N V THIS - It's just a clever personal car tag idea...but it's so true. I envy this car in every way.

This is Curtis74's 1974 Corvette. I have had very little to do with this car's design, given it's history and what Curt has done to it. What I'm here to do is outline the most recent modification...a custom built Vortec engine and an engine bay cleanup.

First...the car. Beautiful doesn't even do it justice. Seeing the car in person you feel like you can fall into the paint because it's so deep and rich. I can stare at it all day long, in awe, hoping to one day have a paint job like that on my Vette.



I even got to drive it a few times...here, parking it at a local car show.



Here is the engine we built for the car. It's a 1996 Chevy Tahoe Vortec 350 that was bored and built to a 355. This was a very fun engine to build. It's a factory roller, with flat top pistons and an aggressive marine cam. Lots of polished parts, but tastefully done and blended with a dark block paint and black engine bay.







The old and tired 350 had to come out. Protecting the paint was priority number one.





We pulled the Vette into my garage on a Monday morning and got started at about 7 am. By 11 am the old engine was out and on a stand, ready to be stored.





The engine bay was cleaned, wires were loomed, and some things by the previous owner had to be corrected or replaced. Overall the cleaning and wiring both took a full day on their own.





Finally the new engine went in. Smooth, without a hitch...maybe taking 20 minutes to actually drop in. The end result is something this car wanted. The look and feel of this engine in this car is simply amazing. Not because we did it...but because a beautiful car deserves a beautiful engine.





The engine was started a little over a week ago, and scheduling had kept us from it for the better part of all of last week. Luckily this weekend we got some time with it. It starts and runs GREAT. Sounds fantastic, with no problems or complications. We timed it, and seated the rings with some in garage time.

I took a video of it, but it's too big and I don't have good compression software for video yet. Soon.

Hopefully in a few days we'll take it out for a test drive, and really get her broken in. It's a new start for this car...and I must say this has been the best build and install I have ever done. Curt, the owner, is a great guy, and I am very proud to be able to call him a wonderful friend.

Keep your eyes peeled...you'll see this car again.

 

lookin' good - keep the pics coming

 

Excellent job you guys. Curt you car is incredible and that engine rocks DB.

Dave

 

Lot of hard work went into that engine and it shows

Good job guys

 

Looks Fantastic !!! Dave

 

Thanks a lot guys. The rain here just won't let up...it's a very late rainy spring considering it's almost June already. Once it dries up I'm sure it'll shoot up to an average of 85 a day and we'll have missed all of the good Vette weather. We're just very anxious to drive the car with the new engine.

 

"awesome" isn't even a fair description, DB.. the reasons for envy is quite obvious !!
did you see my post down in "Southeast" about the car show in Louisville July 4th ?
that would be a good shake-down run for you guys

 

Beautiful job!

Love the dark grey block. I was going to go black over the OEM blue in my 1982, but I think I will change to the dark grey now...

 

It's a Dupli-Color Engine Enamel, Cast Coat Iron.

 

Then you also disagree with all the ring makers....

 

Not everyone has an engine dyno in their garage, and I don't recall ever seeing someone install an engine, back it out, take it out for thirty minutes of break in driving, and THEN go back to the garage to time it and tune the carb and look for leaks and take video and pictures.

If the 15 - 30 minutes of run time in a garage with the car static really caused glazing and smoke and low compression...then just imagine all the engines out there that would smoke and not run worth a darn.

 

Just out of curiousity, how many ICE's have you assembled before?

 

Maybe 25 now. A few GM small blocks, a few V6s, some Mopar small blocks, Mopar big blocks, and a even a Toyota engine.

Lets put it this way, none of the engines I have built to this point are smoking or running with low compression to my knowledge. I see one every day when I get in MY Vette and drive it. Been in the car for ten years now. Guess what. No smoke, and still runs strong.

 

Correct answer.

 

In this case it's just mistaken terminology. I see the ring seat as what happens when you first fire an engine. Usually in the short period of time where the engine is timed and monitored before it's taken out for the break in, which as you described involves a series of consecutively higher high RPM runs. I agree with all of that and that's how I break in my engines.

I guess true seating and break in are the same thing the way you describe it. I have always called the seating, the time the engine runs IN the garage. The reason I say this is because say you're tuning it, and you're way rich or choked, and flooding the engine, you can wash out the cylinders, and the rings can't seat properly.

I'm pretty sure the way I described what has been done so far would have outlined what I meant.

 

I have a headache now.

 

Sorry you're in pain, but in the very first post, I said I seated the rings in the garage, and later we'd take it out for a drive and break it in. This in itself shows that the break in will take place while driving with a load on the engine. Unless someone were trying to split hairs.

 

I am confused because I read the whole thread and don`t see word one from Twin Turbo....in fact I believe he has been banned from here for some time.....that being said what you (who admits above to not knowing anything) see as a "helpful and positive attitude" others who DO know what they are talking about see it as "MORE bad advise and MORE mis-information"......this is not bashing it`s whats called a difference of opinion.....
redvetracr

 

probably because the Mods have been here and removed all the

if it continues I will remove the and the people posting it.....it gets old for everyone involved....our job gets easier if we just make some people go away....if you dont have anything of value to add....don't post in the thread.

this is the last time I will say it.

if any you have any questions for me or any other Moderator on this topic let us know



carry on

 

Thank You!