looky what i picked up today

just picked this up at the machine shop today




and this is what i pulled out saturday





and still gotta clean up this mess, undercoating is great for making a rust free car, but damn it looks ugly in an engine bay


rebuild kits supposed to be here tomorrow, and hopefully itll be above freezing so i can give the block a bath and continue my bit of wire hiding and do an a/c delete.

What you building with it?

stock crank and rods, new .03 over pistons, and a trick flow kit (waiting on ye ole tax return for the top end still)

Wow that thing looks great, thats exactly what I want to do but I am trying to find a stock block for like 50 bucks local. Looks great though. If you dont mind me asking what did they do and how much did they charge to clean it up? Was it like a well known speed shop? Or just an engine machine shop?

I thought this thread was going to start with a picture of crabs.

That's one damned beautiful block.

I wish it was possible to get it that clean with some kind of spray, I can never get it shiny

block was done by what used to be allied motorsports (the call themselvels bessel now). same guys who run Home . block was tanked, decked, bored .03 over, honed, and stroker notched. price was a bit on the high side, $475. also its not the same block, i dropped mine off weds, they called me thurs said they had one already done and wanted to trade so they could put their main caps on mine so they could have a full batch of em. no big deal to me, they threw in the cam bearings and freeze plugs for free.

hopefully itll warm up today (was 70 a few days ago, but the last two have struggled to get over freezing) and i can go outside and rinse her down a bit and throw some paint on.

well, managed to get the block cleaned and painted today, also painted the pan.

pics:




also got a nice big box of summit parts, yay!




and just for darkwriter:

Looks amazing, Ill get to see what my stock 302 looks like on the inside in a few weeks. Im dreading it.

looks awesome man, this should turn into your official progress thread! i'm not sure if you mentioned it in another thread or not, but you said the block was stroker clearanced, and also said you're using the stock crank and rods? change of plans? what are you stroking it to? 331 or 347? keep the pics coming!

block was kind of an off-the-shelf thing, that i traded my block for (reasons above). it wont do anything for me now, but if i decide i want to go bigger before too long, all id have to do is stone hone the cylinders again and throw a stroker kit in. fwiw, they notch almost all their blocks, just to make life simpler (cnc machine)

and yes, i will keep updating this thread as i move along. tomorrow ill probably fool around with getting the a/c stuff outta the car, probably just put it in a box until i finally get tired of not having it (think its got a leak somewhere anyway though, p.o. had it charged a year or two before i bought it, and it was empty when i pulled the compressor off)

Thanks for that info, price is a little high, but definitely worth it. Looks like itll be a fun build, I am definitely starting to save to do the same thing.

well, i said i was goint to pull the a/c stuff out today, and i did, and was able to get the main harness to tuck under the pinch weld, looks a lot "cleaner" than it did




im off to see the watchmen right now, when i get back me and a buddy are going to roll the car out into the driveway and trow some degreaser and a hose its way, hopfully get it looking white again, thinking about rattle-canning the bay once tis clean and everything is out of the way (dont have the equipment to hole fill right now, nor the cash to go buy said equipment, so it'll have to wait till the next time i pull the motor)

btw, heres what i did with my starter solenoid. iirc the oe coil cover also hide the solenoid, so hopefully i can just loom/tape the wires going to it and it'll look halfway decent.

ok, and here is where i need inspiration, or at least a couple ideas......

i degreased the bay last night, got all the gunk above the frame rails gone, but the paint is in bad, bad shape, the drivers side still at least looks white for the most part, but the passenger strut is down to primer. the frame rails themselves and everything below them are still undercoated (that nasty stuff is everywhere, but at least theres no rust, so its done its job)

ive got most everything out but the brake system (cobra booster=pita to get in or out), so i think im just going to mask off the frame rails, and repaint every thing above them white. hopefully the morons who painted the body actually did use the factory color, and whats left in the bay is just faded, otherwise i could be coming back into this thread cursing.....

You're on the right track. Looks great so far.

Did you put in all new freeze plugs, already? I only ask because I have to do mine on my '84 now, and it sucks trying to install them with the engine still in the car...

Looks great. I debated on painting mine black but decided against it because i wanna see oil leaks and my valve covers are black so it would look pretty dull. I also didn't get the chance to clean out my engine bay because i had to borrow a garage to swap mine

the big plugs in the side were already in, as was the one in the cam bore, everything else i put in myself once i cleaned the galleys out.

i was one the fence with the black too for a bit, but everything else in the car is either black or silver, so i decided to run with it.

i did manage to prime the bay tonight, so tomorrow comes some sanding, and then a splash of paint. the duplicolor actually matches the outside, and i can get everywhere except behind the booster, hopefully it wont be too noticeable, but the only time i really show of the motor anyway is when am at the track, and its usually dark, so....

alright, so if anybody is still interested......

i have been working on the car on and off for the past couple weeks, mainly just piddly stuff (painting brackets and such) till i could get my tax credit check (first time homebuyers=$7500).

bay did get painted, still deciding on what to do for the frame rails cause of all the undercoat on them (which is still in good shape)





not a show car finish by any means, but im building this car to drive, not just to show off.

also got some more goodies from the ups man today




cam installed


meant to bring my indicator from work yesterday to check the play, but i forgot, so it'll have to wait till monday.

rotating assembly is getting balanced as i type this, so should have the bottom end put together this weekend hopefully.