67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

[Hemi Joel]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation!

Thanks for all the supportive replies!

Update: The trans is all back together, and I had a chance to check out the new heads. I'm really happy with them, I can see that they were well done and are really fresh. They have new guides, new hardened seats, and stock valves that have been re-ground. They do not have the 2.070 intakes that I thought they would, they are only 2.00. But that is OK. I compared them to my J heads, and the ports are considerably bigger on these C heads. I am going to do a little porting, nothing major, but I can see where I can make some improvements.

I also did a little calculating on gear ratios, and I figured if I get some 2.75's in the rear, the overall ratio with the Doug Nash trans in 1st will be the same as if I had 4.11's and a close ratio Muncie. And running 2.75's will be just like running an overdrive with the 1:1 5th gear in the Doung Nash. Since I already have a bunch of 9" ford parts, I'm thinking I'll set up a 9" with 2.75's for it and sell the 12 bolt Chev rear end. Then I'll end up with a stronger rear, with the ratio I want, and probably come out ahead $ wise. So I need to find a housing set up for A body. I know Moser makes them.

I was looking at the valve covers last night, and pondering whether I should use the cast aluminum ones, or go with some stock covers. I ended up taking one of the old aluminum ones to the buffer, and it was starting to look pretty decent. Does any one know what I could spray on polished aluminum to keep it shiney?

Bye for now, Joel

PS: Threedoor,

that yard is Borscheids in Buffalo MN - 763-682-3655

[milner351]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation!

This thing is going to be killer!

I've had good luck with Eastwood's "diamond clear" on intakes and such - I've not tried it on anything polished, but it's designed for wheels as well as other things, so I don't know why it wouldn't work.

[Huskinhano]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation!

What gear ratio came in it with the close ratio? I would think with that big heavy car the factory would have installed a WR box...especially with a torque monster under the hood with a broader torque curve.

Just took my Mustang off the jackstands after a finishing up my C4 to WR Toploader. Kinda stuck with the 2.8's in the back for the time being. Fortunately with it being a light car with a mild motor, not too muss or fuss starting off.

[Hemi Joel]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation!

Tom, the close ratio muncie had a 2.20 1st gear, vs. the wide ratio which had a 2.54 1st. To get the close ration trans in the Olds, you had to have deep rear end gears. This car came with 3.90's. Some one was planning on having fun with it! The doug nash has a 3.28 first.

Update: I got the heads cleaned up good and did a little pocket porting on them.
I decided that while the motor is out and the heads and pan are off, I should put in rings and bearings, plus new frost plugs. Even though the motor ran nice in the 98, I'd hate to put it all together and have it smoke or have oil pressure issues.

[Hemi Joel]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation!

UPDATE:
Due to business and obligations and winter traveling, I didn't get much done on the Olds in January, February, or the first half or march. But In Mid march I got busy on it, now it's going to be a mad thrash to be ready for Power Tour. :P

I spent most of my time working on the motor and the heads untill 2 weeks ago. I did a little pocket porting on the heads, then I filled the exhaust crosssover with molten aluminum to keep heat off the intake manifold and to smooth out the center 2 exhaust ports.





I accidentally nicked a couple of seats with the grinder while I was porting, so I got out my craigslist score seat grinder (that I have never used before), practiced a little on a set of junk heads, then touched up the damaged seats.





I scored a set of brand new stock .0015 over pistons on ebay for $40, so I honed the bores to fit, and they cleaned up pretty good. I wanted to bump the compression just a tad without spending any money, so I threw the heads in the bridgeport and cut .040 off them. But I had an idea! I figured a could create quench in the combustion chamber without springing $$ for quench pistons if I left a little quench pad hanging down over the un-dished part of the piston, with 0.040 clearance between the pad and piston . I've never heard of anyone being cheap enuff to try this before, but it looks to me like it will work. Time will tell!





Next I dug the car out of the corner of the shop, where it has been for many years.





It is hard to beleive that it has been 23-1/2 years since the car was last on the road. Cameron and I had a little unveiling ceremony as we uncovered the car. He is only 15, so he's never even had a good look at the 442 before.



I dug into the car and made a list of everything I need to do to it, and came up with over 100 things to do. Argh, it's going to be a race to be ready!



I got the top and windows going up and down, fixed the top latch, got all the lights and blinkers and stuff working, took out the trailer hitch and gas tank, pulled the instrument cluster, checked out a bunch of stuff. Then I decided that I wasn't going to have time to do everything myself, so i should farm out the stuff that I have the least talent at doing. So I dropped the original instruments off at APT instruments to get the tack, clock and speedo fixed, because none of them were working before. I lined up an appointment at Premeir uppolstry to do the top installation and install the seat uppolsrty. I trailered it over there and they got it done in just over a week.





After I got the Old 442 home, I covered it up and used a steamer from work to clean out the engine bay and front suspention. They were really oily/gooie from the old oil pumping worn out 455.



30 years ago, I painted the firewall, inner fenders, and stuff with an epoxy spray bomb, and now it is all flaking off. So I pulled all the wires out of the engine compartment and everything off the firewall, to get it ready to repaint.

