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

[Blazerteam]

More power,and the headers would be a good idea.You are smart.Isnt one car with headers enough?

[Old Dog]

It would be really cool though to have the only big block/4 speed 70 caprice on the planet

[Scott Liggett]

That was what I was thinking. Bench seat with a 4 speed would be cool.

Arild, I will probably get headers down the road, but not now. Besides, I like having it mostly stock.looking. I will be putting the AC back in and headers are a pain in the butt with headers. We'll see. Right this minute, I am not spending the money. Funny, thing is that the exhaust manifolds suck to install as well. I even have to jack up.the motor to get the left side in. The exhaust is a fight to reconnect too.

I got it mostly back together today. Just need to install the carb, radiator, fan and belts.

[Scott Liggett]

The car is up and running and driving. JOY!! Jury is out on whether or not it's not a leaker anymore. It only gets leaking at freeway speeds.


Do I need to allow to engine break in, or not hammering on it, since I had the main caps off?

[milner351]

I don't think you'll have any problems running it as normal since you're not dealing with a fresh cam/lifters or fresh rings.... Drive on!

[TheSilverBuick]

Same rings, same cam and lifters, so lay that pedal to the metal!

[Scott Liggett]

I may have to go back to the original valve covers in order to reinstall the AC system. So, I dug out them out, cleaned them up, and painted them.


Replaced the original heater control valve. It's a different design, but still works.


The biggest annoyance in driving the car since the rear diff swap and bushing R&R on the trailing arms is that it moves around. It actually felt as if it was going to exit the passenger side of the car. I spent an hour under the car looking for cracks or something bent. Nothing. Then I noticed the left side bushing we replaced had moved in the trailing arm.

Here it is after I dropped the rear of the trailing arm.


I noticed it was pointed right to left like the passenger side one. So, I thought I pull and reinstall the bushing on the driver's side so it was facing inboard. Maybe that will help, maybe not.



New engine shots.

[milner351]

Great progress - strange the bushing moved like that - is there not enough "press fit" left in the arm / bushing?

Sure hope the leaks are fixed.

[Scott Liggett]

I forgot to mention that I had to replace the left side motor mount. It got damaged when installing the engine. It was not aligned with the frame mount when I dropped the full weight of the engine on it. It split the rubber. When I hit the gas hard the engine rotated up pulling the carb linkage. Not fun. Of.course the new mount didnt fit right without spending an hour tweaking it to get the bolt holes lined up. S

[milner351]

Aint that always the way.

[Old Dog]

Nice work Scott. That has to be the cleanest engine compartment short of a new car and 1000 times prettier.

[Scott Liggett]

Nice work Scott. That has to be the cleanest engine compartment short of a new car and 1000 times prettier.

It's amazing what some degreaser and a couple can of paint can do under the hood.

[Scott Liggett]

The car was still leaking oil. But, not from the rear seal. I saw oil running down the side of the oil pan on the passenger side behind the starter. I was thinking that was the side of the gasket I had to reuse because the new gasket kit I got came with two of the driver's side. Then today I started the car and let it run and noticed a shiney spot on the cylinder head by the valve cover. It looks like the valve cover is leaking right by a bolt above the #6 spark plug. Easy fix.

Oh yeah, the car was feeling sluggish and down on power. I couldn't figure it out and was hoping the engine was going south. When I parked the car Monday night at the office, I went to put on the parking brake and realized it was already pushed down. I had been driving it for two days with the E brake on. Brilliant!! Good news was the rear brakes were long out of adjustment, so they probably didn't get worn out. I'll check them out next week.

[milner351]

Check the rear axle seals too Scott - when my wife left on the Ebrake on my first diesel truck - it meant pulling the axles on both sides to replace the seals, plus the brakes, and having the drums cut.

For once - having something out of adjustment played into your favor.

Nobody's perfect.

[TheSilverBuick]

That's some out of adjustment. I've always been able to tell when an e-brake was on. Rather it was "down on power" or the rapid de-acceleration rate when I lifted on the gas pedal.