| Story |
| Story |
| Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 |
|---|
In Spring of 2007, I bought a 74 Omega - 4 door for parts. The former owner rear-ended an Escalade, writing off the Escalade. Unfortunely her Omega was written off due to the rust on the rear quarters, not because of the damage on the front which wasn't too bad. Ending up getting some nice pieces from it for my Omega and the rest I ended up selling off, including the powertrain & other misc parts which covered the cost of the car.
2007 started off with a transmission swap. While I was waiting to have the transmission #2 from my nova to be rebuilt, my friend Mike gave me an old TH200 he had sitting in his garage from his malibu. TH200 weren't known for there strenght, it was a direct swap for a TH350, and would atleast get the car mobile again. Thanks to help from my friends Kyle & Ian (Ian72Rally), we swapped the TH200 into the car in under 4 hours.
My friend Chris Derksen, whom built my transmission for my nova, was going to rebuild that old transmission from my nova for the Omega. Chris' racing schedule was really busy and I wasn't going to pressure or bug him. He was doing me the favor. I got a call from him close to the end of May, stating the transmission from the nova was done. It would cost too much to have it rebuilt, I did a GOOD number on it. He asked me to bring him another core, which I was going to bring down the original trans from the omega, as I had the TH200 in it now.
Had some small issues still with the carb, as I was getting a whistling sound while under load. Under a little bit of load, it would whistle. While whistling, the car would lose power. A mutual friend of Glenn & I, rebuilt the Quadrajet for me. We also went as far as trying 2 different base gaskets, just incase. For awhile, I thought maybe something went wrong during the rebuild. The rebuilt carb was easily ruled out, as I swapped it onto the 406 in my 73 Nova. The Nova runs absolutely perfect with it, infact it ran so nice with this carb, I've left it on the Nova. Glenn lent me the quadrajet from his hotrod, which I later traded for an Edelbrock 600 I had sitting around. While we continued to troubleshoot the problem, we determined it must be internal or possibly a crack on the intake. I had an Edelbrock Performer Intake kicking around, but reading on alittle ... I never bothered to swap it out (yet). However, the whistling continues, altho it wasn't near as bad, but from time to time ... I swear I can still hear and feel it in the car.
Troubles continued for the Omega in early June, as the TH200 lets go, leaving the car to just rev and rev, barely able to move. Now I'm screwed, and the Omega is now sitting on the front street, as I have yet to get Chris another transmission core to build. I found a TH350C through another cruisin' friend and bought it for $125 and installed that into the Omega in the last week of June.
So transmission swap #2 of the year, and no one was around to help me. Got the car in my parents driveway and got started. Pulled the transmission out myself. As I was preparing the TH350C to go in, the eyelid where the modulator valve clamp broke off as I installed another valve.
After flipping out and wondering what I was gonna do for a transmission, a voice spoke to me and soon a solution was found, (Sometimes I impress myself!). Talk about good timing too, as my good friend Glenn Evans had stopped by to pick up some lawnmover engines, I tricked him into helping me get the TH350C into the car (despite the fact he was all dressed up). All I need was for him to work the jack while I position and line up things. We got the transmission under the car, and then high enough to slide the jack under. As Glenn worked the jack, we jacked it up into the tunnel where I quickly was able to line it up with ease and bolted it to the block. After it was secured, Glenn made a prompt exit. (Guess he didn't wanna hang around and be put to work ... hahaha) THANKS GLENN !!
Just finishing up, got everything back together. A final check and recheck and I'm ready to go for a test drive just as Ian shows up to help. (Good timing boy!)
So after a weekend of hell, altho I enjoyed tinkering and working on the car ... the Omega is on the road again.
Throughout much of the summer, I was entertaining the idea of swapping in a nice powertrain for the ol' Omega. Dan Klim (Good friend of mine, EXCELLENT Machinest & Engine Builder) has a few nice engines built and ready to go. He had a few engines built, a nice 355 which woulda been a nice street motor to a 427BBC which woulda twisted up the car. As I was thinking it over, pricing things out and toying with what I wanted for the Omega. I had basically decided I was going to go with a built 406 he had for sale, and then WHAM!. Towards the end of July, I ended up buying a house and that put the end to ALL spending on both cars and the Omega was left as is.
