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

[Scott Liggett]

No prob. I should not complain as I am the thread jacker extraordinaire.

I trust my machinist. He did the 454 in this car, including the heads. He hates comebacks, so he does things right. Garrick takes care of me because I dont push him and I have brought him other stuff and customers.

[Scott Liggett]

I had some left over black braided fuel line from the Impala's upgrade, so I decided to use it to replace two feet of rubber fuel line on the Caprice. It's also one of the deal breakers if I ever wanted to take the car to the track. I got a few of black anodized hose clamps and got busy. I also installed that one inch open spacer I just pulled off the Impala.









There is a return hose in there that needs to replaced as well.

[cantvalve16]

Any plans to hit the track and see what she'll do?

[Scott Liggett]

Any plans to hit the track and see what she'll do?

No real plans, but you never know. I still need to upgrade the battery hold down. And, I want to check out the ujoints. They made a few noises of late.

[Scott Liggett]

Picked up the heads today. Chambers CC'ed out at 120.2.

Compression is like 9.0:1 with them.

[squirrel]

just right eh?

[Scott Liggett]

I was hoping for 9.25-9.5, but this will work. The better air flow around the valves should make up the difference.

[milner351]

Isn't that compression about ideal for california ethanol fuel?

[Scott Liggett]

Isn't that compression about ideal for california ethanol fuel?

Nothing is for that summer blend crap.

[TheSilverBuick]

Any chance of simply sending them back to the machinist for another "clean up" pass on the deck or has it already been cut enough to start effecting intake sealing with more material removal?


120cc's, YOWSA! My Buick's are in the 60 to 72 cc range!

[Mr4Speed]

What thickness head gasket did you use to calculate the compression? Steel shims might get you that little extra.

[Scott Liggett]

Any chance of simply sending them back to the machinist for another "clean up" pass on the deck or has it already been cut enough to start effecting intake sealing with more material removal?


120cc's, YOWSA! My Buick's are in the 60 to 72 cc range!

The closed chamber heads are over 100 cc.

[Scott Liggett]

This car is just a cruiser. With its crap mpg and having to run 91 octane with Cali gas prices, cruising it is expensive. I am not going to for all out hp. Iwould not have bothered with stock type heads. I havent even put headers on it. I also am planning to reinstall the AC system which the engine didnt like in hot temps because of the high compression.

I am hoping these new heads will allow me to do that. I am going to need to drive it more when I tear apart my other car in the coming months.

[Scott Liggett]

It's amazing what kind of mess you can make in a couple hours. I was a bit lazy today, catching up on sleep and generally sat on my most of the day. I finally got out of the tools and started wrenching around 4:30. Got everything but the passenger head off. It will probably take two days to get it back together and running again.

First up, the new heads getting painted orange. My machinist paints them cast gray and they look like brand new iron, but I want them orange.


I bought some decent stainless valves for the heads. They are swirl polished and have a bit of a slim stem.



First thing to do is jack up the car and disconnect the exhaust pipes from the manifolds.




This is all the farther I got tonight. All I need to do is unbolt the other head and try not to smash my hands or get a hernia removing it from the car.



This has me a bit concerned. Not sure what is causing these marks on the cylinder walls.


Old chambers versus new ones. The closed chamber heads really shroud the intake valves.

[langleylad]

I hate getting a late start on a project but I seem to do it all the time . I get up at 4:30 am Monday - Friday , so I get some extra sleep on the weekends , get up have coffee , watch a little tv , and before I know it it's 2 pm . Keep up the good work .