78 Grand Prix project

[deanlemans81]

Good to see some progress on the GP. the suspension and brakes look great.
Another 455 Cool. I`m so jealous. You should drop that one in the GP until the other motor is ready, at least you could drive it around in the meantime and work out all the other bugs.
Dean

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Thanks Dean. Putting this one in the car for now is the plan. I have a few things going on and I need to have the car moving under its own power real soon. The traveling for work is what's keeping me from really hammering this out and getting it done.

I also dropped off my drivers side fender to be soda blasted. The original one was trashed from getting hit and the replacement I found was starting to rust.....might as well address it before it gets any worse.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I finally picked this up last night. The previous owner wanted to keep a bunch of nickel and dime sh*t from it, so here's how it came home. I have everything so no big deal. I'm going to change a few things, clean it up and run it as is for now.

I finally get to use my valve covers that I bought a few years ago

 

[Bonnewagon]

Holy Cow! What a score! That looks better than what's in my cars now.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Well I hope this one works out for a little while anyway. Ive had nothing but bad luck with used engines and the one ive been trying to build.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I finally got the car rolling and moved to MY garage that's WELL LIT and CLEAN. Maybe I can get something accomplished now. It was miserable working on it where it was being stored.

 

[LIVE4RDO]

Just read 51 pages of this awesome build. I'm hooked now.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

Just read 51 pages of this awesome build. I'm hooked now.

Glad you enjoyed!

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I decided to take a closer look at the 455 I picked up since it looked like the timing cover has had some heat put to it where the 3/8" bolts attach it to the block. From my experience with Pontiac engines, these bolts have a tendency to break. I also noticed that the elastomer in the damper is starting to expand outward. Since I have a cover and a damper I decided to pull them.

This is what's going back on.

After I get the cover off I notice significant galling to the back of it. For some unknown reason, the person that built this decided to weld the free floating fuel pump eccentric together. Luckily I have a spare to correct this. After I swapped the correct eccentric on, I put some grease on it, mocked up my new cover without a gasket and there was ample clearance.

No grease contact on back of cover

The timing chain looks brand new, so that backs up what the previous owner believed about the top end possibly being built. Not to mention, this guy scribed his name everywhere so he must be proud of his work.

Since I already had the intake pulled to replace it with a Performer, I figured I'd make sure there weren't any surprises under the valley cover. There was a surprise for sure! The inside of this engine is spotless! After I deburr some areas of the timing cover I'll reassemble. The question now is do I go repaint it pontiac light metallic blue, or go sleeper with corporate blue like its a 301?

 

[Bonnewagon]

Corporate blue. Only a Pontiac guy would know it's not a 301! Damn, a welded fuel pump eccentric- you think you've seen everything, eh? Maybe he thought it had come apart- and fixed it? Aside from those warts, that's some score you got there Steve. You've earned it!