Shipping 1097 chevy vegas

[chainblu]

Thing wouldn't start, So I had to retard the timing and the torque just took a dive.

I think that was the key to my (4 cyl) Vega having a bit more pep to it's step. The engine was pieced together from 3 different cars. I don't know what (stock) cam it had, but I'm pretty sure the head and intake were from a '74 GT. It had the Holley-Weber 2 bbl. The engine it came off of had over-heated terminally, so I had the head shaved a bit.

But yeah, I had the timing so far advanced that it would buck against the starter, so I put in a separate starter button and would let the starter get to full spin before I keyed on the ignition.

I still own the car. It's sitting in the rear of my garage waiting for the body work that I started and never finished. It currently has a 3.8 Buick V6 and a 200-4r.

 

[javacontour]

The Vega was a very attractive car. Too bad GM didn't do a better job on it.

I remember seeing them when I was in 5th grade working my before school crossing guard (Safety Patrol) "job."

I thought they were a good looking car, but noticed some smoked a bit more than other cars.

Some decisions made then seem odd in hindsight. Aluminum block and IRON heads?

 

[WylieCoyote]

I don't know why this is striking me so funny. Maybe I'm tired, but I am sitting here LMAO at the recall info on these cars. Can you imagine any of this stuff happening today? I know, new cars have even weirder problems, but they're not as entertaining. LOL. Car manufacturing was a s-show in those days, and many days to follow.

Recalls​

The first Vega recall, Chevrolet campaign number 72-C-05, addressed engine backfires on 130,000 cars fitted with the L-11 option two-barrel carburetor. An engine that backfired with specific frequency and magnitude weakened and ruptured the muffler. Hot exhaust gases then, in turn, spilled out and heated the adjacent fuel tank which expanded, ruptured and spilled fuel that ignited and caused a fire. The second recall in early summer 1972, Chevrolet campaign number 72-C-07, involved 350,000 vehicles equipped with the standard engine and single-barrel carburetor. It concerned a perceived risk that a component in the emission-control system (idle stop solenoid bracket) might fall into the throttle linkage, jamming it open. Chevrolet told customers that if the throttle stuck open while driving, to turn off the ignition and brake the vehicle until it stopped.

In July 1972, the company announced the third recall, "in as many months," campaign number 72-C-09, which affected 526,000 vehicles, the result of which was a rear axle which could separate from the vehicle. As it was recorded by NHTSA, the "axle shaft and wheel could then move outboard of the quarter panel and allow vehicle to drop down onto rear suspension.

 

[2EHA]

Good post …
Thinking even the first aluminum block with cast iron sleeves/aluminum pistons had a learning curve

GM was throwing away 90% of their 215 V8s in the dumpster, casting the sleeves onto block was tricky. When Rover bought the design they heated the block and froze the sleeve.

 

[2EHA]

I had a couple of Vegas when I was a young guy. Stuck a 350 in one and a Buick 231 V6 in a Kammback. The V6 was paired with a manual trans and ended up being a great daily driver. GM should have had the V6 as an option.

Only problem was that for most of the Vega’s life, GM didn’t even own the rights to build the Buick V6.

 

[4WD]

GM was throwing away 90% of their 215 V8s in the dumpster, casting the sleeves onto block was tricky. When Rover bought the design they heated the block and froze the sleeve.

Yep … used to work at a gas compressor shop after school … we did that with some big heavy piston liners …

 

[A_Harman]

My family had 8 Vegas.
My dad, brother, and I swapped a Buick 225 V6 out of a '65 Buick Special into a Vega in 1976. It ran very well. Dad sold it just as I got my driver's license.....
Then my brother and I built a V8 Vega in high school (winter '78-'79). He still has it and drives it. Just put a TKO 5-speed in it.
I have a Cosworth Vega. And a spare Cosworth engine.
My go-to-college car was a regular '75 Vega. I set a personal best with that car by holding it wide open on US23 in northern Ohio for 10 minutes. Its absolute top speed was 106 mph. That really bugged my friend Weird Bill, who owned a new VW GTI that would only do 103. We would go out the road, and he would out-accelerate me until about 100, but if we kept going, I would eventually walk away from him. I did upgrade the suspension by adding front and rear sway bars, and that improved the handling.

A story I remember out of Paul Van Valkenberg's book (Chevrolet=Racing) about the Vega engine was that it was designed by corporate Engineering Staff in the Tech Center. Chevrolet had designed their own engine, which was iron block/aluminum head with an overhead cam, but upper management decreed that the e-staff engine be put in production, bass-ackward mess that it was. The Vega was also the first car built by GM to have its structure analyzed and optimized by finite element analysis.

