Doesn't look so bad right?










WRONG!!!



























It's pretty amazing what wires ignition and some accessories can hide. After throwing up in my mouth a little, Embarrassment and some disbelief kicked in.

Motor mounts shot, Freeze plugs rotted out , Hillbilly Bill's Custom two tone engine paint job, cross-threaded / frozen header studs, every gasket you can imagine on this PILE failed and or is leaking. Every hose has some type of crack or split. The K member looked more like a grease catcher than anything else. We were cracking up at the teal TC when we saw it.. (Well there's your problem) we both said it at the same time! What a pig. I bought this car back in 2001 and it's pretty much sat. I maybe took it out once a year.. I got it very cheap , I was into another type of car back then and just recently sold it.



So the fix begins
ALL new ARP Fasteners / Studs
Boring the motor .30 over with 11:1 Compression forged pistons
Edelbrock 84 CC heads with Modern Performance head work out of Detroit
Edelbrock RPM performer intake
Sending out the Holley 750 carb to some carb builder here in Detroit who puts his modifications on, <--no idea what he is doing.
new waterpump and housing from 440 source with the .040 mil gasket recommended from them
new lifters
Roller valvetrain 1.6 ratio from 440 source and all supporting hardware
Still thinking about what cam to throw in this puppy it has the 284 484 purple cam in now (maybe) who knows after looking at this trainwreck
hi torque starter
new steering box / or having it rebuilt.
new motor mounts
new wires / MSD Distrib
new timing cover not chrome
new valve covers
timing chain
New oil pump
new holley mechanical fuel pump, largest one I can buy
new hemi orange paint job on the motor not the heads though.
oh and yeah 3000+ TCi Torque converter with flex plate.

I'll be frequently adding some pics up here on the progress of the build. now I gotta break out the summit card and go shopping Summit order department

I already ordered a full front end replacement bushing set and full moog steering kit, ball joints tie rods and all the supporting hardware.


The only good news so far has been the rear end, It has an balanced aluminum driveshaft from DTS, all new hardware in the back, axels and rear end was tore down and rebuilt right after the car was purchased

.

 

The 440 Source water pump housings have proven to be restrictive & can cause excessive heat / overheating , Mancini carries better housings . I would pass on the 440 source rockers too , not the most reliable , Make sure you have enough spring pressure using 1.6 rockers as a lot of the modern cams such as VooDoo or Whiplash lift fast & need extra spring pressure to keep them stable . Also make sure you check Valve to piston clearance . Another thing often missed is worn fuel pump pushrods so check that too .

 

Great looking car, please keep us posted with your progress, it will be well worth the effort !

 

It's Been a while and finally finished up the rebuild of the 440, and it fought me through the whole build.

I thought the block was untouched, popped off the heads and saw the L2266 .30 flat top pistons where in. I did a real quick mic check of the pistons and came up with .089 in the hole (I thought). So I thought good, deck height wasn't messed with. Dropped off the block to the machine shop and after all the crap was burned off and dipped, the machinist told me the block was decked .032 . the back #7 cylinder "fell off" .004 so had to deck the block some more .036 total. I drove the people at summit racing crazy with all my piston configurations and finally came up with a piston that gave me almost a zero deck height after all was said and done (.008) with the 2295 pistons. the cylinder walls were perfect and well within spec so only a touch up was needed.

ordered all my parts

SpeedPro 2295 pistons
Mancini Racing rear main seal kit
Mancini Racing 1.6 Ratio roller rocker with hold down kit
Mancini Racing water pump / housing combo.
160 Stat.
clevite full 77 .10 bearings on the mains and rods
Edelbrock RPM Performer-Link, Double Roller timing chain
Edelbrock RPM performer Intake
Edelbrock RPM Performer heads with Modern Performance CNC port job
Felpro gaskets 1009 on the heads and all the other connections needing a gasket
MSD Pro Billet Distributor
MSD wires
Mallory High Volume Oil Pump
Comp Cams Xtreme Energy™ 21-226-4 XE294H Grind .514 .524 lift /w lifters
Comp Cams 3/8" 9.125 push rods
Advanced Product Design 750 4150 mechanical secondary carburetor -amazing!!
indy valve covers
Milodon 7 quart 7-3/4" deep sump pan with windage tray /w new pickup
milodon x2 un-crushable oil pan gaskets
Holley 130 gph mechanical fuel pump
Holley fuel pressure regulator
1-7/8" Hooker headers (old) reworked for the spark plug clearance and had them blasted and ceramic coated.
Denso 4:1 reduction starter.
B&M solid flex plate.
Turbo Action S-800 ST 3800 stall **New seals and gaskets and bushings installed on the 727 transmission.** will elaborate later.
Misc parts like new timing chain cover, thermostat flange, motor mounts, fittings, and Arp stainless fastener kit.

