Author Topic: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC  (Read 111888 times)

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Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2011, 06:08:40 PM »
MARCH 2011

What a pain in the butt it was to fit the 3” tubing into the turbo flange.  I left it long to form it with a hammer, then after being welded up I cut it short to fit


Then I created the issue of fitting a round tube in a square hole in a very short distance
Trim #1

Trim #2


Issues are always popping up.   Because turbo is much closer on this side, i’ll have to get creative


It seems the only way I get things done is to start building, and figure out the solution later, so I started with the primaries and just aimed them towards the turbo flange

Unfortunately I had to make piecuts. The frame was just too close to the motor

Maybe ¼” to the valve covers.. will require some heat shielding



I picked up a distributor from a Vortec engine with the idea of using it with a spacer to act as my cam trigger.  Everything was the same, except the shaft was too long.  I figure I can make something to clamp on the outside to push it up the 2-3” required


-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2011, 06:10:40 PM »
I want to marry this guy's daughter!

More Like if any of you have any available daughters... :)   I'm only in my late 20's.
-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #32 on: December 16, 2011, 06:14:12 PM »
APRIL 2011

Back to finishing the fuel tank


Lay it on


Mark and drill the bolt holes


Use the gasket as the opening size for the center


Cut the center to fit


Install a buttload of aluminum rivnuts


Hazaa


Baffles


Weld it all together and test for leaks.  Good to go for now



-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #33 on: December 16, 2011, 06:22:40 PM »
MAY 2011
Due to clearance issues with the fuel pump, and most likely the oil pan too.  the big honkin’ crossmember needs to go


Nice and meaty


Welded on some 3/16” plates



I also finished the driver side air filter panel


Well, At the end of may I finally went to pick up my motor from the builder in ohio.  1 day trip, ~400 miles each way.  I get there, and sure enough… it’s not done.


Rockers had clearance issues, heads weren’t on, etc.  I said I wasn’t leaving until it was done, and sure enough it was thrown together in time.

There was a clearance problem with the shaft rocker base


Had the guy build the oil pan too due to it needing to be notched for the girdle


Fancy aluminum heads (I was like a kid in a candy store)


I got there around 11am, around 4/5pm we finally got it crated up


I called a friend on the way out and he told me I had to make a detour (About an hour out of my way) to get “Fat kid food.”  That was a good decision.  One of the best pizza’s I’ve ever had


I rolled back into my driveway just after midnight (I had left at 3am).  882 miles and 21 hours later:


The next day:


That’s a might fine looking engine


Finally a good look at the girdle.  Lets just hope it works as well as designed.


« Last Edit: December 16, 2011, 07:09:37 PM by stobl »
-Blake S

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #34 on: December 16, 2011, 06:29:17 PM »
JUNE 2011



spare headgaskets for when I blow the composites


Got the headers welded up




Remember the driver side header next to the valve cover?  It’s going to need a hammer


Space for the spark plug


I told the guy to install bungs for the turbo drains.. I guess he forgot about a starter


Guess I need to fix it


Back to the crossmember:

Make the section to connect a front and back section


Engine back in


Crap. A friend That I had weld on the collector angled it wrong.  Not good


Oh well, back to the crossmember

Cut and grind and tack in place

-Blake S

Offline RichFox

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #35 on: December 16, 2011, 06:52:28 PM »
I don't know much about such things, but I don't think I have ever seen a Bonneville car with power steering or power brakes. But that isn't a criticism. Just an observation.
Actually I have never seen a comp coup anything like yours. At all. If you say power steering and brakes. So be it. Neat project under any circumstance.

Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #36 on: December 16, 2011, 06:55:02 PM »
INFORMATION OVERLOAD!  :-o

Dude, you're posting it faster than I can read it!  :cheers:

I'd like to thumb ahead to where you're at now, but I'll be patient, chew slowly, and take it all in.

This is going to be great!
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #37 on: December 16, 2011, 07:00:12 PM »
Lol that's all for now.  I've been writing it up as i browse through my picture album online.  I'll post some more tomorrow.
-Blake S

Offline 4-barrel Mike

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #38 on: December 16, 2011, 07:45:58 PM »
I want to marry this guy's daughter!

More Like if any of you have any available daughters... :)   I'm only in my late 20's.

There ya go, Bob!  Adopt him!

Mike
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #39 on: December 17, 2011, 09:06:32 AM »
JULY 2011

Since the driver side pipes are way too close to the turbo flange, I had to make my own collector.  Far from pretty, but it’ll have to do


And the problem with the passenger side collector being too long

Good to go


Initial failed idea- fuel line primer to push fuel to the front.  Good in theory (jet injection nozzle), not enough oomph to get over rear end hump+ counteract acceleration forces.  Put here, just because:


Needed to make a frame for the tanks

Need to cut out the oem fuel tank hump out of the floor.  It was getting in the way

Access holes for fuel and water sumps

Well, the filler tube for the fuel tank is too long and wont let the trunk shut.  Definitely had to redo that


Grr, friend that finished the welding warped my flanges!  I told him not to weld on the outside!  Looks like i'll be hitting it with the belt sander later.


Frame for “sealed” battery box.  The floor will be completely replaced (to be flat) when the rollcage goes in/ the battery box will be attached to the cage.


That $100 ebay dry sump pump?  Yaa… needed a complete rebuild.


Making the intake elbow fit the firewall:

Cut a new piece of aluminum, this is how I bent it


Now the fun stuff.  I built my own lower A-Arm brackets

cut and grind, repeat

use a threaded rod through the oem bushing hole for alignment

weld it on

View through the new bushing tabs to stock location


Fixing the motor plate

welded on

oem crank seal glued in with right-stuff / smash rivets.  


