Plenty of relief from the rain. Its snowing now! Sum bishes. But really I'm OK. My buddy has water approaching his back door. Like I didnt even know the river could get this high close. We party in his yard and there is at least 3 acres of grass. We got it easy compared to Grand Rapids. Thankful for what I have not what I dont.

 

The Lingenfelter Camaro conversion TransAm is my favorite by far. I've seen the both and the Lingenfelter version is based on the 70 1/2 to 73 trans Am and it looks amazing! I do hope the next generation Camaro is a 2nd gen look alike but I sincerely doubt it!

My wife works at the GM tech center and hasn't heard anything about the Chevelle being resurrected. I agree, it would have to live up to it's name.

 

I saw the Lingenfelter cars. The black Smokey and the bandit car and a white with blue striped car. Both were works of art.

 

Any tips for getting the original ball joints outta the control arms? Still got the rivets/pins and I can't seem to figure out how to get a grinder to them. Not enough room. What a mess getting the old bushings removed, with fire of course. Think I'll be smelling that burned rubber for the next week not to mention the junk all over my hands! Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Before...

 

After...


I'm really diggin' the dark shots of the exhaust runner/bowl when I just had the LED work light on them. Got one head done now, just have to finish cleaning it up and this 327 is going together this weekend! Can't believe I'm saying this, but it's supposed to be almost 70 here this weekend. Hallelujah!

 

He didnt even bring the exhaust to the F in scribe line. What a turd. I now understand after the exhaust side. The intake still didnt look so bad but the rush was seen in the exhaust for sure. The valve guids arent even shaped the same port to port.

You did a great job fixing them up.

 

Appreciate that very much. I tell you what, as I spent several hours finishing the job it just made me more upset that I actually paid someone to do the work that I had already started, and subsequently had to finish anyway! Glad (but not glad) you saw what I saw and have been complaining about so much. The one guide boss has/had a great big flat spot on it, but I got it fixed as much as possible. I pretty much stayed away from the intakes, just a little hit with 80 grit to get rid of some of the actual burrs hangin' there still. I got the exhaust ports opened up to where they should've been (thanks for seconding the obvious scribe lines) and got rid of the leftover roughness. They are as shiny as my new intake now. The chambers look a ton better and this head can be put back together now. Not going to rush at this point but I'm on a mission to get the other head done (got the nack down now) and reassembled by Saturday morning so I can get this engine assembled by early next week. Decided to strip the paint on the block (again) and paint the same color as the body so that'll take some time along with swapping a new oil pan and timing cover (again.) Probably not a realistic goal as I still need to clean up the intake as well. I realize it's not supposed to be smooth but you can't swipe your finger inside the runner without embedding some aluminum slivers in it. With the warmer weather finally headed this way next week (yeah, it's snowing right now) I'm more than ready to spend some quality time in the garage making some good progress. Can't wait to post some pics of the engine finally together!!

 

Another day, another dilemma! I'm wondering if anyone could share some of their "crank knowledge" with me? Actually, I'll expand that question to "crank snout knowledge?" Apparently, most harmonic balancer installation tools designed for use in SBC engines have a 7/16" threaded end to be installed into the crank snout. With that being stated, MY crank has a 3/8" threaded snout! Should've known when things started going together so smoothly that I'd run into a problem. Another issue I'm facing is the snout threads don't seem to go very deep. I can only get about 4-5 turns on a 3/8 bolt and I'm pretty confident that will not be anywhere near enough to use a balancer installer. So, my question is regarding the typicality of a 3/8 snout? It's a '68 327 with stock crank. It sure doesn't look like it, but I'm wondering if there isn't a bolt broke off inside the snout that needs to come outta there. Just don't want to start messing around at this point! It's becoming more apparent that I'm going to need to do some drilling/tapping for a 7/16 center bolt and to be able to use this installer. Think I'll try to get a pic to post if that's possible so as to solicit some opinions.

 

I doubt a bolt could break off and the remaining bolt pull out and not strip the last threads. More than likely it's full of crrud, or just not drilled and tapped deep enough. It should thread in close to an inch. Cranks are actually pretty soft and can be drilled and tapped easily. Since the center bolt doesn't have to be a perfectly centered hole, it's easy to drill it deeper, or drill it larger and deeper, then tap it. I think my '69 327 was also a 3/8 NF hole, so if you just wanted to go deeper and tap it, I think it would be best. That way if you encounter a problem you can always go larger later.
I'd try running a smaller 1/4" hole in the center first, just to see if you hit crud in there, or solid metal. It should want to center itself, and all you need to do is keep the drill level and straight. Then you can gradually work up to the bit size you need to tap from.