[JasonD]

When we bought this car we literally drove it into the shop. Although it looked kind of rough the original Ram Air III engine ran perfectly. With only 58000 miles on the odometer I thought the engine was probably in good shape.......but I never expected it to be this clean and new inside.

When we first got the engine out we degreased it and used high speed wire wheels to remove the old paint and rust from the block, and then sprayed on a coat of epoxy primer to preserve the bare metal until we started rebuilding.

This engine was assembled in January of 1970 and has never been opened until now. It's just amazing how the original factory paint daubs look like they were applied yesterday. The engine shows virtually no wear at all.

Inside the original valve covers:



Inside the timing chain cover. You can still see the remains of a stamp in there:


Original GM nylon-tooth timing chain gear. That's one thing I'm changing:



The windage tray and some of the markings on the crank and main caps:



I really liked this. There is a big red "H" stamped on the oil pump. I assume that would denote high volume? I've never seen that before.



And all the markings on the main caps, rods, rod caps, and even the sides of the pistons: