Here is a pic of my new restored rear Calipers. Huge tanks to Eric at PMB Performance . My calipers are beautiful. I still need to adjust them but will get to that tommorow night. The picture is a little dark but damn if my rotor doesn't look like crap with the new caliper there

I sent my short headers off to get Cermaic coated at a place in Portland. They will do one coat inside & 2 coats outside. I'm having them done in black as they said that had the best cooling. I'll get pics of these when I pick them up mid week.

I also dropped off my muffler & pipes to get ceramic coated at another shop. It was a little cheaper than the place in Portland. The quality won't be as good either but that's okay for the muffler & pipes. I just did these to look nice really. It will help cooling also but not as much as my headers.

Along with these I dropped off a bunch of heater parts to get powder coated for my LE. All the parts that connect to the heat exchangers. I took one full set along with all the spares I had. Made sense to just get them all done & looking nice. I'm excited as this guy is pretty cheap & does nice work. I guess I will reserve my judgement until I get all my parts back though. I will get pics up for this stuff this weekend when I pick them up.

looks good.

pls report back on stopping power once on the road again.

jim

Picked up my headers today! They look sweet. I guess they don't really qualify as bling since they are black. They really don't pop in the engine bay. I just can't wait to pick up my muffler & pipes saturday & get them on. I will be putting my v8 back on the road monday . Still need to do something better about my firewall. It will be a temporary one. I am just tired of waiting to drive it. 2 years on stands is way to long

What type of V8 do you have and who makes those headers. I have a 350 chevy and my shorty headers are completely different than yours. Just curious.

Thanks

Those headers look cool!

Headrs are for a buick/olds 215cid alloy motor, grandfather to the landrover v8

My car has always stopped great. I doubt I will feel a difference. I have 944t brakes up front. It really stops amazingly fast. Only did the rebuild/restore to the rears because of a leak. I've got to go out & adjust them tonight too. Not sure if I will get them bled tonight. Not sure what the family has planned.

I get my muffler & pipes tomorrow. I will put them on sunday. Monday I

Gracias Messix. Perhaps you know the answer to my next quesiton, why is using a Buick engine a popular conversion. Just seems like Chevy 350 engines are more plentyful.

Buick engines are all aluminum... Much lighter!

Yeah with this conversion my car still weighs in at just under 2200lbs. Power wise it is a great fit. I was told when I bought it the motor was putting out 260hp. I think it is a little closer to 200-220. I doubt I will bother getting a dyno to find out though. The only thing I don't like about it is. It's deeper than a 350. Mine comes through firewall a few inches. I could fix that going with a remote electric water pump. I haven't done that yet though. I'm going to drive this on Labor day for real for the first time in 2+ years . I can't wait to put it through it's paces again

Hi Jamie!
The headers look great...well. we both talked about both of us ceramic coating ours over two years ago, I'm glad one of us followed through . I want to though. How much did they end up charging your for the headers and how much for the pipes with mufflers?

Did you ever do any temp. readings of your engine compartment while it was running? I was thinking I had brought-up my laser when we went to the WCR in Seattle together, I just can't rember if we checked.

OK, now go buy a remote pump and fix that firewall once and for all. I thought the moving of he engine back would take care of that...didn't you do that?
Have fun with your car Monday...I bet you can't wait to be on the road again.
Mark

I did move it back with Renegades adapters. That helped but without changing my water pump. It's not enough to get my firewall back completely. Drivers side the firewall behind the seat is back to stock. Just middle over to passenger isn't. Still not bad though. Just finished my new firewall & while ugly it will work fine.

On the engine bay temps I didn't get readings. The headers ran $260 with 2coatings outside & one inside. Supposed to cut the heat by 70% on them. My muffler i took to a cheaper guy. Only be like $70 for it with the pipes. Not as good a quality. He will get the inside a little but only as far as he can spray. Then one coat outside. Kind of a hillbillie setup but he looks to do good work. I'll get some pics up when I get it. He has them done but had to leave town today. So I am picking them up tommorow afternoon.

I picked up my muffler. Along with my heater parts for the LE. Went with a grey on the heater parts for the powder coating. I think they look great. Muffler will be fine too. Looks better than before & should cool the temps back a little bit. Definately not the quality of the headers but I wasn't expecting it. I am happy with it overall. Going to relax in my recliner until after dinner. Then I will go out & put it on

On the heater parts I just loaded all my spares up too. So I have at least a full extra set

Oh yeah I took 2 sets of wipers arms to get done too. They look excellent

Exhaust all on & interior in. Now I need to adjust & bleed the brakes . Yipee

Okay I got everything on that needed to be on. Started right up & headed into town for fuel. I was way low & my light was blinking. Still it was only 2 miles into town. Started cutting out just as I pulled in the station. Took 13 1/2 gallons before it shut off. No problem except it doesn't want to start after my fillup. I pump the gas a few times & try again. Battery dead Not enough juice to turn it over. Called my wife to come in with jumper cables (of course she was taking a nap). So I am semi on the shit list. Finally get it started & unhook the cables. 10 seconds later the car chokes out & dies. Just the dreds from the bottom of my tank . Anyway I get it started again & rev it for a bit. Still choking out at lower rpm's. Anyway I get it home & notice on upper RPM's I get a plume of smoke. Basically if I floored it once it hit the 4-5k i would get smoke.

I get home & pull into the shop. I jack up the rear end & get a battery charger on. I have a pretty decent drip of oil coming from the bottom of my tranny & adapter plate. Not sure where that is coming from? Rear main seal maybe? I also start it & rev it from the engine compartment. I can see the oil coming out of my dipstick tube. Right around the dipstick . It doesn't have any kind of seal on it? Strange but it must have lost something at some point as it just sits in there kind of loose. I checked my oil level & looks like I overfilled it some. It was reading about a quarter of an inch over full. I'm going to look into getting another dipstick. Any other suggestions?????

Is the smoke comming from the exhaust or engine compartment?

Are you using a distributor on this motor? (Is the distributor hold down clamp loose?)---check timing

Any vacuum lines or ports come unplugged?

Is your choke plate on your carb stuck closed?

Oil from your dip-stick leak is probably collecting at the union between the engine and trans.

.....Cruise on bro!.....parts & Muff look HOT!

I'm sure that the exhaust is going to smoke a bit whilst getting them hot the first couple of times. I would get the oil level back down to a more acceptable level. sometimes seals dry up after sitting for a long time.