65 GTO

[DanStokes]

It's always SOMETHING, ain't it??!! Wish I lived close enough to come lend a hand but it looks like you've GOT this.

Dan

[Thumpin455]

Something is up with the 6X heads I swapped on the 400 a while back. Its drinking a gallon of water in 1000 miles. Compression test shows no problem with the head gaskets, so I am thinking one of them might have gotten cracked or something. Its quicker to yank the 400 and drop the 455/700R from the 70 in it than it is to tear the engine down and figure out what went wrong. Sure, that means I will have to drive two hours to fill barrels of fuel every month since nobody around here sells E85, but it also means I can do some tuning on the FiTech too. I have the wideband from the 70 so I can see where the AFR is running since the Fitech is a speed density system and you simply make the CID larger in the initial setup to swap it. It will have an O2 in each header now, and I need to siphon the gas out of the 65 since I filled it up on my way home last time.

Seems to be dropping 3rd due to dry clutches, so something went wrong there as well. Been wanting to go with an OD for a while now, this is as good an excuse as any. Decided to yank the 3.42 geared 12 bolt that is under the 70, which means its the entire drivetrain being swapped..

Pulled the 455 today, makes me sad to have the 70 GTO needing pulled around, but I need another vehicle and this is the easiest swap to do. All the heads I have in good shape will require E85, so why not go all the way? Well, I have a set of Edelbrock heads, but the round port headers for them cost more than doing this and cash is tight due to the house. Should be up and running for the weekend so I can go have fun. I have two 55 gallon drums full of E85 from last year, so I don't have to go buy some right away.

[Thumpin455]

At a show in Ulysses Nebraska today, sister took this shot of my car between two of my dad's. It's a 36 Plymouth 5 window coupe with a healthy 360 in it, and his 340 powered Cuda clone. Managed two trophies this month.

[Thumpin455]

One my brother shot on Saturday. a bigger fan for it, also thinking of studying a 2004R into it.

[Thumpin455]

Some pics, Scott took two of these. Have 4820 miles on it now. Lots of long distance cruising, no big problems so apparently I can build a decent car. Drives nice too.

[DanStokes]

Nice shop! Of course, it's too small - but then, they ALL are!

Dan

[silver_bullet]

my brother also has a nice shop... no cool cars to fill it however....

[Thumpin455]

Long road trips are fun. I should check my brakes more often. The rear reservoir was almost dry, the car sat since 2012 when I did the brakes, so I'm not surprised much. Bleed the brakes and go for a test drive, holy crap I have great pedal and it stops straight. First time since I've been diving it. Dumbass move on my part. Gets kinda hot in traffic if it sits too long, still working that issue. Runs 190 down the highway, but the fan isn't pulling enough for sitting. Doing the Tour Nebraska tomorrow, hopefully it's not much sitting around.

my brother built a new shop. Got to see it yesterday. I'm jealous, but I couldn't do one just like this because of snow load. Very nice, freaking huge, heated floors. This might be the first non mopar in it. We had a 63 Dart, 64 Sport Fury, and a 65 GTO all sitting together.

[Thumpin455]

Have the new sensor in, reads the same as the gauge now. Seems to run better now too, not that it ran bad before. Looks like I didn't get enough water in it after the head swap, probably contributed to running hot.

[Thumpin455]

Tod,do they make a longer ball joint or can you relocate the upper arm? I seem to recall the B bodies had taller spindles for some reason.

The B and F spindle are taller and work. B spindles use a larger rotor as well, and the 3rd gen F body 1LE rotors have the right bolt pattern for the A body. The upper arm need to be shorter, I have a set, but with the headers I have on it the arms hit the header with no room for alignment shims. The 68-72 frame has more room than the 65s do so the arms will fit those years with headers. I could go to manifolds, but they're twice the cost of headers. Still might do that, they seal better and I'd only need new head pipes to use them.

I cut part of the control arms off to clear the headers, one side still hits at full drop. This does really well considering the spindles and geometry aren't great.

[Huskinhano]

Tod,do they make a longer ball joint or can you relocate the upper arm? I seem to recall the B bodies had taller spindles for some reason.

[Scott Liggett]

Everyone of my old cars suffer in the MPG department over 70 mph. The Impala likes 80 mph range, but it MPG drops down and the wind noise increases significantly. My Caprice was real happy at only 70 mph. That was at 3000 rpm on that 454. My Truck is happiest at about 70 as well. That thing has the frontal area of an office building.

My Fitech EFI came with a crap temp sensor that never read right either. I replaced it with a one I had during my collecting of parts for EFI conversions.

[Thumpin455]

Looking forward to seeing you and your GTO next month.

You can see it next week if you're around. I'll be home sometime between Monday and Wednesday.

It made the drive to Chicago great except for running 250ish in rush hour traffic in the last 20 miles. Pulled over and waited for things to get moving and it cooled down, does fine now. Got a larger fan for it today, and a new temp sender for the efi. It was reading 155 when the engine was at 220, so it was thinking it never warmed up, so it would be using more fuel, could contribute to running hot.

With the 2.56 eat it likes rolling between 70 and 80, but the aerodynamics of pushing what amounts to a rail car through the air means it uses loss of gas to go 80. Sweet spot is 65 to 70, does ok on gas under 70. Drives nice with the jeep steering box and big sway bars under it. Chased a 5 series BMW sons a decreasing radius clover leaf on ramp, he backed out before I did, the GTO stuck great through the corner. I wonder how much better these things do with the tall spindles and bigger brakes.

[Scott Liggett]

Looking forward to seeing you and your GTO next month.

[Thumpin455]

milky oil - I had a boat with a 472 Cadillac motor that would get milky oil the first run of the season but then it'd clear up after that. Condensation caused the milky oil.

can't say it enough, nice work on the GTO.

Im pretty sure that was the deal with the 400 in the 68. It never got hot, didn't run long enough because the radiator wasn't the best. Ok, it leaks like crazy and won't hold pressure... Wasn't enough to be a cracked block, but I will pressure test it with another set of heads anyway. Needed the heads for the 65, which was the plan when I had them redone back in Nebraska two years ago. Was having too much fun driving it last year to do it, now it needs done before I take a long road trip to Nebraska.


Also added a swaybar to the rear. Since I needed the shifter from the 70 GTO, and it needed the other one since it has a 700R4 now and I couldn't get it in low gear with the 3 speed shifter, I pulled the rear swaybar from it while it was on the lift. When I rebuild the 70 it will get bigger bars, faster steering box, taller spindles, and bigger brakes. Might as well make it handle great. That means the 65 can have some parts from it that will be replaced. With the WS6 Trans Am swaybar up front and some air bags in the rear springs it handled really well, but now it should do better with a rear bar. If I could fit tubular control arms with headers on the 65 it would be getting tall spindles too. Not enough room.