Yep I knew it should be silver. Haven't checked into numbers matching or not, wasn't super worried about it. Supposed to be a rebuilt 401 and with how well it runs I believe it, plus looking down the oil fill at the rockers and springs it appears super clean. Will do a better inspection when I've got the intake and valve covers off. Going to paint it red again to match the stripes and interior. Might pull the heads and get machined for positive valve seals as it does puff a little smoke when I fire it up if it sat for more than a few hours, and I understand the exhaust didn't have seals from the factory. Not a big deal, but kind of embarrassing to people that don't know its "normal"..... Will most likely port them if they are off. I've done quite a few other engines, will see what they look like if I get to that point.
Well you got me curious so I ran out into the garage to check it out (its -5 here and midnight). Its a jt 322 block and it has a hook on the water manifold, so must have a '66 one of those.
JT is a '63/401. The 322 is a date code. Someone must have replaced the water manifold with a '66 one. No big deal except for purists. Tom T.
Yessir, doesn't bother me a bit, only thing I've got that's a numbers car is my Caddy. Good info, and I'll remember that hook on the water manifold and the nuts for the seatbelts being there probably for the rest of my life haha (I seem to retain little bits of "useless" trivia like that.....and I'm proud of it). I bought a couple of original body and chassis service manuals from Les Modrow on here, and have been thumbing through and reading them in my free time. I find that kind of stuff interesting, even when most would find it quite boring. Thanks again for all your help as I learn this car.
Pulled the valve cover so I could measure for mounting studs and acorn nuts for my Offenhauser valve covers. Good surprise is the engine does in fact appear to be rebuilt....no sludge and everything is super clean inside. Performed the Doc dual plane mod on the stock intake and sandblasted. It's actually above freezing here this week, so I'll be in the garage tomorrow at least. I'll post a pic of the engine when everything's put together again.
Masked off and painted the engine. Waiting on my finned valley pan to get here before I can go much farther (it's coming out of Portland from Richie's Dragmaster, and with the ice storms over there nothing is getting shipped out anytime soon). So I'm just spending time polishing the vacuum lines and throttle linkage, replacing all the red rubber coolant hoses with new black ones, and some other small detailing stuff until it gets here and I can put it back together.
Sand and buff, sand and buff some more, and repeat......Bought the valley pan from Richie's Dragmaster "as cast". Beautiful piece, and thought I'd save myself $40 and polish it myself. Do yourself a favor. Save yourself 8 hours and just pay the man to do it for you. Don't know why the engine looks so orange, it's actually red. Had to kind of mock it up just to keep myself motivated. New fan and aluminum radiator on their way.
For sure, Loren haha.....did quite a bit today. Ive still got to hide all the wiring and hook up the cooling system. Air cleaner hits the hood support despite me having it as low as it can go, so going to have to do a little modifying.....
Got the engine detailing finished up. Have new cables for the climate control that I'll be doing next, along with some chassis stuff......
Thank you. The air cleaner originally comes with a standard base, which makes it stick up above the fenders, so I first had to get a 2.5" drop base for it, which then hit the fuel line. I got a 90 degree banjo fuel fitting for that, then it hit the electric choke on the Edelbrock carb, so I cut and welded a pie shaped section out of the drop base, then it hit the linkage. So, finally, I took a 1.5" carb/air cleaner spacer and removed about .8" out of that, and with two aircleaner/carb gaskets, it all fits now. Lots of little headaches, and I came thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to cutting the hood support for clearance, but got it all to fit after a few days of messing around. I love the batwing air cleaners, and I wasn't going to give up until it fit.
Here's some pics of my door panel veneers. A buddy of mine does hydro dipping, and we made these custom red burlwood sets for it.
All new suspension bushings, new kybs, and done in what I would call driver detailed. Installed a donated front plate bracket from a member on the roa, and put the new plates on. Rewired the starting and ignition systems completely and installed a pertronix in the distributor and coil kit.
Yessir. Almost done with the interior. Took it out and drove it today. Runs good but have another electrical gremlin. Died twice on the drive and one time I had to hold the key in the start position. Just going to run a battery operated switch to the coil I think and be done.
