[kingbuzzo]

Gosh not only looks great but runs good...exciting

[Verdoro 68]

There's such a "wait and see" on new builds. It takes some time to build up trust that everything is ok and will remain that way. I take the solid oil pressure and steady idle as a good sign.

Can't wait to get it out on the street to see what this thing feels like.

[GTO_PMD]

Really nice ride! I have the RA II in my '65 GTO. I think I'm going to go with some aluminum heads finally, and then replaced my stock crank with a stroked one and join everyone else with mega power and normal spark advance, lol, even though, the RA II's are awesome cast iron heads.

[AG]

Originally Posted by GTO_PMD

Really nice ride! I have the RA II in my '65 GTO. I think I'm going to go with some aluminum heads finally, and then replaced my stock crank with a stroked one and join everyone else with mega power and normal spark advance, lol, even though, the RA II's are awesome cast iron heads.

Any pics of the motor in the engine bay?

[GTO_PMD]

strange, I can't find any pictures of the finished engine in the bay, i can go out and take one I guess, but in the meantime i can show you these of it sitting between the frame rails and also getting lowered in...I'll take some more pictures tomorrow of it finished in the car engine bay. Jay

[GTO_PMD]

oh I see I miss-typed...it was supposed to say I have the RA II's in my '65. I just have the RA heads not the block. Sorry for that.

[JEC3039]

Pics of RAII heads on my '66, facilitated by a very, very old set of tri-y headers from H-O Racing.

[GTO_PMD]

Very nice '66! I also have the HO Racing headers, and had a complete (strong arm I think it was called) Tall spindle disk brakes, with 16" Boyd billets, and 255/50/16's. Now it has a more modern brake setup now using 4th gen Fbody disks and calipers, 5sp, Hotchkiss front and rear suspension, boxed frame.

[Verdoro 68]

I pulled the valve covers last night to retorque the heads and noticed a few rockers looking cockeyed. I overlooked the fact that RAII heads used 11/32 pushrods and bigger guide plates which was giving the pushrods some room to pivot left and right. Glad I caught this early. I'll swap out to the stock plates when I get the restricted pushrods next week.

[Verdoro 68]

Swapped out the guide plates, put in the restricted pushrods, got everything lined up nice and straight and readjusted the valves. It made a world of difference with the valve train noise I was hearing! I'd guess a bulk of it was probably from the rockers moving left to right with the pushrods. There was the start of a funny wear pattern on valve stems so I'm glad I got that fixed.

Once the rain lets up I'll get the hood finished up and take it out for a spin around the neighborhood.

PSA to make sure your pushrod guide plates are aligned because there sure is a lot of wiggle room left to right. Check out how far I could skew the rockers!

[Verdoro 68]

Finally got the car out for a spin around the block today - WOW! This is the way I always wanted this car to run.

The Continental stall feels better behind the bigger cubes, but I'm still not sure I'm sold on it. However - OMG this thing has torque! I was not expecting to be able to break the tires loose at 1/4 throttle. The rebuilt trans shifts great as well.

On the first shakedown it was running pretty well, but I noticed it wanted to stall at lower RPMs. I goosed it and the stall flashed which sent the car sideways, but then the engine started missing in a big way. Oil pressure was fine and I didn't hear any weird valve train noises so I limped it home. I pulled the #1 plug wire off while it was running and didn't see any spark so I pulled the distributor cap. There was a bunch of oil slung around the cap and on the Pertronix reluctor ring. I think it was residual from when I had the engine on the stand.

I cleaned out the cap and wiped off the reluctor ring. It seems to have solved the problem and ran even better on the second pass. Found an exhaust leak on both sides at the head pipes and manifolds, but that was an easy fix. Rear main is also bone dry, knock on wood!

Now I'm on to annoying projects to get this thing roadworthy. I spent most of the afternoon sanding the underside of the hood and still have quite a bit to go before I can prime it. I also need to polish out the gunk the protective wrap left on the paint (don't leave that stuff on for a year!) and get the rest of the A/C system in.

