Ted, come Spring, you can't swing a dead cat here without hitting the Bluebonnets,
Oak or Pecan trees down here. Walnuts and Cherry trees would be sweet, but I guess it
doesn't get could enough for them to grow here.

 

i think i have a brand new cam and lifter set...i have nearly nothing in it...if ya need one..before ya spend a bunch let me know..id take what i have in them

its a mondello griund..pretty stock..nothing really radicle..i think 1200 to 5400 with a noticebale idle but not crazy..didnt even need a converter

 

PM sent Mark.

 

I don't know jack about cams but here is the one Mark cam up with.
Believed to be a W-31 grind? Specks are as follows:

Advanced intake/ exh: 308*/308*
Intake @ .050 exh @ .050 234*/234*
Lobe separation is 113* RPM range is 1400-5500.

My question is will this cam work ok with the stock valve train in this 455?
I will be using new springs in the heads, and new lifters as well.
Thanks for any replies guys.

 

Thanks for the input Joe. I don't mind a little lope, but with power disc brakes
and a/c, it may be tough keeping it tuned to run without having to keep it at a high idle.

 

Adam, if you decide to go that route I have a 12" converter that worked well behind a mild 454 street build just sittin' on the shelf...

 

If you want to drive and enjoy the car, i wouldnt do something so crazy it needs a converter etc...its going to take all the enjoyment out of it for a cruiser..and who want to work on it all time?

I just had the cam laying around..thats all...i wasnt trying to get ya to do a lot of mods etc...i was just trying to help ...if it worked...

stick to near stock..it will be dead reliable...and a whole bunch more fun

 

Thanks Mark. I think I am going to try a cam designed for a 70 455 w/ stick shift.

 

Anyone have any tips for removing the oil pickup tube/screen.
This beotch is stuck on pretty good.

 

yeah..drive a screw drive in it next to the pump, twist it back and forth, and pop it with a hammer....throw it away and buy a new one..very cheap...if its stuck that hard..when ya get it loose it will prob be loose..i would lose sleep knowing that

many guys have lost engines because it falls off in the pan...they are a press fit by friction/interference..getting it off..you just changed the swedge

 

Holy crap Mark! Now I gotta pull the pan off the 455 I built for my 69 and change it too.
Oh well, I don't remember...I may have put on an oil pan without the baffle on it anyway.
Those were 350 pans if I recollect. Rockauto should have the pickups, maybe?
And, 'swedge'?

 

Hey Adam, we always spot welded/brazed the stock oil pump housing/pickups together. It's risky trusting the swedge, or interference fit, as marxjunk posted. If your pickup falls off the classic symptom is low to zero oil pressure at idle or while stopping and having pressure under normal driving or in particular, accelerating. Just my .02 worth.

 

Thanks Dave. I was able to use a short piece of 1X4 cedar and a BFH.
It came out without bending and I was able to clean it up and get it
back in the new pump ok. It WON'T come out, but a few spot welds do
sound like a very good idea, thanks for that.

 

if youve removed and reinstalled a used one, make sure ya tack it.. the road and vibrations do very weird things...something so tight you feel it cant move may with some time...

i use a mig, but years ago we brazed them....just be careful, and make sure ya tack it....

OR..i weld a little bracket on the tube, just a little flat sheet metal bracket that has an ear that goes under one of the bots of the pump plate..its just insurance

theres a lot of theories about welding the tube to the cast pump housing, most say its a bad idea..but we've been doing it for 30 years around here...

 

Adam, I was cleaning a portion of my shop to put a paint booth of sorts in, and found some green floor matts out of a 70 cutlass I had.....want them?

 

Thanks for the offer Ted but I am going to try to accent the interior all I can
for it with black. Console, steering column, dash, carpet. I really don't like the green.
I do need to find some front green door panels for it though. Legendary has them for
like $360, ouch. I have a friend coming over some time hopefully this weekend to take
a look at painting it back to it's original green. It had a black vinyl top, but I was thinking
solid green or maybe with a painted white top. I dunno, what are you supposed to do with that color? Solid green with black pinstriping? I am a long way from that though, ha.
I do have the engine about ready for paint though. Trying to work on it some after the
work day, you know. Little by little. I am hoping one day when I pull the tank, I may find
a build sheet under there being a Fremont CA car.

 

Began the de-grease this morning. Finished up about an hour ago.
Not sure but probably not correct on the color. Looks more like Poncho blue.
Oh well, that stuff covers well. Time for a steak and some sweet tea.

 

Glad to see you are working away at it Adam. I was hanging exhaust today and thought the same about labor on Labor Day.
If you need anything black for the interior let me know...I seem to have a lot around the shop......

Better get that Poncho blue off your work bech before somebody sees it.....

 

VHT calls it GM blue. This engine is not the one out of the 442.
That one is under those valve covers under a towel. I had this one I pulled from another 442 a few years ago, needed some heads and exhaust manifolds and an intake so I thought I would finish it up and use it. I'm still waiting on my cam for the 70 442 engine and am going to do a valve job on the E's sometime later.

