Dad's '68 Malibu. Taken tonight at local cruise in. It has a 408 SBC, nothing too fancy, looks fairly stock, ported 2.02/1.60's, 10-1, sounds ALMOST stock smile.gif
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jun/20046126125986281913391.jpg

Pics of my green '69 Chevelle, Red '72 Camaro, and my uncles '69 Mach 1.
http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jun/20046124175525128575098.jpg

The '69 is currently undergoing another motor swap back the 427 that it had in the past, the '72 Camaro is gone, it had a 454, T56, 3.73 12 bolt.

The Mach 1 will soon be undergoing a motor transplant to a 351W stroker 393 cube I'm building. It's in line behind all the Chevys awaiting assembly. smile.gif

graemlins/thumbsup.gif Looks sharp :D

Very clean Malibu your dad has, very nice. You got a nice little collection goin' on, huh?

what are you going to do with the 505 ? take it apart and reassemble? I know its got to be driving you nuts graemlins/clonk.gif

Nice looking rides there Jake graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Bob,
The 505 has been in and out of the car so many damn times, and apart IN the car so many times that I'm DONE with it. It is not going back in the '69.

I fixed the cam, reinstalled it, new stock volume oil pump, and a 9" converter, after the last problem.

Then had another issue with it that the exact cause isn't determined yet so out it came, and when I get the motivation the 427 will be going back in. Probably next weekend.

Thoroughly sick of messing with it and just want to drive the car, whether it runs 10's or 14's.

Basically I'm to the point that I know if I don't get a reliable setup in there the car will be for sale.

$8K engine stand ornament...

Actually it will be downgraded to a garage floor ornament today.

I need the engine stand for a more deserving motor.

man thems some slick cars we may have to meet up sometime since ur just in denton and im about 2 hours or so from ya. :D

Really Nice Jake,,,, graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I know of what you speak on the 505,,, got a blown 392 Hemi that's been on the dyno for 2 weeks driving me nuts & I just got it started yesterday :mad:

Had to change so much stuff to make other stuff fit as the guy that owns it bought parts from all over the known world that I am about sick of this sucker & now there's a problem with one of the stupid Demon's graemlins/angry.gif

Idles great about 3200 :eek: , acts like it doesn't even have an idle circuit.

Sure looks cool though, there's a couple of pics on my site.

Hey,,, maybe we can light one of them on fire & sacrifice it to the engine Gods so the other will run :D

Jake,,,shall I drive down and take it off your hands,so you'll have more room in the garage of course ;) :D

Mike,
I WISH this had only been a 2 week ordeal. I think it's at about 6 months or a little more.

I gathered up stuff all last year to build this combo.

Quit driving the Chevelle last November because the poor old 427 was just WORN OUT. It really sounded bad the last time I fired it to move it around, upon disassembly the #4 piston skirt was crack all the way to the bottom land. Got every last hard run out of that one smile.gif

So I finished up the 505 and isntalled it and it has been nothing but a pure headache.

Looking back, I guess NOTHING went right.

I bought a core 454 that was .060 over and fairly "fresh".
It had 2.19/1.88 closed chamber ovals with the portwork already done.

Ended up needing to go at least .080 over because it had been ridge reamed to eliminate the ridge. I inspected it with the pan and heads off but no calipers handy..

I had planned to just do a re-ring, check over everything, install a proper cam, and go.

Something a little peppier than the 427, similar to Ed's original BSE combo.

Since the bores were bad I started looking for shelf pistons to go .080, .090, .100, and the only thing I could get in a timely manner were SRP's.

After thinking about it I thought, if I'm gonna buy $450 set of slugs, I might as well get a stroker crank...right?

So I bought a Scat 4.250 crank for $274 shipped to my door, the proper pistons for the stock length rods (on a budget...) ARP bolts, rings with the pistons, bearings, custom order a 236/242@.050 solid lifter flat tappet cam and Harland Sharp 1.8 rockers.

