The Northwest is almost in a drought, and it's 70 degrees and sunny today, (southern Oregon), should be the same for the rest of the week. So it's time to start my project this weekend. (Now watch it turn cold, wet and freezing!) Some of you here know me as a long time lurker, and you know my car is a 1974 Tran Am with a 455 and TH400. And you know of my oil overfilling incident a couple of years ago. It's been running fine, (only about 600 miles since then), but I'm going to go through the engine, for peace of mind and to hop it up just a bit. It's only got 69k miles on it, so I'm hoping I can just get away with honing the cylinders and not having to bore it. I bought a set of '78 6X #4 heads and had them gone through. New valve guides, hardened seats, new guides, Chevy BB studs, new springs, retainers and clips. Got rid of the umbrellas on the springs, have regular seals instead. They're surfaced and ready to go. I didn't try to do any porting on them. My cam is a Competition Cams XE268H that has .477/.480 lift and 224/230 degree duration at .050 lift. Advertised duration is
268/280. I want to be sure to keep everything well oiled, so I bought a Melling HV blueprinted oil pump and a billet drive for it. I'll have the block tanked and magged, and the shop will press in my new cam bearings for me. I'll have the crank and rods and pistons checked. I have the new water and fuel pumps already, so hopefully rings, bearings and gaskets should just about do it. I replaced the timing chain about 10,000 miles ago, (almost 20 years!), so it should be okay. While the engine is out, I guess I'll have to have the tranny worked over too. This part I won't do myself. The last couple of times I've had my car out, the transmission didn't grab right away the first time I put it in drive, but started and shifted fine after I got going. I'm thinking about having an 1800-2100 stall conveter put in. I read that the cam I'm using is about as big as you can go and still use the stock converter, but the guy at the tranny shop said this converter is one step above stock and is what they use in 'vettes? I don't know how much of that is B.S. since I am not a transmission guy. He said $1,100 for the job, with about 300 of that being for the converter. Does that make any sense or sound reasonable? I bought some OEM paints for the engine compartment and frame, and I'll replace all of the hoses, vacuum lines, plug wires, and anything else that looks like it needs it. So basically, I'm just trying to freshen up the 'ol gal a little bit. Here's a link to a picture of my car, and I'll try to update my page with a few pics now and then, and keep you guys posted on how it's going? If you have any advice or suggestions, feel free to fire away. Just remember, I'm thin skinned, so try not to hurt my feelings! ;^)- posted
19 years ago