[65chevelle300post]

Ok so I've been lagging on starting this build thread.

I'll start off with the suspension parts prep. and painted pictures then a few pictures of the suspension installed in the next post.

I'm using Global West stage 3 parts all around and modded the LCA's for the Del-A-Lum bushings. They all had to be repainted using single stage TCP/Global metallic Cobra blue, the body is TCP two stage paint using the same color with 5 coats of clear and it still needs to be color sanded.

When I started the final body work last July I realized there was rust hiding everywhere and every last inch of the car was some how dented so it was a long hot summer for me.

Absolute worst most rusted out and dented body on the face of the planet, roof rails gone, most of the rear fenders were rusted out as is typical on these cars. I had to replace the entire front end with fiberglass parts, it took me 6 months of hard work to get the rear half of the body back in shape. Not to mention the floor boards in the front were completely gone and had to be replaced with custom sheet metal work.

Luckily the frame and body mounts were still solid, I didn't need to perform a frame off because no salt or snow here in Cali. In fact some of the original undercoat that protected paint on the bottom of the car was still like new.

Apparently powder coating has a life span and around here it was going down hill after just ten years. This seems strange to me because the parts were in a garage installed on the car the entire time.

 

[65chevelle300post]

With the 7 picture limit I'll just add more pictures of the suspension parts installed here. I'm using the Z-28 1-LE spindles and brakes, long milled ball joints, Global West big block front springs and Koni adjustable shocks.

I had to repaint the LCA's because they were rusted through the powder coat as well, lots of prep. work required.

When I put the rear end back together I installed the Global West frame braces and the new diff. cover. Can't see much in the dark under the car with no flash but you get the idea.
Link for the frame braces.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gls-ts-47/overview/year/1965/make/chevrolet/model/chevelle

Went with Flaming River stainless tilt steering column and stainless steering gear, using quick ratio steering box which was recently painted.

 

[65chevelle300post]

Ok people, onto to my favorite part, the engine. :hurray:

I'm using an old 67' 327 small journal block bored .060 out with forged 10 to 1 compression Speed Pro pistons and moly rings. Race prepped small journal steel crank, original V-groove 67' Chevy pink rods that were resized using ARP bolts. Not to mention a Howards roller cam with .560 lift and 280int/286exh. degrees duration. ARP stainless bolts for everything. An Eldelbrock Performer RPM manifold, Holly 750 Ultra double pumper. Milidon 7 quart pan. Hooker 1 3/4 in. headers, 3 inch exhaust. Alum. Trick flow 195 23 degree heads with CNC combustion chambers. Call me old school but I'm not about to give up on the small block Chevy.

The short block was blue printed and set aside 6 months ago. I just ordered all the other parts yesterday, 4500$ worth and those parts will be showing up over the next week so I'll post pictures and descriptions of the parts as they show up.

Long way to go on this as the inside of my car is still completely gutted, no windows, no wiring, no nothing. At least it's all painted I guess.

 

[65malibussconvertL79]

I would say the chevelle from heaven, the way its looking!

 

[cgocifer]

Glad you started a build thread! Finally...

Yeah, I'm using the Flaming River steering colum and polished stainless linkage. That is one thing that did work. Flaming River is good stuff.

 

[496malibu]

Wow, I have redone the front suspesion on both my cars, and painted and smoothed both fire walls, and always taken some time to grind all the welds on the frame, but you Sir have taken it to the next level! Well done!

 

[Malibu ss 64]

Looks very good! :thumbsup:

:beers:

Marcus

 

[65chevelle300post]

Great compliments from you all and thanks for the encouragement guys.

I think the hell part comes from the hellish amount of body work this car required to get it straight.

I made a mistake on the calculations for the engine parts. I still needed another 500 bucks worth of parts to complete the build but I pretty much figured that would be the case.

I've been busy dialing in the roller cam end play which required a .795 Torrington thrust bearing which I had to remove .050 from the back of it in order to end up with .005 clearance. This is not an easy thing to do as there is no way to use a feeler gauge or dial indicator for this. I used a bit of sticky clay between the bearing and the cover to dial this in. This is an area where you really need to take your time and get it right.

