'87 GLHS 362 Project

[shmedley]

So 2 Kirkey's... New Drag week car in planning?

[Pat]

So 2 Kirkey's... New Drag week car in planning?

Those Kirkeys are not staying in there. They went in because there were no seats in the car when I got it, I had them, and they were already set up to bolt into factory L body floor mounts. Original seats are going back in once I pick them up from the house where the car was stored.

[Pat]

Shortly after the engine was in, it was all wired, plumbed, exhaust (2.5") done, IC piping and cooling system in, she was fired up and running. Other than driving it in and out of the garage a few times, it really didn't do much for a while...until last October, when I started to think I'd get it finished enough to take it to the drag day some of the SDAC guys do at Cecil County Dragway every fall. It still didn't have an interior, but there wasn't much left to make it drivable. Biggest thing I wanted to do was get it tagged/insured so I could put a few miles on it to make sure nothing fell off of it and to get a bit of break in on the clutch.

One week before Cecil, I got the car tagged and legal and it went on it's maiden voyage. It was pretty cool knowing that the car had not seen 1 road mile in over 20 years. Put about 20 miles on it for the most part, it went great. The motor ran like a top...felt way quicker than I was expecting. No stumbles, leaks, problems etc. The trans was a different story. It shifted great and was perfect going straight, but in hard turns that clutch style LSD would bind up and pop. It was way too tight to reasonably drive in parking lots, etc. Over the next week, I tried a friction modifier, different oils, etc. and nothing really worked. I also "installed" a wideband and boost gauge (note custom mount and clean wiring) and drove it just over 100 miles before making a few hard pulls on a local highway. Other than the diff and a boost creep issue (should have ported the WG hole...didn't think I'd need to with a 2.5" exhaust on a stock motor...live and learn) it ran great. Boost would creep to about 19 by the top of 3rd and 4th. AF's were a bit fat but safe, no knock so left timing alone, set boost to 15-16 psi (knowing it would creep to 19 or 20 at the track) and topped off the tank with the remaining 110 I had from last time at the track for added insurance. Loaded it up on the dolly to leave for Cecil in the morning.

[Pat]

And then Cecil...the track was packed, so we'd only get a few runs. Didn't want to run the big slicks I run on the Shadow...ended up borrowing 23" M&H's from my brother. I purposely left a lot of air in the slicks given I just wanted to make a test pass. The test pass went way better than I thought it would....it spun so I pedaled it, but it felt really quick. It ended up running a 12.51@111.4! After driving it the night before, I had guessed it would go into the 12's, but I wasn't expecting a mid 12, nor was I expecting a 111 trap speed. Back in the pits, gave it a once over, checked the plugs and everything looked perfect. AF's for the run were high 10's low 11's, so there was room there but decided my next pass I was just going to try to clean up the launch.

Next pass, dropped slick pressure a bit and decided to be a bit more aggressive on the launch...it worked. The car hooked hard, cutting a 1.67 60 foot and crossed the line at 12.22 @ 111.6! Boost was 16 ish on the shift, creeping to 19 or so. AF's still fat.

At this point, I could smell the 11.99. Decided to crank on the boost a bit, targeting to be 19-20 the whole run instead of letting it creep with rpm to that same level, took a bit more pressure out of the slicks and decided to really hammer the launch. When the lights came down, that was when I was reminded that it had a stock clutch in it. The clutch slipped on the launch, so I abandoned the run and called it quits for the day.

I was thrilled with how well the car is performing. It's a riot to drive and has a lot of potential to get even better as I get it closer to being finished.

[cordes]

That’s super impressive. Congrats on that success.

[mopar-tech]

Progress looks great Pat!

Gary

[GLHS60]

Looking great !!!

Thanks
Randy

[4 l-bodies]

Sounds like it's running great Pat! Reviewing the dragstrip results and the pics of the stock appearing turbo, I'd say it either has a T3-60 trim or S-60 compressor wheel installed. IMO, the bevel in the inlet is too small for a 50 trim. That and too much MPH vs. boost for a stock 50 trim in my book.
Regardless, looks like a fun and successful project. Those 23x7.5" M&H's hooking up well!
Todd

[Pat]

Thanks, all.

Yeah, Todd, I tend to agree. The car is way faster than I expected it to be. Another sign that it may have more compressor side now that I think about it is the boost creep. I've never had boost creep issues with a small can, stock T2 turbo through a 2.5"exhaust.

[Pat]

Been very busy on the car since Cecil. First went after the few fixes that I identified in the road miles pre Cecil and then while making passes....the trans/diff binding in turns, the boost creep and the clutch. Decided the easiest way to go after all of it was to pull the drivetrain out.

Ended up going back together with a TU clutch that I had here from a prior project, a fresh large spline hybrid 568 with a rebuilt OBX using Rich's bolts and washers, and I ported the WG hole to reduce the creep. While putting it back together, I also cleaned up the vacuum harness, mounted a vacuum block on the passenger side inner fender, ran a hard line from the intake to the block and swapped the master cylinder to a 24mm, which was better suited for the front/rear brake circuits.

So far, all seems good. Boost still creeps a bit but it's much better. With manifold pressure going to WG can, it runs to about 11 and creeps to 15 or so. Good enough. Brakes feel good, new trans feels great...I really am liking the 3.50 final drive in this car with this motor. Think it's a better combo for what I'll be doing with this car.