Took heads apart and the guides and valve stems were shot.
So I ordered a set of valves, springs for the cam, good retainers, locks, etc..

Took heads in and had them done up, had the block bored/honed with torque plates, rods resized with Wavelocs, clearanced everything, took it in to have it balanced.

Got it all back,
The machinist said one head had been welded but he pressure checked it for free and it was good..
Wish he had called me I would have found a core, ported it and had him do it instead..
Then he balances unlike "I" would or any other reputable shop (he is very reputable in this area).
He didn't touch the crank. He cut some of the balance weight off the SFI flexplate and re-welded it elsewhere. :(
And then added weight to the balancer weight..

decided to go full bore and do the solid roller.
Ordered a Comp XR on a Gen VI billet core, with iron gear with a 242/248 on a 112 LSA.
Got proper springs..
Crower SD lifters with HIPPO.

Assembled everything, degreed cam, rechecked V-P clearance, springs for binding, etc.etc..

So, FF.
Got it together, dropped in.
7qt pan didn't fit the Chevelle. "Clearanced" it and got motor in.
Ordered a new stock type pan to use.
Went ahead and initial fired the motor with the big pan. Lef the torque converter unhooked because it was a fresh $1500+ 200-4R transmission I didn't want to hurt. Wanted to test fire motor, get it all sorted out, do the first oil change at 20 minutes, then hook up converter, to fill trans level.
Got it fired for a few minutes and one of the rear freeze plugs was seeping. Same sealant and install method used hundreds of times before..
Just a minor setback.

So my oil pan arrived, I pulled the 200-4R, and the oil pan to repair the freeze plug, and change the pan.
Changed pan, oil pump pickup, and freeze plug. reinstalled trans. Left converter unhooked.

Refired,
Didn't want to idle still, acted like it had a fairly large vacuum leak. Sprayed around the carb, intake. NADA, isolated everything, still idling poorly. very snappy response though.

Noticed it smoking from left bank, decided I probably had a leaking itnake gasket. Just a diagnosis from the hip.
Had local shop order a set of intake gaskets, replaced them the next day. Seemed to be some oil in ports but not just on left side.

Got it together refired. Idling away, still has poor idle, slight miss. Run the lash again. It's OK, no detectable vacuum leaks. Still smoking out left bank. Isolate the miss to #3. Pull plug. It's white. Pressure up the cyl and have pressure in cooling sys.

Pull the head and GM shim gasket looks good, threw head in the junk pile after getting parts off of it.

I had another set of closed chamber ovals, several sets of open ovals, but ran across a DEAL on a set of Merlin Oval castings. Thought I would just do them, angle mill, and go on.
Decided it was too much to mill and couldn' keep the 10.2 compression so set them on the backburner.

Looked at aftermarket heads but the only head with a small enough chamber was Edels 100 cc.

Since I built it as a closed chamber setup I had to stay with it..

finally decided to stick to the plan and keep iron OEM heads. Lucked out and found a single 390 casting head for cheap, had it cleaned, magged, new guides, big seats, I ported, took it back, had the valves done, ordered another GM head gasket, reassembled on car. Installed a new set of Hedman Elite coated headers while I was at it..

Got it together, fired, much better. Miss on #3 was gone, idle was still erratic, still seemed to have a slight miss though, but it was running. Messing with the tune, trying to get it sorted out, different ignitions, wires, plugs, still lokking for a vacuum leak, different carb, etc..
While messing around,
motor had 100 psi cold idling with 10-30 oil.
Would drop to ~70 hot idling.
It sounded like motor siezed. Rumpity-rumping along, quick "rrreeaaakk" sound and it would die quickly.
Whoa...
Refired, oil pressure right there, no problem.. Hmm
"Rrrreeeeakk"

wondering if it had spun a bearing, or what. Hook up converter and determined it had probably been grabbing in the index of the bakc of the crank. No biggy, worst case it hurt the converter...