Sent my rotating assembly to a engine balancer guy including my flex plate, a day later got all my parts back with a 2630 bob weight. my pistons were 130grams lighter and the old slugs that were in it before.


As usual I went over my budget, but WTF I'm not going back in the motor bay anytime soon... well at least I hope I don't have to.


So anyways the Build went pretty well in the beginning, filed all the rings to a .20 / .25 spec and dropped the new pistons in. I got to the 7th piston and just did a preliminary snug tighten and checked the crank for rotation. Bound up. Scratching my head I looked at the markings on the rod caps and yep, some how I mixed up #4 and #7. switched them around. the machinist marks his 7's with the - thru the number. I'm pretty sure he mixed them up not me. I took the rods back to him just to verify the tolerances and that's what happened. Moved on to the cylinder heads, no problems there, got to the roller rocker assembly and had no instructions what-so-ever, had to call Mancini up and they were very helpful. and looked on their site to see how the configuration was suppose to be. Installed oil pump and fuel pump and slapped on the new oil pan torqued everything and moved on to the Intake manifold.

Since my block was machined down .036 due to the deck not being true I had an idea what I was in-store for me...well sort of. The holes were way off, I could of ground out the holes and make it fit, but what about the intake ports? Talked to my machinist and he still had the math on the table and machined my intake manifold for me. The dude felt bad about the rod caps so he took care of me on the manifold.

Buttoned up the top end of the and moved on to putting the motor back into the car. Had some major tight issues with the old school hooker headers. I had to lay them in the car before I dropped the motor in (might be common with all long tube headers) and sit the starter on the headers before I lowered the motor. Got the motor on the bell housing dowels and shot all the bolts. Got to the flex plate and again.. more problems. the holes wouldn't 100% line up and spent hours slowly die grinding the holes evenly to match the torque converter. It took forever. Moved on to installing the headers and then the spark plug wires. Yep another problem there, #2 cylinder spark plug boot was touching the header. I forgot to mock up the spark plug wires with the motor out of the car and check clearance's. No way I was going to pull the motor out again after having all the problems with the tight squeezes. Made an executive decision and took a torch to the header and made a pair of vice grips with a big socket to create a minor crimp in the header. Since the heat was on the bottom side of the pipe, you couldn't see where the heat was applied to bend it in. yes I know a little Bush League, I just wanted this nightmare to end! =)


Ran all my wires added new 110 octane fuel and primed the fuel pump. The motor started up very easy and sounds like it has a pair! broke it in a little before it took it for a test drive. Brought it back and yeah, transmission oil coming out of the inspection cover. I initially didn't change the new bushing in the transmission because I didn't have a press and I didn't think about it, I was focused on running the motor as soon as I could. So I dropped the transmission (much easier to do than pulling the motor) and took the trans to a local shop, picked up a new front pump seal gasket, o ring and bronze bushing. waited 30 mins for the work and came back and threw the trans back up in the car. added the trans fluid, jacked the car up and ran it in reverse for a few mins and topped of the transmission fluid. No Leaks! I must of blew the old O-ring or gasket from the pressure from the new converter. Then after inspecting where the transmission was leaking I see a very small motor oil leak! It's right where the rear main seal and the oil pan meet up. Screw it I'm done for now.

My Oil Pressure is at 80 solid at idle 1,500 rpm
Compression is 11.4 to 1 running 100-110 octane.
water sending unit is broken had to order a new gauge so only ran for short periods of time.
Car Still needs to be tuned in. Its running pretty Fat and I have to make a decision what RPM I want it to Idle at.

Attached are some Pictures of the build and some videos.


let me know what you guys think.


Thanks


Bryan

 

I just stuck one of those flex-plates in my car.. You do know that all four holes are different. It will only bolt up one certain way, it looks like it is not lined up correct or the holes are wrong. I marked my flex-plate and converter before I stuck my engine in.

 

Is your motor internally balanced ? Like said the flex plate bolts are offset ONLY bolts one way

 

Looks and sounds VERY GOOD !

 

yeah I marked them on the bench, even on the bench it was a tight fit. the bolts just didn't want to start, I didn't want to force it. I probably was a little over cautious.

 

yes it is, The engine balancer told me the flex plate was off 7 grams and fixed it for me. I would of thought a good aftermarket part like that would be true. guess not

 

I got a question regarding oil pressure. I broke the cam in and drove it for about 20 miles and changed the oil. My Oil Pressure seems kind of high. Cold start it's at 80psi, when it warms up and cruising around 3krpm I'm up near 85psi. I'm going to pick up the Milodon Oil Adjustable Regulator Kit. what psi do you guys think I should set it at.

20w50 Valvoline with a quart of Rislone zinc additive is what im running atm


Thanks

Bryan