Well the engine is officially out now. Time to start the autopsy on this sucker and harvest some of it's parts for the new build
Thanks! Once everything was disconnected it took 15 minutes to pull the hood and yank it out, and that's with slurping back some beer in there too. I love these old cars, so easy to take apart. I think I have a total of 2-3 hrs in it pulling stuff off and disconnecting things along with actually taking the engine out. Not too bad I figure. Some of the guys on here this would've been an hour job lol.
Not much progress lately I've been really busy with work. Tonight I decided to have some beers and clean some parts. Some of which I will reuse on the new build others will be posted for sale or go onto the parts shelf for later. Here's a quick pic of some of the parts.
It's been awhile since I've updated this thread. Not a heck of a lot of progress on the assembly side if things but a ton of progress on parts. I've gotten a bunch of things from TA an other places/people like bolts, brackets, gaskets and accessories. I dropped the headers off today to be ceramic coated, I'll have them back Monday next week. I've gasket matched the aluminum heads and headers , still need to do the intake. I have cleaned and bead blasted all the aluminum parts that will be vibratory polished. I placed an order with Rob at Percision billet Inc. for a set of billet aluminum pullies. And for my favorite part I blasted and painted my Poston aluminum valve covers and oil pan Black Cherry to match the block. Once the paint fully cures in 7 days I will sand the top of the valve covers to expose the ribs and "Buick" letters in polished aluminum.
Quick progress update. I spent some time lastnight sanding the raised parts of the valve covers to expose the bare aluminum, I think it turned out pretty good! Also started to mock up the engine to get a better idea of what it will look like assembled and I'm at a crossroads now. I'm torn on if I should paint the aluminum heads to match the block or have them vibratory polished to match the rest of the aluminum parts??
At first I was totally against painting aluminum heads as I wanted to show them off, but then like others have mentioned once the engine is in the car and all the accessories are bolted on you don't seem much of the block anymore and wouldn't really be able to see my custom colour choice??
It looks really nice on a stand but yeah, once you put it in the car you can't see the color anymore... See what happened with mine by checking the picture below. That's why I'd suggest getting the intake painted at the very least. Since your valve covers are painted in the right color keeping the heads aluminium can provide an interesting color contrast. Painting the TC and keeping the water pump aluminium could be an interesting combo as well
Update: I got some more parts painted up. I decided to paint my aluminum stuff in flat aluminum VHT header paint. I was originally going to have all my aluminum parts vibratory polished but with all the additional costs, additional prep of the parts, extra tooling/making block off plates and the added time dely added to the build itself it turned out to not really be cost effective. Also the I wasn't 100% confident in the place that would be doing the work and how my very expensive parts could be ruined quickly. I think overall the flat aluminum paint looks very close to raw cast aluminum parts, which is the look I was going for anyways. I can continue putting the engine together again, except the heads, they're going to my head guy hopefully before the holidays.
Still chipping away at it here! I set up the oil pump clearances to. 002, fully assembled the timing cover with oil pump, water pump and installed it on the engine. Installed the pick up tube and windage tray also. Now to find the energy to install the oil pan and balancer.
Well yesterday was Sunday funday and it sure was fun indeed. I got the oil pan and romac balancer installed along with my oil equalization line plumbed too! Most of you guys probably already know this but just a heads up for anyone who might be running a romac balancer in the future I had to grind down the two bumps on the lower timing cover where the pan bolts go inorder to gain some clearance for the balancer. Not much has to come off and it doesn't affect structural integrity of the bolts holes at all. Now it's time to port/gasket match the intake and paint it and drop the heads off possibly this comming weekend to be reworked. Hopefully I'll have them back after the holidays. My new ngk fr5 7373 spark plugs are on their way as we speak. I need to get some miscellaneous bolts/hardware for brackets and such. I'm really hoping to get the build all buttoned up by February that way I can book a day at the dyno to break in and tune this sucker before all the powerboat guys flood the place with their new big block 454 builds for their offshore boats. Once late winter early spring hits I'll have a hard time getting in.
I dont know if you know this but that balancer may move your belt alinement off some too. It's not bad but it does.
Actually I did not know that Ben, how far off are we talking? I'm assuming moving it will move the belts forward? I have a short pump on it now. I'm having new pullies made by Robsbuick (precision billet) here on the board so I won't be able to test fit anything until I get those from him.
Its never been enough to cause an issue on my v belts, but it does push it out some. I've been running a Romac for almost 20 years.
