way of one spark plug. Today we got the lower fan shroud on, fan and fan clutch, radiator in, all the hoses connected, capped off the ends that go to my heater core because it is clogged up. I bought a new one but i wont be putting it in till next semester. Tomorrow we should be ready to fire her up!

 

Id like to see a video of that firing

 

Yeah, me too.

 

^^ ya'll wont be disappointed

I came into class and had a problem with the starter. Turned out when i soldered my nuetral saftey switch i swap a pair of yellow wires, swapped then and soldered them back and she turned real nice! Then we went to start it and long story short, i had the distributor in like 120 degrees off... and i was missing a exhaust gasket. My teacher took the distributor out and re-stabbed it in the correct spot. I came in after school and he started it but told me i got ANOTHER problem :/ the starter was kicking back and thats what shredded the nose off my old starter! but we did some research and found out that my crankshaft sensor had gone bad. When ever they go bad, they advance the timing up to 50 degrees only during starting. Good news, i went to AAP online and found a crank sensor for 63 bucks. I found a coupon code that gave me $20 off! Also when my teacher showed me the engine running he told me my voltage regulator had gone bad. The engine was running and he plugged the connector in and the belt started to squeal BAD! Is his guess accurate? And now the last problem i have... When i had my truck sitting someone in my class had put the shifter into park when the gear selector on the tras was unhooked! so now my shifter is stuck in park.

 

So today i came to class early because we have to get this thing out by tomorrow or its sitting in the shop till January 3rd :/ So, the problem we had was that the motor was kicking back on the starter. We got the motor and tdc and the mark on the distributor and the cap lined up great?!?!.. But we said the hell with it and restabbed it one tooth off and still no luck. Luckily my 4th per. teacher let me come to the shop and my teacher said he put the distributor in AGAIN but this time it was like 20 degrees retarded. And wouldnt you know, no kick back and it runs awesome!

Then after school we went to work on the gear shift. Got the lower part of the dash off and took the bottom part of the steering column cover off and popped the cable off the shift solenoid. Weird enough, and lucky enought, the cable was seized! So we called a local junkyard and found a cable for 35 and i got an altenator for 35 becuase my old alt had a bad regulator and my teacher said it'd be smarter just to get on at the yard.

Tomorrow all we have to do is replace the cable, test it, top off the coolant, mount some tires and get that alt in!

 

Sorry for the late update but i've been busy putting some miles on the new motor, lol!

We got the alt in, and went to put the cable in but it was too short! I think its because it came off a 98' and there is some variance, do any of ya'll know? My teacher basically made a new bracket that bolts to the trans and gives it enough travel to reach park but i dont have anything after overdrive.

Went for a test drive during passing period and it drove and shifted great. Funny thing was that we didnt have a hood so all the kids were looking and my teacher yelled,"Someone stole the hood!". Then coming back he gave it some gas to see how it downshifted and it was slipping little. Got back to the shop and checked the transmission fluid and long story short, i was 3 quarts low!

So now i have about 50 miles on the new motor and its running awesome! Now all i need is a replacement tire for the spare i have on now, its about to blow from all the cracks in the sidewall. Thunderbolt (the people i got my motor from) Is supposed to give me my core deposit back today. They said that the heads were junk and they're taking 150 dollars out of my $350 core. Strange thing, no where on my invoice does it say they take out for damaged cores?!?! My dad drives all around houston for job and he's going to stop by to talk to them, and is supposed to see the actual heads to confirm the condition of them.

But once i do get my core im gonna get a used tire to hold me over till i get some more money for a set.

Here's some pics of it finished!

 

I've never heard of a core being discounted because of damage... if it weren't damaged, why would you be swapping it out?

 

Yea, the guy called me and told me the heads were junk and it would be a 150 dollar additional charge.. I was like, thats 150 on my core? He thought that i need that engine rebuilt but i told him i already had a rebuilt engine from them. Then it was like a week and i still didnt get my money so i called them and asked him when i would get my deposit back and he said Monday and i said, that will be the full 350 right and he said no it will be minus 150 becuase of the heads..

 

So I finally got my core deposit back from thunderbolt. It's 150 dollars less becuase both of my old heads were junk! So i went to Home Depot to grab some supplies for my system. When I got home, me and my dad got the false floor done in like 20 minutes.

Here's the pics:




I still have to sand the edges down and make it neat. Tomorrow its going to rain so i might have to do my boxes inside!??!?