Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

[squirrel]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

The granny only raced it on sundays.....

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

Stopped Kelly's Machine today to see how Garrick and Danny were coming along on the 454. They're getting there. I've got so many projects I want to get done on the car, I'm not rushed. I even been debating on yanking the front suspension to build it while the motor is out.


Here's the block. It needs cam bearings and freeze plugs.


Here the heads. They just need assembling. I brought by the Isky valve springs only to find out I can't use my stock retainers. They push down the inner spring causing the seat pressure to go up from 135 lbs to over160 lbs. Way too much for a flat tappet. #### a duck!! More money!! The exhaust valve guides needed replacing. Look closely and you can see the new liners.


They cleaned up the castings of flash, although, they were pretty clean to begin with.


The pistons and rods came out OK. One rod was a tiny bit crooked, but was fixed by Garrick. I'll hit those pistons with a Scotch Brite on the die grinder to clean them up and smooth off the sharp edges to get rid of any possible hot spots.


I also painted the exhaust manifolds with some high heat paint I had lying around.


I also finished painting the engine bay. Now, that I looked at this picture, I need to do some overspray clean up.



Also, I mailed off my original harmonic balancer to the Damper Dudes in Anderson, CA. They quoted me $51.20 to rebuild it with one day turn around. Even with shipping that's cheaper than buying some cheap shit replacement balancer and it won't toss the balancing out on the rotating assembly.

[Bamfster]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

I love this budget rebuild Scott ...

[milner351]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

$51 to rebuild a stock balancer is a great deal. That should mean that 0 on the balancer is really TDC on #1 too - no more guessing.

This thing is going to run great when you're done - it will feel like a new car I'm sure.

Bummer about the spring / retainer deal - hopefully new steel retainers that will work are not a ton of dough.

[Huskinhano]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

Looking good Scott. It should run a lot better. Any idea what bent a rod??? How did the cylinders come out after honing?

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

The rod was so slightly bent, you could only tell because of wear on one of the rod bearings.

Garrick says the cylinders look fine.


Some good news today. Stock dual spring retainers will work with my Isky springs. Garrick says he has boat load of them lying around and will sell me a set cheap. Isky wanted $80 a set for steel! I wonder what they want for the titanium ones. Sheesh.

[squirrel]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

I've had good luck with the Crane single springs on big blocks with .500 to .550 lift. Dual springs might tend to make the cam wear out all of a sudden....

I just bought a set of dual Comp springs and the retainers/keepers, it was about 180. And there's a chance I'll have to pull the heads and machine the spring seats larger too. Oh well. But I'm pretty sure I need them to run the hydraulic roller cam up to 6200 or so.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

I've had good luck with the Crane single springs on big blocks with .500 to .550 lift. Dual springs might tend to make the cam wear out all of a sudden....

I just bought a set of dual Comp springs and the retainers/keepers, it was about 180. And there's a chance I'll have to pull the heads and machine the spring seats larger too. Oh well. But I'm pretty sure I need them to run the hydraulic roller cam up to 6200 or so.

These Isky parts are all matched. I was surprised that those dual springs were only 135 lbs on the seat. My original singles were coming in around 85 lbs.

[squirrel]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

Hopefully it'll all work ok. Be extra careful breaking in the cam.....

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

Machine shop called. Everything is done and ready to be picked up. Carl still has the shop truck. Hopefully, I can borrow him and the truck to get it all this afternoon.

[DirtyWhiteBoy]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

WOO HOO!

I love that LAST trip the the machine shop! Except the pay for it part ;D

[squirrel]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

heh...it's not together yet, so there may be another trip or two to get something or other that someone forgot

Definitely progress being made here!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

heh...it's not together yet, so there may be another trip or two to get something or other that someone forgot

Definitely progress being made here!

hmmm... a bit pessimistic today squirrel?

[squirrel]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

No, but I've built quite a few engines....and worked in a machine shop....

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Rebeldryver's '70 Caprice Granny's Luxo-Muscle-Barge

Scott - It's a Performer RPM manifold.... 100 bucks - on the swap page - plus shipping cost. It does have a taller profile, so short hoods might need clearancing.