RAMBOW

Z bar bracket
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RAMBOW

Procomp Heads

oldcutlass

Wow, Ben I thought you had finished this and someone resurrected an old thread.

RAMBOW

engine bay sanded & repainted

RAMBOW

SHot of the edelbrock finned valve covers i scrored... Still have not decided between running these or the MT's i have.

RAMBOW

THe MT's and my new (unboxed) torker manifold mocked up.

RAMBOW

Intake painted, waterpump installed... Harland Sharp Rockers & Smith bros pushrods being installed
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RAMBOW

(just now) Bolted on the drivers side header to check for clearance w/ the zbar bracket (it will clear the zbar)
Also bolted up the alternator and brackets (after blasting & painting) to make sure they still fit right (were setup for the SBO before).

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I wish- Was working my regular job + OT + doing the seat restoration work on the side + a 5 year old & 1 year old at home... pretty much used up every second of my day, so the build has been pretty slow.

About 2 months ago I started a new job that has allowed me to push my seat work back to its original "hobby funding" part time status- which equals more time and $$ for the hobby (and family, and wife, and dog, and friends and life in general)

Ranzan

looks sweet Ben cant wait to hear it run

joepenoso

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEERRRRRRRYY
NiCE
joepenoso

steverw

Wow nice work im very interested in knowing how those heads workout for you. Please post some results on them when you can.

Thanks
Another Steve in Texas

RAMBOW

Its in there!

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nonhog

Looks right at home in there.

TripDeuces

Looks sharp. I'm guessing that's Fusick's bronze?

oldcutlass

Beautiful!

citcapp

Nice job Ben,

I can almost hear it running now

RAMBOW

I clearanced the headers on monday night. It hit on the passenger side rear ear of the upper control arm, and on the passenger side, the 2nd tube of the header was resting on the crossmember.

A few hammer blows later, and they both fit great. I am very happy with the overall fit and quality of these Headers. Very glad a few folks talked me out of those cheap polished stainless headers a while back.

I mocked up my z-bar bracket on tuesday, and send the ball stud off to be turned down to the size i need (taking about 1" off its legnth too)
Once its back and i can make sure the clutch is operating w/o bind i'll be able to really start bolting everything back together.

I can already see i'm going to have some challenges with the drivers side power steering brackets and the aluminum heads, and taller valve covers... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Nothing an angle grinder can't solve i'm sure (on the bracket not the head of course!)

Hope to have some more real progress to report after this weekend.

scooter123

If this is a welfare build....id love to see what you would do if you had money.....lol

Looks great!!!!

RAMBOW

The welfare bit went out the window once I started on the heads.
My machinest works very cheap as he does it as a hobby business- but he is slow as hell and If the job is not "interesting" (ie... big hp) then it sits... and sits. After waiting a couple months for him to start on my stock iron heads last winter, I got tired of waiting and threw down on the $1k procomp aluminum heads... and from there the budget went out the window. :-)

Still, I think I have less than $3500 into the whole motor at this point.
Not sure how repeatable that would be for anyone else.... Sometimes it really is who you know... plus a lot of patience waiting for the right deals to fall in your lap.

RAMBOW

progress got derailed the morning after that last post- i had a wreck in my daily driver vehicle- totaled it, messed up my back which meant no climbing under the car to mess with clutch stuff.

anwyay- now that holidays are over, and my back is feeling better, i'm back at it.
Got the clutch ball stud back from my machinist- and will get it welded up to the zbar bracket this weekend, then assuming the clutch works as expected, i'll get to start bolting everything back together.

btw... replacement daily driver is a '04 GTO LS1. Very nice!

citcapp

Glad you weren't seriously hurt Ben. That's not the greatest way to get a newer daily driver . Glad your back on the mend

RAMBOW

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I'd say I'm less than a week away from firing up this sucker... maybe this weekend- fingers crossed.

I Finished my fuel pump & filter mounting brackets tonight- ready to bolt on. I'm planning to bolt them to the underside of the trunk floor, right in front of the fuel tank. They are designed so only the very bottom of the pump will be visible below the tank.

I still have a couple brake lines that are touching the headers- but i'm not going to let that keep me from doing the initial startup & breakin....

TripDeuces

Ben make sure you isolate that pump. Those vane type pumps can be loud if it's going to be on all the time. Nice job on those brackets.

RAMBOW

I've got some thick but pliable rubber spacers i'm going to place between the bracket and the floor, and another between the retaining plate i'm going to put on the trunk side & nuts.

I have not yet decided if i should also put rubber grommets in the holes in the trunk pan to make sure the bolts themselves can't touch the metal too.

