65 GTO

[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.

[silver_bullet]

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

[DanStokes]

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

Dan

[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.

[Thumpin455]

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

[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]

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.

[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]

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

Its a fun something. If I don't got it handled, it will not get done.. lol

I feel like a 16 year old kid today, a kid who is sore from working out too much, but excited about MOAR POWAR going in my car. The 400/Th350 is almost out of the 65, and I have everything setup so it goes back together quickly. Doing some upgrades and improvements while the engine is out, mostly the fuel system, and checking everything under there again. might put the larger fuel pump on, it has a 225lph right now, and I have a new 255 in the box.

I'm racing Ligget to see who can get the engine swap done first. Maybe next year we can see which is faster, the 390 or the 455... if I can make the Rocky Mountain Race Week.

[moparjim71]

Great car!

[Thumpin455]

Thank Jim, been a fun project. Hell of a grocery getter.

Drove the Goat in around 4pm, had the 400 out by 6, and the 455 nestled in by 9. Finishing it off today. My hands are permanently dirty now.

[JOES66FURY]

and to think, not to long ago that car was nothing but a VIN donar. Looks great!

[Thumpin455]

and to think, not to long ago that car was nothing but a VIN donar. Looks great!

Thanks Joe. The GTO got an infusion of power this week, and yes it came out glorious.

[pontiacpower]

Great job with the gto. I find it funny how I’ve been struggling to put a q jet in the 350p for almost a year and you yank an engine and replace it in an evening.i Can’t wait to get to that point. I will see how that q jet performs this weekend on my trip to traverse city and the week after the old Pontiac will see Munising. love the work thump that junkyard ornament is back to king of the road

[Thumpin455]

Turns out that fel pro head gaskets are not terribly fond of 13:1 compression. Had to swap my 670s on and lower the compression to 11.5:1 which killed some power, and dropped the mileage a bit, while making it quieter. The fix is cometic head gaskets, but at $86 a side, I decided to drop the squeeze for the rest of the summer.

The paint is showing the miles, lots of spots on it. With light primer and the yellow under it, every chip stands out. Its still a fun car to drive, even if I am working on it more now than I want to. There are two others in the short time pipeline to be my summer daily drivers, so this one might end up getting some metal replaced, and massaged next year. For now though, Im running the valves again today and changing the oil on it after getting the street strip Formula driveable again.