[Pat]

Next I went after the spare tire well. The prior owner had very carefully drilled out the spot welds and removed the spare tire well to mount a cell. He had also rivited in a nice cover with an access door to access the cell. I had already removed the cell and went back to a stock tank so I could put the spare tire well back in.

Ended up being pretty easy since the prior owner did such a clean job. Drilled out the rivits, removed the cover (which can be seen in earlier pics), cleaned everything up, dropped the spare tire well back in place, spot welded it back in, seam sealed and painted it. I'm happy with how it came out.

[Pat]

And now she has most of an interior....made a shifter stand that bolts to the stock 3 bolt rod shifter mount to position the 568 cable shifter, made mounts to mount the dash center piece, the lower storage bin and the shifter cover. I also shortened the ebrake handle. The shifter cover fit well once I flipped the black top piece backwards. It's definitely not all positioned factory, but it put the shifter exactly where I want it and to a non TM person, I don't think they'd ever know the difference.

Also picked up the original seats, which I gave a super quick cleaning to. They had been sitting in an attic for the last 20 years, but once the dust and some grime came off, the cleaned up pretty well. I'm sure that with a bit more time, they'll clean up even better. The carpet I bought new from stockinteriors.com in mist gray.

Still need to do a headliner, find rear interior sail panels and pick up a trunk carpet, but just buttoning up what I was able to get done has made the car so much nicer to drive vs. the tin can/no interior and kirkeys.

[Dr. Johny Dodge]

it looks great !!

I have an idea I plan to try for the shifter using a neon shifter and it's mounting bracket

using the original L body shifter hole and centering the three bolts of the shifter mechanism on that point I want to use the neon shifter bracket under the floor .. then the bottom half of the shifter and the cable ends stay under the car..
the neon mount has four bolt down tabs which can be used to cover the shifter cable ends under the car and catch any stray parts that may fall off

- saves trying to route cables into the car under the stash bin and as I have a couple of short hurst shifter handles the neon shifter upgrade will get the shifter anywhere I want it .

(modern performance said they were getting 200 hurst neon kits last spring..)

[GLHS60]

Nice work !!

I really like the hard vacuum line to your vacuum block.

This would match my steel brake line Turbo oil feed.

Thanks
Randy

[Pat]

it looks great !!

I have an idea I plan to try for the shifter using a neon shifter and it's mounting bracket

using the original L body shifter hole and centering the three bolts of the shifter mechanism on that point I want to use the neon shifter bracket under the floor .. then the bottom half of the shifter and the cable ends stay under the car..
the neon mount has four bolt down tabs which can be used to cover the shifter cable ends under the car and catch any stray parts that may fall off

- saves trying to route cables into the car under the stash bin and as I have a couple of short hurst shifter handles the neon shifter upgrade will get the shifter anywhere I want it .

(modern performance said they were getting 200 hurst neon kits last spring..)

That's a cool idea. Post pics once you do it. Would love to see what you come up with.

Nice work !!

I really like the hard vacuum line to your vacuum block.

This would match my steel brake line Turbo oil feed.

Thanks
Randy

Thanks. Wanted to keep the soft line runs short. This seemed to do the trick.

I'm sure a brake line turbo feed was fun to bend up! Ha ha.

[Warren Stramer]

MORE,MORE; Keep them pics coming.

[GLHS60]

Thanks. Wanted to keep the soft line runs short. This seemed to do the trick.

I'm sure a brake line turbo feed was fun to bend up! Ha ha.

I did it in two parts so it was easy.

Thanks
Randy

[wheming]

You are killing it with GLHS Pat!
Really nice work!

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

[rbryant]

The first thing I went after was a project I've wanted to try, narrowing a dual pivot K frame to fit it. I talked to a few people who had done this in the past to get an idea of how much I had to trim out and then went after it.

I started by pulling the L body K frame and making a ridiculously simple jig to get the spacing right, using the mounting holes. From there, took the '90 stamped arm K sectioned out what was about 1.5" from the center, bolting it into the jig, find fitting and checking it multiple times to make sure it was square, tacked it, rechecked it, fit to car multiple times, etc. Eventually welded it up. I did at a brace bar on the underside just for some added insurance. Also had to make a very minor adjustment to the passenger side forward mount on the K frame to get it squared better. I'm not sure if this is something that is required for this modification, if the car isn't perfectly squared after the accident it took in the front or if I was just correcting/adjusting what was more normal manufacturing tolerances. Either way, it was a minor adjustment so I wasn't too worried about it.

The one thing I didn't have done in these pictures is the relocation of the bobble strut bracket. That had to be moved to the left side of the car by a bit.

Looks good, this is consistent with our past project for creating the dual pivot frames.

The front passenger mount is different between the GKJHPA cars and the Lbody and does need the modification for an lbody. That is normal and not a problem with the car.

-Rich

[Pat]

Since the my Shadow is not back together in time for Sick Week, a 5 day drag and drive event (like Drag Week), the GLHS is getting called up for duty. I made up tow hooks for both front and rear. Wanted to have easy pull points...just in case I need to be "helped" off a track.