Project Land Yacht (AKA Mine was Lucille first!)

[chillman88]

Problem is, I don't want nitrous near as much as I want a new cam but...

A new cam means new springs. Which means new seals, which means valve job, which means heads come off. Which means new rings... which means flattop pistons.... Not in the budget lol!

 

[chillman88]

Got a bunch of parts in today! Sadly the new timing cover didn't come with a crank seal so I'll have to get one ordered. I'm pretty sure at this point I'd better just do the rear main seal too, since I'll be pulling the oil pan anyway. I'm happier than a kid on Christmas morning but I still have to get my Father in Law's car done before I can get the motor work started.

 

[chillman88]

Well now that the weather is getting nice I'm really wanting to get on this. Finally dropped the oil pan and started at the timing set. Completely forgot that I'll need a gear puller....

I don't know if this shows how much the nylon gear is worn. The chain felt pretty loose too. I don't know how much play is normal but I'll feel better knowing it's replaced.

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[chillman88]

Wow, can't believe how long it's been since I posted on this, mainly because everything else has kept pushing it down the list.

Town sent me a letter about my unregistered vehicles, so eff it. Registered it so now I guess I have a little more motivation to get cracking on it!

Sometime last winter I got the new timing set on. The new junk Chinese timing cover does not use a standard crank seal, so I bought a new seal and pressed it into the old timing cover. I also got the speedometer drive all sorted out. While pressing the new gear onto the tailshaft I found out this transmission actually does have the dimple on it for a clip on gear..... Oh well. Done is done.

Pulled the engine oil pump and replaced the drive rod. I was going to replace the pump, but I didn't think about having to get a new pickup tube and welding it onto the pump.... Tired of screwing around with this. It was running good before so old pump went back on, torqued and put the oil pan back on.

Realized how crappy my quick paint job was, so I cleaned up the block better with a wire wheel on a brush and some brakleen before hitting it with another coat. I'm going to have to clean the oil pan a little better, then hit it again with some more black paint.

Trying to decide if I will paint the transmission too. Clean oil free parts are much nicer to work with!

When I get that done I'm going to have to pull the intake off and clean/paint it before putting it back on with new gaskets. Then it'll be time to pull the smallblock/700R4 out and start putting this 454/th400 in it's rightful place.

 

[chillman88]

So hopefully digging into this a bit this coming week. Got a couple parts in the mail.

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Planning to have the engine and transmission in this week. Pretty sure I'll still need to order parts to get it drivable, but slinging the heavy stuff is the hard part.

 

[chillman88]

Well today started off well. I was excited, got the old girl in the garage.

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I need a bigger shop with less junk in it!

I was all excited! Finally got the old tranny dropped out, yanked the old 350, finally got the 454 off the stand and in the car!

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Man I was stoked! Got the car in, jacked up getting ready to put the tranny in....

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Son of a...

Ok so now I get to order a new oil pan, sitting right on the steering linkage. I took off work to get this done, and now I get to wait until Monday for a new oil pan. Can't win for losin'!

I guess optimistically I got half the work done, and it's not like it's very hard to yank this engine back out. Just extremely frustrating.

 

[saburai]

Keep up the good work! Progress is progress...

 

[chillman88]

Boy not a whole lot of difference. Hope it's enough. Inch one way and inch and a half the other.

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[chillman88]

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[chillman88]

And of course.... I was afraid of that.

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Hits the pickup.

 

[saburai]

And of course.... I was afraid of that.

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Hits the pickup.

Ahh ****...

 

[chillman88]

Well I finally got the pan on! Ordered a new pickup tube and had a brand new M77HV pump sitting on the shelf that I used, even though it's not a deep sump. I don't plan on beating on this too hard or revving it very high, and it's due for a rebuild before long anyway.

I put some crappy tack welds on the pickup tube per recommendations.

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I also bit the bullet and replaced the rear main. I hadn't done it at first because I'm paranoid with bad luck Since I had the pan off again anyway..... I figured it's the only oil seal I hadn't changed yet, other than the valve seals which will wait until the rebuild in a couple years.

I'm glad I did though!

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So.... I'm wondering what I'll be hitting my head against the wall for next!

 

[chillman88]

Well last week I took some scrap aluminum and made an EGR blockoff plate.

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Then today I got to work scraping gaskets off the intake. That stuff is HARD! I still have the block to do, then I'll be able to put the intake back on. Bought new bolts for the intake last week.

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