Quote:
Originally Posted by bhieb
Hi Steve25,
Thanks for providing this guidance to the thread. I 100% agree with your assessment of my goals with this engine build. Of course, having more power that's reliable is always a plus. 
From what I've been reading it appears that I could retain the use of my existing 62 heads if I change to a dished piston to drop the compression ratio to around 9:1. The next major decision would be the cam shaft. I've been told that camshaft design has advanced quite a lot over the last decade or so, which makes me wonder if there are any newer cam designs for Pontiacs out there. Would builders like Butler be a good source for this info?
Another concern I have is overheating. I am considering changing to a 69 or later timing chain cover to use the later design 11 bolt water pump which appears to do a much better job with cooling. The problem with this is that since I want to run my 66 tripower I need a timing chain cover that has the dimple cast in to clear the thermostat housing. Apparently the repro parts don't have this. Also, there are pully offset considerations to worry about when making this change. Wonder if it's worth the effort. Are there things I can do with my existing 66 setup to improve cooling performance?
Brad |
The dimple in the timing cover is no longer required with the new water neck available from KRE. Even so, Pontiac continued to produce 11-bolt timing covers WITH the dimple cast into it til around 1973 or so. You should be able to find a nice used one. It's worth it to make the swap to the 11-bolt cover for better cooling performance. You'll just have to run the early-'69 water pump for the sake of the pulleys.