[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by Rocky 389

Bought some "Gyptal" electric motor paint to use for the inside of my 370 block and did the paint job last night in my garage. The garage is under my bedroom and connects to my house through a 30" door. You know what happenned. The missus got home from her night out with the girls and immediately started making squeaky noises about the paint smell...I told her we needed to build a separate garage and she stopped squeaking.
Anyway, the paint came out great and it's supposed to shed oil without flaking off.
As soon as I get a proper rear seal for the engine, I'll lay the crank and get busy with assembly.
Oh, BTW....I happened to notice my machinist did NOT drill, tap and plug the oil-feed holes that feed the rockerfeed galleys in the original cylinder heads. Well, I'm uaing late heads and do not want these passages open as my rockers will now oil through the pushrods soooooooooo, I found a 21/64ths drill bit, a 3/8th fine tap and drilled, tapped and pluged those pesky passages myself.
Since I posted last I've found a Competition cams cam with rockers, new pushrods, new hydraulic lifters etc. ...it's coming together! Behold the red paint!

That paint will stay on until you hot tank the block, no worry there. I painted all my racing engines inside also and the only time I ever had any come off was when I holed a piston in a 428 oval track engine and had to have it hot tanked to get the melted aluminum out of the block. I lived in Erie Pa. back then and GE was the largest single employer in the city so the GE formulated Glyptal paint was rather easy to come by. BTW GE Locomotive engines have their blocks painted inside also and I have never seen any paint come off the inside of their blocks either.

Great project you have there, I almost bought a partially finished 34 Pontiac coupe street rod project years ago, but in Pa. you had to have full fenders on your cars and someone had discarded the originals and I couldn't find another set so I passed on it........

[Rocky 389]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

That paint will stay on until you hot tank the block, no worry there. I painted all my racing engines inside also and the only time I ever had any come off was when I holed a piston in a 428 oval track engine and had to have it hot tanked to get the melted aluminum out of the block. I lived in Erie Pa. back then and GE was the largest single employer in the city so the GE formulated Glyptal paint was rather easy to come by. BTW GE Locomotive engines have their blocks painted inside also and I have never seen any paint come off the inside of their blocks either.

Great project you have there, I almost bought a partially finished 34 Pontiac coupe street rod project years ago, but in Pa. you had to have full fenders on your cars and someone had discarded the originals and I couldn't find another set so I passed on it........

There is a 33, 3 window Pontiac coupe on the HAMB classified's right now.
I believe the price is about $3000 but it comes with no fenders.
Rocky

[PRC]

Is there an advantage to painting the inside of a block?

[Sirrotica]

Promotes oil drainback and if there is any sand in the cast iron it seals it and keeps it there.

[Rocky 389]

...............and it looks cool.

[Sirrotica]

Yeah that too...........

[Rocky 389]

OK, so it's been a long time since this thread was visited and not a lot has happened but I have got the water elbows to fit the fronts of the late [1974 GTO #96] heads. It took a pair of 1/4 inch thick steel spacer/adapters. I had to "angle grind" the insides of the spacers with a burr on a die grinder [where the water goes] to align the coolant holes in the elbows with the coolant holes in the fronts of the heads. This works out great because the elbows were a 1/4 inch from lining up with the water nipples cast into the '59 front cover. [see post #71 of this thread with the photo of the mis-match] The 1/4 inch spacers help to align the parts as if all the parts were made for each other.
Now........I've been thinking about the problem of the coolant coming from the radiator into the fronts of the heads and curving right back around into the thermostat housing and back into the radiator without cooling anything and I believe I have a solution for this problem. Why not sandwich some shim stock between the coolant passage in the cylinder heads and the intake to block off this flow BUT! Don't completely block it off. Drill a 3/8ths hole in the shim[s]..[one on each side] to let a little coolant flow to the thermostat as a by-pass.
Most of the coolant would be forced down the length of the cylinder head [except what little coolant goes through the 3/8th holes in the shims at the front of the heads] , down through the coolant passages through the deck and into the block, and back to the front of the block into the water pump. I see no reason why this won't work.
I've got the 370 engine sat up on my little wheeled engine cart and have been running it 'till it gets warm........no cooling system at present. Got the cam "run in" now and I love the way this thing runs. The 230 degree cam [at 0.050 ] has a pleasant lope to it and even without the early Pontiac rocker stud oiling, the rockers get plenty of oil through the pushrods. Yet another fear alleviated.
I'm sneaking up on it, fellas. By spring I hope to have the running gear bolted in the 34 chassis and testing it out on the road. Oh, and the quick change rear is out at the shop getting new axle tubes with ford wheel bearings, new 31 spline shafts and a vari-loc posi unit to replace the spool. .....and I scored a '67 Muncie 4 speed with the big counter shaft....it's a 2.20 low trans. I'll be able to adjust my gearing with the spur gears in the quick change rear to accommodate that 2.20 1st gear.

[Jack Gifford]

Congrats on running the engine!

[Safari Larry]

Originally Posted by Rocky 389

Most of the coolant would be forced down the length of the cylinder head [except what little coolant goes through the 3/8th holes in the shims at the front of the heads] , down through the coolant passages through the deck and into the block, and back to the front of the block into the water pump. I see no reason why this won't work.

Water that goes into the block, to the front of the block and into the water pump is not cooled, it is recirculated without going through the radiator. If the majority of your coolant is taking that route, I think you're going to have a hot engine.

[Bill Hanlon]

Originally Posted by Rocky 389

Most of the coolant would be forced down the length of the cylinder head [except what little coolant goes through the 3/8th holes in the shims at the front of the heads] , down through the coolant passages through the deck and into the block, and back to the front of the block into the water pump. I see no reason why this won't work.

The reason it won't work is that the path "into the block, and back to the front of the block into the water pump" is very small in the early (pre-1960) timing cover and does not line up with the front water passages on the 1960 and newer block. The main input to the water pump on the early (pre-1960) timing cover is from the bottom radiator hose.

Or maybe I don't understand your statement Rocky.

[Rocky 389]

"and does not line up with the front water passages on the 1960 and newer block."
Yeah, I'm using a 1957 block and the coolant will take the same path is did in a stock '57 engine except I can't use water distribution tubes in the late cylinder heads.
In my previous post regarding drilling holes in shims..........well, I completely over thought that statement! In fact, the thermostat will remain closed, blocking flow back to the radiator until heated coolant from the block opens it, allowing heated coolant into the radiator. The cooled coolant coming from the radiator into the fronts of the heads cannnot take a short cut back through the thermostat and into the top radiator hose because the cooled water will close the thermostat.........simple!
My little brain fart. I don't need to make any shims, or drill any holes. Again the only changes from an original 1957 cooling system is the lack of water distribution tubes in the [late] heads. I should go back and delete all that gibberish.

[60man]

Neat !!!
Have you checked out FlamedAbone's blown Pontiac coupe??

[Rocky 389]

Originally Posted by 60man

Neat !!!
Have you checked out FlamedAbone's blown Pontiac coupe??

Not sure about Jeff's coupe but we've ridden around in it at the HAMB drags. Ran a 10.98 after driving it to Joplin, Mo from S. Carolina. Pretty impressive!
I took this photo a year before he installed the blower.