Ok, Joe, I guess it's time to come out of hibernation.

This winter I started, but got nowhere near finishing, insulating and paneling the upstairs of my barn. Plan is to move all the good stuff stored downstairs up, creating a more usable floor space downstairs. Somehow I thought Ron would come by and finish things up for me. Oh well

Dennis, your more than likely correct.


The radiator opening is equal to if not larger than on a stock Fiero nose. The LT1 Yellow Pantera still has a radiator for a manual trans. A new radiator equiped for auto tranny is coming, but it's way down on the list. I did install a lower temp thermostat, and disconected the computer controlling the fan motors. I installed an adjustable thermostat controlled fan motor relay, and set it at the same temp as the thermostat. Seems to work so far.



The Pantera opening over the engine compartment sets @ 10" back from the rear window, and I assume functions the same as the stock Fiero ventelation set up. I've never done tuft tests to see whats going on when driving. Might be interesting. It does seem to allow the "chimney effect" to work quite well when just setting still.



Not a real good pic, but this Pantera is equipped with small scoops where the stock Pantera has "gills". I'm sure they at least contribute to air turbulance when on the road. Looks like tuft tests are due.

I don't have a pic right now, but on the choptop Pantera I tried to maximize the available opening for scoops, and tried to create a scoop that looked more like the Gills, but functioned as a scoop. You may have seen these at the 25th if you were there. On that Pantera, I also located the radiators for both the engine oil and the tranny oil directly behind the scoop opening. I'll get some pics soon.

To get things started, I had to replace the evil optispark on the LT1.


Mine is a '94, and so is blessed with the pin driven unvented optispark. Here you can see three small weep holes at the base. Also, unexpectedly, my ebay replacement came with one of the two required vent fittings, seen just below the weep holes...


So....


I plugged two of the weep holes and fitted a vacum line in the third hole. We will see.

Whenever you hear an LT1 owner talking about replacing their optispark, they usually have nothing good to say about the water pump. It is located just above the optispark and of course it also has a weep hole. GM, what can I say?



Anyhow, I tried a similar fix here as well...





Just for clarification, the clear hose is only a drain hose, no vacum source involved. I used clear tubing because there is such a small amount that actually weeps, I wanted to be able to see it. The tubing is routed so that it loops once, again so that I can see any trace of weepage.

The LT1 Pantera is a low bucks ( cough, gag ) project. I just put it together to see if it runs. If I can fix whatever is needed without removing the engine cradle, I will. But if I have to pull the cradle, then I'll do things like clean up the engine, valve covers, intake, make a lot of the plumbing and wiring disappear, put the battery up front, etc. If the new optispark fails, I will switch the timing cover & cam to accept a ventillated optispark, and replace the water pump with either an electric unit or try talking Darth into a set of his adapters to remote the water pump alltogether. But for now, it's down & dirty.

I fired up the LT1 and it runs. It has a miss, and hopefully this is just a mis-routed sparkplug wire or a loose sparkplug wire, a dying coil, or maybey a stuck injector. This could lead to the big teardown, but honestly I hope not.

The important thing is to gear up to get on with the choptop Pantera. A few more weekends of rearranging the barn and I'll be trying to finish it up.

See you in a few weeks, months, whatever.

David Breeze

[This message has been edited by opm2000 (edited 05-04-2009).]

Ron, shhhh !, the War Dept might hear you calling it a small thing.

It started with a small retaining wall & shrubbery to keep traffic off the lawn


Then I had to redo the parking lot bed, give it a wall, make it look decent


The roses were Mother's Day gift, guess I over inspired ms Patty


I had to edge everything, and mulch it, still need 4 more truck loads of mulch


And plant lots of new stuff


I took up the slate sidewalk and relaid it to "high heel" standards, for guests, I reckon


I pulled the old top off the well and built a 12'x12' deck over it, and replaced the pump with a new one


I built a retaining wall along the creekside of this level, and then built this 20'x30' patio up against the wall


I'm still not thru putting up lattice work everywhere


But I did get to redo the staircase and slate walk going up to the shop


I truly apologise to those true "car nuts" who don't care to see my recent trials. I can only say that after the wedding I'm installing my outdoor wood boiler furnace, primarily to heat the house, but also to heat the shop. I may just put a cot up there and stay the winter, working on Panteras.

David Breeze

[This message has been edited by opm2000 (edited 08-10-2009).]