 

Moving along some. I need to do some work on this manifold. It has 2 plugs that I need to remove before blast and paint. I want to use some heat but don't want to warp it. Am I overthinking using the heat? Suggestions?

 

Guys your cheapness amazes even me.Because sometimes i cut a corner! Do yourself a favor go buy the bolt on pickup and oil pump and your worries are over.

 

Way past that, I need the plugs out of this intake. Doesn't look like it's gonna happen either. I may just go with a 398662.

 

Carefully application of heat should work just fine but you need to bolt that intake to a motor so you can get the torque to break it free.

 

I was able to get it stable to work on it, but fubar is what I have now. And I ran out of oxygen right before I was going to try and melt it out, probably a good thing. That beoch is stuck but good.
This is one of 2 that need to come out too.

 

First rule to heating things check your gas supplies! ahahha Hopefully you can melt it out and retap the hole or use some big drill bits to drill it out and retap. As Im sure you know patience is your friend.

 

if ya have a mig its easy to remove stuff like that...get a big nut...drill the threads out if ya have to,and weld the nut to the nipple...watch getting it on the intake..and burn it hard, by the time you set the gun down and get wrench it will back out like butter....

of course it aint gonna work on pot metal or brass...but i have successfully brazed it to a brass fitting and it worked

its the heat cycle that shocks it..and you can get a big breaker bar and a 6 point socket on it......i do the welded nut on everything stuck like that..you are limited by your imagination..

now..id probably get a good bolt and force it in there and weld it...nut side up..lol... and burn it..just pay attention to the manifold..on little bb of a weld and its there for ever...and a get it deep in there.,,even if you need to drill the nipple a touch..the bigger the bolt the better.like only 1/2 hanging up..just enough you can weld it well...

or id get a big nut and drill it...and fill the nut with weldmake sure ya have penetration on the nipple before ya fill the nut...worls like a charm..been doing it for 30 years...never had one not come out

 

Still a long way out, but for now this puppy sounds great.
I took a video of it running, but can't seem to even find it, much less load it, ha.

 

Wow!...moving right along. It would be nice to hear it....I am one to talk!
Did you put a wee bit of a cam in this one?

 

Ted, this engine came from a project an ol boy had. Ran out of money and he sold the Edelbrocks heads, intake and headers off it, covered it up and I bought it. He said it had a cam. It did have a double chain timing set, flat pistons with reliefs and the bore was a tad larger than the 70's bore. I had to put a spit hole for the dist.

Rebuilt some 72 Ga's and picked up a 72 intake up in San Antonio for it. Cleaned up the dist from the 70, this one was missing, the guy sold that too. That's how I found the no spit hole. Had some nos R44's and Varooom. Frankenstein Lives!

 

Updates?

 

Hi Ted, well I have some parts coming for it. I got new lifters for the Frankenmoter and it sounds really good. I went out to lift the hood and noticed it was a 69, ha. Which is fine, the red hood is perfect, no rust or dents and a better unit for the 69 project then the one I have. So if anyone needs a fair 69 S hood I have a spare, lol.

I need to find some cheap patches for the front floor pans. I think my body guy will be able to fix the small rust in the lower rear qrts without to much trouble. I will have to do some front and rear wiring work, some of it has been hacked. Brakes? No brakes yet. The pedal was stuck up, I had to really kick it to get it to break loose. I think this car has been sitting since '89. Odo shows 60 K. Which could be right if it was only driven 19 yrs, who knows, could be 160K. I want to give the engine compartment a good clean and change the front trans seal and drop in the 455 and see if I can get it to move. I have a master cyl to try to get it to stop if it does move. Still haven't pulled the tank to check for a build sheet yet, but soon. That's about it for now.
.

 

Adam,

Check under the rear deck board, I found a second one there. I almost threw it away.

Troy

 

Hi Troy, I saw that on you thread. It looked to be in pretty good shape too. My deck board is fairly deteriorated, no telling how long it sat without a rear glass in it. But I will check. I forget, was yours a Freemont built unit as well?

 

Yes Sir, according to the one I just found Birthday is June 23,1970.

I don't think I will be able to remove it from board it is pretty brittle.

 

Sweet, I bet mine has one under the tank. I may just have to pull that sucker this weekend and see. I need to change out those rubber lines and blow the steel ones out anyway.

 

Good luck. I am sooo anxious to see mine done, and sooo far away. You 'll be driving around in the sun long before I am.

 

I learned my lesson about pulling apart a perfectly good running 442 with my 69.
I haven't written that one off yet though...One of these days, ha ha.

 

Yep, it can't get much worse now.

I may have to fly down to Texas to ride in yours for a fix before mine is done.

 

Come on down and welcome! I've got a 442 here we can cruise around in tomorrow. Drop the top and go now that the weather is beginning to cool some, I'm ready.

 

What an offer. I would gladly take you up on it, if I only had not promised the Mrs, I would have her side of the garage cleaned up before winter.