Advise needed ...who's parts to use ?
 

Looking to install an 068 cam and lifters,water pump , timing chain and gears and gaskets in a 64 Grand Prix 389 4 barrel . What brand/ maker would you use on these parts ...Thanks for any info

Melling is good on the cam. I used a double roller chain from Jegs. Still workin' 13 years later. Can not believe it is that long.

goodprice on melling cam kit Price: $ 191.99

http://www.autozone.com/internal-eng...aft-kit/107027
. Camshaft OEM #9779068. Kit includes 1-[SPC-7] camshaft, 16-[JB-951] lifters & 4oz mell lube

Please educate me, as I believe the 068 cam has been mentioned and I believe this is an old GM grind?

Is this still a solid torque monster? Just wondering why these old grinds are still used. I'm going to put a new cam and lifters in my 62 so a cam & lifter set is on the list.

X 2 on Melling for the cam, Hylift Johnson for the lifter. I still prefer Cloyds Tru-Roller timing sets. As far as head gaskets for a 389, I'd go with Butler Performance's head gaskets. They are made from the original Pontiac pattern. Fel-Pro for all the other gasket except the oil pan gasket. Use BOP's one piece unit along with a Best Gasket rear main seal.

The 068 is an excellent cam for a big car with a near stock engine. It gives good performance along with maintaining good vacuum for power brakes.

Any water pump recommendations ?

Have your pump rebuilt:http://water-pump-rebuilders.com

Melling SPC-7 cam, Johnson Hylift lifters.

Using a factory cam has the advantage of letting you use all the factory valvetrain pieces with no modifications, kind of important with these older V8s that still oiled through the rocker studs that are pressed into the heads. Lucky you, 1964 was the last year for stud oiled rockers. The press-in rocker studs can't take too much RPM, spring pressure or valve lift, so a mild factory performance cam such as the tried-and-true 068 with .407" lift at the valve is a wise choice.

Most folks don't realize that in order to run any decent aftermarket cam you need to make quite a few somewhat expensive upgrades to the valvetrain. If you don't beef up the valvetrain (screw-in studs, hardened retainers and keepers, better valve springs, stronger pushrods, pushrod guide plates, roller rockers) you're going to end up with an expensive mess not far down the road.

I want to change the pushrods (what are your recommended ones) and rockers to competition cam roller tips is this a good upgrade from stock or a waste of money?:popcorn:

Comp Cams roller tips are a waste of money. The roller needs to be at the fulcrum, not at the tip, to be truly effective.

If your stock rockers are in good shape I'd reuse them. Also, I'd never recommend using anything but stock rockers and rocker nuts if you have the stock press-in studs.

A set of new stock replacement pushrods would be a good idea.

One thing most folks into Pontiacs don't realize is the rocker arms on '67 and later engines are different than the rockers used on the '66 and earlier engines. The rocker geometry is a little different, so they don't directly interchange.

The earlier rockers come in a couple of different types, the '65 & '66 have the spurt hole above the pushrod cup to oil the rocker ball. The '64 and earlier engines didn't need the spurt hole because the rocker balls were oiled through the pushrods, hence no spurt hole in those rockers.

The Comp roller tips are fashioned after the '67 and later style rockers, so they're not intended for the earlier engines. If you wanted to use a later style full-roller they can be made to work, just the geometry won't be perfect. But first you'll need to spend the money (roughly $250) to convert to screw-in studs, it's not simple nor cheap to do.

I have a set of 1.5:1 Crower Enduro stainless rollers on my 421, they were very expensive at nearly $600 for the set. The roller tip tends to ride a little towards the far end of the valve tip instead of in the middle, not a huge issue but again it's the slightly different geometry thing. Of course my heads have been converted to screw-in studs.

Clear as mud? ;)

In a nutshell, with these earlier engine staying with as many stock components as possible is the way to go so you don't open up a big can of worms and quickly empty your wallet. They run great with a simple camshaft upgrade (068 cam), a factory AFB 4-barrel and iron intake, good free-flowing exhaust system (headers not needed) and a custom distributor recurve job.

Well said, Bart.

i have a melling 068 in my GP and it works very well. car is still in pieces from 18 months ago but the cam was in for 6 months before i tore the interior out. 62 heads and a 65 tripower intake on the bench when i get the car back together.

I was looking on the Wallace Racing website and it lists only 1 head for 1962, 538177, but varying compression ratios. I presume this was due to piston design? It lists CR of anywhere from 7.8 to 10.75 for 1962. Hoping mine is one of the 8.6 CR units, is there a code on the block somewhere? Stock 2bbl.

Get the engine code off the front of the block, next to the water pump on the passenger side, and run it through the decoder on the Wallace Racing website. It should tell you the compression ratio.

Your 1962 2-barrel engine would be equipped with dished pistons if it were one of the 8.6:1 or 7.8:1 (export) engine.

A few engine code examples:

1959 389, the engine code 'A' (located just below the cylinder head on the passenger side front) designates this one as a 10:1 compression 280 HP 2-barrel automatic trans engine. The sequence of numbers after the engine code is the M.U.N. or Motor Unit Number.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...9/DSC02384.jpg

1964 421, engine code '45B' designates this one as a 10.75:1 compression 370 HP manual trans High Output Tri-Power engine. In this instance the engine code is stamped above the M.U.N.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...O/DSC02166.jpg

1969 428, The engine code 'YH' designates this one as a 10.5:1 compression 360 HP auto trans engine, featuring small valve heads and 2-bolt mains (all 428s had 4-barrel carbs). The engine code is located below the M.U.N. on the later engines.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...h/DSC03391.jpg