Greetings! Well it has been one long year but the 78 Eleganza II is
finally back on the road, thanks to Joe Mondello and Tom Green. The
newly rebuilt 455 sounds strong and seems to do everything it is
supposed too. I pulled a hill near Vandenberg AFB at 65 mph and still
had foot feed at the floor to go more. The ceramic coated Thornley
headers do remove the heat from the engine compartment as they are
advertised to do. The floor does not get hot any more. I may have to
install a heat blanket or reflector on the right hand side wheel well
cover (plastic) the headers are pretty close. With these headers the
oil lines do not have any problems. The major problem I ran into was
the great amounts of money I spent on radiator cooling for the oil
cooler. In some of my conversations I mentioned that I paid for a new
radiator and oil cooler. Well folks there have been no coolers like
original manufactured for at least 10 years. So with the engine
contamination I opted at the suggestion of the professionals to go with
a secondary oil cooler. It is right next to the transmission cooler and
at the time seems to work ok. The oil line holes were plugged up and
are ok. The new cam seems fine too. I do have two questions. On the
short ride the other day to see how it did I noticed that about 65 mph
there was seemed to be best described wandering in the front end. Is
this due to steering control or possible Knuckles and Hubs. It has not
been a full 30 K since these K and H were removed and replaced with new
bearings. I would appreciate any input about which I should do first.
Also, looking for the input for a new GMC cover. During the storage for
repair it sort of got ripped up in the wind here on the Central coast.
Thanks for all the assistance. Your GMCer Chuck
finally back on the road, thanks to Joe Mondello and Tom Green. The
newly rebuilt 455 sounds strong and seems to do everything it is
supposed too. I pulled a hill near Vandenberg AFB at 65 mph and still
had foot feed at the floor to go more. The ceramic coated Thornley
headers do remove the heat from the engine compartment as they are
advertised to do. The floor does not get hot any more. I may have to
install a heat blanket or reflector on the right hand side wheel well
cover (plastic) the headers are pretty close. With these headers the
oil lines do not have any problems. The major problem I ran into was
the great amounts of money I spent on radiator cooling for the oil
cooler. In some of my conversations I mentioned that I paid for a new
radiator and oil cooler. Well folks there have been no coolers like
original manufactured for at least 10 years. So with the engine
contamination I opted at the suggestion of the professionals to go with
a secondary oil cooler. It is right next to the transmission cooler and
at the time seems to work ok. The oil line holes were plugged up and
are ok. The new cam seems fine too. I do have two questions. On the
short ride the other day to see how it did I noticed that about 65 mph
there was seemed to be best described wandering in the front end. Is
this due to steering control or possible Knuckles and Hubs. It has not
been a full 30 K since these K and H were removed and replaced with new
bearings. I would appreciate any input about which I should do first.
Also, looking for the input for a new GMC cover. During the storage for
repair it sort of got ripped up in the wind here on the Central coast.
Thanks for all the assistance. Your GMCer Chuck
