64 LeMans

[Fitzy]

Wow - that looks REALLY good. I'll do the same once the paint on my brand new TTs starts to wear. You've captured the essential 60s muscle look right there.

[Andy H]

Finished wheel#2 and this time i let the paint dry overnight and then cut with a razor blade around the edges before I unmasked it.

Got some goodies from Ames and summit so i might be able to start putting the engine together this weekend.

[64 kiwi boni]

ah !! its like christmas time !!! lots of prezzys!! but better!!👍

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Andy H said:

Finished wheel#2 and this time i let the paint dry overnight and then cut with a razor blade around the edges before I unmasked it.

Got some goodies from Ames and summit so i might be able to start putting the engine together this weekend.

warning warning!!! andy that edlebrock kit if its for your factory carter is crap!

[Andy H]

58 minutes ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

warning warning!!! andy that edlebrock kit if its for your factory carter is crap!

i have a Edelbrock AVS so i hope it wont be a problem 😳,my stock carb is a 2 bbl🙂

58 minutes ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

warning warning!!! andy that edlebrock kit if its for your factory carter is crap!

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Andy H

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Andy H said:

i have a Edelbrock AVS so i hope it wont be a problem 😳,my stock carb is a 2 bbl🙂

 

ah ... here i am thinking you have a 1964 carter like my 389 one,,,, hopefully its the correct kit for your wayyyy later carb 

[Andy H]

5 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

ah ... here i am thinking you have a 1964 carter like my 389 one,,,, hopefully its the correct kit for your wayyyy later carb 

Yeah me too, had to dig to figure out what kit this one was supposed to have was not real clear, saw a lot of reviews that said don't use a aftermarket kit so we will see.

[Andy H]

Ran in to a couple of problems over the weekend, first one of my pushrods was bent, no big deal right? Just order a new stock one but what length is a stock one? I think every company website had a different length listed, had to bring one of the push rods to work to get a accurate measurement my calipers are to short and then i have to check if anyone has something close.

Next the front cover had som corrosion pitting by the water pump so i figured i beadblast the area and fill it in with jb weld so when I blasted it i figured I would clean up the connection for the radiator hose also, not so good, so now I need  another one. I have a later model cover also but then all the brackets don't fit i believe.

[Fitzy]

When I tore down my 389, I also had 2 bent pushrods - I never did work out why. My water pump was a mess and there were all sorts of dramas but I got through it. Chuck from Butler Performance was very helpful with advice - mind you I ordered one of their rebuild kits which was a quality selection of parts.

[Andy H]

18 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

When I tore down my 389, I also had 2 bent pushrods - I never did work out why. My water pump was a mess and there were all sorts of dramas but I got through it. Chuck from Butler Performance was very helpful with advice - mind you I ordered one of their rebuild kits which was a quality selection of parts.

I'll get it figured out eventually, i think Ames has the correct push rod, i will double check tonight In that case I'll replace all of them.

KRE racing has a new cover it's about $250 I'll have to look in to that, found one on eBay for $150 used but not being able to look at it before is a bit of a crap shoot.

Not sure what i have to do in Order to use the later cover.

[Fitzy]

I remember seeing a few places advertising a timing cover that adapts the later water pump to your older engine but it's always expensive. You may already know that I persevered with the factory setup and installed a Flowkooler water pump.

I'm not sure how far you're gonna tear down your engine but I am most interested to see if your block has some of the front coolant holes factory blocked as mine were. It was a head scratcher but coz I live in the tropics, I figured the more flow the better and painstakingly drilled them all out.

[Andy H]

6 hours ago, Fitzy said:

I remember seeing a few places advertising a timing cover that adapts the later water pump to your older engine but it's always expensive. You may already know that I persevered with the factory setup and installed a Flowkooler water pump.

I'm not sure how far you're gonna tear down your engine but I am most interested to see if your block has some of the front coolant holes factory blocked as mine were. It was a head scratcher but coz I live in the tropics, I figured the more flow the better and painstakingly drilled them all out.

My whole setup is a hodge podge of mix and match parts since my original 326 basically junk, the block is 72 or 73 350ci the heads are from a  69 428 and i am trying to keep all my stock covers including the front cover because then all the front brackets should fit.

So the engine is a complete tear down bored out and decked with new pistons. I'll try to take a picture of the front of the block tonight maybe you can check to see if there's something else I should do.🙂

[Andy H]

19 hours ago, Fitzy said:

I remember seeing a few places advertising a timing cover that adapts the later water pump to your older engine but it's always expensive. You may already know that I persevered with the factory setup and installed a Flowkooler water pump.

