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Yeah this is really cool hobby, building these kinda old American engines and cruising around in old American cars. By the way, Finland is an european coutry, would i say in the top 3 at the top of the American car hobby in municipality, Sweden is highly involved too. As early as 1920s, the cars we drove in Finland were mainly made in the USA to my knowledge.
And also i know that by just asking from my father who is born in early 60s, the USA made cars were everywhere, he had some, his friends had some..
We are getting there, i just made studs for the carb/spacer and put valve cover seals in with silicone, slapped water pump, water neck and oil pan in. Just need to make new sparkplug wires and we are so close to fire this baby up for the first time!
Looks good, what brand of wires? Get some wire holders to keep them away from the headers. They usually come with the wires. Hopefully those chrome valve covers seal, they can be a challenge. Looking good.
Looks good, what brand of wires? Get some wire holders to keep them away from the headers. They usually come with the wires. Hopefully those chrome valve covers seal, they can be a challenge. Looking good.
They are MSD Street Fire, dunno about how good they are but we'll see. Im gonna maybe use some heat resistant sock on the wires.. MAYBE, dont know yet.. Aaaand i think that the covers seal pretty good.. i took em out and the seal was on there pretty solid, seal is rubber but isn't it originally cork? I use good quality silicone on there also.
Those heat boots are for engines with the plugs under the headers. Olds are above.
Made for You products used to have some nice looms, but I think they may not be in business anymore.
Those heat boots are for engines with the plugs under the headers. Olds are above.
Made for You products used to have some nice looms, but I think they may not be in business anymore.
I don't think they are necessary either, as long as they are fairly tight to the heads and not nearly touching the uncoated headers. Yeah, the rubber rigid core valve cover gaskets are the best. A few of us needed high quality gaskets or straight up RTV like Ultrablack ot the Right stuff to seal the Chinese chrome valve covers. Honestly Optimum Grey might seal the best but would make removal a tough job.
Those heat boots are for engines with the plugs under the headers. Olds are above.
Made for You products used to have some nice looms, but I think they may not be in business anymore.
Ye i know that the olds originally has "straight" boots while those are 90° but i have tight fit under the hood so these are better option.
It's '65 American 2d base model, just got done with narrowing the rear frame, widening wheel wells and connecting the subframes. I think if everything goes as planned tomorrow, the baby will fire up on the engine stand.
We got so much done today but we decided to continue tomorrow, it needs just basically fuel line plugged to carb and some cooling systems screwed on and we are golden. We did spun the oilpump by hand and after like 2 minutes the oil was squirtting out from the pushrods to the rockers so i think the oiling system works, atleast..
The engine ran today and it sure did ran pretty good considering that i haven't messed with the timing or carburetor.. Battery was bad so it only ran for like 5 minutes. There is video of it but it is so poor quality that i pass on publishing that. I'll take better when the break-in is complete, timing and carb are set.
Doesn't have spark anymore, went down suddenly. Maybe coil or module inside the dist (pertronix 3). Going to buy msd ready-to-go soon.. now the valves need inner spring in, some cleaning under the hood and it's ready to drop right in.
Distributor failure don't even surprise. I think its delco or some and looks weak.. This thing also needs a lot of advance in timing and its difficult to set it right with that non-adjustable dist.
Buddy of mine mentioned that the crank trigger is one option too, that maybe needs very own brackets but i think that swap should be possible to do?! Just checked the prices and that ready-to-go costs more..
Took valve covers off that i can start to plan how to make diy valve spring compressor.
Is there anything to be concerned about? Other has mark all the way across and the other only tiny bit..
We are all human, parts are not always prefect. Rocker is only riding on the right side of valve stem. I am do not think I ever seem that. I would take it off the double check looking at all the mating surfaces carefully. Even switch rocker, to see if that makes a difference. The one Rocker maybe bad and off center. Maybe some of the engine builders, know something else.
Looks like your adjustable guide plate for that pushrod isnt centering the roller tip directly over the stem...its way off to one side like 1/8" . that will cause it to ride off the side of the stem.
loosen your rocker stud and adjust the pushrod over so it centers the wheel over the stem evenly. wipe it dry and put black marker on the top of the valve stem and roll the engine over a few times to see if it wipes it evenly
Is the rocker only making contact on that corner? As said, really inspect that particular rocker arm and valve tip. A guy on Real Olds Power was selling these, should work better than the cheapo valve spring compressors and should not be hard to copy.
I never understood why Olds owners wanted 496s. Copper Cutlass's performance proves 7000 RPM and gear/TQ converter TQ multiplication makes his 350 Olds one of the quickest on here, something to think about.
one reason is because a 496 with iron heads and a flat tappet can run mid 10's @ 130+ in a 3500 lbs car without a lot of money or rpm
Thanks guys for the advices! I check all the valve tips and and try to adjust the rockers as good as i possibly can tomorrow and really use my time to get em right! What about the mark on the pushrod, typical? Matter of fact in this case when there is guide plates and hardened pushrods, pushrod can and actually will touch the guide plate in some point of the lift!?
Thanks guys for the advices! I check all the valve tips and and try to adjust the rockers as good as i possibly can tomorrow and really use my time to get em right! What about the mark on the pushrod, typical? Matter of fact in this case when there is guide plates and hardened pushrods, pushrod can and actually will touch the guide plate in some point of the lift!?
You need to slide over your guide plate on that one to center the roller tip on the stem.
thats the reason for the extra wear on that p rod. the alignment is all out of whack and its riding hard on the guide plate
Found out that the driver side 1-3-5-7 which im working on right now is half aligned. 1 and 5 are right on. Minimal wear on rod if even that and and roller has left the mark on the stem all across..
one reason is because a 496 with iron heads and a flat tappet can run mid 10's @ 130+ in a 3500 lbs car without a lot of money or rpm
whats copper cutlass run?
Coppers 350 probably has about the same money in the entire engine as a 496 has in the crank and rods. I'am sure there is examples of 10.50 496s out there, and at 130 mph I'am going to be going 9s. But in my world NHRA stock 455 Olds have been 10.30s @ 3600 plus pounds with factory cast iron intakes and Q-Jets, and by the way 4.250 stroke, flat tappet cams, so theres that. Example:
Found out that the driver side 1-3-5-7 which im working on right now is half aligned. 1 and 5 are right on. Minimal wiear on rod if even that and and roller has left the mark on the stem all across..
If the pushrod is square in the guide plate and not contacting and cocking the lifter, I wonder if it is the valves themselves. What brand of valves were used? What brand of rockers are those? Are the rockers sitting freely on the studs? Maybe binding off center? Very strange.