Luckily I had my sanding machine for this because sanding the end of the bearing perfectly flat would have been impossible with out it. I used the special Milidon timing cover with the thrust part welded on. First picture shows the timing cover.

They really needs to sell these Torrington bearings with shim washers of different thicknesses so you can dial in the end play by using different thickness shims behind the bearing. Instead they sell a few different lengths with no real method for dialing them in.

After that you need to adjust the push rod length in order to get the roller tip centered across the valve stem. I ended up with 7.2 inches for the pushrod length which happens to be the most popular size so I guess a lot of guys end up at the same length for push rods on the small block Chevy. Second picture shows the pattern on the valve stem.

On to the 4500$ pile of parts, most of them anyway.

Last picture shows water pump to timing cover clearance which required me to grind off two of the rear water pump cover bolts and had to use two water pump gaskets to make it fit without hitting the timing cover. This tight fit is all fairly standard for these engines.

I also needed to use the special Fel-Pro coated multi layer stainless .026" thick head gasket in order to get my compression dialed in at precisely 10 to 1 to run on 92 octane pump gas. These were 63 bucks EACH! They don't even sell them in pairs so now I have to get another one.

I was working out in the garage till midnight last night trying to figure out all the little parts I needed to get this working, so now I have another 500 dollar order to place which means more waiting and more pictures of the engine coming soon as it goes together.

 

[65chevelle300post]

Due to overwhelming response I was forced to post more pictures of the engine build. :hurray:

The long block is now completely assembled.

I still need to work on the headers because as always the flanges are tweaked and one of them requires a bit of welding and grinding to even it out.

I also painted the manifold and water pump with high temp Simi gloss black because the raw aluminum doesn't look good for very long.

Heads and manifold torqued down using ARP fasteners.

One picture shows the dampener installation tool being used. Installing a dampener with this tool is stupidly easy.

 

[65chevelle300post]

Engine is installed and I'm working on the pulley's and mounts for the p/s and alt. I'm going with the March pulley system which moves the p/s out away from the engine and makes room for a head mounted alternator rather than header mounted alternator which I think is better.

Installing the engine went smooth and I had this new engine installed in a couple hours working by myself. Well the pneumatic tools help a little. :thumbsup:

I did need to purchase a new 3 ton hydraulic jack for 50 bucks plus shipping. The one my engine hoist came with never did work right, 25 years old and only used twice. Not only did it leak fluid from the check valve but it didn't hold pressure at all. This new one made it so easy.

Simple and clean, just the way I like it.

 

[-SS454-]

What size tires are you going to run front and rear?

 

[65chevelle300post]

What size tires are you going to run front and rear?

It looks like I have room for 335's in the rear because the 305's I have now have about two more inches towards the frame.

In the front with the glass front end and custom inner fender wells I might be able to squeeze in 295's with a little trimming. I'll be going with the Goodrich Rivals.

 

[-SS454-]

It looks like I have room for 335's in the rear because the 305's I have now have about two more inches towards the frame.

In the front with the glass front end and custom inner fender wells I might be able to squeeze in 295's with a little trimming. I'll be going with the Goodrich Rivals.

Good choice. though it looks so awesome with those fat BFG's you currently have on it as mock ups.

 

[cgocifer]

Engine is installed and I'm working on the pulley's and mounts for the p/s and alt. I'm going with the March pulley system which moves the p/s out away from the engine and makes room for a head mounted alternator rather than header mounted alternator which I think is better.

Installing the engine went smooth and I had this new engine installed in a couple hours working by myself. Well the pneumatic tools help a little. :thumbsup:

I did need to purchase a new 3 ton hydraulic jack for 50 bucks plus shipping. The one my engine hoist came with never did work right, 25 years old and only used twice. Not only did it leak fluid from the check valve but it didn't hold pressure at all. This new one made it so easy.

Simple and clean, just the way I like it.

Helps that you don't have the front end on either! Makes things a lot easier.