I'm not sure how far you're gonna tear down your engine but I am most interested to see if your block has some of the front coolant holes factory blocked as mine were. It was a head scratcher but coz I live in the tropics, I figured the more flow the better and painstakingly drilled them all out.

Here is a picture of the front of my engine

[64 kiwi boni]

looks justA like my 64 389 

Edited March 9, 2022 by 64 kiwi boni

[Andy H]

44 minutes ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

looks justA like my 64 389 

Good thing, block is a 72 and the plan is to put on the front cover from the 64 .

Found a used cover that is on the way, hopefully it is ok. So of course i had to do some research when I was looking for another cover and as it turned out the one i have is not for a 64 but for 66 and up, doesn't really matter but apparently it had been replaced at some point. So many different parts between the different years model's , no wonder people people put small block Chevys in everything.😆

[64 kiwi boni]

19 minutes ago, Andy H said:

Good thing, block is a 72 and the plan is to put on the front cover from the 64 .

Found a used cover that is on the way, hopefully it is ok. So of course i had to do some research when I was looking for another cover and as it turned out the one i have is not for a 64 but for 66 and up, doesn't really matter but apparently it had been replaced at some point. So many different parts between the different years model's , no wonder people people put small block Chevys in everything.😆

yeah and that would be stink Andy! i see nothing wrong with these old pontiac motors ... in fact i see they are better than sb chevs!!

[Fitzy]

I see your heads are already on. The coolant passages I was talking about are the ones that flow from the block through the heads - in between the cylinder bores. I don't suppose you noticed any that weren't open? Apparently it was something to do with increasing coolant flow at the back of the engine (must be a hot spot?) but it's only a rumour. I figured the Flowkooler would push enough coolant around to accommodate any inherent design shortcomings in the block, IF there's any truth to it.

[Andy H]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:48 PM, Fitzy said:

I see your heads are already on. The coolant passages I was talking about are the ones that flow from the block through the heads - in between the cylinder bores. I don't suppose you noticed any that weren't open? Apparently it was something to do with increasing coolant flow at the back of the engine (must be a hot spot?) but it's only a rumour. I figured the Flowkooler would push enough coolant around to accommodate any inherent design shortcomings in the block, IF there's any truth to it.

Looked pretty good but i didn't exactly analyze it in detail,have a pump with cast iron impeller that I'm going to reuse and if it doesn't work out I'll probably be looking at a flowcooler pump also.

Got some more part's from Ames and hopefully I'll get a used front cover tomorrow so i might get a little further on the engine this weekend, in the meantime I have been sanding rims and the last two are almost ready for paint.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Andy H

[Andy H]

Got s hold of a good used timing cover, put the rockers on with the new push rods and adjusted, tried my valve covers on and they hit the lock screw for the poly locks, the rocker stud is too long, removed all the rockers and pulled a big trash bag over the engine,poked holes for every stud, put some duct tape around the studs and cut of the top of the stud that don't have any treads, reassembled and now the screw is down inside the nuts and the valve covers fit if i use the 5/16 gasket that i got.

[Andy H]

Next up was the dipstick tube, Pontiac has so many variations on this depending on year and A/C or not and since i have a mixture of stuff it took some research to figure out what to use, car came with a new upper tube for 66-68 car so i bought the rest of the part's to go with that, made my own tool to install the block piece.next up was to decide what oil pan and windage tray to use, the 350 windage tray works with the dip stick so that was a given and after some back and forth i decided to use the pan that came on the newer engine, after looking in some catalogs i appears that it is a oil pan for 72 and up because it has a baffle.

[Andy H]

Going to install the water pump but wanted to see if I could reduce the gap between the pump impeller and the plates inside the housing, hopefully this will make it work a bit better,

Brought the exhaust manifolds down to work and bead blasted them now i need to get some paint.

[64 kiwi boni]

nice work Andy 👍

[Fitzy]

I am SO glad I did all this and it's now behind me. It'll be worth it once it's up & running and you get to hear that V8 rumble. Keep plugging away and enjoy it.

[64 kiwi boni]

4 hours ago, Andy H said:

Going to install the water pump but wanted to see if I could reduce the gap between the pump impeller and the plates inside the housing, hopefully this will make it work a bit better,

Andy explain what your doing to make that water pump work better! i can see your closing up that gap to the impeller but how are you doing it?

[Andy H]

5 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

Andy explain what your doing to make that water pump work better! i can see your closing up that gap to the impeller but how are you doing it?

There's lots of YouTube videos out there and most of them use a mallet or hammer but i just used two C clamps to hold it in place and another that i kept moving around and pressing it down, probably could have closed the gap up more but i hope i closed it up enough, ended up with about 0,060" .  You always hear about people that has cooling problems so i just wanted to make it as good as possible.