the Gran Damn

[ericjon262]

a few months ago, I picked up a 2003 Grand Am, that I affectionately call "Gran Damn"





I got new wheels after hitting a pothole, I would like to widen the track width a little though, because they seem to be tucked under the car a bit much for my liking.




if you were a betting man, you would say it has a 3400 and an automatic, when I bought it, it did, however, at this very moment, it has a vacant engine bay. the car blew a brake line under the battery tray, so I pulled the powertrain to facilitate fixing the brake lines, and install a 5 speed manual in place of the stock autotragic. shifter and clutch pedal were a bolt in affair fromva 4 cylinder 5 speed car





since I had the engine out, I decided it would be smart to do LIM gaskets, and front/rear main seals. in doing so, I found 3 broken or stripped exhaust manifold studs, and a timing chain with a ton of slop... since I have no sense, I decided I should go ahead and put one of my 3500 top ends on the car, and put a basic exhaust on the car, consisting of later model manifolds, and larger pipe diameters. the manifold I wanted to use for the front is off of a 3900, and doesn't really fit the LX9 heads though... thankfully, I have a welder and not much sense... the rear manifold will be an LX9 part.
















that loosely brings this thread up to speed on the car. I may be forgetting a few details, but hopefully we'll be hearing it roar to life here in the next 2-3 weeks.

[dbral]

That car looks clean. Nice find! Also, interesting idea with the 3900 front manifold. I would have never thought of trying that + manual trans swaps are fun to read about. Are you going to keep the A/C? Please keep the updates coming!

[ericjon262]

That car looks clean. Nice find! Also, interesting idea with the 3900 front manifold. I would have never thought of trying that + manual trans swaps are fun to read about. Are you going to keep the A/C? Please keep the updates coming!

I'll keep the updates coming as they happen. I was actually planning on ordering a new AC compressor before installing the engine back into the car, being a black car, and living in the south, AC is pretty important to me.

[dbral]

I was actually planning on ordering a new AC compressor before installing the engine back into the car, being a black car, and living in the south, AC is pretty important to me.

Agreed....from SC myself. A/C is a necessity.

[ericjon262]

I've been working on getting this heap back together, and made some good progress. The engine is mostly reassembled, but I need to pull the oil pan to install a new pan gasket. the lifters seemed really gummy, I took them apart and cleaned them.



I got the plasma back up and running, I cut the parts of the transmission mounts out of some thin sheetmetal I had in the shop. The CNC didn't seem to like the thin stuff, the arc would blow through and the machine would cut off after piercing. I found setting the pierce delay lover helped some, but I think I needed to reset the plasma cutter to think it's cutting perforated material.



I bolted the trans to the engine, and saw that the exhaust manifold definitely wasn't going to work with that mount. since I have more invested in the manifold than I do the mount, I'll rework the mount.



The middle and rear lower studs are way back behind the manifold, and really hard to get to. I hope I never need to take this apart in the car...



I also found that either the steel moved, or I measured the rear mount wrong. I'll need to investigate this further.



I might see if I can find a new heat shield for the manifold, this one is a little dinged up, but it's a nice touch that will keep the heat more well contained. I need to find one for the rear manifold still.



I pulled the front subframe out of the car, I found that the steering rack was in kinda poor shape, and the hoses have seen better days. it's all accessible now, so I'm going to put it back together with new parts. since I'll need an alignment either way, I'll throw new outer tierods in too.

[SappySE107]

Any issues with the thermostat housing setup and these manifolds? Good thing you can cut out material and test fit easy enough

[ericjon262]

Any issues with the thermostat housing setup and these manifolds? Good thing you can cut out material and test fit easy enough

it doesn't look like I'll have any issues yet, I do want to put the other heat shield on before I say it's not a problem though. the crossover pipe is pretty close to the transmission fill though.





earlier today I picked up a heat shield for the rear manifold, and a flange for the rear collector. I also dropped an order for a LX5 TB adapter, and modified a throttle bracket. I have a few little things I need to get from the junkyard, and I need to work on some kind of exhaust before I try and put it back in the car.

[1QUICKHATCH]

Looks good! Very interested to see how the exhaust works out for you.

[ericjon262]

Looks good! Very interested to see how the exhaust works out for you.

we'll see soon enough... I ordered a bunch of mandrel bends earlier.

[ericjon262]

I decided the swap mounts were getting a bit complicated the way I was trying to make them, so I started over, this will make them lighter, but they will use non-OEM bushings, which I'm not wild about.



I remeasured everything and my boltholes match now





I also got a new, not beat up heat shield for the front manifold, and crossover. The valve covers were temp removed for paint.



seeing the intake and valve covers painted and pretty makes me almost want to take the LIM off and paint it... I might just fog the ends that are partially visible. I'll paint the transmission when I pull it off to install the clutch and flywheel.

My engine mount was in pretty sad shape, part of it was broken in half, so I decided to draw up a replacement. there will be DOM sleeves welded into the holes, and then a saddle over the top that bolt to the engine. I'm not going to draw it out any further until I have the poly inserts for the sleeves though, I'd hate to put more work in and find out the sleeves don't match my measurements.

[ericjon262]

not mush to update, I've been working my tail off filling in the pool, and fixing a blown headgasket on a 2.2 S10 for my brother. I did mock up the powertrain on the cradle, I need to make one more mount to go under the tail end of the transmission, but the other two mounts appear to be spot on. I did have to make custom sleeves for the poly bushings, as they were designed for a 9/16" bolt, and the transmission mounts use 12 mm bolts. if I get to the point of production, I'll need to find a better solution.



Hopefully the S10 head will be back from the machine shop tomorrow or Tuesday, once I have the head back, I should be able to button up the S10 with a quickness. and then I can spend more time on this garbage.

[SappySE107]

That mount looks almost like the one I was selling for a bit for the grand am

[bszopi]

Definitely a cool build that I will keep an eye on!

[ericjon262]

engine mount progress, I decided I didn't want to put forth that much effort for the front engine mount, so I adapted a 4x4 truck transmission mount. this should be a faster, easier, and cheaper solution.





I did a bug dumb on the engine mount, after drilling the holes for the "studs" I went to put the M12 bolts in, and they didn't fit, so I redrilled, and they fit, but they're supposed to be M10... DOH! I'll drill out the other side to accommodate the larger bolts, assuming this will actually fit the car. I might actually remake the mount in steel that I can cut on the Plasma cutter so that I can produce copies.

it's also worth mentioning that the middle mount hole is pretty much useless. as it's currently configured, I'll have to pick whether to tighten the middle bolt, or the two bolts attaching the mount to the engine, and I think we all know which one makes more sense to omit.

trans mount progress:

concept:



reality





I've been playing around with the chassis side of the mount, it's a little more difficult, as there's no flat space to mount it to.

I think I'm going to cut the mount off here to maximize access to the lower control arm mount. I'll make a box around the bushing to provide better support



The front edge of the "box" will extend towards the front of the subframe. it should be plenty strong, but also not something the average idiot can do to their car. if i get to a point of producing the mounts, it will have to be explicitly clear that it's not an easy 1-2-3 install.



I should invest in a good contour gauge....

[ericjon262]

I think I'm pleased with this. if need be, I can add a gusset to the bottom of the frame side mount, I'm not sure that's necessary though. the last step will be to weld the frame side mount to the subframe.