Quote:
Originally Posted by TRADERMIKE 2012
I told the Shop owner, who grew up in his father's shop and now is 57 years old to Magnaflux the Heads first. The first thing he asked me is, "was there any oil in the water and I replied no".
I asked him to clean, inspect, replace any defective parts and do a Valve job as it was done in the day.
Told him to Shim under the Valve springs for even Spring pressure.
Replace all Exhaust Valve seats.
I will perform the Pontiac cooling mod. myself, once I get the Gaskets from Butlers and I find out whether or not I need to plug the Block or the Heads for Shure, I am almost convinced it will be the Block, because that is where the Factory did it. The 421 mod. consists of drilling the hole, using the gasket as a templet, that the 421 ci motor used, in both the Head and the Block between the center Exhaust Valve/cylinders.
You said: "there are a few Pontiac specific details that can be overlooked".
Mikes Reply: Did I miss anything, because I must call him back on Monday for his analysis.
|
The pontiac specifics are more about the short block assembly, or little things like the rear oil galley plug thats often forgotten, or other little things like how to install the rear main seal or pan gaskets to avoid leaks, etc etc. the head rebuild should be pretty straight forward.
With all the cooling issues & mods Ive read about on this car... i think the best thing you can do is use an aluminum radiator, a factory rad should be able to keep the car cool since these cars ran OK when they were new in florida or other hot states, as mentioned overheating is often related to the tune of the engine, an aluminum radiator can be a band aid to fix those problems & eliminate the need for all the other mods.
On the ebay motor, I would pass on that unless you know how it was built with legitimate paper work, looks can be deceiving, it could have nice parts but been assembled by an amateur in a back alley or driveway... plus being its in california & you are in florida, how to you plan to get it? Seller doesnt offer shipping.
As mentioned by a few others, you need to focus on one thing at a time, if the engine runs ok as is & you think the heads need rebuilt then do that & see what happens... but since you are this far along its probably best to do like cliff said & just pull the engine to have it gone through to fix the piston orientation or do a fresh rebuild... or sell it & buy a local short block that will work with your heads if you plan to keep them.