I ordered a 9 inch housing and 31 spline forged axels from Quick performance, a buddy is bringing it to work to get it powdercoated, then I'm putting together a 2.75 center with a 4 pinion posi out of my used parts bin. The car has a 12 bolt chev with a 3.30 posi that I'm going to sell to hopefully cover the cost of the new rear.


I have a paintless dent repair guy lined up next week to try and work out some of the dents, then I'll try to brush touch the paint as needed and wet sand and buff out the repairs. There's a guy in Michigan who is doing a instrument cluster/dash for me. He has a core that he is re-chroming and detailing, so if it's not done before Power Tour, I can still put my old one back in as is.

I'm debating now whether to install my old Kenwood am/fm/ cassette player, or get an original am radio working and hook up an MP3 input to it. The next 3 weeks should be interesting!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

nice wall of cars...
On milling the head, be sure your intake lines up with it, and the gaskets seal.... I learned the hard way to double check that >

[stage1scott]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

You go Joel!! Nice to see the Olds out from undercover and making progress!

[Scott Liggett]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

You have been busy. Go to it. You have got your work cut out to get it to the power tour. But, the drive with top down will be worth all that work.

[Hemi Joel]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

Thanks for the comments. BuickGuy: Yes, I'm going to mock up the heads on the block and test fit the intake, then decide if I need to mill the intake surface on the heads or the manifold. The wall of cars - I spent the first half of my life collecting projects and tucking them away. Now I need to spend the 2nd half getting them done!

[mlcraven]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

Beautiful! I'm sure I noticed a look of anticipation in the 15-year old's eyes (top down, summer nights, etc etc). If you can't finish the wall of cars surely he will

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: 67 Olds 442 Convert getting woke up after 23 year hibernation! UPDATE!

Nothing like finding having an awesome 442 in the shop. Moving quick, and looking good.

[R442]

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Hemi Joel]

Thanks for the replies!

It's really going to be a rush to be done on time. I spent the last week out of town for business, so before I left I brought the car to my nephews body shop to have the paintless dent removal guy work out the dents. He did one, and the paint cracked so he stopped till I got back to look at it. 30 year old enamel with a hardener does not seem to be as flexible as modern paint. So we're trying to figure out what to do. I think we'll for sure take out any dents that have scratches, because they need to be touched up any way.
While I was gone they pulled off the front clip to make it easier to paint the engine compartment. That wasn't part of the plan, but I'm OK with it, because I can get the inner fenders and core suppert and stuff blasted, so it should turn out really nice. Then I figure I can drop the engine and stuff in before putting the clip back on, that will make it easier.
Tommorrow, I'm finally going to be able to spend the whole day on it, hopefully I'll make lots of progress. Bye for now, Joel

[kyhunter89]

Keep taking pics. I like how it not losing its history like a full resto woukd do.

[Hemi Joel]

KYHUNTER, yes, I feel the same way - I want to keep as much of the history as I can, just freshen it up and make it a good driver. Man it sure is a lot more work that I figured it would be tho. But I'm kind of that way, I tend to go overboard.

Update: I'm at least a couple weeks behind schedule, because I planned to be driving it for the entire month of May, and it is not even close. But I'm still planning on doing Power Tour.

At the body shop, they got the firewall and the front of the chassis all painted, and Ben, the paintless dent guy worked his magic on all the little dents. The paint that had cracked on very first dent did not repeat on the other dents, they come out great.





Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I got the block all honed and cleaned up:



Got the short block assembled and checked the location of the timing marks. Good thing I did, they were off by about 5 degrees. I hammered on the sheet metal pointer to correct it.



A freind came over who used to do valve jobs and rebuilds for a living, and he showed me how I had the seat widths and valve to seat contact patterns wrong on the heads, so I had to re-do them and then got the heads all assembled, I think they'll be fine now. I had scored a set of NORS rockers and stands on ebay, so I used them on the 455. I also had a cool oil sheild for the lifter valley left over from the old motor that I installed.



The Edelbrock Performer intake was another cheap ebay deal, because it had a crack on the bottom, thru the heat riser tube. Looks like the heat riser on the exhaust must have stuck shut, overheating the intake. Since I have the heat passages in the heads blocked off anyway, it didn't matter. I just hit the crack with some JB Weld to keep oil out of it.


Even though I had cut the heads .040", the intake fit perfectly, without any modifying. I love it when that happens!



I was going to build my own oil pan, but since I am running out of time, I ended up getting a new low profile 7 quart Moroso pan and pickup. With the high volume pump, I dodn't want to take a chance on pumping the pan dry.


Then I shot the whole thing with a rattle can of copper/ bronze, then clear. It looks pretty close to the original 442 motor color.



The old Hays steel flywheel weighed 40 pounds. That is old school thinking, and with a big torky motor like a 455, a heavy flywheel is just a tire melter/parts breaker. So I decided to put it on a diet.

I chucked it up in the lathe and dialed in in true with in .003":



Then cut 10 pounds off the back and 9 pounds off the front:



So it is down to 21 pounds, just right. I had to do some experimenting with feeds and speeds and grinding just the right tip radius on my carbide cutter to get a smooth, vibration free finish. It was worth the effort, it came out nice and smooth :



Now I need to get the 455 and the rest of the driveline into the car, fire it up, hopefully nothing goes wrong with it. Then put a whole bunch of stuff back together and fix alot of stuff. Wish me luck! Joel