[Held for Ransom]

Is it a late year build?

I don't suppose you have a close up picture of the "Keep your GM" decal, do you?

[njsteve]

Yes. It was a leftover on the Ruckles Pontiac lot in Yonkers, NY. Gramma bought it in September of 1975.

No other photos,sorry. Like an idiot I threw out all the 2bbl engine parts when I moved from Florida back up north. That included the old rear diff, original steering wheel, Rally wheels....

[njsteve]

I still had the pressure washer that my buddy loaned me for cleaning the engine block a couple weeks ago, so I decided to throw Gramma's car up on jackstands and clean the underside. The frame rails look beautiful - never crunched in or rusted out! The only issue on the car is tail panel that is behind the urethane rear bumper fascia. Poorly repaired when the car was repainted 25 years ago. Glad I waited since they now reproduce the tail panel and inner reinforcement panel. Too bad I have to buy both full panels just to use the bottom couple inches of both.





The frame rails look great (though I proceeded to blow off the grime and undercoating that hid the original white overspray. Please ignore the graffiti-esque marks in the wheelwell body schutz that the pressure washer made. I used a wider nozzle later to clean that up.

[njsteve]

It's a slow day 'round here so me and the boy decided to play with the block. I showed him how to properly install the main bearings in the journals. (and made him read the tiny stamped print on the back of each bearing shell to verify that they were all the correct .010 undersize bearings).

We also painted the block with some of the leftover Bill Hirsch, Inc., engine paint that I had from when we did the 350. (1975/6 Pontiacs were painted a unique metallic blue color that looks very similar to Oldsmobile Blue engine paint. We used a sponge brush and it came out great. The stuff dries slowly enough so that no brush marks appear anywhere.

[njsteve]

Crank and the rest of the internals are all finished with balancing and ready to go.

[njsteve]

Crankshaft and rear main seal installed. Lifting done by me. Boy did the torqueing. He was actually able to pull 120 lbs on the torquewrench this time. (he finally weighs 98 lbs.) Now it has to sit overnight for the BOP rear main seal to set.

[njsteve]

The boy and I installed the pistons and rods today. We each did four. I got the odd side and he did the even side. (Ignore the harmonic damper puller on the crank...it was the only thing I could find with the proper threads to go in the crankshaft. I didn't have a spare balancer bolt anywhere).

Got the old dial indicator set to TDC. Checked the deck height with using both a flat edge and feeler gauge and then verified with a depth caliper. Got -.016 for both readings on all eight bores. Checked the ring gaps yesterday prior to installing rings on pistons.







Showed him how to measure rotating torque...and told him several more times to keep his left hand off of the measuring indicator....I figured after he got incorrect readings after ten or fiftten revolutions he would eventually listen to me and do it properly without the interfering hand. He finally got a reading of 300 inch pounds. I made him do the math to convert it to foot pounds. (25 lb.ft.)

[rexs73gto]

Steve what piston & rods did you use?? What brand. The reason i_I ask is the numbers on the rod ends were very close to the weight that my 462's were. My totals were 3 at 504 2 at 503 & 3 at 505. I used SRP pistons & Eagle H-beam rods. I didn't measure the pull on the crank as you did but it looks good for you so far. What heads are you using??

[Pepi]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Showed him how to measure rotating torque...and told him several more times to keep his left hand off of the measuring indicator....I figured after he got incorrect readings after ten or fiftten revolutions he would eventually listen to me and do it properly without the interfering hand. He finally got a reading of 300 inch pounds. I made him do the math to convert it to foot pounds. (25 lb.ft.)

Funny how kids hear you, but don't listen like that. That is cool how you can pass along information and knowledge like you are doing with your son.

Engine is looking really good.

[njsteve]

I used stock rods from an old 455HO I rebuilt years ago (I put in forged units in that engine to replace these). They were just gathering dust on a shelf so I figured I might as well use them for something. They already had the ARP bolts installed. When the machinist inspected them he said whoever installed the bolts never bothered to resize the rods afterwards - a big no-no, since the rods were now bulging in the middle and were no longer round. As for pistons I went with new Sealed Power forged units from Summit.

[njsteve]

Originally Posted by Pepi

Funny how kids hear you, but don't listen like that. That is cool how you can pass along information and knowledge like you are doing with your son.

Engine is looking really good.

I figured he would eventually get tired of exerting 25 lb ft by continiously spinning the engine and then he would listen better. :-)

[rexs73gto]

I love the pic of your son holding on to the small end of the TQ wrench, it makes me wonder what he was thinking when he saw 25, 30 45, lbs to turn the crank. Ya gotta love that pic LOL , But please I'm not making fun of him just having a laugh at his expense.

[njsteve]

He's a good kid. He can take it. :-)

[njsteve]

Checked the main bearing oil clearance today. They all seemed to be between .0015 and .00175 (just shy of .002 on the plastigage.

Here's an .0015:

[rexs73gto]

That seems a little tight for the mains. I usually go 2 on the rods & 2.5 on the mains. To me that is to tight , i'd have it re-polished just a bit more.

[njsteve]

Factory oil clearance spec on a 455 is .0005 to .0021, so .0015 to .00175 is on the larger side of the spec. Also, I wiped the bearing and journal dry in the spot I was placing the Plastigage but there could still be some residue left making the clearance appear a little tighter. BTW, the smaller Pontiac V8s seem to have a different (tighter) clearance spec in the assembly manual.

[njsteve]

We measured the connecting rod oil clearance today with Pastigage. The boy's calibrated eyes said they were .0015.

[rexs73gto]

Still seems a bit tight. ...>>>>....

[njsteve]

.0015 is well within spec for oil clearance. Factory spec is .0005 to .0021. if you page back to page 1 of this thread you can see the teardown photo of when we plastigaged the original 350 during disassembly. The oil clearance was .0015 after 40 years and 78,000 miles of running.

[Formulabruce]

covers, 1970, free+ shipping, helping a buddy with his car and hes got new ones, and elected to donate these. some rust, and some overspray , thoughts?