I haven't touched anymore of the bodywork, other then blowing off more of the paint when washing the car and retouching it up. I have paid some attention to the engine compartment, as I have been adding new pieces/parts onto the Nova, the old pieces/parts get handed down to the Omega.
I gave the Omega a little bit of a tuneup. I went out and bought what I needed, tuned up the Nova and then used the parts from the Nova (which weren't really that old) on the Omega.
I drove the car until early November, when once the snow fell ... I pulled the car into my backyard where I parked it for the winter.
I've had a few offers from people interested in buying the Omega, altho I have yet to see any ca$h in my hand. Until such time, I will continue to tinker and fix up the ol' girl. It's been a great car to learn on ...
Overall, 2007 was a good year ... got alot of little things done or fixed up. I still haven't finished the bodywork portion of the 'fixup'. Don't really have a place where I can take the car off the road (nor the time) to tear it down and finish it up. Well, not yet ... I'm planning on building a garage once I get settled into my new place.
Eger to get the Omega out of the yard and on the road in 2008. Late March, it was starting to warm up, road were drying up altho there was still snow on the ground. I wanted to get the Omega out of the yard. Shovel out a path to the driveway, but the Omega had other plans and didn't want to leave the comforts of the backyard just yet. The back tires on the car were almost as bald as slicks, so there was NO traction. Even with the help of Ian coming over, we tried pushing the car out of the rutts but it wasn't going anywhere. My friend Dan (Speedy) came over with his Dodge truck and a tow rope and a quick tug and the Omega was onto the driveway, where it sat for another week or two.
Once on the road, the Omega was mostly used as my primary car, my daily driver and my cruiser. Continued to do little fixings and tickered around on the car.
I had purchased a set of Keystone Kustom Mags sometime ago, figuring one day I may be able to use them on the Omega. Spent the better part of a morning, FINALLY getting around to trimming up the lips of the rear quarters. I wasn't able to run anything wider then a 225/70/15 on a 15x7. So with some patience and ALOT of eye-balling, measuring and test fitting ... I had trimmed up the quarters nicely even getting myself more room then enticipated. WOOHOO!, I thought I would see if I would be able to run the keystone mags which had 235/60/15's mounted on them. Not only did they fit nicely, but the mags looked SO SWEET on the car! Figured if maybe I trim alittle more, I maybe able to get a 245/60 on there with no problems.
The car was in some need of repair tho, as the sagging suspension was becoming an issue. Due to the terrific condition of our streets, I had to be very alert and careful how I drove, to avoid bottoming out the car. I did manage to manuever the car pretty well, however they were sometimes I wasn't able to avoid obsticul and BOOM!, the car would bottom out. I clinched everytime I heard the tire scrap the wheel wells or the oil pan taking a hit. I purposely rode a taller tire on the front to help keep the front end up.
If you remember back on Page 1, when we did the Engine Swap from the 250 to the 305, I ended up using the motor mounts which were already on the 305. Not knowing at that time that they were different the other ones I had for my 73 Nova, and that 350 motor from the 74 Nova which caused the 305 to sit a little lower in the engine bay, exposing the oil pan.
So once that was done, we processed to do the passenger side. My turn!!. Right off the bat, things aren't coming apart. Clint got right into it again, pushing me aside and went to town. Same thing on this side, except it only took us 3 hours.
After slaving away and grooling over the Omega for the better part of a day, swearing/bleeding/sweating/sore/tired/pissed off, we had swapped out the springs, installed new shocks and lower ball joints and were NOW able to run the 15x7 mags on the front.
It's getting there ..... :)
I didn't have much planned for the Omega in 2009, as I was hoping to devote some more time to my beloved Nova which I had been ingoring the past few summers since acquiring and getting the Omega on the road. My list of 'things-to-do' was the Nova has been growing and it got to the point where I needed to get some things done on it.