Another walk around idle video: https://youtu.be/CkUVOc101Kc

[jhein]

Looks sharp and sounds great. Obviously you haven't driven it much but what are your initial thoughts on the cam choice?

[SD455DJ]

Looks great! Sounds sweet!

Dennis

[Verdoro 68]

Originally Posted by jhein

Looks sharp and sounds great. Obviously you haven't driven it much but what are your initial thoughts on the cam choice?

I’m glad you all convinced me to go with the bigger cam! Even going gentle during the break in, I’m really happy with the way it pulls. It feels much more stout than I anticipated. I was worried the 114 would be too mellow, but I really like the way it sounds.

It feels like it wants a little more stall in it. I spent a bulk of the time in 2nd gear to keep it in the power band. I do have another converter the trans builder supplied that I may give a shot.

[Verdoro 68]

I think it's done(ish)?

Got the hood back on and aligned as well as most of the A/C system reinstalled except for one hose.

Took out out tonight for a longer cruise and it performed great. Oil pressure is great at cruise speed at 70+ psi. Once it's hot the oil pressure settles in around 40psi at idle and immediately spikes back up to 70+ as soon as the RPMs go up. The rear main and pan are bone dry.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for a new converter and retire the Continental. After driving it around, it needs just a little bit (few hundred rpm) more stall at cruise put it in the power band.

Gonna polish it up and give it a quick cleaning so we can make it to the first cruise night of the season tomorrow

I want to reiterate my thanks to everyone who contributed to this build. I learned a ton and it's really satisfying to know exactly what's in my engine.

[jhein]

That is just beautiful.

[HWYSTR455]

That thing is beautiful!

.

[SD455DJ]

Very, very impressive Ken!

Dennis

[Verdoro 68]

Well, I spoke too soon. Nothing catastrophic though.

I spent the afternoon getting the car tidied up for the first cruise of the season. When I fired it up, it was running really rough but I let it warm up. When I pulled out to head down to the cruise I felt the car missing so I turned around and put it back in the garage.

The first place I looked was the distributor since I had that issue with oil residue on the first shake down. I didn't see anything obvious under the cap so I pulled the distributor. Turns out the Pertronix fell apart. The reluctor ring broke off from one of the studs and was scraping on the pickup. It's amazing this thing ran at all! I was able to time it just fine, so I'm not sure when this started happening.

This is the second time I've had an electronic conversion blow apart on me. The first time was a Mallory Unilite conversion about 15 years ago. I understand why so many folks still run points. Anyway, there's a new Pertronix on the way and I expect a massive improvement when this is fixed.

I know I don't have a ton of miles on this, but the polymer distributor gear looked great. I had some concern about it since I've seen some instances of those getting eaten.

[Verdoro 68]

Got a new Pertronix installed and went ahead and pulled the Continental and put in the "mystery" converter in the trans builder supplied. It's made by a company called PDQ out of Sacramento and is labeled C9X. I can't really find any stats about it other than it's supposed to stall around 2400 and it looks like it's in an old TCI shell. Behind my setup it seems to stall to around 2700 and has no problem breaking the tires loose. Definitely better than the Continental as far as the power band goes, but it feels sloppier. I'll drive with it for a while, but more than likely I'll end up having a converter made.

Since I got the distributor fixed, I've been tinkering with the timing. I had it set to 12 degrees initial and noticed the max I could get out of it around 3k rpm was about 30 degrees WITH the advance hooked up.

Upon some inspection I found that the factory thermostatic switch on the manifold was one giant vacuum leak and I wasn't getting any vacuum advance at all. Once I got that sealed up, I bumped the initial up to 14 degrees to get 32 degrees total. It appears I've got about 17 degrees of mechanical in it all in by 2400-2500 rpm. The vacuum advance gives me another 10 degrees. I feel like I'm getting up there on the initial timing to get the total in a good spot, but hot starting hasn't been a problem.

I'm wondering if I should consider adding a few more degrees of mechanical advance to comfortably try up to 36 degrees without having to advance the initial to 18 or does it not really matter how you get there? I've been rummaging through old thread trying to see what other folks are running but it seems to be different for everyone.