Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[Xeen]

The only thing about that color that would concern me is that since this is a daily driver the first time there is an oil leak and the heat bakes the oil on the paint and stains it you will be very irritated.
It's not really a set it and forget it color of paint you will have to monitor for oil leaks regularly and that seems like a more trouble than it's worth type deal to me.
Unfortunately it wouldn't be a gen 1 small block if it didn't leak which put's an even finer point on it.
I just hope you don't end up regretting it and find yourself pulling it out and repainting it a dark color after the first oil leak.
Having said all that, the paint job looks very nice.

[sduckworth13]

Nice job Vic, I like the color. Knowing how meticulous you are, I think your one of the few guys that can pull off the white engine and not have to worry about a leak.
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[Xeen]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Nice job Vic, I like the color. Knowing how meticulous you are, I think your one of the few guys that can pull off the white engine and not have to worry about a leak.

I agree with you and I'm not trying to be a negative nancy here but at the same time I'm trying to be realistic and state facts, Gen 1 small blocks leak and they leak often and are very difficult to seal and keep sealed for long periods of time, it will be a constant battle of wills, the Universe vs. Vic: An epic saga.
To complicate matters he is doing a Vortec to original design valve cover retrofit which introduces a unknown variable in the sealing process and in effect defeats the improved Vortec seal design.

[Low Elco]

Looks great!
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[Vic1947]

While the sealing technology for the Gen I small blocks is inferior to the newer models, gasket manufacturers have done a good job of addressing some of the deficiencies. I use a one piece pan gasket from Milodon as well as the expensive ribbed, metal sandwich style valve cover gaskets. Where there might be a chance the stock gasket could leak, I use RTV. I lightly tighten the part until the RTV has a chance to setup, then torque to spec. Teflon tape and Loctite round out my arsenal of leak stoppers. But in the end, there's no such thing as a perfect trap, so eventually there will be some seepage. Just hopefully not at startup.

The color reminds me of heavy cream like we used to skim off of raw cow's milk. It's not a bright white at all, so it should be a bit more manageable. I have extra of the color in case of a hiccup. It looks great up against the Toxic Orange Pearl that will be the body color. I plan to paint the pulleys, harmonic balancer and oil pan that color for contrast. Should have some more pictures in a few days.

[Vic1947]

Some progress to report. Short block is assembled and the pan, balancer and pulleys are painted body color. Ran into a minor snag ...the one piece pan gasket I bought off eBay was for a one piece main seal, not the two piece that I have. Speedy Bill had one in stock and it should be here in the morning. Meanwhile, I'll finish up the top end and install the pan last.

[Xeen]

That toxic orange pearl is radical man.
coughoverachievercough

[Vic1947]

Since the block hugger header wouldn't fit on the driver side, I was forced to modify either the header or the pedestal (or buy new sheetmetal ones from CPP). Decided the pedestal mod was the most attractive option, so after marking the outline of the header tube where it was resting on the perch, I windowed the area and made a reinforcing saddle to weld in the hole. Now have plenty of room for the header and you don't really notice it from above.

Still waiting on the GM Vortec intake gaskets. Once they arrive I'll be able to button up the engine. Meanwhile, I have some machining to do on the rocker arms. Will post up when they're done.

[Vic1947]

Today was one of those "good news, bad news" days. The good news is that KMJ Performance let me return the Procomp rocker arms that were riddled with casting flaws and gave me a store credit. They also discounted the 4340 chromoly set I'm getting as the replacement. Those guys rock!!

Bad news was the sway bar doesn't fit very well. It may require a trip to Sedalia where I have a buddy with a massively powerful hydraulic press to tweak the bends. Hopefully we can bend it to fit without killing ourselves. As you can see from the photos, when the bar is in place, the ends that attach to the a-arms are too far apart. Another possible solution is to move the whole bar forward a couple of inches which would allow an acceptable fit at the a-arms, but then the frame horn mounts will be way off. I may just do that and call it good. Decisions... decisions...

[bguild]

Yes the color looks great- good choice. It is going to look great all painted that color.
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[Vic1947]

I'm a bit behind my self imposed schedule for the Nats, but I should be able to make it with a few minutes to spare. The rest of the engine is pretty much done. I say "pretty much" because there are several things I need to revisit after the show. Two main issues are the poor quality rocker arms and the intake gasket / bolts for the Vortec heads. I'll have to fixture up the rocker arms and run a ball end mill into the pushrod dimples to clean out the casting flash they left in some of them. Pretty sloppy manufacturing there. Also found out that the fiber gaskets with the silicone print-o-seal are junk. GM quit using them because they're affected by oil and antifreeze and develop leaks. They replaced them with a plastic and rubber sandwich design that is far superior. Got a set on the way and will have to remove the intake after the show and replace what I have on there now.