Honestly I just need to hear this thing run & break in- some of this stuff i can revisit later if it isn't perfect. Need to get to the top of the hill so I can see the otherside.

Bernhard

Looks like a Fun Build
Good luck and thanks for sharing you build.

jfb

I feel that one only a olds at full song feels so dam good.

442garage

Looking forward to seeing this running and on the road, good work, Ben!

citcapp

One step closer, I can almost hear it running from my house Vaaaaroooom

RAMBOW

my short list keeps getting shorter!
Drilled some holes in the trunk pan and bolted up the brackets for the pump & filter.


Bumper level- everything is hidden pretty well:
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at (what would be) ground level under the tank looking up you can see some more:
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little closer- everything has tons of space around it- photo doesn't show it well, funky angle and all.
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I will get a couple rubber insulated clips to hold the longer hose run to the body, but i'm overall I'm happy with the routing. I bought the wrong size hose, cant get it onto the fittings- will buy larger tomorrow and finish plumbing- then its just wiring and it'll be ready for vroom vroom!

Solid Lifters

VERY NICE. I just saw this for the first time today. It gives me motivation to try and get mine in the car now after several years of being on the stand too. Can't wait to for the updates when you fire it.

RAMBOW

Its alive!

scooter123

Video???

RAMBOW

Fired right up and wound it up to 2500... Good Oil pressure. Temp climbed steadily, and was 230 at the 20 min mark and I shut it down.

Went to fire up again 20 min later to set idle & verify timing, and starter was heat soaked- would barely crank.

let it cool off fully (2hours) and tried again- fired right up. The Lunati Voodoo 60803 sounds wicked at idle & Crisp throttle response (holley 750 dp).

Without a proper timing tab, i'm just kind of ball parking it right now- need to do a little more tuning tomorrow- and will pickup a starter blanket and see if that will solve the heat soak problem.

I didn't have my phone handy this evening when i had it idling to take a 2nd video... I'll get one tomorrow eve when i work on it some more.

All in all, i'm pretty happy with it for the first startup... Hopefully i can get a few hours this week to play with it and get it out on the street.

I have two brake lines that are right against the header tubes- these will have to be relocated before any real driving can occur- so I still have some work ahead of me once i get it running the way i want.

drjr56

Nice build Rambow....was wondering if 230 degrees is getting up there with aluminium heads.I use a mini starter,and have it rapped,and have had no issues this summer in 85+ degree weather..running headers.

RAMBOW

THere is only so much aluminum heads can do to "aid" in cooling.
I just have a stock 3 row radiator, no shroud and the car was sitting still at high RPM for 20 mins... unless i had a big *** aluminum radiator to keep things cool getting up past 200 was a given. But I wasn't worried at 230 degrees durign breakin. It didn't even set off the high temp idiot light. 250? i'd worry.

Plus most likely it was extremely retarded causing it to run hotter than usual. I wanted to get it up to 2500 rpm as quick as possible and didint spend any time at idle timing it, just wound it up as soon as it would.

I'll spend another hour on it this evening and get the timing dialed in and see how it does temp wise & starter heatsoak wise.

I think i may just order up one of the gear reduction mini starters and forget about it.

RAMBOW

For reference in case anyone cares heres the basic specs on this build:

1976 455 Fa block- bored .030 over (471)
Stock Rods lap ground & polished - ARP bolts
Stock Na crank - ground 30/30 & drilled for pilot bearing
TRW L2323F Pistons (previously used)
Rotating assembly was balanced
mains were align honed w/ ARP bolts
deck milled- pistons are .005 down
Procomp aluminum heads- out of the box equipped- no mods
Lunati Voodoo 60803 Hydraulic cam & lifters
Edelbrock Torker intake
Holley 750dp
Hooker Comp Headers

drjr56

Ppl here are always interested...you know that. Should be pretty good hp and tq numbers.Good luck with it.

oldcutlass

Looks great!! You don't have much room left under the hood. On the brake lines I was able to take the clips next to where the lines were close and flip them over to bend the lines out of the way.

RAMBOW

Spent a couple mins this evening, got the timing pretty close (until i get the right timing tab). Carb is a little lean, need to jet it up a bit- but felt good enough to take it around the block a couple times:


By the end of this, i stoped and started it one last time to pull in the garage and the starter started slow cranking again- so i'm going to order up a mini starter to avoid anymore hassle with it.

anyway, pretty stoked. Runs great- Sounds great... I can't wait to actually get it up to some speed.

nonhog

Definitely sounds great!