Got my first test drive Tuesday on my 70. graemlins/hurray.gif I could hardly sleep the night before. Cranking up that big 454, dropping in reverse and backing out of the shop had to be the biggest thrill I've had in 30 years. My wife and I have been working on this car for a year almost to the day. graemlins/hurray.gif
Took it down the street a few times. The first couple of times I took it pretty easy because my wife was with me. Then the last couple of times I was by myself and let it run thru the gears @ about half throttle. The way it ran at half throttle, I cannot wait to really open it up. When I say street I don't mean in town. It is actually way out in the country. No other cars any where around.
Last two runs must have taken at least 20 years off this old mans body. I don't do drugs but that was a real high.
Every thing went pretty well with the car. Temp stayed at a constant 190, oil pressure at a constant 70 lbs. graemlins/hurray.gif
The only problem that came up was an oil leak. Looks like I have a pretty good leak coming either from the front seal or from the lower timing chain cover gasket. I can not tell which because the harmonic balancer is in the way, but it has to be one of the two because there is no evidence of oil any where else. It started as a real slow drip that graduated to a run. Really kinda confusing as the motor never leaked a drop in all the time I was running it in the shop. It almost acts like the front seal went completely out based on the way the leak went from a real slow drip to a real slow run. Guess I will find out when I pull the balancer off and have a closer look.
I put the car back in the garage as I did not want to drive it again until I get the leak fixed. Planned on doing that yesterday but it was just too cold.
Any way, thanks to everyone who helped in the last year answering some of my silly questions. It sometimes seemed like I would never get the car back togeather, but let me tell you it was well worth all the work!!!
I will post again when I figure out the oil leak.

Thanks again to everyone,
Billy graemlins/waving.gif
(48 year old) + (70 Chev,454 .60 over,3.73 posi)=
Teenager Again :D

Awesome, great story !

Sorry I cant help with the leak...but it was really cool to read your new experience. ;) :D

Ditto! Leaks are a drag, still have a tiny one myself, think I crcked the pan slightly!

But yours sounds easier to fix. And then,more fun!

graemlins/thumbsup.gif Us old guys have to get our thrills somewhere

Jerry

That is great, but sorry to hear about the oil leak. I am anticipating the same thrill toward the end of the year I hope. 454 in a 70 with a 4 speed :D

Congratulations!

There was a letter in CHP this month about oil leaking from one of the unused bolt holes near the tc cover, seems ometimes one of hte bolt holes can penetrate into the fuel pump cavity. If it is they suggested plugging the hole with asilicon coated bolt and washer.

It's always great when us older gents (I'm 52) can re-live our youth once again. I have great difficulty not allowing myself to hammer the big block off of any stop. Just the sound of cruising down the street turns the heads.
Good luck, have fun & be safe!

graemlins/beers.gif

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I still haven't had a chance to check out the oil leak due to the weather the last couple of days. And it looks like the weather is going to remain cold for the next few days. I can't wait to find out what the problem is. I'm just a woosy when it comes to working on anything out in the cold. My car is in my brothers work shop which is not heated, except for the old wood stove up in the front. Naturally my car is way in the back where the heat never gets to.

After thinking about it I am wondering if the problem could have come from the ill fitting timing chain cover. I remember when we installed it that we had a hard time getting it to line up. It was one of those new chrome ones. It was the one that is stamped out of the thicker metal and came with the crank seal already installed. Seems like I recall the bolt holes being too low. We really had to push the cover up to get them to line up enough to get the bolts in.

Could the excess pressure have caused the seal to go out prematurely on the bottom? It just seems odd that a new seal would go out that quick. I could understand a casual drip but this leak is running to a point that I would probably lose a quart in about an hour of running! I was extra cautious about putting enough sealer on the lower rubber seal, so I don't think that is where it is coming from.

Looking for warmer days,
Billy graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Congrats on completion from a fellow Texan. I know it's never "really" finished but what a thrill the first drive always is! I'm sure you'll figure out the leak with a little patience. Enjoy and keep us posted!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Billy:
[QB]
I put the car back in the garage as I did not want to drive it again until I get the leak fixed. Planned on doing that yesterday but it was just too cold.From: Texas |[QUOTE].

What's cold in Texas? Low 70s? :D :D :D

You go pops. ;)

Had a similar experience with my newly rebuilt 454.Pulled the harmonic balancer off and found that the seal had not been driven completely down and flush into the timing cover. It was actually sticking up a little on one side. This caused the crank snout to ride hard against one side of the seal,resulting in a leak that got worse every time I ran the motor.
I put a new seal in (making sure it went in all the way and flush)and have'nt had any problems since. smile.gif

Once again thanks to everyone for the suggestions and encouragement. I couldn't stand it any longer so yesterday I built a big fire in the wood heater and got a bottle of propane with one of those screw on heaters.

After tearing into it I found that it is not the crankshaft seal that was leaking. It is the rubber gasket on the bottom of the timing chain cover. The real problem is that it was not leaking because of a bad instillation. It was leaking because the gasket had a 1" long piece blown completely out on the drivers side. The opposite side looked like it was bulging out.

In talking to a guy that owns a local speed shop, it seems that I must be developing quite a bit of pressure in the oil pan. The other problem is that I do not have a good place to hook up my pcv. The only place to hook it up would be the rear outlet on the Holly 850. Right now I have the brake booster plugged in there. My intake (Power+Plus)does not have any auxillary outlets for manifold vaccume.

I guess the only thing left to do is find a place on the intake and install a vacume port dedicated to run the pcv. The guy at the speed shop told me that on a similar set up he ran a pcv to each valve cover.

Anyone else had this happen?? Any suggestions??
I will probably post a seperate topic to see if I can get some ideas.

Billy graemlins/thumbsup.gif

You should try a vacuum tee and run the pcv valve and brake booster of the port on the carb.Hose out from carb to the tee and brake booster one side and pcv valve hose the other side. If your cam is not too radical you will have enough vacuum for both sources. I have done this many times. Alternative is to remove carb and drill intake for a vacuum fitting. Easiest if it is put in the front of the intake. Put a piece of duct tape on the inside of manifold so that when you drill through it will collect the filings. Tap the hole screw in the fitting. Ask at NAPA if you can look through their brass fittings and look for a fitting that is small on the side to install in the manifold but the same size on the output as the fitting on the carb. I hope this makes sense but I would try the tee fitting first.