miked

Well I finally have a little more progress to report. Between yard work and grandkid's ball games it's hard to find much time to get anything done. I am getting the interior close to driveable. The rear seat area is done. I'm no pro but I think it turned out ok. (Note the wrinkled arm rests, I'll end up redoing a lot of stuff down the road). I had to really fight the front buckets. The PUI foam is wayyyy too big and requires a lot of cutting and reshaping so I reused old foam with pieces patched in. Had to do a lot of heating and stretching on the covers. Don't know how long they will hold up but they look pretty good. I temporarily installed driver seat and belts and went for a short drive Sunday and found a water leak at firewall. I'm now working on the front carpet but have to wait to make sure my heater core and/or hose leak is fixed before final install. My 'to do' list doesn't seem to be getting much shorter (finish one thing and have to add two more things to it!) Tail pipes will be next big item. I hope I can make them work with my current mufflers until I have time to get new ones. I'm hoping to be able to go to the little local show at high school on May 5th. It's just outside my sub division so no problem getting her there. I also restored a steering wheel and turned it over to my painter for final painting. If he doens't get it finished I'll just have to use the old busted up one. No way to get new windshield before then and I'm not installing front reveal molding until I do. I'll be sure and put a big 'work in progress' sign in window. Got my new Coker redline spare mounted.

miked

Made some progress on interior...looks like I might be able to make the show tomorrow! It's not perfect and I will have to redo some of it later but that's what it's all about...I get to drive it some!

miked

Took it over to my painter for some touch up and final buffing and waxing Wed nite. He got it ready for pick up yesterday and rain was threatening..talk about nervous!! Rain held off and I got 'er home ok. Will do some final detail cleaning tonight and hope it doesn't rain tomorrow for the little show.

Sea five

Your car looks awesome .Good luck and enjoy

miked

Thanks SeaFive. I appreciate it!

miked

Well, I purchased a complete E engine, "pig-in-a-poke". Seller did not know history of it so I'm taking a chance. The oil looked ok, no metal or water, filter same. It broke loose easily but will not turn completely thru. I pulled plugs and there's something going on in # 7...looks like busted piston. I will know more when I pull head later this week. At least it has correct intake and carb, distributor, exhaust manifolds etc that I can use on my current engine. If it is buildable I don't plan anything radical, just W30 spec blueprint and mild cam suitable for power brakes. It is auto trans crank so I will have to do the pilot bushing drilling trick. I know there are a lot of ideas out there how to best do this so any help is greatly appreciated. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL ADVICE AND SUGGESTIONS!

PS: I got best in class at the little show I entered. Sort of fell into it tho...not many there and most of the Chevelles etc were modified and won higher awards so I was about the only one left LOL.

Oldsmaniac

Good luck with the 400, hope it is not serious. As long as crank will be out have a machine shop bore it for the crank bearing. Specs are on Wiki I believe or the Old 442.com FAQ's

miked

Thanks Oldsmaniac I will look into both sources...

Oldsmaniac

This is what I was thinking of.

miked

Many thanks!

miked

Maybe not a boat anchor after all. I pulled the heads and the "busted piston" turned out to be just aluminum corrosion flakes from rain water in the cyl. A little 80 grit to cut the rust and she now turns thru fine, and not much of a ridge. I might get by with a minimun over bore or a good honing. Later this week I'll roll er over and pull pan and hope for more good luck on the bottom end.
By the way, I was only looking at the 'E' to determine that I have correct engine. Is there a difference in the 66 vs 67 block? My carb, exhaust , and distributor nos all indicate 67. Just curious.

Run to Rund

afaik, the 66-7 E blocks are the same. There might be some date code, but no one has decoded anything like that yet vs. build date.

miked

Thanks RUN, 'preciate the info.

Chesrown 67 OAI

Mike - if the "C" heads are original to the motor, then the code stamped on the end of the head (if any) can ID it as a 67, obviously same goes for carb numbers.

miked

I'm reasonably sure the C heads are original to engine, stamped 208450G on right front, carb 7027156, dist 6M7 (12/07/66?) so looks pretty much like a 67. Thanks guys for input.

Chesrown 67 OAI

carb is exact 67. Head stamp should begin with a "V" ? check it again?

miked

Will do, thanks.

miked

Yep, there is a V, thanks.

ent72olds

Wow Mike.....don't tell my wife, but I think I'm in love! Looks absolutely stunning! I think is is time to get a '67 again!

