Ron's W66 1980 Sunbird

[Sunula66]

Back in Ontario for a visit and dropped by zeke's place. After a jet change, we went for a tour to test engine output. He convinced me to post some pics of my ride here, hope you enjoy.
P.S. please disregard the temporary placement of the water and oil pressure gauges, didn't want to make any "holes..." guage cluster will get a more suitable spot infront of air cond. vents beside heater controls by way of "vel-cro" from upper frame on bottom of dash trim...

[Sunula66]

A few more:

[marco_1978_spyder]

Like the hood decal... Is that new?

[Sunula66]

Thanks Marc!
Just put it on this morning before I took off to visit Zeke. Came up with a neat way to "break-up" the otherwise fairly flat hood and advertise my expense underneath it ...I kinda thought it worked out well too.

P.S. A huge Thankyou to Zeke for his expertise in lending a hand today and helping me post these up to date pics.
...also, thanks for assistance with the tweaking of the Carbetationator and the fabricationatoring of the other
I'll be ripping down to Windsor tomorrow to visit Monza Harry and style a little 3rd gear rubber for him as well

[zeke]

It was good visit (but too short) and I really enjoyed a ride in a real car again, been a while. Thanx Ron!

I was at my buddies place in London tonite and he has seen your car at the shows. Apparently there is a lot of doubt among the local enthusiasts that the car actually came with a Muncie transmission in it. I'd have to agree, there is no reason for gm to put a muncie trans behind a v6 engine. Maybe they did. Doesn't really matter anyways, it's a rare and sweet ride that any of us here would be proud to own.

[NVEGAR8D]

Hi Ron,
Diggin' the hood treatment!
nick75vega

[cjbiagi]

Nice ride, I have never heard of a Muncie being installed in a H body. One tip-off may be to see how the torque arm is connected since I don't believe the Muncie ever came with the holes for the the arm to attach.

[Monza Harry]

Ron's car has a Saginaw Trans. GM chose to confuse things by making the 4 Speed transmission option "RPO M21 " in the transmission box on the build sheet many think that means trans is a "M21" Harry

[cjbiagi]

A Saginaw has all three shift arms on the cover, a Muncie has only 2 on the cover and the 3rd on the tail.

[zeke]

Thanx Harry, that's probably the source of the confusion
.

[RamIt]

Looks great
What alternator brackets are you using?
I've never seen that setup before. Looks really clean.

[cjbiagi]

I just used this bracket on my friends 55 Chevy that I am working on. We searched high and low for a correct passenger side bracket that would align the alternator up with the existing pulleys. This was the only one we could find that would work correctly. It did require us to drill and tap a hole in the front of the head but it all worked out great. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mch-20132

[Sunula66]

Thanks Guys!
The MM4 designation on the build sheet shows 4 speed manual and the next line down shows M20- 4 speed Wide Ratio. The M20 is simply a wide ratio box but is still the second gen. Saginaw. These were also used behind Big Blocks and held together well with a nice subtle whine in the background! I was showing Chris this on the build sheet and he also wondered why they listed this twice but it was because this transmission was only installed in 500 Sunbirds for sale in Canada. My 1 of 358 W-66 optioned cars also has this limited number of tranny's Out of the 2507 Sunbirds that were sold that year in Canada, 499 other ones had this tranny as well. I do not know how many of the other 357 W-66 cars had it. Gets a little tecky huh?! :lol and as an added feature, a posi trac rear diff was included in the mix but as everyone knows, the gear "challenge is still apperrant with the small diameter wheels.
I had a visit with Monza Harry in Windsor On Sunday and he and I yanked a pair of gears out of another rear end, to wit a 256 set. This will drop the R's a bit...SQUIRREL! (inside joke while driving around with these two)
lol...anyway, among the gear challenge, Harry and Zeke would agree, first gear is useless now lol!second gear ain't much better till it hooks up...nice! and as promised, 3rd gear was also presented to Harry on a platter squawkin' the whole way...again, thanks to both of you for your help and expertise, Harry, I still have skin on my hands ....clean too!

The alternator "bracket" was produced by March brackets and pulleys and a huge thankyou to my East coast connection, Fred! astregt...who uses this setup and told me about it a few years ago. Thanks Freddo!
The ride back to KW was excilerating or was that accelerating, either way, the 15in. wheels will be installed this summer as 100kph is revving @ 2600 and 180 @ 5 grand.
The hood decal was produced by "Mikes signs" of Exeter Ontario, Canada, and he was also the first person to redo the "Formula" and a few other decals for me a few years ago and thanks again Mike! These vinyl insignias last a long time and can be easily removed if necessary. Mike, your expertise is appreciated!
Sadly I must get ready to load the car up into the trailer for it's long journey to Alberta now. Once we arrive in Edmonton, the boys at Promax will do a valve set and give her a once over and I'll plan my next knucklecruncher, installation of the new power steering pump, now that I have new heads with the threaded holes for the bracket. Wish me luck and hope that the trek in it's new closed in travel companion makes it safely! We'll be in touch, Ron.

[Monza Harry]

Ron are you still whining about my 40yr. old Hand cleaner! It works better than any of the expensive new stuff I have bought. (That old Crap came with my house 19 yrs. ago!) I still have a quarter can left I can't throw that out 'til it stops working or Kills me, ain't nobody lucky enough for that to happen. Anyway Ron you will have to come back when we both have more time so we can beat up that car a little after you get some slicks for that traction challenged 'Bird and another pic in front of that building when it is lit up in the late evening! So now you have to post up the ones you took. Harry

[mahoy78spyder]

Great car... someone please enlighten me again what the W66 RPO actually provided? VERY interesting car either way!