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Jimbo's 1988 GL 4wd. Edelbrock equipped!


Mechanical_misfit
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I recently came across a local listing for an 88 GL witb a funny looking hood scoop. The seller claimed it ran but needed work. A few years ago, i had met the previous owner while cruising in my yellow, rx kitted loyale wagon. His name was Mark Furgeson. He was a master mechanic, and like most of us here, a bit on the eccentric side. He had just done extensive work on the 88 GL you see here.

I have a complete record of hand written notes and receipts, along with his research into his idea of achieving high performance from an ea82. Im still organizing and trying to understand what all has been done to it. The basics are a regrind of the cams from Delta Camshaft. Nos heads, wiseco pistons, new rods, bearings and everything. To top it off he modified what i think was an spfi intake, with an Edelbrock performer #1405 4 barrel carb. Its a 600 cfm unit.

 

Now before all the naysayers start kicking and screaming about this carb being too big, let me just say, i already know. It does run though, and at normal driving and under 3/4 throttle it actually performed well. Its at idle and wot where it is dumping way too much fuel. I qill attempt to make this set up work, but if not i will be swapping to a stock intake and webber.

 

The toughest part of this project is trying to figure out some of his engineering. Unfortunately, Mark passed away last year. His wife said he really loved this car, and bombing through the snow. My plan is to make it reliable, give it a quick paint job, and pass it on to the next enthusiast to enjoy. I have a plan for it that i think Mark, and the rest of you guys can appreciate.

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Haven't played much with the carb yet. Gave it a little more timing and it seemed to like it.

 

Current focus is fixing the rust. Fabbed up a wheel arch for the drivers side, and now working on the trunk floor and rear panel behind the bumper. Found out the bumper is junk and im having a hard time finding one locally.

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  • 3 weeks later...

That is a ton of carb for that tiny engine. Especially since the edelbrocks use mechanical secondaries.

If you can't get it to run decent, switch to a Rochester Q-jet with vacuum secondaries. The secondaries will only open as far as they need to, which for that engine will probably be very little if any at all.

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  • 4 weeks later...

played with the carb some more and this thing is just too much. I'm currently searching for a stock intake locally, and if i cant find one I will be using an ea81 intake. i have an ea81 carb here but i think i'd like to swap to a weber to match better the delta cam and the xt6 pistons. I'm trying to keep this as low buck as possible, so i may try using the holley 5200 if I can junkyard pick one. research says its similar to the weber 32/36. 

Edited by Mechanical_misfit
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  • 1 month later...

Had some more time under the hood of this thing over the long weekend. Looks like this car was originally an spi and not a carbureted model. I have absolutely no parts for a spfi set up on hand so I've swapped an ea81 intake and Hitachi carb in place of the 4 barrel. Now I'm not getting enough fuel. I also have to figure out the choke set up. I'll report back later after I have more time to play with it.

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  • 3 months later...

Getting back to work on this project. I want to have it done in about 6 weeks for our annual mushroom hunting trip in northern MI. I am looking for the following parts.

 

Hood

Driver fender

Rear bumper assembly

Glove box

Center console for an automatic

Decent front seats

 

The rest of its needs are mechanical and I should be able to order all that from rockauto.

 

I'm open to suggestions on what seats fit in place of the stock ones in an ea82. I'm not afraid of modifying the stock brackets.

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  • 3 months later...

Progress moves more slowly with a one year old, a house, a huge garden, and now chickens and turkeys to tend to.

 

I am getting close though!

 

I have completed the 4 runner strut swap on the rear, and I'm quite happy with that.

 

The car has a fully functioning engine now, that to my amazement, leaks no fluids!

 

And most importantly, I've made a lot of progress on the body. This thing was a rusty mess, and I've tried not to go overboard with the restoration, but I did weld in patches for the rear wheel arches and lower quarters. The car was scuffed and thoroughly cleaned before painting it with 7 coats of Apple red enamel.

 

Tonight I started replacing some blown brake lines, but had to call it quits because I don't have enough fittings.

 

I need to get this thing on the road soon. I recently sold The Desert Fox and I've been daily driving my 77 4x4 Dodge 1 ton. Fuel economy is currently in the single digits.

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  • 1 year later...

I've been away from the forum for a while now, and lost my old password and email in the switch around, but here are some updates. 

Mountain grizzly mk2 is alive and well. It now sports an ea81 pushbar from the desert fox. I've also swapped in heated front seats from a gen 2 outback. I want to swap this to a manual transmission,  but I only have a 4 speed duel range and have yet to figure out if that will work. I know the 5 speed is more desirable, but I would rather use what I have available. There are no sources for a 5 speed near me. I believe I have almost everything on hand to make it work aside from a clutch pedal assembly. 

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  • 4 months later...

Now featuring the maxima alternator upgrade! I'm also managing a sweet 21mpg! Never got as good fuel economy with the ea81 carb, and the car seems to breathe a little better. It's still slow as can be, but I'm happier now that I'm not averaging 15pmg. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

Tons of updates, but no pictures at the moment. 

The car is now sporting a 6 lug swap. I have also added the accord rear springs. Up front I made my own 2 inch lift blocks and will also be adding the Ford tempo springs as documented in Jezek's write up. I have also added a winch to the front bumper. 

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22 hours ago, armedequation said:

looks good grizzly! i like the stripe and graphics 

just an fyi, i just did the spring upgrade on my 90 loyale and will be cutting them here soon. with 2 inch blocks you might be good. love the stiffness they give to the ride though, feels much better

Why have you decided to cut them? Are they just too stiff? 

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15 hours ago, GrizzlyFox said:

Why have you decided to cut them? Are they just too stiff? 

not so much the stiffness but i have 4 inch blocks so camber is off a little. i thought for sure with some weight and settling that they would be good but not so far. i havent cut them quite yet though. 

*rereading your post, i think youll be fine with 2 inch blocks. 

Edited by armedequation
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I ended up installing my new springs this evening. I did not reinstall my upper strut lift because the stiffer springs make up for them. I actually think the front sits higher now with the new springs than it did with the old ones plus the lift blocks. 

The maiden voyage as far as snow plowing was Sunday morning. We had some pretty wet snow, maybe 3 inches. The car was able to push my long drive way without issue. Problem being the antique superwinch died. I have since picked up a harbor freight winch today, but have to reengineer my winch mount and wire it all up. 

I also have to build some kind of light bar to mount some headlights and turn signals to get them above the plow when it's raised up. 

Overall, I'm so happy and proud of how far this little car has come. It is a true Swiss army knife vehicle. 

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