[Andretti]

Looks like you're making progress and I think it's really good to see your family in on this too. You're a very lucky man.

[pontiacman63383]

So I guess its time for an update. not much has gotten done in the past few months. Got all the new brake lines on the car.

Rebuilt the gear box and blasted and painted all the front steering linkages.

Also I changed jobs just recently decided to get myself a congrats on the new job present!

[pontiacman63383]

Finally got the body back on the frame!!!!!!

[pontiacman63383]

Start of winter update.
The motor is at the machine shop as we speak and I have spent the last few months getting the parts for the rebuild together. Its a 72 date block and will be getting an eagle stroker kit. Full roller valve train. 4x heads that will be ported and polished. Still waiting on the cam but heres a shot of all the goodies so far.


Also score of the day. Complete working a/c set up for 100 bucks of CL. cant beat that!
(ignore all the boxes. Its all Christmas stuff. wife goes a little crazy this time of year with it)

[judger69]

Looking great !! Keep up the good work !!

You said you will be using "4x heads that will be ported and polished". Just curious if you checked the combustion chamber size. My 1974 4X's (1H) on my 455 are 114cc that puts mine at around 8.4:1 compression ratio. If these were on your 400 you'd be in the 7's and not real happy with the power. (my factory 1974 455 with 4X heads was a whopping 250 HP) Looks like you are using a lot of good engine stuff (roller lifters, cam etc,). Spending $$ Porting and polishing 4X's would be a waste if the CR in the 7's. There is a stamping on one of the bosses that will help you identify the CC.

There is tons of great head info on John Wallace's site here. I use it all the time.
http://www.wallaceracing.com/head1.htm

And here is a CR chart on his site. http://www.wallaceracing.com/cratio0001.htm

[pontiacman63383]

Already checked them. There the 7h 98cc heads. With the stroker kit and the flat top pistons we are using compression should be just over 9:1 which i am ok with for now. The game plan is to swap to aluminum heads in the future but ill have to save up before i can drop the extra 2500. The joys of being on a tight budget lol

[judger69]

Perfect. That will be a pump gas friendly beast.

Well Done !!

[pontiacman63383]

Well what a year! Its been a while since I posted and I have went back and forth with the GTO. So after a disappointing experience with the machine shop I ended up having to send the heads back out to have more work done (long story). We after all the frustration the car kind of got put on hold. Add to the fact that I go laid off and my DD finally died (02 grand am with 285k) the GTO took an even farther step back in priority. After months off putting it off I Finally got around to Assembling the heads with the new valves and springs.

Now I can install them and measure for push rods and finally get this motor all back together. On a side note since the DD is dead the back up/weekend car got bumped to DD duty (01 grand prix GTP) so that left a hole in the fleet which I filled with a 2006 GTO!

[300deluxe]

[pontiacman63383]

Holy thread resurrection batman! Cant believe its been 5ish years since ive updated. Well on divorce
and a job changer later and im finally ready to get back on the car. So just got the firewall marked and cut to make room for the factory ac system. Once that is in i can finally drop the drive train in this beast. Hopefully have here movable under its own power by summer but we will see. Progress so far. Still need to clean up cuts but test fit works.

[pontiacman63383]

Patch panel installed and under dash and engine bay hvac box installed today

[pontiacman63383]

Hit a milestone today. Drive train is in the car for the first time in almost 8 years!!!!!!!

[gtohurstjudge]

Life has a funny way of getting in the way of restoration projects........
congrats on getting the motor in and looking forward to seeing more posts...
Let's GIT-R-DONE as Larry the Cable Guy would say!

[pontiacman63383]

So had to do some modification to the factory ac box to clear the tall valve covers. Glad work had a 3d printer lol. Trimmed the box then printed a patch. Fiberglassed it in from the back side. Dont know how well its all going to hold up to the heat but time will tell.

[pontiacman63383]

And with the firewall all straightened out, i could finally get the front end set back on the car. Its just temporarily on there now but it was nice to see it start to look like a car again!

[rwfisher]

Way to keep at it!! Hopefully you bought allot of what you needed for it back in 2015 the way current prices are!!

[pontiacman63383]

Slowly coming together. Front end is back on im getting closer to first fire up on the new engine.

[kingbuzzo]

Cool...have yet to run into one of these

[Scarebird]

An acquittance had one of these - a convertible no less.

It was a roach but ran - barely.

[pontiacman63383]

So big progress update. The car now moves under its own power!!!!! Got the coolent system put in and the brakes finished up. New carb and I was finally able to drive it! Granted it was only about 20 feet out of the barn and back lol but for having had the car almost 13 years and never actually having drove it, it was quite a moment. So my current game plan is to get it together enough to drive and enjoy it. It will be ugly for a while but ill still get to enjoy it and thats all that matters