1970 Camaro. Project "Cindy" by iregret

6 minute(s) of a 206 minute read

Yeah, I've been busy, money's tight, ya know life stuff. lol I'm getting burned out, but recently I have been daydreaming of driving my dream car! I'd like to before summer's over with.

Okay, so my second order from Second Skin came in this week. Hopefully, I ordered enough to finish my install. I decided I wanted to play with the Spectrum Sludge, so I ordered up some of that too. I plan on putting it on the fender wells, inside the cab. But, I want to wait to do that until I have the doors apart so I can apply some there, if I have extra.

I laid out three pieces of the damplifier. I allocated three pieces for the roof.

When you deaden the roof, you're at the point of diminishing returns, in my opinion. So instead of covering the entire panel, I covered most of it. I kinda went around the roof and knocked on it with my knuckle. I put damplifier where it resonated.

I also ordered my interior paint. This is the stuff everyone recommends. SEM brand.

Here are my stock side panels. The guy who owned Cindy before me spray painted parts of the original interior tan.(Not very well either) My original idea was to remove as much paint as possible, clean these up, and repaint them. I still may do that, but I decided that I wanted to go with the later style ones. I plan on going with those new door panels, and I think the later ones would match better.

1970

1980

Next I decided to look for my oil leak. It's really depressing! I'm so close to being done, and I have an oil leak. Ugh.

So I found it. It's hard to tell in the pic(the engine is actually running, lol) but my finger is pointing to where there is a visible oil leak. The gasket just didn't seal very well there, I guess. So I turned off the engine, and cleaned up all the oil with brake cleaner. I tried using a small screw driver to maybe pull the gasket down a little. That didn't work.

So to rule out this as being the leak, I decided to clean it really well, and put some "Right stuff" on there and see if it leaked anymore. I put the silicone stuff on there and waited about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, I installed my shifter. I forgot to take a pic of that though...

Then I started up the engine. Success! No oil leak. So with my shifter installed, and no leaking oil, I decided that I should take Cindy out for a proper test drive. See how the transmission shifts, listen for vibration, yadda yadda...

I come back and what do I see??? OIL!

All over the effin place!

There's oil on the back of the oil pan, all over everywhere in the front...ugh. I know oil can travel to weird places while being driven, and the fan blows it all over, but come on! Give me a brake here! LOL

My thoughts are:
Leaking oil at the oil pan where it meets the timing chain cover
Leaking oil at the dampener(balancer)
REAR MAIN SEAL

Please no on that last one...PLEASE!

Okay, so I had a stock chevy replacement balancer on there before, but it was meant for a van or something, because the timing marks were way off. So I bought a fluid dampener(please no lectures) and didn't replace the seal. Maybe it's leaking around that seal?!?

I appreciate any input/advice.

7-4-2009

Thanks man.

Okay so the first thing I did today was go to my local Autozone and buy a replacement seal, and rent the dampener puller, and installer.

After that, I took both of my pulleys off, and pulled the dampener. Then I removed the old seal, and installed the new one, using the old one. I gently tapped in circles around the old seal until the new seal was seated.

Then, I got to thinking... Take a look at my dampener. (I bought it used) It has two grooves in it. They aren't very deep. You barely notice them when you scrape your fingernail across them. Could this be why the seal was leaking?

So I went back to Autozone and bought a sleeve kit.

Following the instructions, I put the included "Prolock II" all around the dampener's snout. Then I placed the sleeve over the dampener and tapped it into place using a 2x4 and a rubber mallet, until it was completely seated.

Next I placed oil all over the outside of the sleeve, and the inside of the dampener. I put the installer tool together, and went to press it on. Much to my dismay IT BROKE!! Looks like I'm buying this one. ugh...

The strange part is I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. It just sheared apart... I'm going to try to hit up my local hardware store tomorrow and see if I can just get a longer bolt with the correct threads on it and get the dampener fully seated. Then, I'll go talk to Autozone and see if I have to buy this installer or not...

I swear sometimes, this Camaro will be the death of me!!! hahaha