89 Cutlass Ciera Race Car Build

[lemons bob]

We couldn't while keeping the water pump going the correct direction, at least I can't figure out how to do it. So we purchased a bypass pulley which should minimize the loss since it is lighter.

[Zaloryan]

Sometimes an alternate belt route is displayed on the fan shroud. Sometimes there isn't one.

[lemons bob]

I seriously doubt there is any way to do it without a pulley. Even cars that don't have AC leave the factory with a pulley down there.

[lemons bob]

This weekend we replaced the radiator and removed the rest of the air conditioning system.

It all went pretty well I guess, with the normal have to run out to the store for this or that.

After taking the radiator out there is 2 things that we noticed

First this car has been hinding under the radiator a lot of dead bugs and crushed leaves. Second somehow the condensor had a pretty nice size dent on the inside passenger side and the driver side support bar was dented up pretty good too. No idea how but doesn't really matter I guess. The front side of the condenser seemed to have a bunch of dead wasps smashed into it. So it seems the car must have been killing them during the last race.

Once that was out, and while the transmission fluid was draining, since we had to disconnect the cooler we had to replace the trans fluid(not sure how it happened but pretty much everything that had anything to do with the transmission ended up at some point in the old trans fluid, the bolts the pan even the old filter fell in it). We went about pulling the rest of the air conditioning parts out. The condesor wasn't too bad. Removed the support on the bottom, then loose up the top support, and then pop off all the little plastic pop rivets that connected it to the rubber air deflector. We still have to figure out how to get that back up perminently since without it you lose significant amount of airflow through the radiator. After that we took the compressor off. The 2 bolts by the belt were pretty easy. The ones on the bracket on the back were a bit more difficult, but most of that was finding them. That and the last is a nut on a threaded stud to the back, and the stud went right up to the oil filter, so that meant we had to change the oil too. So off to the store for that. Luckily there was a deal with penzoil and puralator filters ( I tend to prefer Puralator over Wix for the cutlass because for Wix you can only get the half height for a 60 degree v6 now, and I have to believe a full height would have more filter material for better flow than a half height). So with the oil draining also now we took off the compressor and went to line up the bypass pulley which lined up perfectly (we were kind of worried about that), although they forgot to send nuts in the kit, only bolts, so off to the hardware store, got a couple bolts with nylon ends so the bolts would stay good and tight, the belt lined up perfectly and its good to go.

Put the new radiator in and new hoses just cause (they were on clearance at rock auto) go to bolt all the rest of the stuff all up and snap the bolt going through the dogbone. This bolt is a grade 10.9,(which in english bolts is a grade 8) No way by hand someone should be able to break it, but obviously jlattyak has some kind of super strength going for him. Went to the auto store first thinking they might have it since the dogbone is pretty much a universal gm part used on most of their cars, but they didn't just had some bolts none of which would work. So off to the little old hardware store cause they have the best selection of bolts. Couldn't find a metric one that would work, but luckily their was an sae bolt that was almost the exact same thickness and close enough in length to do the job. So with a new grade 8 bolt it was all set too.

without the compressor it looks a lot more set back, and I think it looks good.


All the parts we took out, I'm not even sure if it will add up to 50lbs, but all of that sitting out way in front of the axle now gone should help balance the car out a bit more and hopefully get rid of some of the understeer, and even worse the snap oversteer.

[Zaloryan]

Glad to see you got all of that stuff out! You might pull the evaporator out of the heater shroud housing on the firewall if you get the chance. That would be the only remaining piece of the A/C system. After seeing all of those dead insects on the radiator, how about picking up some cheap chicken wire at the local farm outlet? I've placed some behind my plastic Ciera grill and the lower bumper opening. It's kept lots of rocks and bugs from damaging my radiator.

