Found a car to buy

I love the slicks and those wheels but why is it still on the trailer! haha Pull that bad boy off and tear into it

I agree with you. Any type of service now sucks. The mechanics at the dealers don't know shit, the tire guys don't know shit about tires, the oil change guys just want to sell you bogus flushes that don't do any good, restaurants charge way too much for food that's not that great, no one has a job, no one is hiring, everyone is losing their house...but some how the rent in my apartment has gone up 50$ a month in the past 2 years. No wonder the economy is in the shitter. No one understands economics. Not to mention all the media telling you to SAVE YOUR MONEY. If we all save our money no one is buying anything and the economy gets worse! HELLOOOO

I hope that motor has been picked up. I totally forgot to check. I'll drive my dumb ass out there tomorrow after school and check. I totally just forgot after work today

No prob Bob, sorry, just had to say that, like you've never heard that before, heh. I'm waiting to get the notarized bill of sale from the old owner so I can get it to the dmv and get the title process started. Then it gets down and the big stuff starts. Matt said something about the pick up driver went to a building on the complex and asked about the engine, but no one there knew anything about it, so he left. Typical. Communications again. MArk L

It's sitting right outside the door to the office. You can't miss it

I'll check tomorrow. If it's still there I say we find a new company to transport it. This is awful

Hey Robert. Matt told me they picked it up Thursday. So I should probably see it early next week. Sorry for the screw up and I hope it did not hurt anything setting there all this time. Thanks and I'll let you know when it's in my greasy little hands. Mark L

Na didn't hurt anything. They finally called me on wednesday and said they would do it thursday. I'm glad they finally did

Let me know how it goes

Hey Robert. A belated Easter Miracle. The block is in my truck and it looks great. Thanks for the great strapping job. Now I have to make an appointment to the machine shop down in Tucson for all the mods (gooood!) and costs (BAAAADDDD!!!!). Anywho, thank you so much for all your help and for putting it all together. You want the straps back or can I keep them for my truck????(HEH). I plan to keep a journal of the work done and hope to get pics as it goes along. I've always meant to do that but never remembered to keep the records. I'll try to keep you updated as it goes along. Good working with you kiddo. MArk L

The straps are yours. My friend is moving and found a big ass box full of cheap straps. I put some of them to use haha

I'm glad you finally got it. The guy I got it from said it ran but smoked real bad and then he pulled the motor. That motor was pretty damn clean and it was obviously rebuilt. There's hardly any build up on the pistons and no wear on anything.

I hope you can do something with it

Do something with it??? Heh. Try 1400 hp twin turbo fully street oriented blow thru (I'm experimenting using a Spread bore Holley for the small efficient primaries) in a '63 Catalina (maybe) Gasser build. Anyway that's the plan. We'll see where it finally comes out. I should be able to get a good streetable 1000 hp anyways. My 462 made an easy 1065 hp on much less head flow and heavy TRW pistons. This 389/406 will have much better thought out components and big flowing heads compared to my self ported 6Xs. I'm lucky enough to be desigining it right from the empty block on up for the turbo install and horsepower goal. I've always had to build as I go and build with compromises. Not this time. Anywho, just something to cruise in. heh. Mark L

