Took trailing arms out and boxed to go today to yogi Bair for complete resto waiting on engine components block and rotating assembly are at machine shop

 

Wow, cool idea. I see another project for down the road.

 

Picked up a couple new parts for the 496 build. The new cam may arrive tomorrow, then lifters, crank, rods, pistons, and all the other goodies.

 

Its exciting when the new parts start rolling in

 

I spent a while on my back going through two full cans of parts cleaner and using a number of brushes and scraping tools to remove some of the decades worth of built up crud on the suspension, steering linkage, underside of fuel pump,etc. Have had the car for a year now and have addressed the big issues and am just now having the luxury of time to start de-crustifying. Looks great from the top side, but it always amazes me how many folks will let old valve cover gaskets leak. I must have scraped off about three pounds of crusted oil/dirt. Very satisfying in a weird way though...

 

I FINALLY set the pre-fabbed garage onto it's slab...(It set 11" above the slab and needed to be lowered in order to drive the car in/out..WHEW!

 

Today I took a drive to check for any air leaks in my window weather strips. I just replaced the door glass and window ws on both doors. I've been adjusting the door glasses to get a good seal.

So far everything sounded good. Just the usual t-top wind noise but no audible air leaks.

The big test will be spraying her down with water and checking for water leaks.

 

Crankshaft polished
Cylinders out of spec so ordered new pistons should arrive Wednesday
Pink rods reconditioned and arp bolts in and resized
Block will get bored .030 next week

 

That is on the list in the spring. Thinking about deleting passenger mirror and new lock set when i have the doors apart as well as clean and re grease all the linkage rods

 

Attempted to remove radiator, no luck

 

Friend came over and we removed and rebuilt my stock Quadrajet. He'd done it before I was was the student. Everything went great. Found a few issues that were likely causing my acceleration hesitation problem. Went back together great, all the action seemed perfect. Put it back on the intake and started hooking all the lines up, no problems. Then got the pedal cable. "Where is the nut for this?"

Couldn't find the nut, had to get one out of the "spare parts" coffee can. Started it up, started almost right off! There was some fuel backup initially (float needed "self-adjusting") but after turning off and then back on again, that went away and the car was idling nicely. Then this odd sound started.....

Think we found the missing nut. We heard a metallic rattling sound. Took a few seconds before I cut the engine. We both looked at each other and eventually decided there was no explanation for the sound EXCEPT that it was the missing nut and that we'd somehow managed to let it fall into the intake. We took the normal precautions of covering the hole once the carburetor came off, and left it there until we returned the rebuilt carb. Neither of us have any explanation of how this could have happened, but there is no other explanation...

As for the sound, it sounded like you left a quarter in your pocket and it got loose in the dryer. We both feel that is not a bad thing all possibilities considered. What we did not hear was any loud or crunching noises one might relate to a piston being destroyed or a valve being mangled. After a long afternoon and evening of work, I called it a night and there it sits.

Going forward, the plan is to order intake, head, and valve cover gaskets to have on hand. First remove the carburetor and look around in the manifold for the (extremely) remote chance it is sitting right on top. After than comes the intake. Given what I know it seems the most likely the bastard nut is in one of the intake ports. Hoping that is the case and it then just becomes a matter of fishing it out. If that fails then off comes the heads.

I am sure each of you has already slapped your own forehead and called me an idiot out loud. I deserve that. It shows that you cannot be too careful. We thought we'd done everything right, somehow we let it happen unwittingly. Fingers crossed there is no damage, just some fishin and a stupid story to tell at the next cruise in.

 

Well let us know how it turns out, stuff happens.

 

Not at you, at me. We have all been in spots similar to this before.

Before you yank too much off, get one of those magnet pickup tools with the flexible handle. You'll have to pull the Q-Jet back off, but you can work the magnet down the intake and the runners and may get lucky.

Then if you pull the intake, use the magnet down each intake port.

Usually they come in either a magnet in a long round holder like a pencil or in a flat wide piece. The long round one will work better in the intake ports.

Of course, if you have a cast iron intake, that may not work unless you have plastic on all sides so it can slide along the intake.

 

A helpful tip I use. Get a big piece of cardboard, slide it between the fan and the radiator, lift the radiator out of the saddles, and slide it up the cardboard.

This way you don't have to lift it the entire time and try to keep it from hitting the fan.

It helps a lot putting a new or recored one in, since you don't want to cut up the good one on the way in.

BTW, you do bang them up a bit trying to get the lower outlet past everything.

 

My Morel roller lifters and Crane Hydraulic roller camshaft arrived today.
Valve train is complete and on the shelf.
Now it's time to start ordering my rotating assembly.
First, forged stroker crank for the 496.
Not sure if it's ok to put in a plug for someone but if your building a motor on the northern west coast area look up LJ's Speed and Machine, Napa, CA.
John is a great guy and very knowledgeable.
He and his wife also make awesome wine!

 

Nuffin......but I'm getting the garage closer to being usable......

before......... .....................






After................................... ..

 

Put baby in the Vettes for Veterans car show. Because nobody puts baby in a corner!
There was over 150 Vettes from all era's C1 to C7. Never saw so many LT4 engines in one place. The Captain America Vette is owned by surgeon who dress's the part and goes around to local hospitals cheering up kids with rides in the car and visiting sick kids. I thought he was bit over the top at first, then talked to him and ended up donating to his charity he runs. He was very nice and down to earth kind of doctor. He travels all over the west coast for work and his charity.
For some odd reason the photo are 90 deg off no matter how I change them.

 

Started it up for the first time in 2 weeks, sounds great, you get that nice feeling just sitting in the garage revving and wanting summer

 

I just put two new window glasses in so I went and had the glasses tinted. Put her under the cover for a few days to let the film dry.

 

More progress....

Sidepipes- got one side almost finished-

Tacked up the V-bands after carefully fitting the 4½"sidepipes to tuck under the 69 Factory Fiberglass covers and frame...

A ½" square tubing was all that was needed to space out the covers-

Here's where the O2 sensor is going-





Loosen the bolt- and side pipes are easily disconnected from the SS downpipes-





4½" muffler will side right over the 2½" straight pipes- and lock in place with a V-Band-

(driverside- upper pipe not welded yet)





Here's the muffer part-

basically a glasspac and spiral baffles