1969 Galaxie 500 - BBF high school/college kid build

[BBR]

Judd ordered pistons for his 460. These are a Silvolite 3191H. They are very similar to the KB137's that I put in the 98GT. Compression height is the same but they have 2 valve reliefs instead of just 1. Might be a skosh heavier than the 137's. The valve shown is a 2.25" intake valve.

[BBR]

Judd did some work to the 9" this weekend. He ran into a few little snags, but is still progressing. We put a new crush spacer in the pinion and had a heck of a time getting it to crush. We ended up using a 6-ft cheater bar in order to produce enough force to begin the crushing. I was worried my breaker bar was going to twist off but it worked.

[BBR]

Diff is all done and ready to poke in the car!

[Sleeper73]

Excellent choice of gears. I think it's going to surprise some people.

[BBR]

Judd cleaned a lot off stuff today including the C6. It was pretty grungy and probably needs another round.

Then he bench pressed the 9" into the housing and installed the axles. I guess all that time at the gym is paying off. Haha.

[cstmwgn]

...Then he bench pressed the 9" into the housing ...

I remember a long time ago being able to do that!

[BBR]

We popped the pan off the trans today. I've seen better and I've run worse. Fluid was ugly, but there was surprisingly little clutch material in the pan. This trans is the one that was originally in the F250. I never did a thing to it. It worked, so I left it alone. Judd installed the B&M shift improver kit and buttoned it all back up.

[andy30thz]

NICE!! Snatching gears with shift kit, 4.10's and converter is fun in ANY car, a mild BB makes it even better!
Is he adding a floor shifter...or sticking with the column? With the short gears, might be fun to have some confident manual control over the shift points.

[BBR]

Yeah, he is looking at floor shifters. It sucks that they are so expensive. I think he will end up with a B&M Z-Gate. I had one years ago and it was a decent shifter.

[Sleeper73]

I've never tried one of these but it might be another way out https://www.jegs.com/i/Speedmaster/7....1011/10002/-1

[BBR]

I was actually looking at one of those for the Greenbean. They make a black one too.

[BBR]

Block is back from the machine shop.

Bored 0.060, cleaned, new cam bearings.

[BBR]

I made a piston pin stop today to make assembling pistons and rods easier and more consistent.

[Monster]

Block is back from the machine shop. Bored 0.060, cleaned, new cam bearings.

Ahhh, I love these moments.

[BBR]

Today was a good day in the shop. Judd and I popped the hood off and proceeded to yank the disgusting 390/C6 combo out of the Galaxie. Not surprisingly, we managed to lubricate the floor very nicely with transmission fluid. Nice.

Once the engine was up we realized we really didn't need to unbolt the engine mounts because they were both completely delaminated. The engine was literally just sitting in there. Haha. Our machine shop buddy came by and hauled it away for us because he has a client that wants a 390 built. He has really taken care of us in the past and frankly we just wanted it gone. 👍

Judd then set about putting the rods on the pistons and installing the piston rings. The piston pin stop I made worked great.

One thing I noticed that I have not told Judd about is the fact the FE uses different frame perches than a 460 does. Not 100% sure how we are going to deal with that just yet. May have to go scour the local wrecking yard and see if we can drag up a set.