1968 Sprint Clone Lefty

[patrickth]

So I guess this will be making it an official build thread on a 1968 Tempest Lemans with a OH-6 1 barrel engine as delivered. My plan is to bring it up to Sprint specs with the OHC-6 4barrel, disc brakes, suspension modifications, new weather strip and paint for Hot August Nights in Reno.

I got the car on a trade for my 1966 Impala.
Previous info is in my thread http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...play-that-game

I am going to name it Project Lefty.

[Monster]

A build project thread requires pictures ... lots of them.

[Beagle]

yep. Needs a jump start.








okay, that wasn't as easy as I thought... but it's still your turn.

[patrickth]

Thanks, will put some more up and update all later today

[TheSilverBuick]

Should be a 250 too. Post up a picture of the harmonic balancer to confirm. Any of the '66 to '69 4bbl/dual exhaust manifolds will bolt up. I don't know what rear gears it has, but I'm guessing you'll want at least 3.42's to really enjoy having the engine versus wishing for a V8.

You know all the the forums I'm across to answer questions if I know the answer to them.

[patrickth]

Mine is wrong balancer. I bid a bunch of times on this one yesterday, but somebody beat me at last 20 seconds I think. Got engine tore down, only problem so far is #5 piston is stuck and iffy intake and exhaust on #2 cylinder. Showing no wear on H cam, rod bearings or pistons I have out. Its a poser. It is the 67 ZD block. My books and reference material should come in today and I can start getting up to speed. I got the 67 manual.

[patrickth]

Some more pics, mostly just clean and inventory so far.

[patrickth]

Should be a 250 too. Post up a picture of the harmonic balancer to confirm. Any of the '66 to '69 4bbl/dual exhaust manifolds will bolt up. I don't know what rear gears it has, but I'm guessing you'll want at least 3.42's to really enjoy having the engine versus wishing for a V8.

You know all the the forums I'm across to answer questions if I know the answer to them.

The rear gear is 3:55:1 The front sway bar is the thick one, maybe 1 7/8ths. Looking at balancer, its thicker than the one I have in my other motor. Have to investigate more.

[patrickth]

O.k. went out and got a pic of both Balancer on car now, and the trashed one on my ZD block. Top on car now and bottom ZD now.

[TheSilverBuick]

Its definitely a 250 in the car. I cannot tell from the front what balancer is on the ZD engine.

[patrickth]

I can't tell either, but it is a lot thinner and pretty much destroyed. Chips everywhere, almost like it had been deep frozen and hit with hammers. I will get better pics tomorrow. I am not much on metals, but this thing could never be re ground and saved. Here are a couple more, still not very good.

[TheSilverBuick]

It's definitely a 230 balancer, but I'm not keen enough on them to know which one that is. For that I'd post it on an OHC board and see who knows, but you're right, that balancer and pully appear destroyed.

[patrickth]

I have been wondering if anyone ever goes to that forum, but will try over there. Also trying to figure best place to have ZD machined as needed and built. I don't really mind taking it some distance as needed, but will have to ask Aaron who I can trust in PNW or Cammers on FB group I guess.. I know there is a guy in Riverside/ San Bernadino and thought I had it bookmarked, but now I can't find it.

[Deaf Bob]

Usually cubic inches trumps.. Is there any advantage in building the 250 into 4 barrel specs?

[TheSilverBuick]

I'm all sorts of confused on what you have here.

The "H" cam was a one year only, 1969, cam that only came on manual transmission cars, you have a '67 230 Sprint engine (the ZD block, factory E cam) and a '68 1bbl 250 engine (factory C cam).

Essentially all the blocks from '66 to '69 are the same, the rotating assembly and heads are interchangable. The only real gotcha's on the blocks are in '69 the water pump changed along with the thermostat by-pass. The previous years though had different length water pump shafts for different vehicles which can lead to belt mis-alignment if the wrong pulley is used on the water pump. Though not overly pertinent, '66 blocks are casted so cross bolted mains can be installed. No one ever made cross bolted main caps for the engine, so it's kind of a moot point.

What I am getting at is you can stick a 250 rotating assembly in the ZD block if you like, or you can stick with the 230 rotating assembly. Given a piston or two is stuck in the block, its going to need an over bore. Best money for pistons are $600 0.040" overbore forged pistons for a 250. You have to check that your compression isn't through the roof and might consider having a machinist cut valve reliefs in them. http://www.12bolt.com/250292_products/pistons . You might find a set of non-forged 230 pistons some where though and everything else will be a custom piston.

To take advantage of either an E or H cam's specifications, you should probably have around 9.5:1 compression.