Had to clearance two bolts to fit so it wouldn’t rub the balancer.  I put them in the drill press and lightly rubbed then with the angle grinder


-Blake S

Offline WOODY@DDLLC

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #40 on: December 17, 2011, 09:35:51 AM »
 See, those of you who have never done drugs or drank Mad Dog 20/20 probably can't understand the logic of having a cash toilet like this wonderful car, but having run a Early Old's engine for eight years against new Billet Bullet's I want to marry this guy's daughter!
  This is the thread of all threads!
  We have met the enemy, and he is us (Walt Kelly's Pogo I think).       Bob :cheers: :cheers:

He also said. "We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities!"  :-o

This build just proves that the answer to "Why?" is "Why (the F?) not?"   :? :?

Build on stobl - build on!!! :cheers:
All models are wrong, but some are useful! G.E. Box (1967) www.designdreams.biz

Offline stobl

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #41 on: December 17, 2011, 10:36:04 AM »
AUGUST 2011

I decided to box in the front control arm mounts with the stock frame.  


The ever growing “To Do” list


When building the oil pan, the idea was the use no gaskets on the motor (or as little as possible)  everything that needs to be sealed was done so with right-stuff.
(I over-estimated how low the oil pan went on the motor plate. Oops.  (I fixed this later)

Between the notched pan and girdle


View of the oil return plate on the stock oil pump mount.   The welded on sheet goes to the sump pickup. I don’t remember what I was going to use that hole for, but decided it wasn’t needed


Installing the headers was a major pain in the butt.  I took a belt sander and flattened the flanges some, and then due to the tight bends right out the head, I had to notch a couple bolt holes (not fun on 3/8” 308 plate)


This looked like a good location for the oil filter.  

Off a diesel motor.  Apparently pretty good filter with high flow


Belts came in and I converted the dry sump to HTD belt also


Trying to figure out where to mount the fuel pressure regulator, and this semed like the best spot.  When I drew up the intake elbow flange, I left a couple inches on one side thinking I’d probably need it for something later.  Turns out I did.
Built a bracket and mounted it to the space on the flange behind it


Then because I like to have redundant safety catches, I decided I need a direct gauge.  Those plugs on the FPR look like a good spot!


With a lot of power and heat I definitely needed some coolers and dedicated fans.  These apparently review pretty well (with ebay special fans)

Wanting to make the options versitile for adding/removing things later, the coolers needed their own specific mounting location. In comes more 1” angle

add a 1x1” tube in the middle

mount fans and you have a trans and oil cooler


This looks like a good spot to mount them.  I’ll fab up the ducting later


I took some 1/8” strip and bent/drilled/welded it onto the crossmember up front

In the back on my tube crossmember, I ran a 3/8” threaded rod through a ½” tube, cut it in a few pieces and welded some to the crossmember, and some to the coolers.  Therefore I can now unbolt the front, swing it down, or completely take out the entire unit.  I figured it would be in my best interest to make it removable

view underneath


Lower radiator support (yes, you're thinking "why a radiator?"- more on that later)
Dumb mistake of the day.  Think about what way you’re bending tubing.  

I cut the tube, spliced it together with another tube in the middle and welded it back up.  Good as new


The radiator is 19x31”.  It’s not the width that’s an issue, it’s the height.  So it would have to lean back like this:


After it dawned upon me that I had previously cut off the oem hood hinge mounts since I wasn't planning on using them anyway, theres no point of having the hood latch.  Time to make a new upper support.   Some 1”x2” tubing works

much better


Also made vertical supports for it that bolted to the stock bumper mounts


What I did with the bottom of the radiator is cut some 1x2 in half then welded on angle in the middle so it would ride on that lower support bar I made.  Seemed simple enough


After the radiator was sitting on the lower bar, I bent up some tubing and made upper mounts


The vertical supports made a good spot for the radiator overflow can


Time to finally finish the intake elbow:  I took some aluminum flashing and used it as my mockup piece

then cut some 1/8” sheet

Beat it to fit with lots of cutting

top and bottom tacked up (notice extra pieces on the tube to the firewall.  I cut those out later


all done


Throttle body finally mounted on the inside

I also welded in a bung (center bottom) for the Intake air temp sensor


Oh, cheap homemade tool trick.  Go to lowes in the bandclamp section, they have this tool specifically for tightening band clamps to 5 ft/lbs (aka, torque wrench).  It costs $7.

Cut off the end and weld on a 3/8 – ¼” socket adaptor

Cheap torque wrench!

Ok, back to build

Since I wont immediately be running the turbochargers (need to get NA tune down) I hodgepodged some old mac flowpath mufflers I had (used to be on Cadillac) and made temporary bolt on exhausts.  Wasn't too concerned with flow with the pie cuts since it's only temporary


I ripped out the stock rear end so i could more easily access the body in the rear.  The only problem is it was only made for the Cadillac, so there are no parts available. Some GM 10/12bolt monster child.  No worries, I’ll figure out how to build stuff for it until i switch it out with something else.

« Last Edit: December 17, 2011, 10:39:16 AM by stobl »
-Blake S

Offline lvsalt

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #42 on: December 17, 2011, 10:58:17 AM »
Cool project, this is one of the things i love about Bonneville, build what you want.  :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
Gary Cole     DCWATERJET Z

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #43 on: December 17, 2011, 11:02:47 AM »
This build just proves that the answer to "Why?" is "Why (the F?) not?"   :? :?

Build on stobl - build on!!! :cheers:

"Why (the F?) not?" indeed. This is incredibly thinking so far outside the box.
Great build.


Offline Glen

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Re: 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood AA/BFCC
« Reply #44 on: December 17, 2011, 11:51:41 AM »
Great photo history of the build. Nice work. Looking forward to seeing it on the salt.
 :cheers:
Glen
Crew on Turbinator II

South West, Utah