Found some springs that are perfect. After realizing hood struts wouldn’t work because they push the wrong direction, I thought “Heck, I’ll just get a couple hood springs.”



I couldn’t remember the last time I saw a car in my favorite salvage yard that had hood springs. Didn’t even know when the domestic manufacturers switched from springs to struts, but I figured it was in the 80s.

The salvage had ONE vehicle to choose from, a 1976 El Camino.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 11-28-2020).]

As I was wrapping up work on the press, I spent a lot of time cleaning up the shop to get ready to clean the Quad 4 block again and then reassemble the whole engine. That included cleaning all the tools and junk left over from sanding and painting off the heavy duty work table.

I needed a big area to hold engine parts, especially the crank shaft, which I’d already installed in the block. Out it came today.



The crank looked really good when I first pulled this engine before junking the GTZ in 2012. Still looks good, but I’ll polish the journals before putting it back in.



I’m always struck by how small the Quad block is.



Its small size is because all the magic happens in the head and the towers for the overhead cams.

The car had 140,000 miles on it when my brother gave it to me in 2008 with a blown head gasket. I replaced the head but didn’t touch the bottom end and drove it for another 100,000 miles before the timing chain tensioner broke.

This is not the original engine, its a reman from Mexico, according to a sticker on the side of the block.

I also took a close look at the coolant passages and they looked very dirty.



This is exactly why I’m re-cleaning this block.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 12-06-2020).]

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 12-06-2020).]

Fun with engine blocks. While cleaning up the block that came out of my ‘92 GTZ, I wanted to see how the cylinder walls compared to one of my spare Quads.

The block in front is from a 1989 Grand Am which I disassembled shortly after getting it home from the salvage yard a few years ago. It had a blown head gasket and had been sitting for quite some time so there’s some corrosion in the cylinders.



It’s casting number 24570377. Don’t know what the 1 G means, maybe 1st generation?



The second block is my ‘92 GTZ block, which says 2 G, casting number 24570661. It has a lot more webbing than the 1 gen block does.



The third Quad is still assembled and is actually sitting in the car because I used it to fab the engine mounts and figure out the transmission linkage. It came out of either a ‘93 or ‘94 Grand Am and it says 5 G, casting number 24570661.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 12-31-2020).]

I’m still planning to use the 0661 block out of the GTZ. I honed the cylinders and they look pretty good to me.





LD9user on YouTube recommends several easy modifications while the engine is apart. For instance, he radiuses the oil drain holes at the top of the block so the oil drains easier.

One of the interesting features of the Quad is the oil check valve. It’s just a ball bearing in a sleeve. When the engine is shut off, the bearing slides to the bottom of the tube and seals off the oil, keeping it in the head. You have to make a special tool to pop it out, which is usually a bolt with its head ground flat on both sides.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 12-31-2020).]

More progress, but then a major setback. I polished the crank journals, using the sand paper/shoe lace method. I used 800, 1500 and 2000 grit paper lubricated with WD 40.





Before installing the crank, I radiused the oil drain holes on top of the block.



The setback came when I checked the ring gaps. They’re huge, more than a millimeter.



This is one of the #2 rings. The gap is supposed to be only .0256” maximum. I bought these rings along with the rest of the rebuild kit six or seven years ago. Since this block is a reman, the cylinders must have been bored out.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 01-03-2021).]