That will be too cool. Keep us updated

Well, just got done setting up an appointment to take the '63 into a chassis guy to install the '57 Beam front axle. He does great work and there's no way I would ever feel confident with my work going down the freeway or 150 mph at the strip. So it looks like it's going to be a gasser. I also found a 4L80E trans core, which turned out to be in great shape, for $100. It is all stripped down and I'm going to have all the trans parts cryo'd at the same time as the motor and parts.
Guess I left some info out. The block is in getting cleaned and sonic'd. If all is good then it will get bored to fit my pistons, I ordered and have it on it's way, a forged 3.75 crank from KRE. I also ordered a set of GRP aluminum rods to go with it. Once I know the block is good I will also be ordering a set of 3 center splayed 4 bolt main caps. Just have to make sure the block passes muster.
One thing we are going to do is a modification to strengthen the block deck. The ends of the deck has the outside walls of the block to strengthen the deck. But each of the interior cylinders have only the perimeter wall and the cylinder casting for strength. Paul is going to do something he does for boosted blocks. He drills holes in the deck between the bores and taps them. Then he screws long rods down into the water jacket until the rod bottoms out on the bottom of the jacket. Supporting the deck from flexing down away from the head. Something I had never heard of but makes all kinds of sense. Then we'll fill the block about half way.
Then as mentioned with the trans parts, we are going to cryo the block and all the parts to make it stronger. That's the updates so far. Mark L

HELL YEAH!

Got the crank today. Mark L

Got pics of the axle in front of the car waiting to for the surgery..



Mark L

Also Steve Barcak found a couple of pics of an AWB (altered wheel base) '63 Catalina. Probably the only one raced. The first one looks like it's ready for racing. The second one looks like it was stripped and put out to pasture. I personally don't like the looks of it on the Catalina. Looks like a dog taking a dump. Mark L




Mark L

Of course altered don't look right, but neither do gassers. It's like the whole spirit and history of what they were, not what they look like

Spent the day making the AllPontiac midplate into an adapter. I drilled the 55-60 bolt and dowel pattern into the plate. Then welded nuts on the bckside for th e4 top Chevy pattern bolts to tighten against. The two middle nuts that I welded on interfered a little with the block bellhousing casting but a little judicious grinding took care of that. I still have to figure out how to add the starter in but I have some ideas there. And the 2 bottom bolt holes of the 55-60 pattern falls inside of the midplate cutout. The passenger side cutout goes right through the center of the bolt so I can cut the plate a little and a bolt will hold that. The drivers side hole just falls outside the plate so a touch with the grinder and a trimed spacer/washer and a bolt and washer on top of that should take care of that side. Then I can weld the nuts on th e bottom Chevy pattern but I want to wait incase I can incorporate that into the stater mounting.




So far so good and will save me a $755 charge for a custom adapter/starter. Mark L

Damn that's awesome!

What is that GMC/Pontiac bellhousing you have laying around...

That's the later 370-389 GM trans bolt pattern housing. I got it from a guy here in town that had some stuff like the oil pan etc. I grabbed the belhousing to help with doing this modification on the midplate. It helped me to transfer the bell housing bolt holes over to the midplate. It has the GM Muncie, -ST-10 type trans pattern. MArk L

I'll take it if you ever want to get rid of it

Hey Robert If I find that I don't need it anymore I'll contact you and send it you way. I'd rather see it go to a good home. Mark L

Sweet! Let me know

Do you know what year it is?

Actually no. It's the 55-60 bolt pattern with the GM trans pattern. That probably narrows it down somewhat but actual year I don't know. Is there a date code on these? Figuring it would not have one so I didn't look. It still has the bell houing frame mounts on it so I assume it's '58 and older. If you want it later I'll send it just for shipping cost. But that may be $1000. That damn thing is HEVVVEEEEEE!!!! Mark L

I know with the big hole opening for pontiac started in 58 but I know GMC used the big hole in 57. It doesn't appear to be a 59 and they didn't make them in 60 so its probably a 57 or 58

Got some pics of the forged Ohio crankshaft to display.




The thing looks first rate. I'll be doing updates as it goes long. I'm sending for a posi unit for the original Pontiac rear end in case I stay with it. But I took the whole 9 inch and mocked it up under the car to get measurements. I will have to do major frame and sheet metal (trunk) mods to get it in but 17 to 20 inches of tire on each side would really look----thick---. We'll see what I can or can't do. May be getting the '63 into the chassis guy soon for the front axle install. Then I can get the car into my garage or take the body off for the frame mods for the narrowed 9 inch. Mark L