The Speedway center bolt adapters worked perfectly and blend in with the polished aluminum valve covers such that you barely notice them. Engine is ready to drop in first thing tomorrow morning, so I should have time later to tidy up a few things before the show. Gonna be hot!!

[sduckworth13]

Looks classy Vic.
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[Low Elco]

Better hustle- picked up the trailer and cleaned the grill tonight!
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[Xeen]

Wow very nice Vic, the engine looks badass! Major points for artistic on this one.
The aresenal of fasteners on the stainless table made me chuckle, you could have your own retail store Vics Fastenal.
Yeah those rocker arms are pretty terrible, that's gotta be hard on pushrods, imagine all the thousands out there installed left that way and people have no idea.
Crap like that is the reason we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the USA.

[STOCKISH]

Nice job on the engine, looking great!

[Vic1947]

OK, I've done all I can do for the Nats, so the plan is to load up early tomorrow and hang out with the similarly afflicted till I'm sunburned and full to the top with BBQ. As always, there was a contest of wills between man and machine, with both scoring points. Driver side header wouldn't fit and it took two hours to repair motor mount threads that I should have chased when I bolted them on. But I keep reminding myself, the amount done is not relevant. Being there is the goal. See you all tomorrow.

[Xeen]

It looks great Vic, you can have lots of fun telling people it's going to be your beater and see their reactions

[bguild]

Very nice Vic.
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[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by bguild

Very nice Vic.
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Originally Posted by 69CST-V

Just saw this build and quickly scanned all the pictures. Looks like I found tonight's reading. Nice build.

Originally Posted by gdavis

I like the way you did the motor perch. You do good work man. I see now why Brian xeen is alway braging on you. Good luck man.

Thanks everyone! With the truck show in the rearview mirror, I'm in cleanup mode. The rocker arms proved to be even worse than I remembered. Ran a 5/16" ball end mill into the pushrod dimples and then polished them with a Cratex abrasive on the Dremel. The worst one (shown, before and after) still has some porosity in the pocket. There was also another one that had a serious casting flaw near the roller tip. Contacted the eBay seller and one of their service reps said to call their tech line to see if I could get them replaced or maybe exchange the set. Probably not since I modified them, but, what the heck, I'll call tomorrow and see.

Received the GM gaskets for the Vortec heads and they were very nice. They're already installed, so I should be able to set the distributor in tomorrow and install the senders, plugs and etc. At that point, I'll be out of reasons for avoiding bodywork.

[Vic1947]

Found a useful way to avoid bodywork by sorting out the brackets needed to mount the accessories. The Vintage Air setup came with it's own bracket whose placement was non-negotiable, so I started with it. First thing I ran into was the mounting tab meant for the front intake bolt. Since I'm using Vortec heads, the tab was at the wrong angle and position. The solution was to relocate the tab to the upper inner hole on the front of the cylinder head. Out came the bandsaw and welder and presto-change-o, I now have a tab at 90 degrees to the original. The Vortec intake bolts have a max torque of 15 ft. lbs. so using that boss was a non-starter.

Next up was the alternator. Since the AC compressor now occupies the space where Sparky originally sat, the most convenient fix was to rotate the alternator 180 degrees so the adjuster bracket was on the bottom instead of the top. This meant I had to fabricate an adjuster, which I did by slicing off the curved slotted portion of the top bracket and scabbing on some material so it would mount on two bosses protruding from the water pump. I haven't decided if I will keep it as is or machine one from some billet stock I have laying around. We'll see.

Lastly, the power steering pump needed some fine tuning. I remembered from when I took it off there was a funky spacer involved and a bracket that didn't seem quite right. Sure enough, the bracket was for the stock AC compressor and its only purpose was as a 1/4" spacer for the top hole of the PS pump bracket. When assembled like the PO had done, there was no provision for the third hole used to triangulate and steady the pump. So I removed the bracket, sliced off what I needed, put a slot in it for adjustment and made two spacers to properly line up the pulley groove with the drive groove on the harmonic balancer. It's now solid as a rock.

All that remains to be done is remove all the brackets, detail the edges, etc. and take them to Detray Plating to be chromed. While they're out, I'll paint the alternator and PS pulleys the body color and the PS pump the engine color. Will post up pics when it all goes back together.

[69CST-V]

Just saw this build and quickly scanned all the pictures. Looks like I found tonight's reading. Nice build.

[gdavis]

I like the way you did the motor perch. You do good work man. I see now why Brian xeen is alway braging on you. Good luck man.

[Xeen]

A little Vicineering and you were back in business, great job.

[El Campo]

Like Frizzle Fry says "Its just metal"! Looks like you came up with a good solution.

[sduckworth13]

That's what I did when I did a 4 1/2 front drop on my 67 GMC. I moved the sway bar forward and removed the frame mounts for the sway bar and just used the brackets that came with the bushings to mount the sway bar to the frame. But I like your idea about bending it to the correct angle to fit.
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