1995 Olds Achieva-the quest continues

[Marty Knox]

Looks good Robert. Best of luck with it. I am playing with a 92 Grand Am with the SOHC 138 for NHRA E/FS.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Marty Knox

Looks good Robert. Best of luck with it. I am playing with a 92 Grand Am with the SOHC 138 for NHRA E/FS.

Marty,

With yours and now Ron's, that makes 2 SOHC's in Div 3. Getting close to having an E/FS shootout. Ron ran 17.2's with his at Indy earlier in the year. That's what he stated last Saturday evening.

My car is a natural C/FS in NHRA. Better fit in D, that index is 15.60. I want to see how close the old 120K used car engine can get to the E automatic IHRA index first. I know I'm going to need a good short block, a head and some legal cams to really run. Another problem, there are some really good NHRA D cars out there. Just not real sure I can ever run NHRA events again. I can't in my wildest dreams envision getting this car to run a second under. Anything less than that for NHRA, why bother.

This car may never be a "real" stocker in the truest sense of the word. Even though it's slow as watching paint dry, I enjoy the experience of working with it. As a friend of mine expressed it, this car requires you to think things through to find speed. Not always in the motor.

Oh well, numbers and a class designation don't make it a race car. It makes me feel better about it when I'm out thrashing on it.

[Marty Knox]

Robert, I don't know how much time and money I will invest in the Grand Am. I was frustrated not getting my V/Stock El Camino on the track for Stanton, so I bought the GA a week before. I was thinking Stanton had a test and tune Weds night, but they didn't. My only pass, Saturday at the points meet, the low coolant light came on just as they called me to stage. Instead of being smart and shutting down, I made the pass anyway. Missed the tree by quite a bit, ran a 19.1 and puked antifreeze on the track - far from a stellar performance! To top it off I flunked gas and was 15 lbs light. I was able to get gas to check okay and put enough stuff back in to scale 25 lbs over, but couldn't get the cooling system light to go out, so I never qualified.
Now my wife says to put plates on it and use it as a beater.

[Robert Swartz]

Originally Posted by Marty Knox

Robert, I don't know how much time and money I will invest in the Grand Am. I was frustrated not getting my V/Stock El Camino on the track for Stanton, so I bought the GA a week before. I was thinking Stanton had a test and tune Weds night, but they didn't. My only pass, Saturday at the points meet, the low coolant light came on just as they called me to stage. Instead of being smart and shutting down, I made the pass anyway. Missed the tree by quite a bit, ran a 19.1 and puked antifreeze on the track - far from a stellar performance! To top it off I flunked gas and was 15 lbs light. I was able to get gas to check okay and put enough stuff back in to scale 25 lbs over, but couldn't get the cooling system light to go out, so I never qualified.
Now my wife says to put plates on it and use it as a beater.

Marty,

I can give you some perspective on this based on my own experience. Your index, E/FS is 17.45 (1/4 mile). You went 19.1, your 1.65 off the index. My first pass with my Achieva was 11.8 (1/8 mile). My index was 9.85, I was 1.95 off. Now nothing really major was done to the car, other than hacking off the exhaust, putting in fresh coil packs and plugs, I did add a set of drag radials and stiffened the rear springs. I've only had the car on a 1/4 mile track once, it went 16.88@80mph, on a 15.90 index, .98 off (1 second). In the 1/8, it has gone 10.69@66mph, .84 off.

Yes, I'm a ton off. The car has improved. You just have to approach it from a Stock Class mentality. These slow cars will react to things you do to them. You have to search for time in places other than the engine. One thing I did was have the car weighed. To make the class minimum, I need to weigh 3020lbs. With a half tanki of gas and me in it, it weighed 3080lbs. That was after I put it on a diet. I've removed a few more things, estimate I've reduced the weight another 25lbs or so. Anything you remove, you weigh. Of course anything you put back, you factor that back in, too.


BTW, the "add coolant lite" comes on on my Achieva too. I have a temp gage on mine, it doesn't get that hot. It will run 180-190 degrees. I keep water in it, don't really get excited about it. As well, these cars are more sensitive to weather than a car with HP. On a real warm, muggy day, my Achieva will slow down 2-3 tenths. I think you could shove it off a cliff and it wouldn't hit the ground.

Another point to ponder. How much blood, sweat and tears (time & money) you want to invest in a combo. I probably have $14-1500 wrapped up in mine to this point. It has diverted a small amount of funds away from other cars. I often kid my partner, "this one runs"! I can occasionally take it to the track. Sometimes a car just isn't worth messing with. If YOU don't think the car can run, the best time to move on is before you have a lot invested in a project.

My car, with what little has been done to it, so far. Has been a pleasant surprise. Thus far every prediction I've made, ends up being wrong, the car reponds. Wherever it lands after this last slew of changes is where it will be. After these changes, I will need to decide if I want to do serious work to the car.

If your other car is what's most important to you. I would concentrate on finishing it. You could do as your wife says, make it a daily driver/beater. Or use as a bracket car to let off some steam from time to time. The local track a few miles from my house, those guys hated it when we brought the Achieva out. I can't cut a decent lite at all but they hated it worse, chasing the little ba$^@rd down.

[Robert Swartz]

In the FWIW categorey. Took another look at the headers/collector. May do some more cobbling. Might have hit on an idea that will allow me to use the Flowmax collector. In addition, I weighed my Moroso tire/Centerline wheels compared to the steel wheels/street tires presently on the rear.

That change alone, not just being weight but centrifugal force should be worth something. The stock wheels and tires together are 80lbs. The racing tires combo is only 46lbs. That nets me 34lbs. I was looking for 30! With the approximate 1/2 tank of fuel I had when the car was last weighed puts me roughly at my minimum of 3020lbs! I still haven't touched the interior.

[Robert Swartz]

While everyone else is out running their race cars. Still working on one of mine.

About two weeks ago, I pulled the rear hubs. A suck job in and of itself. Old crusty and rusty torx bolts are no fun. I am now a true believer in Kroil! Even at that, after soaking the bolts and backing nuts. I will conservitively say I had 15-20 minutes or more removing each of these bolts. There were eight of them. With torx, an impact driver is your best friend.

After removing the hubs. I took them to a friend with a big Enco mill. We indexed and drilled all the holes to a Chevy pattern. After installing the long Moroso studs. I decided to put a tack weld in about 3 places on the backside of the studs. Then a fun odessey began. I wanted to replace the old hub bolts with stainless bolts and nuts. The only place that could find them was Fastenal. Minimum order was 50 bolts. So, it was off to my Chevy parts guy and Genuine GM replacements. Those took a few days to get. Car sat on stands for a week waiting on pieces.

Once the parts arrived. It didn't take long to put it back together. In fact this was the opposite of normal reworks. Usually the disassembly is quick and putting the project together is the pain. The hubs went back together realitively easy. bolted the wheels up, thought I was home free. Went to move the car, no brakes. Crawled under car, found brake fluid on the driver side rear.

One of the ancient lines decided to give up. Simple job but took the better part of a Saturday to get everything busted loose. Had to get a new rubber hose from GM. Plumb in a new line, replace a buggered brake bleeder screw. Rebleed the brakes.

Tires and wheels are back on. Car is mobile again. Now to finish the header and get the 4-2-1 collector mounted to it. Need to make mounting tabs and figure out where I want to put my O2 bung. For the heated O2 sensor. After that, mount the fuel sample valve. Getting closer.

[nickh]

Robert many of us get a kick out of your and Billy's build keep the updates coming.