[njsteve]

All assembled and wheeled out in to the driveway as the sun was going down.





And with the rest of the OEM Paint 1972-only, Robins Egg Blue paint that I had left over from the 72 T/A from a few years back. It was $50 a can back then. I don't even know if they are still in business making this stuff any more?





The wife helped me wheel it back in to the garage, in the dark, where it now sits waiting to go back in the car.

[RamAir]

Perfect, I'm drooling

[The Boss]

Damn - you make the rest of us look like slouches!

[Formulabruce]

Looks great!

[OVERULD]

Dang Steve - you got that motor out of the car, torn down, machined, reassembled and painted in the time it took me to read the thread! So what's so hard about restoring cars anyway? Looks easy from this thread??

BJ

[njsteve]

Now if I could only find someone to paint the car for a reasonable amount of money, in a reasonable amount of time, the fantasy would be complete!

[njsteve]

I got the engine all prepped and ready to go back in. Once it was up on the hoist I called the wife out to assist. She was not amused since the last engine install she helped on was with Gramma's Firebird and the motor mounts in a 1975 Pontiac are super hard to get lined up as compared to the older style used in 1972. That one took two hours of jockeying just to get one motor mount bolt in place.

This engine went in like a dream. I figured out the trick: Move the car to the hoist and not the hoist to the car. I had the engine in the driveway lined up with the center of the transmission tunnel. I then had the wife hold the back of the trans so it wouldn't rotate out of position. I then pushed the car to the engine and while she held the transmission in place, I lowered the engine a couple inches. I'd then push the car forward a few inches and lower the engine again. We repeated this around 10 times and the engine just popped right in.

The whole process took about 30 minutes.







All ready for the rest of the external engine parts. Those are the "stunt" valve covers instead of the newly painted ones.

[The Boss]

That's a good woman you've got there Steve!

[Formulabruce]

Nice!, and nice ya had some good weather, got too chilly for outside work here today really. Nice to see it back in its home!

[njsteve]

It was sunny and 40 degrees here today. It's supposed to rain for the next 5 days so I wanted to get the engine back in before the rain starts. This way I can do all the rest of the work inside the grarage.

[Brad Pringle]

Steve,

Did you reinstall the windage tray? Or does it not need one with baffled pan? Did one come orginal on the car? Nice work! thanks Brad

[njsteve]

Yes, the original windage tray went back in.

The baffle I added is to prevent the oil from rushing forward under during decelleration. The gentle slope of the pan from the sump to the front that is inherent in the Pontiac pan design is what creates the problem of the oil pickup sucking air during braking. The later 1970's pans had the baffle built in to prevent the problem.

The windage tray serves a different purpose: it is for keeping oil away from the rotating crankshaft and rods during operation. It reduces the parasitic loss from the crank having to spin in a constant tornado of oil droplets.

[njsteve]

I tried to get the engine running yesterday but it turns out the Delco battery (which had a 1995 date on it) didn't want to play. It had 12.7 volts,but had no cold cranking amps remaining. This was even after I had it boosted with a charger and booster cables to my truck. And to think, the battery worked fine before I rebuilt the engine. Typical! It also didn't help that it was 40 degrees out.

Oil pump was primed for several minutes. Distributor is installed correctly. I was able to get the timing light working to get the timing adjusted properly while cranking for a second or two (with the wife behind the wheel). Oil pressure was immediately right up there at 60 psi. Spark plugs are sparking. It just doesn't seem to be enough voltage to ignite the fuel with the HEI. So it ended up flooding the plugs. I switched plugs and it did the same thing. I looked in the spark plug hole and could see the fuel pooling in the valve reliefs on top of the pistons. So I left the plugs out and let it "air out" overnight.

So I ordered a reproduction R89 800 CCA dry cell battery which should be here Wednesday.
http://restorationbattery.com/gmproducts.html

[njsteve]

Got the battery. Still no luck in getting it to start.

Got oil pressure, got spark, got fuel, got valves moving and adjusted properly. Distributor is not 180 off. Swapped HEI distributor parts from Gramma's Firebird with no improvement.

Barely get a pop or two in the exhaust, no matter where the timing is set at.

Not happy at the moment.

Too damn cold to get an engine running.

[Super Duty D]

Steve,
Do you have any measurements on the dipstick tube length and or dipstick P/N?
I have an issue with, what I think is, the tube length on my 72.

SDD

[tajohn]

Steve,
I am sure you probably checked it but is the "brain" OK in the distributor. Sits on the distr. base with 2 prongs on each side.
For what it is worth.
John

[Formulabruce]

Hate to ask more questions, BUT.. does that car have the new "pink" wire from the firewall side of the fuse box, to the dist? FULL 12 volts? HEI needs 12 volts to actually run correctly. Some cars will run on less, but its not high energy.
Ill assume the crank chain sprocket is at 12 o'clock and the cam sprocket at 6.....
Good luck!!

[njsteve]

Same pink wire when it ran a month ago before the rebuild. I will swap distributors with Grammas car next, to see if that is the problem but I doubt it since the plugs are getting spark. Cam sprocket is correctly indexed to crank.

[Formulabruce]

Did you go through the chevy style pre run valve adjustment, after the lifters were up? You may have overtightened them, and thus not getting much compression. I like to do chevys with a oil splash clip on each rocker and warm, and covers off. I even have a set of old covers with a big slice down the top so I could do the adj with covers on ( oil containment)
just some thoughts, has happened to me in the past... My E heads are like a chevy and left them pretty loose for start up. ( I do run stock ratio rollers though)Re adjust and all was well once warmed up

[njsteve]

Yes, adjusted them twice. Used 16 seperate positions. Once push rod was at contact point, I added an additional 1/3 turn. Pulled the drivers side valve cover and verified that they are not leaving the valves open. (rocker arm has slack)

Im going to buy a cannister type block/coolant heater today and hook it to the heater lines to warm up the engine and coolant. The one in my diesel brings the engine to 175 degrees in the winter. Maybe that will help the cranking speed.

Once get it warmed up i will do a compression check to see what's up.