The newer seats are FAR more comfortable then the old ones, which seems like a hard-vinyl and that little chrome piece on the backside would start to become an irritant on long road trips. The new seats have a nicer look to them too!
I was hoping to finally get around to finishing up some of the bodywork, like filling the side-weld lines and stuff, but I still haven't gotten any further then buying the supplies.
One night while out cruisin', a friend of mine overheard me talking about wanting to find a nice motor for the Omega and he mentioned to me that he had a farely fresh built-355 SBC that he was no longer using. The motor turned out to be too much for his truck and he went another route for a powertrain. After finding out some information on the motor, and he was confident in this motor that I was offered a money-back guarantee if I didn't like it. I struck a deal with him for the motor.
As soon as I acquire the motor, my next step was to have another Turbo 350 transmission built that could handle a little bit of power. I quickly called up my good friend Chris Derksen who built the transmission in my Nova, and asked if he would build me another one for the Omega. Few weeks later, I had a powertrain ready for transplant.
I took some time off in early June to do the engine/trans swap, but instead I bought a 88 5L Mustang. I spent that week working on the Mustang, cleaning it up and getting it ready for the road. The motor swap would have to wait.
The Omega was a consistant low-17 second car, breaking into the high-16s at the end of the day.
Come mid-July, my ball hockey playoffs & season was done. It's car-wrenching time !! I went hard-core on the Omega, spending every spare moment in the garage on the Omega.
As I got underway with the swap, a few friends stopped by to give me a hand with things. Ian, Glenn A. and my neighbor Amanda stopped by and lent a hand at disassembling and swapping out the ol' 305/TH350C combo for this 355/TH350 setup.
Just over a week later, the Omega is back on the street and with a little bit more of an attitude :).
Early September, I had had enough. I parked the car early for winter and drove/cruised around in the Nova & Mustang, leaving Slomegas' problems to be dealt with next spring.
All that's left to address, upgrading the rearend. The one-wheel wonder with a gear ratio of 2.56/2.73 will NOT cut it. Not to mention what a pain it is becoming switching the tires back and forth. I'm currently on the search for a posi unit and I'm thinking some 4.10s would go nicely with the 355 setup.
I'm comtemplating having a complete rearend built for the car, going all out for a Detroit Locker, c-clip eliminators and running 4.10s. Only thing holding me back is the pricetag, so I'm hoping to find something for sale a little cheaper or finding an old posi unit somewhere that can be rebuilt.
The fun never stops ...
Over the winter season, my dad and I discussed racing the Omega at the track and just having some fun with the car. It seems my dad got abit of the car bug back when he came out last June to the track for the day. RIGHT ON!, father/son project.
Started off fixing/tweaking the setup from last years engine swap. Tuned the carb, rewired the electric fan circuit and other misc odds and ends.
We had our share of troubles, with the installations. First, the rear springs fell apart when we removed the spring-plate to install the traction bars. While installing the Subframe Connectors, I had to gut the interior, and then cut through the floor of the car to locate both the bolts for the end of the subframe where the connectors bolts into, and then 6 small holes to locate the rear spring preachs, as every nut spun or broke. Did I mention how much fun I was having ??
As we got around to installing the driveshaft loop, it turned out I was gonna install it in the wrong location, on the channeling. It needed to be further back. (Thanks Dad for pointing this out!!) So, after drilling 2 holes I will have no use for, we found a good spot further back from the channeling to install the loop.
To finish off things, we needed to get the rear-end rebuilt and change up the 2.56/2.73 open carrier. My Dad and I called a few places inquiring about a rear-end rebuild. After some investigating, we decided to go with the Detroit TrueTrac Posi, and 3.73 Richmond gears. Originally we thought about going with 4.10s, but then we had some concerns of running out of RPM when racing down the track if we missed a shift or short-shifted. 3.73's would gives us a little cushion. So, out of the 3 main places, we chose Motion Performance to both buy the parts from and have them install it.
