Engine is back in my garage

Block came back from the shop



Crank - polished


Pistons pressed onto rods


Cleaned with a wire brush


Cleaned with soap & water + New brass freeze plugs




Painted Pontiac Engine Blue



And that's where we stand.

New Engine Specs

Block

• 1974 Pontiac 455 + .030
• Balanced assembly
• Stock rods
• Stock crank (cut & polished)
• Heads: Butler - Edelbrock 72cc aluminum heads w/ Ferrea valves (bored to 76cc, polished)
• Cam: Comp Cams XE274 (Duration @ .050" Lift: 230/236)
• Pistons: KB Forged 15cc dished
• Rockers: TRW 1.5 roller rockers
• Intake: Edelbrock Performer RPM intake (port matched)
• Carb: Holley 750cfm with vacuum secondaries
• Exhaust: RARE OS Exhaust Manifolds
• ARP head bolts
• Cloyes True Roller timing chain
• Carter fuel pump
• Melling 60psi oil pump w/ collector & hardened drive shaft
• Fel-Pro gaskets
• GM Pontiac aluminum valve covers
• Hughes GM25 torque converter

Ignition

• MSD Blaster 2 coil
• Accel Distributor with Pertronix ignitor II
• Taylor spark plug wires
• AC Delco spark plugs

The block was sent to Weston Machine where it was cleaned and bored .030 over. The pistons were pressed onto the new rods and the rotating assembly was balanced. This should be coming back very soon.



Today, I fit the modern radio into the space meant for an old radio. Also, took out the old 3-gauge pod and installed a new SunPro.






Added dice to the locks and valve stems to have a similar theme with my dice in the mirror.

Mega Update

After pulling the engine, I looked at the codes. Turns out the block is a 1974 350, not a 1973 400. After a search, found a 1974 455 longblock and brought it home. Taken apart, we see that the block is pretty good, so it is being sent off for cleaning, then boring .030 over.

Because the Edelbrock 72cc heads will create over 11.5 compression, we are going for dished pistons as well.

While this turned into another roadbump, this will turn out to be something much better in the end.

Ordered a few things for the Mistress:

From Butler Performance

• Custom Edelbrock 72cc aluminum heads
• Custom Edelbrock Performer RPM intake
• Comp Cams XE274 cam & lifters
• Push Rods
• PRW 1.5 full roller rockers
• bolts & gaskets
• Butler Street Performance harmonic balancer

From Ram Air Restorations

• Oversized Ram Air Exhaust Manifolds
• Silver ceramic coating
• 2.5" Downpipes

From Summit Racing

• Hughes GM25-BPO 10" 2500-stall torque converter
• Oil pan plug
• gaskets

As soon as this all comes in, the GTO's motor is being pulled, cleaned, painted and all this will be installed.

Shifter Install

Installed the B&M Pro-Stick automatic shifter.
This works very well, and I like it much more than the ratcheting shifters. I also moved it back towards the seats, instead of being all the way up under the dash. Now the carpet needs to be redone to hide the giant hole. I have to call B&M because the neutral safety switch doesn't work appropriately.

The carpet is now cut so it "flaps" over the seats, so it looks much cleaner.

Locked the column shifter in place so that it does not swivel anymore.

Installed a battery cutoff switch in the engine compartment. Much easier to turn the electric off instead of pulling the battery cable.

Ordered header gaskets to see if I can stop the ticking sound, which might be exhaust leak.

Also ordered a B&M Pro Stick shifter

Last week, went to the Edison Light Cruisers show and my suspension dropped out on the left driver side. We did win a trophy though!

Sunday, installed the new heavy-duty springs and KYB shocks just to get her back on the road. The car rides MUCH higher (about 2 inches) and there are NO rubbing issues. Very excited for the change.

Sound!

This weekend, we put in 4 pioneer speakers.

Front - Pioneer 6.5s in molded kickpanels

Rear - Pioneer 3-way 6x9s on the rear decklid (needed to cut and grind 2 holes to fit them).

Also removed REVERB box

Tested, and everything works well!



Rear decklid


Pass kickpanel


Driver kickpanel


Updated Engine bay pics







Next project: Paint parts of engine bay, replace Edelbrock carb with Holley carb, fix horns.

Sometime soon: Replace suspension.

Begin Car Season 2009

Started working on the car again
1. Replaced all locks, now I have 2 keys
2. Replaced door knobs
3. Installed new air cleaner
4. Added fuzzy dice!
5. Added Kenwood head unit, installed under the dash.

Will add more photos shortly.