Current Pictures

Pictures of rebuilt engine.

Disaster Strikes.

Awhile back, As I was was at a stop light the air cleaner stud worked its self loose and got sucked into a cylinder. After having the car towed home, I removed the valve covers, Upon inspection I saw that the intake push rod on the #6 cylinder was bent. When the cylinder head was removed I found the now unrecognizable air cleaner stud in three mangled pieces, Luckily there was no significant damage to the cylinder wall but the piston skirt on that cylinder was broken, Part of which I found in the oil pan. Upon dis assembling the engine I found it to be in relatively good condition for an original engine its age and mileage.

Engine Stage 1

After detailing the engine, I added a Comp Xe cam 240/248 and lifters, Edelbrock double roller timing chain,Victor Jr. intake topped with a 750cfm Mighty Demon Carberator,Roller tip rocker arms,High volume oil pump,Headman elite headers and black Proform valve covers,Air Cleaner and Timing Chain cover.

After reinstalling the engine I had dual Flowmasters with 2 1/2" exhaust system installed.

This combination made the car sound fast idleing at a stop light, However the large cam and single plane intake hurt lower RPM range power, While the stock heads and low compression engine limited top end performance. It was still an improvement over the stock 2 barrel carb. cam and exhaust. When I went out to Sacramento raceway, I managed to run a 15.9 second time in the 1/4 mile.

Under The Hood Transformation Stage 1

I pulled out the engine and began the detailing process, Lots of scrubbing,scraping,sanding painting and polishing. I decided to convert the car from an A/C to non A/C for a clean uncluttered look under the hood. After carefully removing cleaning and storing the A/C components to have the option to reinstall them at a later date, I found this conversion far more expensive and complicated then I originally anticipated. To properly do this and retain the heater you have to replace the dash controls,heater core and the bulky A/C box on the firewall. At this time I found a company on the Internet called American Graffiti that manufactured a fiberglass A/C delete box that replaces the factory A/C box and has a clean factory look. This allowed me to easily complete the conversion without the hassle of exchanging the heater core or controls while keeping a functional heater.

Under The Hood

When I purchased the car it had the original #s matching 350 with the stock 2 barrel carburetor working A/C and single exhaust.

Interior

The Headliner, Dash and carpet were in good condition. The front seat had been reupholstered with a cheap seat cover and the rear seat was deteriorating. I ordered a replacement seat cover kit from Original Parts Group. I opted for vinyl in the original sandalwood color and instaled them. The door panels and headrest's were fadeded but in good condition, I purchased a couple of spray cans of sandalwood interior dye from Chevy Land an dredyed them.