With the new gear ratio, there was talk about how well would the Omega hook up off the line? We decided to purchase some BFG G-force Drag Radials to help us out, installing them on some steel rims.
For the next week or so, we need to break-in the new posi & gear set.
So, alittle behind schedule ... as the first 'Test & Tune' day was May 22nd, we were pushed back to June 5th or June 19th as the car is not yet .... not quite ready to beat on. I'm hoping for 13s myself, and I find the car seems to pull pretty hard, comparing it to the Nova.
Really, I don't care what the car runs ... it's just kinda exciting to be doing some car stuff with my dad.
Continues on Page 3 ...
The Omega is still sitting with the soft 6 cyl. springs in the front, as I never did get around to changing the motor mounts. One afternoon, Clint and I were out driving (driving sanely, not being stupid) and next thing we know, we had the mother of all bottoming outs. It sounded REAL bad. Pulling over to check things out, we scrapped the centerlink and I've never noticed how badly the oil pan was before, but it was caved in pretty badly. Well, it's not leaking oil and we have pressure. I was worried that maybe the oil pickup might of been damaged, so kept an eye on the oil pressure gauge and we headed home. I decided that the Omega would have to be parked until I could get around to fixing the suspension/front end. I had the parts, just didn't have the time and it wasn't something I wanted to do by myself.
Next morning, just before lunch, Clint calls me up. "Let's fix up that front end!!". I already had the parts, I had the front springs from that Omega parts car, brand new Monroe Shocks, and we began the task at hand. Clint went right to work on the car as I stayed back and watched, staying out of his way and running tools for him. Nothing went easy for us that day. Anything that coulda gone wrong did. I did have to make a parts run for lower ball-joints as the drivers one was toast. We had the Angle Grinders out, Die-Grinder, torch, pry bars, hammers ... EVERYTHING. If it wasn't seized, it was stripped.
Boy, does the Omega ever look sharp with the mags on it!! I even like the White Lettering Out too. It was sitting a little high in the front there for the first days/week until the spring settled alittle. The car is still sitting higher in the front, but that is now due to tire size. Maybe next spring, we'll put a little lower profile tire on the front and go from there. Might not have to do anything with the rear springs/suspension yet.
One of the first things I did get around to this spring, was replacing the seats in the omega with some seats I found lastyear, in a 78 Nova Concours at the wreckers for $40. What luck too, as they were the correct color for the existing interior. The seats from a 4th Gen XBody are almost a perfect fit, with the exception of the rear which has a bit of play on the bottom cushion part. Front seat was a direct bolt-in, minus the seatbelt alarm wiring.
Before getting started on the engine swap, I thought I would take the Omega out to the track and see what that 305 could do. My brother in-law wanted to take his 83 T-Bird out to the track as well, so the whole family came out to the track. My girlfriend (at-the-time) Amanda, my neighbor Amanda and her friend Krista, and Glenn A. also joined us for the day.
We arrived at Gimli mid-morning, ran the car thru 'tech' (track inspection) and off down the track we went. I made a whole bunch of passes early as the track wasn't so busy. I was in the 17s, even getting one pass in at 16.92@80-some miles per hour. Once I stopped to take a break, my dad asked for the keys and he wanted to take the car down for a few passes. WELL!!, my dad was having such a good time racing, that we couldn't get him out of the car. He was running consistant mid to low 17s. It was great to see my dad having a good time, and even getting into the cars abit with me!
Gimli Drag Racing - May 30th
355 Engine Swap - (Pics & Summary)
As little problems still arose from the engine swap, I tried my best to fix them as I could. Even after installing the 3-core rad, the motor still seemed to be running a little warmer then I'd like. (200-210). I even went as far as making up an 'air dam' to force air through the trans-cooler and radiator, hoping this might help.
Spring arrived early in 2010, about 3 weeks eariler then usual, about mid-March and I was able to get the Omega out!
The building of the racecar continued with some help from my dad, Clint and Ian. We installed all new Subframe Bushings, LakeWood Traction Bars, Competition Engineering Subframe Connectors and finally a LakeWood DriveShaft loop.
Page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Main Page