Failure

This turned into an epic failure on my part too much project and not enough funds /time, car was junked! Nuff Said!

BJ

No not that kind of bj the kind with nipples er eh.Ok balljoints that are pressed into a control arm.
I have had a tough time with the control arms and BJs.The front arms needed new bushing and Napa in their wisdom gave me this bushing here on the right when I asked for the front control arm bushing.


Now I asked for the bushing for the front control arm they neglected to point out they differentiate between the left and right bushing by front and rear?So I asked for the front bushing they gave the front front control arm bushing.WHich of course doesnt fit.

Hence back to napa for this bushing here on the left.(Sigh)


Back to BJs anyway these joints are pressed into the rear suffice to say if you are not pressing them bring a VERY large and HEAVY hammer.Really though one good hit with a 4lb sledge and they pop out.

The front BJs were riveted in(sigh),hence the need for grinding and drilling and more drilling till finally you that aforementioned hammer and give a good slap.

This BJ here on the upper left is just like the rear except no lock nut was supplied or castle nut,why am I not surprised by that one.

The front has nuts and bolts supplied with it to replace the rivets that I drilled out.

JUNK!

Today I took the old 3800 down to the metal recycler,Scrapped!Really nothing good about it the crank and rods were beat and the head castings are a bad year(Prone to cracking with high lift springs at the very least.).Also the Valve springs were out of spec so lose lose situation on to a new motor.Not all bad I can't believe what they are paying for old cats I received 26 dollars for 320lbs of scrap iron and 100 dollars for one rusty catalytic converter(see pic)!

Pulled!

Finally pulled out the old L67 tonight.Used a 4x4 and few friends(Thats what friends are for !)I'll have to get a lift for the new motor but in the meantime I needed to clean up the bay and get this hunk of iron to the recycler.

Brakes,GM bodies and motor mounts.

Well after getting the starter and all bolt on accessories off Im ready to pull the engine just the motor mounts and transmission bolts left.
The GM bodies are interesting having done some research into the C and H front wheel drive platforms.The C introduced in the Electra in 85 was used for all Park avenues till 2005,the very similar H body introduced a year later in 86 is still in use with the Buick Lucerne.My conundrum was if rear disc conversion is possible.As the older C and H cars like my 96 PA and the Bonnevilles up to 96 for the PA and 00' for the Bonnys have drum brakes.Now don't get me wrong drum brakes can work pretty well I had a 63 Buick with 12" drums all the way around and it had stopping power.It did suffer from fade and contamination issues common to all drums though .Id love to switch to disc brakes but Im not sure it's worth it for me powder coated drums might be the ticket.For what it's worth it's possible to convert to disc on the older PAs but this would involve switching out the whole rear assembly including the crossmember or some fab work with a torch take your pick.These picks show the rear suspensions of a 96 PA and a 99 PA.Basically GM installed an updated suspension on the 99 based on a new rear crossmember.Hence the swap of the whole assembly ,according to Haynes these crossmembers unbolt so ..on paper it sounds like you can swap them hmm.More research needed I believe ..

Double Brr

Way too cold today to work outside I think we had a high of 18 and I had no toe warmers left so..

My final solution is to get an L32(04+ 3800 supercharged) complete.Too much involved parting a motor together.I can take the L32 and pull the intake and install the intake from the L67 and the brackets.Nothing original from what I have read others have done the same and it's the easy way out.I can plop the L32 in heads and all and then bolt on what I need.

Lapping valves,installing Ls6 springs,300 dollar cams and buying 150 dollar head gaskets can be fun,however it can get expensive.The L32 from the factory makes 260hp with a new exhaust,modded airbox and a tune I cant see 300hp being unreachable ,it will be low cost and reliable .

Old Heads

These are the old heads I pulled today.Messy messy so were the exhaust manifolds you can see one on the floor in the pic to the left.Conundrums conundrums ..Well according to what I have read on forums these heads are crap I guess GM didn't make the earlier 96-98 heads to well and they are prone to crack.So my plan now is to locate a low mile L26(NA 3800 with powder coated rods)and find a pair of L67 heads that are casting 4781 I believe but I will have to double check.