some engine & suspension & gauge questions on a 68 Vette
 

I went to look at a 68 corvette today. The car was originaly BB car but now has a solid lifter 350 in it. Ive heard you have to tune the valves every month or so. Is that hard to do? how long does it take?

Also, he tach gauge doesnt work, the gauge would work but there is no tach drive because its an HEI distributer. I do not know what the difference is from a HEI distributer and a normal distributer with a tach drive. How hard or how much $$ would it be to get the tach to work.
The water temp gauge doesnt work properly. When the i rev the car it just spins around in circles realy fast, when i let off it settles back down. What could be wrong with that? How much is it to replace the whole gauge?

The car is sitting so high it apears to have 4 wheel drive. I thought it might be because the small block is lighter, but then i thought, why is the rear sitting up just as high as the front? It is a good 4 inches between the tred and the fender on both the front and the rear. The frame is good, and there are not any rust problums. The bracket to hold the hood up is not there because the hole where the bolts bolt into the hood are totaly ripped out of the fiber glass. Does this mean i have to get a new hood for the car? If i did have to get a new hood how much would it be to get it painted lemans blue to match the car?
Thanks for the help guys.

James

Re: some engine & suspension & gauge questions on a 68 Vette (James B)
 

Nope, not hard to do, firt time may be trying, but after that, a walk in the park. If you get Polylocks, you can reduce that to maybe every two months.

your distributor doesn't have a tach drive...you have 3 options..get a points tach drive distributor, factory electronic distributor, or an HEI with a tach drive, but that's an expensive piece

Gague...gague will run about 70-90 bucks

Easy, just remove the center cluster screws

Wow...that's a mouth full...let's see..reason the car is sitting up high in the fron....maybe some spring helpers...new springs will cost around 70-80 bucks
The rear may have short spring bolts, that makes the rear sit high.

It would be pretty difficult to repair that area, one way would be to seperate the hood from the bracing, and then repair that area, and place captured nuts. That is a ton of work, but I think a used hood would be the way to go...Check ebay for hoods...some deals can be had.