Freddie's Transplant

[Sedanman]

Gary,

Sorry to hear about the news I do have an extra '65 block (crank, rods, pistons, front cover, pulley but no pan or head) at my parents' house in Bellevue that I'm sure my dad would love to see gone. I've offered it to Kenny previously - please check with him first but if he doesn't want it I'll make you a deal. Even have a hoist there to load it with and a stand you can borrow if you like. PM'ing you my phone number as I'm not online much right now.

T
PS - '65 and '66 blocks are the same; '67 was the first year of the dual bellhousing pattern.

[redfalken]

If Gary wants the block it's all his. If not, I would go up to the Pull-a-Part and see if they have any good donors. And grab the throttle cable assembly while you're at it! I also see them come up on craigslist fairly often.

[MacDee]

Gary,

Sorry to hear about the news I do have an extra '65 block (crank, rods, pistons, front cover, pulley but no pan or head) at my parents' house in Bellevue that I'm sure my dad would love to see gone. I've offered it to Kenny previously - please check with him first but if he doesn't want it I'll make you a deal. Even have a hoist there to load it with and a stand you can borrow if you like. PM'ing you my phone number as I'm not online much right now.

T
PS - '65 and '66 blocks are the same; '67 was the first year of the dual bellhousing pattern.

Thank you, Thor!
I appreciate your offer, but, unfortunately I do need the later '67 or later block. My block is (was?) a '67 and we've already finished rebuilding the C4 that mates up to it.
If nothing else turns up, I may come back to you. I'm really in no hurry since I've called off the swap day. I really want to find a later block that can still be bored to +.040 (I know... GOOD LUCK!!). If I can find one like that, we'll save the pistons we've got and the balance we've already accomplished. I'm going to wait as long as I can for a block like that to maybe surface.

Thanks again, Thor. I really, REALLY appreciate your offer!

[MacDee]

Some good news...maybe?
We found another block (whole engine actually). It's a later block so it will mate to my C4, it's only been bored +.030, and isn't appreciably worn. The "?" comes from the fact that it had been sitting outside, under a tarp... for six years! When we first looked at it, it would not turn. We feared rust up the gazoo in the cylinders. We pulled head to discover there was some water, and some rust, is a couple of the cylinders. After spending some time scraping at the rust with a knife, Carter thought it might possible to shave the rust out with another .010. We got a good enough deal that we decided to take the risk. Carter has since torn the engine all the way down and done some clean-up on the block. When I last saw it (last Saturday), he hadn't bored it yet, but he seemed confident the cylinders would clean up with another .010 (out to +.040).

If nothing else [bad] happens, Carter thinks he can finish the engine before he goes in for knee surgery on October 21. However, there won't be enough time to fab up a test stand and run it.

It might be possible to go ahead and do the swap in a couple of weeks and fire it up in the car. Frankly, I'm not too eager about doing a swap in the cold and rain, so I'm inclinced to stick to my "next spring" decision to do the swap. That would give Carter time to recover and build the test stand, and me more time to think (worry?) about throttle and transmission linkage.

[pbrown]

That is good news Gary. I'll keep my fingers crossed that is cleans up okay.

As for your throttle and tranny linkage, Lokar had a very nice setup. Here is a photo of mine. You won't have to worry about carb orientation. You can even use this with a stock style cable pedal if you like.

[MacDee]

That is good news Gary. I'll keep my fingers crossed that is cleans up okay.

As for your throttle and tranny linkage, Lokar had a very nice setup. Here is a photo of mine. You won't have to worry about carb orientation. You can even use this with a stock style cable pedal if you like.

Thanks, Pat!
Well, it didn't clean up as well as we'd hoped. Carter had to take it out to +.060 to get through the rust on the cylinder walls. We'll be buying new pistons and rings, and re-launching the project probably early next year.

Thanks to everyone who provided advice, support, condolence etc.! We'll get back into it soon!

[Nathan289]

Gary,
If you want to recoupe some of your loss, I might be interested in those pistons.. Did you already hang the pistons on the rods? sounds like you have, but maybe I can still use them..

Nathan

[MacDee]

Gary,
If you want to recoupe some of your loss, I might be interested in those pistons.. Did you already hang the pistons on the rods? sounds like you have, but maybe I can still use them..

Nathan

Thanks for the offer, Nate!
However,
1) The rods ARE already fitted;
2) The pistons are flat-top. If you use them with a stock head you'll have WAY TOO MUCH compression. The CI aluminum head has larger chambers than stock heads; thus the need to use flat-top pistons.

If you're still interested...
I have one more block to look at this weekend. If it doesn't pan out, the +.040 [flat-top] pistons might be available.