Just make sure your front tires don't rub the control arms... Ask me how I know... lol

 

[65chevelle300post]

Helps that you don't have the front end on either! Makes things a lot easier.

Just make sure your front tires don't rub the control arms... Ask me how I know... lol

Yeah no kidding, I'm trying to get as much as possible done without putting the front end back on. It's so easy to work on when it's like this. I even have one of those little stools with wheels so I don't have to squat all the time.

Getting those pulley's right will cost another 600 because I'm changing to a the head mount alt. which requires the March offset p/s pump mount plus the triple crank pulley and offset p/s pulley. Major pain $ but I knew it was coming, the stock mounts forces you to use the header mount alt. which is lame plus it shoves the p/s pump against the engine which I didn't like either.

I might have to go to the 1 3/8 hollow sway bar with the splined ends to get more room for inside offset on the front because I'm more concerned about the tires rubbing on the sway bar when turned to the inside.

I saw your pics posted in the Show your Malibu thread, turn key engine with aluminum block is looking good Dan.

 

[65chevelle300post]

Good choice. though it looks so awesome with those fat BFG's you currently have on it as mock ups.

Yes those fat wheels I have now look cool but they are outdated on 15" center lines and are really just to hold the car up for now.

 

[mdcamaro]

Very interested in the fiberglass front end. Where did you get it? Is it one piece? Any construction pics?

 

[65chevelle300post]

Very interested in the fiberglass front end. Where did you get it? Is it one piece? Any construction pics?

It's not one piece, has fenders and 3 inch cowl hood. Unlimited used to sell them. They are well made but I did some reinforcement on the fender mounting points etc.

No pictures of the front end parts but they are painted and I will be installing those parts once I get the engine detailed.

 

[65chevelle300post]

What do you guys think about running an extra coolant line from the back of the drivers side intake to the top of the water pump like is showing in the diagram? The hose will stay on drivers side or down middle of the air gap manifold to hide it.

This is supposed to improve cooling on the heads which helps to avoid detonation.

I'm also thinking about running the pressure side coolant line from the rear of the intake passenger side to the heater rather than the front passenger side of the intake. There are some factory Vortec engines set up this way so I think it will work.

I've been busy working on the custom pulley set up now which is both tricky and expensive but looks really good. I Didn't like the stock set up with the Alt. hanging off the freaking headers one bit. :noway:


Here is the quote about the advantages of running a return hose as is showing in the picture. What do you guys think about this?

This was the original way GM plumbed the heater hose water circuit
(which is the bypass)

GM got away from this for the emission era when they wanted to force the heads to run hot for low exhaust emissions.

If you are willing to do the mod, this allows improved cooling in general and much improved thermostat function.

Either of the manifolds will make more power anyways.

Excuses aside, if you want to do it right, this is how you do it.

 

[65chevelle300post]

A few more pictures of the progress.

I rebuilt the power steering pump using an AGR high performance power steering pump with modified internals. You can see both parts in the picture. These pumps are easier to get apart than you might think. The AGR pump is modified internally for more flow and pressure plus it uses special seals and bearings.

I managed to fit the March billet power steering mount and the March alternator mount on this engine which was no easy task. The factory set up with the power steering pump jammed against the engine with the alt. hanging off the headers just wasn't working for me.

I had to modify the power steering mount by shortening the Heim adjustor to about half of it's original length, using a 36" belt for this. This was not an easy mod to figure out and it precludes the use of having an alternator on the drivers side because there is no room for the alt. belt when using this mount. The factory set up runs the alt. belt between the power steering pulley and the pump which won't work with this mount using the special pulley.

I'm also using the Detroit Speed stainless power steering hoses. I still need a fitting before I can secure the pressure hose to the pump.

I also have the Summit multi spark discharge HEI box connected to the distributor with the coil and HEI box mounted under the dash, I'm ready to run the coil wire through the firewall to the distributor, this will keep the firewall clean as possible.

The car is still gutted with no battery or wiring harness so that will be next after getting the engine details sorted out.