[lemons bob]

Might put some screening(mesh for screen doors or windows) material in front of it and the coolers. Nearest farm and fleet is a bit of a haul. Still have alot of clean up work to do we didn't wrap any of the wires that were connecter yet plus need to get the rubber air deflector sorted. Also want to get some tubing to get air to the front brakes to try to cool them down a bit, and now with all the extra room up front we should think of a way to route it better to the air intake. All and all the condenser wasn't that beat up in the front a lot of grime on the bottom but that would be expected. There was one dent I noticed from when we bought the car, and since there were feathers stuck on it I'm guessing I know what hit it, but it really wasn't that bad either.

[Duke George V]

I bet your snap oversteer could be cured by a bag or two of concrete in the trunk.

[Pontiac6ksteawd]

ACtually, Tieing down the AC parts he just took out of the front, into the trunk.. Make a use for them, and not waste them.. Just make sure to tie them down really good. Dont need any projectiles in a accident.

Buddy did this in his Miata. But he built a box out of 1/8 steel, and welded it in. Emergency parts went in, and was a weight for the tires.

[lemons bob]

I think sticking one of the extra wheels in the trunk would be easier to deal with than strapping all the ac equipment in there.

We're still hoping to pick up a spoiler which should help a bit at speed, or well it weighs something so it has to help like that right. Also going to be purchasing some much better tires (dunlop star specs) and those have fixed some snap oversteer in other teams. Plus we need to just not use the brakes in the turn.

[Duke George V]

Braking is okay, but you should keep your right foot on the power a bit.

[lemons bob]

have to work on 2 foot driving for that, but a little letting up of the gas does swing the rear end around nicely, although when I started doing that I realized I was suppose to be conserving tires so I didn't get to play to much.

It really comes down to slight changes so you don't upset the balance to much. These cares are definitely front heavy so any heavy shifting of weight will upset the car, especially in the corners. A slight tap of the brakes or letting up of the gas in a turn give just that little bit extra rotation that you feel in your stomach. But its one of those things you need to do by feel and we rarely are going all out in an endurance race, but its fun to do every once in a while.

[lemons bob]

I was starting to think bout some of the challenges for the next race. We are hoping to race at Road America in August. So besides it being hotter Road America is lot different from the track we raced at before. First its much longer, just a bit over 4 miles. Also there are some major elevation changes throughout. It is also known for long fast straights and a few signature turns.

The car has always run cold so heat I'm not to worried about yet.

The length means we won't be lapped as often, and other than communication should be much different.

The elevation changes some shouldn't be to bad, but there are a couple that are right around breaking zones so until we start running it won't know if we will have to brake early or if we can wait until we are off the downhill.

The straights will probably help us, many of the fast cars are going to run out of gears half way down the straight, I kind of doubt we will hit our theoretical top speed of like 138 but I've heard some teams that changed their gear ratios on other tracks topping out under 100.

Out of the turns the one that worried me most is the carousel. THe Carousel is a long downhill right hand turn. The part that worried me the most is that a long turn pushes all your fluids to one side of the pan. It does look like we lucked out here though. I know the trans pickup is on the left front of the pan so it should still get plenty of trans fluid. I haven't dropped the oil pan but it looks like oil pickup is also more towards the left side meaning hopeful it will also still be able to get oil in the long turn. Although confirmation from someone will be nice. Even so we'll probably run the fluids a little on the high side to be safe.

[lemons bob]

Small late update.

Last Saturday headed out to the junkyard. Snagged a spoiler off an Oldsmobile Intrigue. The quick test fitting on a 90 cutlass ciera actually looked really good. I haven't gotten the pics from the guy who took them, once I do I'll post them, or once we mount it, which ever comes first.

[Duke George V]

Just for show, or do you think you'll be fast enough for the spoiler to be useful?

[mechanizeddeath]

Not sure about the Intrigue, but I do know that most of the stock spoilers I've encountered are cosmetic jobs and provide little to no downforce, even at track speeds. I'm certainly no expert and there are exceptions of course, hopefully the Intrigue is one of them.