[brucee70]

Originally Posted by ho421

Derringer at 6th and south grand. He spent a good four hours on it. No pics of tips but they are turning down and away like the factory pipes on my driver. May try to get it out for a few more laps if the weather and roads hold out. Feels so good to be back on the road with it after 29 years. Only difference... it drives like a new car.

Curious about the flange your exhaust guy made up at the elbow and manifold end on drivers side? Was it hard to make ...? Get any pictures? Off the shelf gaskets?

Thx, Bruce

[ho421]

Originally Posted by brucee70

Curious about the flange your exhaust guy made up at the elbow and manifold end on drivers side? Was it hard to make ...? Get any pictures? Off the shelf gaskets?

Thx, Bruce

He had a couple donut gaskets with sleeves that fit snug in both collectors. Inside diameter of fabcraft elbow was smaller ( 2 1/4") than oem (2 5/16"+).

[ho421]

Thought i'd share a vid taken this afternoon while running some stabil 360 thru the fuel system. Now i have the winter to iron out a few issues and have the car road worthy by spring.

https://youtu.be/sTZzn8mPltc

[brucee70]

Wow ....so great Bob ....Thanks!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Engine-Ear]

Looks great and sounds really tough!

[ho421]

Well... my car is officially road-worthy and I've put about 100 miles on the car now. The car runs strong and I cannot emphasize enough how satisfied I am with my chosen engine combo. I've yet to give it everything with the 4000rpm break-in recommendations but let's just say the 2nd gear and 3rd gear hits are incredible. I highly recommend the Stump Puller setup and CNC head work offered by Dave Bisshop at SD Performance.

I am driving without interior door panels. The panels supplied by PUI were 3/4" too long vertically and the fit at the window was pathetic. Shannon at Ames and PUI stepped up and backed the product up even a 1 1/2 years after buying the door panel set and PUI is in the process of re-engineering the replacement panels for us 63-64 owners using my originals as a guideline.

As many others have experienced, I had a falling out with the restoration shop that finished the body work, paint and partial re-assembly of my car. It went way over budget and he was a pro at not listening and doing things his way resulting in added shop time, cost, and re-work on my behalf.

Finally, I want to thank everyone on this forum for all their input whether it was constructive criticism, advice, or praise. I never could have completed this project without you guys. Thank you.

Bob

[Deadhead]

At the pipes it sounds IDENTICAL to the '66 421HO with 744 cam and 096 heads I sold to Ken. That is a nice combo. I know you are lovin' it.

[Coupe62]

Bob I am going to try to catch up with you at a crusie or something, I will bring my Grand Prix or my Catalina

[ho421]

Originally Posted by Coupe62

Bob I am going to try to catch up with you at a crusie or something, I will bring my Grand Prix or my Catalina

You're on...

[Coupe62]

If you put it that way, I better bring my Cat ! LOL

[brucee70]

Originally Posted by ho421

Well... my car is officially road-worthy and I've put about 100 miles on the car now. The car runs strong and I cannot emphasize enough how satisfied I am with my chosen engine combo. I've yet to give it everything with the 4000rpm break-in recommendations but let's just say the 2nd gear and 3rd gear hits are incredible. I highly recommend the Stump Puller setup and CNC head work offered by Dave Bisshop at SD Performance.

I am driving without interior door panels. The panels supplied by PUI were 3/4" too long vertically and the fit at the window was pathetic. Shannon at Ames and PUI stepped up and backed the product up even a 1 1/2 years after buying the door panel set and PUI is in the process of re-engineering the replacement panels for us 63-64 owners using my originals as a guideline.

As many others have experienced, I had a falling out with the restoration shop that finished the body work, paint and partial re-assembly of my car. It went way over budget and he was a pro at not listening and doing things his way resulting in added shop time, cost, and re-work on my behalf.

Finally, I want to thank everyone on this forum for all their input whether it was constructive criticism, advice, or praise. I never could have completed this project without you guys. Thank you.

