🔧 BUILD The seemingly never ending GTO project.

[Ryebread]

So had an interesting issue the other day. I swapped the metal PS reservoir back to the stock one since the other one was leaking, went to bleed the system and the car just shut off. Luckily I have a fuel pressure gauge. Car lost fuel and the pump wasn't turning on. Opened the trunk and found this.

Seems the 325 pump is a little too spicy for the wiring harness. I replaced the connector with a different one until I can get a good relay harness ordered.

Normally I'd shelf the GTO until I can get the part, but I put myself in a sticky situation because the Audi is down for a timing chain and I'm waiting on a tool, which makes this here racecar my only car. Going to keep an eye on the replacement connector in the meantime.

 

[DEEZUZ]

A melting connector atop the fuel tank..

 

[bs009]

Might as well switch to a 450lph pump and E85 while you're at it

 

[CMNTMXR57]

8.1 Pump...

 

[Ryebread]

So being that I work at a parts store I decided to dig through the relays. I found one that would work and I just made my own harness tonight. Not pretty but it'll do for now.

 

[Ryebread]

Picked the hood up from VFN today and got it on the car. It does need some adjustment by way of trimming the hinges but I'll do that when I take it back off to paint it. I also need to come up with a solution for the washer sprayers.

 

[IDAFC21]

o damn. Gonna look amazing when painted.

 

[Ryebread]

After about a month I finally got a chance to paint this thing. The clear is curing overnight and after a light wet sand and polish I'll see how it turns out.

Starting to look good in the sunlight.

 

[IDAFC21]

NIce.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Was it another get together @ Matt's?

 

[Ryebread]

No, I just started working on bigger projects at his place. Way more room and no nosy neighbors to distract me. Plus if I get in a pickle he is usually around to help.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Ok, just judging by all the cars in the yard. Aside from your Audi.

 

[Ryebread]

So some updates. Hood did not turn out good because I tried to be quick with it and I used spray cans. Was going to try to salvage it with more clear but it started raining and I had to leave for LS fest so I threw it back on the car and sent it. I have proper paint so I will repaint it.

It doesn't look so bad from 30 feet away.

On the way to LS Fest I had a bit of a code brown. I left from Detroit and had just crossed into Kentucky on I75, had been crusing in 6th gear for hours but I needed to downshift but the clutch went straight to the floor. This sent me into panic mode a little because I wasn't sure I could fix this on the side of the road. Got off the freeway and limped it to a parking lot where I discovered the remote bleeder line on the clutch had come out of the engine bay but it had burn marks on it so I thought I was screwed. Jacked the car up and got under it to find that by some miracle that the line was ok and the bleeder screw came loose as it dragged along the highway. Bled the clutch by myself with the jack handle and got back on the road.

Then after LS fest there was a test and tune at the my local track. I think if I can get my launch dialed in I should be able to get a mid to low 12 out of it. I was car 140 and the car in the other lane was a coyote mustang.

And that brings us to today, I've had a vibration under braking for a while and it finally got bad enough for me to do something about it. Radius rod bushings were shot so I replaced them.

After that I played around with the hood fitment. Modified the hinges and got the gap reduced as much as possible, still need to adjust the front and it'll be perfect.

 

[Ryebread]

Re did the hood, Matt was able to paint it properly with a spray gun. Just needs final wetsand and polish and it should be good.

 

[IDAFC21]

Looks good!!

 

[CMNTMXR57]

Ryan, you almost have as bad of luck as Andy and his Caprice.

 

[Ryebread]

Ryan, you almost have as bad of luck as Andy and his Caprice.

My friends call this the Ryan effect. My luck with the allroad isn't much better lol. But that's a story for another thread.

Wet sanded and polished the hood today, probably need a more aggressive polish that what I had to make it perfect but it's good enough for now. I also replaced the rear shocks as one of the not so old ones started clunking.

First good pictures now that it's presentable again.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

The hood looks great in the side shot.

 

[IDAFC21]

God the cowl really does flow well w/ the shape of these cars.

 

[Ryebread]

I attempted to get a good 1/4 mile time at the track the past couple test and tunes. I can't launch this setup to save my life apparently. Best I managed was a 13.1 @ 108mph. The guy next to me on that one did a 12.9 @ 102mph. After a few more attempts it appears that I broke something. Harsh vibration again so I suspect driveshaft bolts again but I'll find that out this weekend.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

You sure it's not the rear half-shafts. They are notorious for issues, especially with axle hop under hard acceleration. Also, half-shaft studs/nuts coming out of the diff? There were issues back in the day of them not being properly torqued or something from the factory. But one would've figured that almost 20 years later, the car would've crossed that bridge somewhere.

 

[Ryebread]

I will check the axles when I'm down there. Hopefully it's something simple that I can fix fast since I still have a couple more events I want to do with it before it goes into hibernation.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

I know for awhile, one of the common things to do was to replace the OEM studs with cryo treated ones.

 

[Ryebread]

Got it apart and the Guibo is done for. They are $200 each nowadays so looks like I'm going to road trip to summit racing in the morning and get a one piece driveshaft, since it doesn't make sense to spend $400 on new guibos to potentially have the same problem again.

 

[CMNTMXR57]

I know G-force had them at some point in time, but yea, by the time you pay for them, just get a new shaft.