Considering the era, the Vega was a much better car than that big 4-man hibachi, the Pinto.

 

[eljefino]

My mom had two of these awful things.

First was a '71. She got it to replace a VW beetle. It wore out by 1976-- she broke down on the Mass Pike while pregnant, so called my dad from a toll booth to come get her.

The 1976 was still running in 1981 when some yahoo didn't defrost his windshield properly and drove the wrong way on a one-way street crashing into our car. The insurance bought a stripped Plymouth TC-3.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I don't know why this is striking me so funny. Maybe I'm tired, but I am sitting here LMAO at the recall info on these cars. Can you imagine any of this stuff happening today? I know, new cars have even weirder problems, but they're not as entertaining. LOL. Car manufacturing was a s-show in those days, and many days to follow.

Recalls​

The first Vega recall, Chevrolet campaign number 72-C-05, addressed engine backfires on 130,000 cars fitted with the L-11 option two-barrel carburetor. An engine that backfired with specific frequency and magnitude weakened and ruptured the muffler. Hot exhaust gases then, in turn, spilled out and heated the adjacent fuel tank which expanded, ruptured and spilled fuel that ignited and caused a fire. The second recall in early summer 1972, Chevrolet campaign number 72-C-07, involved 350,000 vehicles equipped with the standard engine and single-barrel carburetor. It concerned a perceived risk that a component in the emission-control system (idle stop solenoid bracket) might fall into the throttle linkage, jamming it open. Chevrolet told customers that if the throttle stuck open while driving, to turn off the ignition and brake the vehicle until it stopped.

In July 1972, the company announced the third recall, "in as many months," campaign number 72-C-09, which affected 526,000 vehicles, the result of which was a rear axle which could separate from the vehicle. As it was recorded by NHTSA, the "axle shaft and wheel could then move outboard of the quarter panel and allow vehicle to drop down onto rear suspension.

This kind of stuff is still happening - just different tech. Management pushing product rollout schedules when the bun is still in the oven baking.
BTDT.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

The 289 converted pintos were not too bad. There were a couple in surrounding towns when I was in my late teens.

You could get a factory SBC V8 in a similar chassis

Anyone recall the Monza Spyder ?

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I guess not.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

My family had 8 Vegas.

Do you remember the Monza? I thought it was a little to slick with the rounded hatchback. .

The Vega look was what I liked - and the fact that it was under 3000lbs.
But just think with a V8 Monza, easy swap. Everything is done.
pull the 305 and slip in a 300HP 350 and you all set to GO!
at least until the rear end takes a lunch break.

Problem with the Vega was the mild steel in the unit body up front. That was a very "malleable" front end.

 

[PimTac]

The whole Vega thing was a huge gamble for GM. When you look at the aluminium engines, the different way of transporting them and such you would’ve thought they were changing the world. Instead it became a black eye except for the few examples mentioned and those came about because you could get a used Vega cheap as nobody wanted them. Kids were always looking for cheap deals to turn into street racer sleepers. Another good example would be the Chevy II / Nova.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

The whole Vega thing was a huge gamble for GM. When you look at the aluminium engines, the different way of transporting them and such you would’ve thought they were changing the world. Instead it became a black eye except for the few examples mentioned and those came about because you could get a used Vega cheap as nobody wanted them. Kids were always looking for cheap deals to turn into street racer sleepers. Another good example would be the Chevy II / Nova.

I will stet with authority that the Chevy II which I built a 355 version in a rust free 6cyl 1966 car from Tenn. was a MUCH better platform for hotrodding.

Prices had gone insane lately on these old chevy's I could barely sell mine for $4500 when I wanted to move on, I needed something reliable to commute to night school at Lowell Tech, and I no longer had lift access to r&r the tranny or the rear both that needed updating.
I bought an '83 Scirocco brand new. A very nicely built "Karmann" body, but s - l - o - w. with around 80 HP.
the VW was broken into the first week in downtown Lowell on a Friday " party" night and the Heidleburg III Grundig head unit stolen.

 

[Hermann]

A friend of mine had a Vega in the '70's best I remember it mysteriously caught fire one night and he collected the insurance payout. As I remember about 40-50K miles and the engine was worn out in them.

Mine made it to 80k

 

[Hermann]

They didnt go 105.
78 HP likely got you - or me - to high 80's on a good day.
I call speedo error - Like Canadian Tourists Down Maine

Mine was a 105'er. Horsepower was about 105 on the 2 bbl in 1973 IIRC.