The car is running and driving. Its maiden voyage was a trip downtown for a date with my wife.
Getting there was a bit of a whirlwind. I decided at some point that this weekend would be the weekend I drive the car. Thursday night I was looking at getting everything put together and ready for final installation. I had left the original coolant pipes on my thermostat housing this entire time because I figured everything would be fine. However, when I removed the coolant hose that goes to the expansion tank to replace it with a new one, I found this:
Yeah...not about to run that. So I scrambled to try to find one through my connections and online. No dice. This is not a part that is available in the aftermarket. It is specific to the Mark VIII, and I've designed my plumbing around it at this point. So Friday morning I take a chance and call one of the local scrap yards in town. Columbia, MO isn't exactly big, and the chances of any yard having a Mark VIII are very slim. Sure enough, they've got one. And it has its thermostat housing. But if I want it, I need to pull it myself. For all I know, it could be some rust bucket POS car with the same problem. Lucky for me, the coolant in the car was very clean and the barb on the housing was perfectly intact.
Here it is installed in the car. The lower radiator hose is a section off of a longer hose from a 70s Chevy. It was the only hose on the wall at the parts store that had the geometry I was looking for. Everything else is Mark VIII hoses.
Friday and today I spent wrapping up mounting of the cruise module, expansion tank, fuse box, and air box. This was good, because I had been unsure how to go about mounting all of these for a pretty long time. I also added some heat shielding around the trans tail shaft since there's a catalytic converter living under it now.
The transmission took fluid no problem, as expected, and the engine took coolant no problem either. Took a minute for the heat to start working, but eventually all the air was forced out and it worked.
And last but not least, there it is downtown in a parking spot.
The driving experience is pretty awesome. The car actually has power now! I haven't floored it, and I haven't gone faster than 45 mph. The engine sounds fantastic in the car. I'm very happy with the exhaust system I built. Going 45, the car is very smooth. No vibration that I noticed. However, it's hard to focus on just one thing at this point since I'm trying to focus on literally everything! Right now, it has no power brakes, no power steering, and no air conditioning. The brakes feel...hard. Not something I'd want to live with but I probably could if I had to. Power steering, though. Definitely gonna need that. And air conditioning would be nice since it was a high of 97 today. Didn't bother me too much though since I was working in the garage dripping sweat all day leading up to the drive. Overall, the experience was everything I was hoping for and more. I'm excited to get the thing fully sorted and add the things I mentioned it was missing.
Videos to come.