Freshen Up on a 78' GP LJ - Or, What to Do When the TIming Chain goes "Pop"

[pontiacgp]

I guess that knock the engine had wasn't a bearing after all. The crank looks good

and thanks to Mark and Shotgun for educating me about the nylon cam gear

 

[shotgun]

I have a balancer ( 301 specific ) and a new timing set when needed.

Are they 01 (casting number) heads?

 

[MrSony]

I don't know if it matters, but both my Buick engines, 231 V6 and 350 V8 had a nylon cam gear.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Really? I've never come across one, ever. And I've opened up '67-'68-'69-'72-'73-'75-'79-'80 Pontiacs and '68-'70-'74-'79-'83 Buicks. Of course it's likely if any had the plastic gears they probably failed early on and were replaced. I was glad to see in that link a pic of Bob's 301 that he used as his avatar at the 301 Garage. That 60's chrome GM air cleaner is so perfect. They came as chrome valve cover/air cleaner sets on 400's. Vettes had them too. The best one I saved came off a '67 NYPD undercover Firebird. It had a 330hp 400, a Borg Warner 3 speed stick shift, 3:55 rear, and manual steering. Finding the correct element is a chore but it looks so cool.

 

[PartsPile]

While the block is in the shop, decided to get working on that "yeah I'll get to that someday" rust. There wasn't a lot of it on the car (garaged all it'slife) but there was a bit of it bubbling up around the front lip and corners of the hood. And since that had to come off anyway..

You know what they say, for all the rust you can see, there's twice as much you can't. Took a bit of sanding back to find the good metal under there.
.

Filled it with that metal-infused bondo on recommendation of the body shop guys I know at work. Took about 2 coats to fill in the holes (largest were about pea-sized) and two more to get a nice flat surface for repainting. Probably need one final coat and a hit with 120 grit, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, hands are a bit numb from handling that orbital sander all evening.



Now, on the chassis side, rolled it into the driveway and blew the whole thing out with the pressure washer. (Ack! Ghost Grand Prix! It casts no shadow!!!!)



Pulled out all the plastic pieces and gave them a shot of satin black krylon, really freshens the old stuff up. And am slowly working my way around the engine bay, replacing nylon rivets, fasteners and such, the washer and radiator bottles are getting replaced (they were yellowed and cracked/leaking) and any exposed metal lines are getting a wire-brush polish. New battery tray will go in as well, the old one absorbed a bit too much H2SO4 for my liking.....



Now, this is going to be the tough part. I noticed a large rust bubble starting to seep out from behind the decorative trim strip in the driver's rear quarter panel. When I took it off and started sanding, I immediately hit filler..... that whole CORNER is nothing but a wad of old putty, you could chuck a magnet at it and it wouldn't stick. Looks like water in the trunk found a way out through there a while ago, and the previous owner just stuffed the hole.... may have to conscript Dad the fabricator to get some sheet metal in there to fix that. On the plus side, the strip will cover most of it up, so it won't be terribly noticeable if I'm careful. The bumper fillers have been missing since I bought the car (casualties of UV radiation) I have replacements on the way, and the original pot metal trim strips are in the trunk, previous owner saved them when he noticed they were ready to fall off... (factory bumper jack, tire iron and spare are still in there too)

 

[PartsPile]

Okay, off eBay, have new reservoir bottles for both the radiator and windshield washer coming.

Can't seem to find a decent set of NOS valve covers, everyone has dressed up chrome ones, but I'd like to stay stock, I was kind of hoping someone would have a clean set, but they all look about as dirty as mine, so I'll have to wire brush them. Fortunately, NOS style plain steel oil pans are out there... saving me from the labor of having to clean that pitted-out monstrosity.

 

[PartsPile]

New eBay goodies!

Not arrived yet: New flywheel cover for the transmission, old one wasn't there when I bought the car and just never got around to replacing it. Original is on some forgotten garage shelf/mile of roadway, somewhere in the universe....

 

[PartsPile]

Bit of a long line at the machine shop, but that's what I get for bringing them another engine block to work on during summer/fall when it's project car/pulling truck season.

In any event, just got the call today, I can go pick it up.

Wasn't expecting the call, or I would've taken, you know, the truck to work. But they told me we could still make it fit what I had with some clever packing....

Had to go .030 over to true up the cylinders and needed a brand-new crank, the old one had some massive bad wear on the one journal bearing that couldn't be reground, and is probably the culprit for that light knock I was hearing and probably for the balancer breaking too, by putting vibrational strain on it while it was walking around in there....

Lifters and cam were so close to being out-of-spec, we went with new ones.

Had the heads, intake and exhaust manifolds cleaned up as well.

Only thing I'm still missing is a new balancer. My machine shop guy tried a couple sources and though they all list one for a 301, trying to order it only results in a "sorry, don't have them anymore". He said they show up on eBay if I don't mind a used one,( or taking one of you guys up on the offer) but finding a new one may be asking too much for a short-lived engine variant.