Well it ate up the front pump of the trans I spent countless hours researching, gathering, building...

Didn;t know until I took the car for test drive. First round the block, it shifted OK, pretty firm, everything is about right, get it on the loop around the highway and it slides into OD, then gets worse as I ease it home. Add fluid, continues to lose pressure...

figure out what likely happened,
get the Th400 out of storage, re-install it.

Back in business.
car has been driven maybe 2-3 miles in a months time since installing the 505, and already had had a trans in and out a couple of times..

OK,
still missing, erratically, vacuum leak effect, smoking from right bank while driving.
Look at plugs, oily.
The intake gaskets were not sealing now on the pass side.
Put a new set of gaskets on. Same deal...
Order ANOTHER set of gaskets, put the old Edel C396QJ from the 427 on the 505, replacing the OEM Winters rect port intake.
Didn't seem to be enough meat to use the OEM rect on the oval heads on th ebottom of the intake flange.

New intake and gaskets, no more smoking, less missing, change plugs to freshen them up. Still has the vacuum leak effect, slight erratic miss.

Run the lash again, go through plugs..

finally determine it must be a lean idle circuit on carb. Drill out idel feed restrictions on Holley and vacuum leak affect is gone, idle isn't missing, but the carb was a Q-jet replacement 800 Dp and just wasn't calibrated for what I had.
Bought a 830 cfm Holley race carb, and Edel RPM on a decent deal. Installed the Holley carb on the old intake and it worked great.
Motor woke up, crisper, OK we're getting somewhere.

Had a starter problem that ate me for a couple of weeks.
The GM mini starter that had easily cranked the 427 was grinding on my oh so improtant not to foul up, "used to be SFI certed" flexplate.
I had a cast iron starter nose, so went and bought a hi-torque old style starter, swapped noses, and installed. No grindy, but no cranky good enough.
Bought a $165 racing mini-starter, billet nose, cranky good, but grindy like hell.
Shims, GM bolts, whatever. No fixy.

Ended up getting local starter shop to build me a bada$$ starter using my iron nose. Problem fixed. Frustration, wasted time, PITA, arghh..

Actually get to drive this thing..
Clatters like hell under hard accel,
change timing, no effect, jet up, etc.. etc.. etc..
This went on for a bit.

Driving home probably not more than 20 mile son it so far, #5 and #7 intake rocker studs back out.
Ruining a couple of rockers, and beating a pushrod.
Order a set of Comp Pro Mag 1.7's to back off the lift some, I had 1.8's for the flat tappet, but went ahead and used them for the roller for a bit.

My bad,
I followed ARP's instructions to put the studs in against my better instincts. Didn't use Loc-tite. Torqued to 70 lbs..
I usually just hammer em in with an impact..

Took all the rockers off, loc-tited ALL the studs, torqued to 80 lbs, reassembled, using new GM 3/8" pushrod.

Re-lashed AGAIN...

Gm pushrod lasted about 30 minutes of run time and gave like a piece of licorice.

Order a set of chromoly pushords, replaced, RE-LASHED.

OK,
it friggen runs..

Put some 100 octane aviation fuel in it to tune it with. Determine my vacuum advance is bad, lock out dist, it runs great. So order a Crane adjustable advance, install it, no more clatter.

Take car out, jump in it through 1st and 2nd. Woo-Hoo. That's how it SHOULD be.
Let off, easing along "pop" dies and coast to a stop.
Crank, just backfires.

Think maybe I left rotor loose when I installed the vacuum advance. Pop off cap, rotor is intact..
Pull the oil cap off and check for rocker movement. OK.
Watch rotor, no turny.

Hmm..
tow home, pull distributor and gear is wasted.
Pop another gear on it, take it for a spin to see how it runs in high gear.
Excellent.

finally a little preview.. not a great one because I haven't installed the whiz bang fuel system yet but one thing at a time right...


