The original engine seemed very doggish, low power, getting lots of blow-by out the breathers, oil on valve covers,, Okay thinking this engine is over 40 years old, maybe time for a rebuild... Performed a compression test, all cylinders pretty equal but low...after doing a cylinder leakage test I discovered that I had moderate to high leakage, past the rings...confirms my suspicion that engine is worn out...
Removed engine... prepared to disassemble...After disassembly, I discovered that this engine was already rebuilt, it had 30 over pistons the cylinder walls had virtually no wear, the heads were redone, had all the valves seats and guides were drilled out and fitted with hardened steel inserts. The problem was that they had installed standard size rings on 30 over pistons, The ring end should be like 10,thousands of a inch, I measure well over 60 thousands.. It was hard to believe they made a big mistake like that. No wonder it had no power and so much blow-by. After looking up the casting numbers on the block, I discovered that this was NOT the original engine that came in this car...I was not real happy about this,,,,
I found a good deal on another freshly rebuilt engine, which also had 30 over pistons, I removed the heads and had them milled some and also installed Velpro MLS head gaskets that were 1/2 thickness of the stock gaskets, new head bolts took the oil pan off and checked all the the rod and main bearing torque, which was okay and replaced the oil pan with a fined aluminum oil pan...The black valve covers were replaced with Chevy bow tie covers.
Repainted the headers again ...much better...
Removed the timing chain and gears and replaced the with gear set and replaced the stock timing cover with a chrome Chevy bow-tie cover to match my new valve covers....I also replaced the stock harmonic balancer with a Scat SCA8000 Street Performance Damper and of replaced both engine with Suspension Energy urethane engine mounts..
Removed evaporator and housing,,, I have T-tops I don't need A/C and It really hogged that side of the engine, couldn't' get at #8 spark plug, or tighten the header bolts easily. Actually I had to use Accel header plugs, as the regular plugs were too long. what a mess...Replaced with a aftermarket heater housing and can still use my heat defrost and vents..
New heater housing (below) on left and old evap housing next to it, it's 4 sale along with the evap core.
The entire fire-wall was really rough & lumpy so i starting working on it,, I ended up taking everything off I could from the firewall and cowl., including the wiper motor, it was rough too, left the brake booster in sanded it all down too..
Almost finished.... Yes I should have done all this before I installed the engine,but I covered the engine up pretty good...
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Getting there, Looks much better, I believe..
sanded the wiper motor and other stuff primed and painted. Left part of the wiper with no paint, Looks better that way & polished and clear coated everything..
Did the same on the steering gear box, sorry no before pic....rebuilt the steering shaft and repainted to match.. no pic, yet,
Completed Engine Installation...
This is now how my engine looks.. WIth New "clear Distributor
