For those not already laughing just from the post title, I have to let you know I've had one or more "project" Firebirds sitting around for oh, about 7 or 8 years. I just won't quit! The funny thing about these particular birds is that they work (mostly anyway) when I get them, and then, well, something happens to put them in Park for a while. Then the itch to go ahead and upgrade them starts to breed.
The Firebird anomaly all started when I was finishing up on one of my bike projects. It was my third motorcycle rebuild of sorts. I was trying to sell it, and a couple friends from my local retail store came by and decided they'd trade for it. I got a 1986 Firebird with the 2.8L v6, some custom wheels, and not much else. From there I ended up with a distributor problem (I don't wash the engine compartment carelessly anymore) and blew up my muffler when it collected unburned fuel/air. Actually it was pretty awesome to hear and feel that. It made up for the disappointment of my dying car.
I parked that one for a while and priced out distributor/computer and exhaust components. Meanwhile a good friend-to-be had his bike stolen and decided to buy a wrecked one to have me resurrect. It took a couple weeks, but his 'totalled' bike was fit to be registered and shown for that matter. I ended up getting his old 1985 parts-Camaro as partial payment. I figured I'd use the 305 (5.0L engine) in it and sell the rest. Ah yes, the perfect engine-swap upgrade for my Firebird. No computer or exhaust necessary! Whatever.
About 3 years ago I finally got inspired and had my wife help me label everything as I removed the 2.8L from the Firebird. I was under the misguided assumption that the tranny would take the 305, but just not the 350. Wrong. I got into the engine-pull on the Camaro and quickly discovered the bell housing was way off. I stopped to do some research and sure enough, I needed the 700R4 transmission to take on either 305 or 350. Bummer because the tranny in the Camaro was shot. Another couple years goes by while I occasionally hunted down deals for a 350 (over 5.7 liter engine!) and/or 700R4.
"What? A 1996? I thought you had a 1986." Good point. I forgot to mention that I found a sweet deal (I thought) from a neighbor and bought their Firebird. I worked for a week doing oil change, spark plug and wire replacement, coil pack replacement, and EGR troubleshooting to get it ready to pass NC emissions. Fail. One week after I bought it, I blew something up in the engine. No noises, just a white-out in my rearview mirrors. Immediately, I shut the engine off and coasted to a stop. I'm not sure why, maybe it's like trying to get someone with a potentially broken ankle to try to move their foot around (ask me later why this is a BAD idea), but after the engine had time to cool a bit, I figured I'd try to restart it and quickly troubleshoot where the oil was getting into the chamber. The engine hadn't seized, so I knew I hadn't bent a shaft or thrown a piston out. However when I cranked the motor, it only turned over just past one revolution and stopped in it's track. The battery wasn't anywhere near dead. Something mechanical stopped the engine. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe I dropped a valve or something like that is jamming the piston. I suppose it's also possible I could have a piston stuck, but that doesn't make sense to me because it was still running when I turned it off, and it also turned over when restarting. Normally a seized engine is a result of a piston sticking in a cylinder for a number of bad reasons, and the engine will stop itself - usually violently . . .
~~ This is only a project overview post on the main IMST Racing blog! To follow progress on this project, please continue to IMST Racing's ~ Resurrection of a Firebird. Don't forget to click the [Follow] button in that blog. ~~