Bob

Thanks for sharing the experience with us Bob. Great help in all that I still need to do to my 63 ....hope to see your GP live in the future. Bruce

[ho421]

Thanks Bruce. Ive booked for this years convention in the quad cities. Look me up if youre there. And Rex, no that was not a call-out.

[ho421]

Well... thu night i have a cheby buddy comin by to assist with distributor removal. Determined a couple nights ago the stock springs arent going to cut it. Im getting mechanical advance at 600rpm idle. Fluctuation at idle and all in before 2000 rpm. Not to mention i want that damn brass dizzy gear out... period. Have a friend that built a 540 cheby blower boosted and the brass gear failed at 600 mi. Granted we told him to switch to the.composite gear but his builder recommended he stay with the brass. Bad bad advice from an engine builder....

[ho421]

Hope I'm providing some insight for others as my final timing is nowhere where I expected it to be after this engine build. Granted this motor is not bone stock so here goes. I discovered that fluctuation of the timing at idle occurred because the weights were reinstalled on opposing sides. They didn't want to close even on the bench. My mistake when going thru the dizzy and installing the brass break-in gear. I replaced the stock springs with the two strongest springs from a MSD kit after turning the ends in to shorten them a bit and they fit well. The brass dizzy gear showed some wear but not substantial. I was actually impressed that my builder had apparently taken my advise and used a jewelers file on the gears of the billet cam. the wear was minimal and I'll have a hard time finding gold in the filter. reinstalled dizzy and found that this engine likes 20 deg (w/o manifold vac adv) at idle and it will restart hot no problem. we came in low when installed (around 6-8 degrees) and the engine went to 180 quick which this engine has never done since the rebuild. the sweet spot is certainly 20 deg w/o vac adv and I am now all in at around 3000+ rpm at 35 degrees. ran the motor for a good 30 minutes and final temp at idle was at 160+. guess its time for a road test. we were all in between 1800-2000 rpm before the spring swap which seemed way to soon although I never heard any detonation at any rpm. the butt dyno will tell us this weekend and I'll report back if anyone is interested. Its certainly a plus to be dealing with issues like this instead of replacing bad sheet metal.. I'm at a good place now with the project.

Bob.

[brucee70]

Love the ..."butt dyno " !!

[ho421]

PUI finally came thru. Got my door panels back. They used my originals to retool their repops for 63-64 GP. They fit fine. Wish they couldve sunk the staples a little better attaching the metal rail to the cardboard backing but overall im pleased to have door panels that fit for POCI next week... hope to see you guys there.

Bob

[real61ss]

I think that if you want the grease pencil marks you should go ahead and put them on now. Everyone is correct in saying they were orignarly installed before the body was painted but that was in 1963 and they were using lacquer paint. The grease pencIL marks bled through the lacquer paint. I don't think the grease pencil would bleed through today's multi stage paint so really you have no choise but to install the marks after painting

[Willshire]

Are those fully assembled bob or did you have to have the top rails put on? I understand the trims and emblems had to be reused from originals. Just wondering if they came with the top rails installed?

[ho421]

Originally Posted by Willshire

Are those fully assembled bob or did you have to have the top rails put on? I understand the trims and emblems had to be reused from originals. Just wondering if they came with the top rails installed?

Fully assembled. The original full assemblies i received from pui were too long vertically and the metal rail was nowhere close to the originals. Wouldnt fit snug to door at the glass. They took alot of measurements from my originals and are retooling the process that creates the metal rail. My new ones were assembled with my rails since they were weeks late getting them finished. They also corrected the fuzzys used at the rail. First set were v-shaped and way too tight against the glass.

[Willshire]

Hmm. I ordered the fully assembled ones through PY and they came without top rails. And no fuzzies. Weird. Mind you that was 2014 I haven't installed them yet as I need to strip out the top rail front and back side panels