Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Rear main seal....usually the source of most oil leaks that appear coming from the pan.

They were rope originally. Hope it was updated to lip. Can you get any angle to see it without pulling the cap ?

I see you are blocking the car up on the skates. I did that too, but went up a few stories for more room underneath. The bottom boards are secured to the skates by deck screws and then all levels are screwed down to the lower one. I can push the car around with it on these. I stepped the upper layers out enough for 10" wide tires too.

I got the cam cover plug off the back of the engine and found some numbers on the back of the cam, but they don't come up in any searches.

It has 814840 stamped in it so I tried that combo along with using '3's in place of the 8's and nothing comes up.

There's also a faint stamping of '039' but I'm guessing that's a date code as the engine was rebuilt around the 2009 era according to the seller of the car.

The scratches in the back of the cam pic were caused by me getting the plug off as it didn't want to cooperate.

Anyway, a gold star to anyone that can help me figure out who the mfg. and specs are for this cam!  

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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No clue on the cam, but the oil galley plug appears to have a streak  leading down from it, like it has been leaking. As oily as that block is, there is something besides the pan gasket causing all that oil to fly around. I would remove both of the galley plugs, thoroughly clean and reseal them, as long as you are this far in.

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The seller told me this engine was rebuilt 10 years ago and has about 7000 miles on it, so it's been driven and sat a lot.  It looks like pretty much every seal was leaking somewhere.  You can see in the pics there's oil everywhere, so some new seals and the new oil pan that the seller gave me should get things back under control.

 

jim larson wrote:

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 There were a couple of guys  on the TC forum that helped me identify my cam.  Are you on that site?  

The engine in the new chevelle I bought makes yours look like it just came out of the wash.

-- Edited by jim larson on Monday 13th of January 2020 01:02:10 PM

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I haven't been on TC for awhile but it's worth a shot.  Since it's an Olds cam I may give that a try on their forum.

Good to know it's not as dirty as I think it is.  It's all relative I guess.   

SShink wrote:

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jim larson wrote:

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 There were a couple of guys  on the TC forum that helped me identify my cam.  Are you on that site?  

The engine in the new chevelle I bought makes yours look like it just came out of the wash.

-- Edited by jim larson on Monday 13th of January 2020 01:02:10 PM

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I haven't been on TC for awhile but it's worth a shot.  Since it's an Olds cam I may give that a try on their forum.

Good to know it's not as dirty as I think it is.  It's all relative I guess.   

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 It may be that the only way to know for sure what cam you have is get out the dial indicator and degree wheel and measure.

How does the cam look? Have you looked for warn/flat lobs? I would pull the lifters one at a time to inspect, look at the lifters also. Be sure to keep rocker, pushrod, and lifter in the same location.

Dropped the headers and intake manifold off at Race Coatings in Forest Lake for polished ceramic on the headers and an aluminized ceramic on the intake manifold.  Thanks Mitch for the referral.  Clinton was great to work with, and while pretty young knows his stuff.  He even grabbed a wrench and took off the intake bungs and stuff I still had on it with no complaints at all.  He also noticed on the driver's side header it had gotten above 1400 degrees as it was darker on the two end tubes, probably due to retarded timing during the cam break in.

I appreciate the 'Mitch Discount' too as total bill will be just under $400 for both the headers and intake manifold.    Well worth the price to not have to change up any of the exhaust with new potentially different length headers.

Oh, we did find the missing upper driver's side control arm bolt wedged in the tubes at the collector which explains the melted control arm bushing on the headers.  All will be replaced when I install QA1 adjustable height coil overs after the engine/trans are back in.

Should have everything back in a couple of weeks, so will post the 'after' pics. 

Dave Seitz wrote:

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How much just to coat the headers? With the Mitch Discount?

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 $200-250, depending on size and condition. Price of product is continually climbing and the days of $150 for ceramic coating are long gone...

Parts are starting to ship in, and should have the TKO600 trans and install kit later this week!  

