AJ's '72 Cruiser Crawler Build

[lks dcvn]

Looks pretty good to me - might be a blessing in disguise type thing...

[Chevyman63]

Originally Posted by lks dcvn

Looks pretty good to me - might be a blessing in disguise type thing...

[jaros44sr]

Man, that guy does some nice work. Are you sure that was a body shop? That is one of the cleanest places I have ever seen, guess it reflects the quality of his work...

Now you will really start to collect the trophies

[AJs72K5]

UPDATE 04/04/09: Made a little more progress today.

But first, as promised, here's a picture of the refinished hood. No more graphics...or big burn mark in the middle


Got the new to me DIY4X crossmember installed. Took a little persuasion to get everything to line up, but it's in. I really need to wipe the frame down...


Finished pulling everything off the engine to prep for the MPFI conversion. I'm also putting a Comp Cams adjustable timing chain. This'll allow me to get the timing on the cam dialed in a close as humanly possible to the grind sheet...which equals MORE HP.


On a side note, the fire may have been a blessing in disguise. The pre-screen on the oil pickup was almost completely clogged with purple paint flakes. They got really sloppy when spraying the purple. Nothing was taped off...there's purple on the crank, the timing chain, inside the heads....

[RED72blazer]

Originally Posted by AJs72K5

UPDATE 04/04/09:

On a side note, the fire may have been a blessing in disguise. The pre-screen on the oil pickup was almost completely clogged with purple paint flakes. They got really sloppy when spraying the purple. Nothing was taped off...there's purple on the crank, the timing chain, inside the heads....

Are you going to pull the bearings and check them now? I think it would be good insurance.

BTW things are looking good I would eat off that fire wall.

[AJs72K5]

Originally Posted by RED72blazer

Are you going to pull the bearings and check them now? I think it would be good insurance.

BTW things are looking good I would eat off that fire wall.

I have a friend who build dragsters and engines for a living. He's gonna help me with the engine stuff since I'm at about the limit of my current knowledge. I'll see what he thinks.

[AJs72K5]

UPDATE 04/11/09: Got a little shop time this morning. The goal was start cleaning up the block, put the new timing chain on, and degree the cam. However, when we pulled the cam sprocket for the timing chain off, we found this:



Whoever built the engine, neglected to put the thrust washer on behind the cam sprocket. The sprocket has chewed into the block over 1/8". And because the cam wasn't in snug, the lifters are unevenly worn and a couple of cam lobes in the rear are flattening. Additionally, several of my pushrods are flexing. What does all this really mean? I need to rebuild the engine and get the block machined to fix the damage. Not something I had wanted to do right now, and definaltely something that was not budgeted for this year. It was one of those days, where I wish I had stayed home.