Bring it back, chekc the new gear and it is already showing signs of wear so I pull the cam, send it off for a new gear, drop the pan, and cannot get it off without dropping trans, ended up just pulling motor.

Get motor out, cam back, clean everything, change to stock volume oil pump, new screen , welded, re-assemble with RPM intake, throw a 9" converter in the TH400, drop it back in the Sunday before Memorial day and fire it up, knocking..
shut it off, think about it. oil pressur eis good. Mess with it, refire, still knocks running but not cranking..

Think to myself,
well I only "changed" the converter. Maybe that's it.
Go to unhook converter, spinning flywheel with my flywheel turning tool and it locks up..

Ruh-Roh.. Not good.

Something got into the motor.
Pulled it out. I know it was nothing loose int he ead on the stand, or in the intake so somehow (maybe my 3 yr old) something got deposited in the carb and I never thought to check it. It had been in the trunk of the car for a week or two, but when I pulled it off, or pulled it back out of the trunk (still attached to the old intake), the boy may have put something in it...

ruined the #2 and #8 pistons.

I double checked everything today and the seats/guides are still in the heads.. So it had to be from the carb.

I dunno, can't determine what the pieces are, forged material, dimensions of a piston ring but steel, and not curved at all. About 3-4 pieces 1/4" to 1/2" long.

Ordering valvetrain for the 427 tomorrow..

Bob,
What's it worth to ya? smile.gif

take a vacation, then i think if i were you, i would take a step back and over everything in the motor with a fine tooth comb.

Nah,
This motor has had it's last try in this car.

It is just not worth it.
I've been into, over, through, on top of, etc.. with it.

I'm DONE.

I had a very mild mannered 427 that idled like stock, ran great, never needed even the valve covers pulled off, ran 12's, and I could drive it everyday.
With a better converter, not necessarily even much looser, better fuel pump, bigger valves, and the better induction setup it should run a high 11 easily, not to mention a freshen up.

I told myself about 5 try's ago that that was it, and this last time the ONLY reason it got another try was because it was running right.
If it had still not been running right I would have already had a 427 in it and been driving it.

But I told myself "ONE MORE TRY".

Welp,
That's it.

This one just ain't meant to happen.

I'll look for a decent roller to build for a racing setup or I'll sell the motor, but it isn't going into the Chevelle again.

Car was too nice to hack up, since it has been sitting since Nov it has deteriorated some. Couple of bubbles in the paint that weren't there, etc..

It'll never get a cage anyway, so no point in going faster than a 12 flat..

When you can pull up, not start working, at 12:15, and at 2:15 have the motor out, hung on a stand, and the intake, pan, and heads off, something has to change.

And this ain't in a nice facility like a dealership. That was in the driveway.

Hmmm,,,, I guess you win,,, not sure what but you win graemlins/sad.gif

At least I got somebody that is gonna have a very expensive Hemi for my frustration & it makes for a good picture on my site :D

Mike,
I'll hafta go check the pics out in a few.

I've heard some people grumble about the Demons and others love them..

If this fiasco is being a winner, I'd rather lose smile.gif

Mike,
Just for a laugh..

The local machine shop that I initially had doing my work...

He was doing a high dollar all aluminum hemi about the same time as my stuff.

OK,
He has NO fixed boring bar. Just a portable type that bolts to the deck...
You heard how he balances..

He doesn't have a rods heater, or jig. He heats the rod with a torch, then slides the pin in, and then presses to center redface.gif

Everytime I went in the back of the shop I got less and less impressed..

I like the guy and used to work as a mechanic for his nephew, but man, I would be scared to drop off a lawnmower motor there now.

Yeah,
Hemi's are KEWL..

I threw a set of old Hemi heads away a year ago. Those things are HEAVY.

Heads were rusted up pretty bad, prolly couldn't easily disassemble.

Kept thinking I would get 'em apart and Ebay them but got tired of moving them.