1961 Olds 88 2 Dr Sedan sneak preview

[DanStokes]

Please keep us in the loop! I LOVE this car and the build.

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

Tim, can't wait to see, and maybe ride in this car again, to watch you dump the clutch and speed shift 1st to 2nd.

[silver_bullet]

One of the first cars I remember was my dad's 62 super 88... I got to drive it a few times before he passed...Thanks for the memories!

[NASBackyard]

~Hi
Had to wait till the dust settled on the new format before I updated. I got the short block together and then the heads went on without any problems until I checked the rocker assemblies for oil flow, or the lack thereof .It seems there's always been a lack of oil to the rocker tips since day one and no one has ever bothered to find a solution until I found the guy who could. Seems there's truck loads of new rocker shafts which are fine, the problem lies in the rockers ,especially the aftermarket ones. There's holes in them but none of them line up to go anywhere. That's were Gary from www.rockerarms.com comes to the rescue. They took my old original ones, bored them out, install new bronze bushings AND cut grooves in them to divert the oil to where it needs to go. I also built a stand to run the engine on. it's built on a stainless steel frame that use to hold a 2 ton Sulfur cylinder. I got it out of the scrap bin at work. I bought some casters from Northern tool and the radiator ,gauges and mufflers off ebag. I also had to modify my rear cross member to make bellhousing removal easier.I got my hydraulic throw out bearing adjusted by adding and removing shims as needed. I will be starting the engine with the Centerforce clutch installed since it's also balanced and a PITA to remove. The original balance of the rotating assembly was done with the 3 groove harmonic balance, crankshaft, rods and aluminum flywheel. They had to add mallory metal to the crank to offset the aluminum flywheel weight. I may try to fire it up Sun 3-30 if everything is ready. Here are some more pictures.......and them I" add some in a separate post since I've lost whole posts adding pictures


[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/30w2omf[IMG]


More to come...

[NASBackyard]

pin striping tape works well for fins

[NASBackyard]

roller cammed .060 428 Pontiac waiting in line for the Firebird

rebuilt distributor from www.advanceddistributors.com

new trick for old cam bearings, used to distribute clamping force and to prevent the clamp from sinking in the hose rubber

[NASBackyard]

The flying saucer oil cap blends in with the license plate, however, not a fan of si-fi, I think this whole build is about as alien as you can get



This is what an unmolested Muncie looks like, original part no. tag, lock tabs and b/u light switch. This one is from a 66 GTO

[NASBackyard]

Since the rocker stand bolts were 6" long and had a lot twist, not to mention I cracked one of my rocker stands while torqueing it (on my previous set of rockers), so I upgraded the stand bolts to ARP studs. The smaller ones I found at the swap meet for 2.00 The studs were expensive but didn't crack my stands. I also had to do surgery on an original set of valve covers to keep the oil off my engine during testing. The worse ones I had were chrome ones.I have oil going to all the tips and you can see in the pictures the mods done to the rockers.






This is the lift bracket I made to raise the engine at the oil pan rails instead of caving in my oil pan with a floor jack, besides the oil pump almost touches the pan
BTW,I'm not a welder by trade

Had to drill and tap the block for 2 of the mount bolts

Pilot bushings also make good spacers, it also gives me room to adjust the cross member fore and aft

[NASBackyard]

This is how I marker the balancer to find the 2 different spots were oil goes to each rocker stand

[NASBackyard]

Decided to switch gears and do a little turd polishing. I wanted to see what the original ble paint on the roof looked like. After revealing it I realized why they painted it white; I was surprised how the white paint polished out. 419 is for Toledo OH where I was born....




Well, update is done for now, I need to get back out there and finish it off.

[91CCFirebird]

Thanks for the update. Engine run stand turned out great. I love this project.

[moparjim71]

This is a great car! Nice job on it!

[Deaf Bob]

Beautiful motor.. Should be in the living room under a glass display case...almost!... Better to make smoke with it!

[JOES66FURY]

I;ve loved this project from day 1. The new motor is killer and the engine stand...damn man...hell of a nice job.

The blue on the roof looks cool, breaks up the white....even if it is a little worn....I dig it!

Keep the updates coming!

[NASBackyard]

Thanks ! It's been a learning experience for sure and I'm almost positive it will be the only 4 speed 394 currently on the road. Crazy money has been charged and spent but when I went around in circles on what kind of engine to do, someone on here suggested doing the original one and knew this engine had potential, it just never had a good transmission behind it. I usually don't waste money at the DMV but my other plates were 2FER994 so I had to think of something to fit the car. 1961UFO was taken so I looked up the definition to this one and it fits to a T..... Not to mention the 70;s era license plate frame also