I picked up the headers from Race Coatings and they look great.  There's some pitting on the bottoms from a little bit of rust, otherwise they look like new.

I stopped by the Carb Shop with my Holley 750 cfm carb and talked about whether to rebuild it, sell it, or buy something new.  We landed on rebuilding it since it's an older Holley with the better castings so just needed a rebuild to ethanol friendly parts and they added some used electric choke parts to it to keep the conversion cost down since it was a manual choke carb.  They did find a bad accelerator pump so that should help the off the line stumble it had.  I also dropped off my disty to have them spin it up and make adjustments since they only charge $50 for the service.

Hope to have the engine painted up by this weekend and resealed.  Making some progress.

 

Just got the tracking info and Silver Sport is such a good seller that they send pics of the shipment before being picked up by FedEx with a note to comment on any damage upon receipt.

BLyke wrote:

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That is pretty nice that they send you the pictures to see how it left their place.

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 They do that to protect themselves against a rejected damage claim from the shipper. They KNOW how badly, heavy cartons get thrown around.

I've done that myself, especially when I shipped the entire drive train from the '54 to California. I had 20 pics of it as I strapped pieces on the pallet and as it was dropped off at the freight forwarding terminal, in case they tried to dodge any damage claim.

 I, also sent them to the recipient, so he could compare what it looked like when it got there.

And so it begins...

New project setback.  Found a massive crack on the bellhousing near the starter feature in the casting along with the fork hasn't been wearing evenly due to a bent throwout bearing we found during disassembly.

I was feeling a pretty strong trans vibration up around 3000 rpm last Fall, and I'm guessing these are all related.

Time to order a new BOP bellhousing and fork.  

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Good to see it arrived safely. Everything I've read about SST, is they pack their product very well against damage.
Did you get a pressure plate from them to go with the disc ?

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Yes, I bought the SST pressure plate and clutch kit from them as a set. 

Haven't posted on this for awhile since I've been working on it and was gone for a week of vacation in a warm place before the 'Vid 19' hit.  

She's on ships power again after the startup tonight, the rear wheels turn when shifting with the new trans, and now it's time to put the interior back together, the hood on, and hopefully go for a drive on Sunday.   (just noticed our emoticon needs a 5 speed burnout not a 4 speed, LOL)

Thanks to those that gave me a hand.  

Here's a couple of videos I took tonight.  Other than some leaking collector gaskets, a leaking thermo housing, and changing out the blue plug wires it's pretty much done.

 

 

 

Very nice Stan, looking forward to seeing the car.

Bobs_Place wrote:

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Looks Good!!  

When's the first      "Test Beat"        we need the results

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Thanks Bob.

 

I need to put 250 miles on it with 'normal' driving for the clutch to seat then change the trans fluid at 500 miles before any beatings will begin.   

hkgmillette wrote:

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Looks great! Can't wait to see you and it on the road. I will ping you when the Chevelle is on the road. We can break the trannies together.

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 Fixed that for ya.

That should work really well. You KNOW you both will be tempted to compete "just a little" and before you know it, you'll be hammering gears...

You guy won't break those gearboxes...

Curious, is a mfg. recommendation to change the fluid in the box after 500?
My box in the roadster is direct from Tremec (via a dealer), and there was no notation/warnings/service "must-do" for changing the fluid. I've got 2700+ on my gearbox now, and all's it does is get better by the mile.

('Cause I'm a cheapazz/tightwad anyway, and thinking that 99% of every daily out there goes its ENTIRE LIFE with the OEM "cherry juice"...)

What was your fill numbers? If I recall correctly mine took the better part of 3-1/2 quarts.

I think mine took just over 2.5 quarts.

Put about 50 miles on it yesterday, so here's some final wrap up pics.  I just need to swap out the blue plug wires for the black ones I need to put together.

1600 rpm at 55 mph and 2000 at 70 mph with plenty of power off the line.  Great combo so far!