Chesrown 67 OAI

rust pitting will probably be so deep that the block may need bored .060 or even more to clean it up correctly. I have one that looked like this and ended up boring .090 to clean up. Ended up using .030 over 350 pistons (4.087) in it.

miked

Sounds like I might be opening a can of worms! Thanks for the input, I'll keep this in mind.

miked

Thanks Erik, I appreciate it. Still got a long ways to go!

67cutlass67GS

Great great color ! Did a 68 Camaro in that same color with white Rally stripes. Looks good, cant wait to see the final product..Best of luck.

miked

Thanks '67'...I love Camaros and Novas in this color too. I will probably go with the factory fender stripes in white when I get time to do them.

Your 67 Convert is one beautiful ride! Love that color too..

miked

Continuing on with engine teardown. Timing chain looks very loose to me, bottom end clean with no sludge. Note how previous re-builder marked the rods and main caps. Makes me dizzy trying to count the dots! I do have a number stamp set.

miked

I wanted to check cam to see if it had been upgraded. The stamped in number is 389410. I assume this is casting id. How do I tell if it is stock 400?

miked

UH OH! More bad news....after removing cam, turned block over and found this busted cam bearing had fallen out. I haven't found the other half yet but assume it fell to the floor somewhere. Does this mean I have a junk block afterall? Any help and input highly appreciated.

Oldsmaniac

Mike, what cam bearing number was that? Possibly the wrong one was installed in the wrong spot as each one is a different size externally. Or maybe there was damage when it was installed and someone scraped it to get cam in or worse as in forced the cam in place. Bearings are the replaceably part so look at block to see if cam was wearing down cam bearing bore.... Thought tells me it should be ok... With that many punch holes on bearing/rod caps be sure to have the big end resized.

Oldsmaniac

The shop manual shows to look at end of cam and compare with pictures to see what cam it is... trouble for me is all the pictures look the same!

Run to Rund

Look closely at the cuts around the outer edge of the cam nose for identification. The cam bearings are enough different in size that you "cannot" press the wrong one into a journal.

miked

I think it was no 3 but will have to check tonight to be sure. Thanks much for the info, I didn't know about the different sizes. I will pass this on to my builder when I take it in. Also appreciate your reminding me to resize the rods. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Oldsmaniac

The more I look at that cam bearing the more I am thinking it was not in place and did not fall out but was left in the block somewhere and started to get chewed up??

miked

Thanks, I'll dig thru the manual tonight and see what I find.

miked

I guess that is a possibility but I found absolutely no sign of metal particles in oil or anywhere. Oh, I did find two star washers stuck to the inside of block so sounds like the "builder" might have been a tad careless. And the punched rod caps says he probably wasn't a pro 'cause I would think all shops would have number stamps.
I pulled no 1 rod cap and that crank throw looked good and was still std.

miked

I see what you mean about the pics....I just wanted to make sure it wasn't aftermarket cam. Thanks for the tip.

miked

A few more pics of the cam bearing. It was journal #4 and cam appears ok. The bearing fits over the journal perfectly and obviously hasn't siezed to the journal so I don't think it spun in block. I tried to get shots of the block journal from bottom and top. It looks ok to me but I haven't really seen too many spun bearings to know what to look for. So ? is what happened here? A buddy and I discussed it over a couple of cool 'uns and can only come up with a couple of possibilities. 1, the builder broke the bearing and didn't know it and the pieces worked their way out thru oil changes or 2, he knew it and discarded the pieces and left the broken bearing in place. I think the bearing had to be in place or wouldn't the cam break without the support? How about oil pressure? The oil hole is intact so would it have sufficient bearing to control the oil? Just trying to figure this mystery out for my own sanity . I think I will go ahead and remove crank to get better look before taking it to machine shop.
If block is usable I will continue this under "Engines" so you guys can help me with rebuild ideas. Big thanks for any and all opinions.

Run to Rund

The bearing has been spinning in the block before it got other damage. Look at the wear marks on the block and the outside of the bearing. Check the journal in the block for wear, size, roundness before re-using the block.

Oldsmaniac

x2

miked

Dang! Just wishful hoping on my part. Whistleing past the grave yard and all. Thanks for your help guys.

miked

Some shots with my 'street' tires...15x7 SSIIs (?) with 225/70 Indy 500.