Over the next few weeks, I went over the car closely and drove it as much as I could. I spent a lot of time repairing problems.

The distributor that came on the engine was intended for computer control and had no advance mechanism. I swapped it for another advance type dist. that I had. Getting functioning mechanical and vacuum advance on the engine really woke up it's performance and fuel mileage. I also rebuilt the Quadrajet carb, repaired the electric choke and replaced the stock EGR intake manifold with an Edelbrock Performer that I had stuck under a bench.

The valve seals had hardened over the years and the engine started smoking pretty bad when it was started. I replaced those on the car and fixed the leaking valve covers at the same time.

These few things had the old motor purring like a kitten. I managed to get it up to 20+ MPG. That was up from about 10 to start with.

The engine driven fan wasn't doing much so it went away. There was no fan shroud and it was several inches away from the radiator. The tiny 10" electric fan that was in front of the rad was pretty much useless. I had a cheapo 16" electric puller fan hanging on the wall, so I threw that on. After playing around with the vacuum advance, it would keep the temp under control pretty well.

I also changed the worn out front shocks out for some decent Monroes that I had laying around. Yeah, I collect stuff!

The fuel sender wasn't working, so I pulled the tank and repaired it. Replacement senders for the Chevette tank are not available, but I was able to resolder a connection and get the original unit working.

The original glass type fuse block was badly deteriorated, so I replaced it with a generic blade type piece from the local parts house.

Lastly, I replaced the broken drivers door window and all the felt strips and channels.