62 Falcon - $5k challenge, how will it rise from the ranger's ashes?

[BBR]

These blocks don't crack in half, the mains get ripped out the bottom.

Mike continued, "T/A performance makes the block girdle that just about eliminates the problem with the main webbing stiffness, but that's not a cure-all for it. We've seen some blocks split right up through the oil hole, right up the cam journal, even with the girdle."

hee hee

Get to work John! The clock is a tickin!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Apparently, Buick engineers were very concerned about oil drain back and keeping the cam and lifters oiled, or was it a "lightweight" thing?

Save weight - no one at GM expect grandma to want a 2000+ hp Buick.

correct, they rip the other way. (longetudially, rather then vertically).

Plus they have a bonus problem - the lifter bores will break apart where they hang in space if you use a high-lift roller cam.

the solution is a TA performance block.... I like Mike a lot, but I also sometimes thinks he overstates the problem with the Buick blocks.... keep in mind these little beasties had 600 hp and 500 lb torque with very few mods from the factory.... fragile they are not they tend to blow apart at high (more than 6500) rpms and you drive over the crank.

[TheSilverBuick]

hee hee

Get to work John! The clock is a tickin!

Yeah, there's probably two Buick blocks out there in the world that have split like that.

[RAIV70Judge]

or a Hemi of early Chrysler fame......

[RAIV70Judge]

What I meant to do was quote you John, you know,....no towers means early Hemi with Hilborn and fender exits, straight axle and.....well...you know the rest....ha

[Theyoungpadiwan1991]

ive read every page of this thread, it took two hours but well worth it... i need to come up with matt on a weekend and dive in headfirst!!!!

[milner351]

Thanks! - it's been and will be an adventure. Now if I could finish the other stuff hanging over my head and get back to it!

[milner351]

Got a few things done last night - adjusted the mustang core support so the falcon hood will line up with the fenders.
Note to self - for jobs like this - use the cut-off wheel, the plasma cutter leaves edges that are very difficult to butt weld! The side we cut with the grinder welded back up no sweat, the other side took a lot of messing around, and it needs a bit more.... no pic of the bad side, sorry.
Also got the trunk cleaned out and the old fuel tank ready to pull out.

[STINEY]

Nice work! Did that piece just "oil-can" down into place or did it have to be heavily persuaded?

[RAIV70Judge]

Lookin buddy! I'm working on getting up there soon.

[milner351]

Both sides went down with a few well placed taps of the ball-peen, didn't take much. The driver's side I didn't cut the top, and we used a grinding wheel to cut the line shown in the bottom picture instead of the plasma cut out shown in the pic. The plasma made a mess of the passenger side - lots of grind / weld passes to fill in holes etc. Learned my lesson on that one. Driver side went much smoother, one pass of repeated spot welds, grind, done.

If the hood doesn't fit right now - we can shim the fenders!


I've been looking into the trunk trying to figure out the best place to cut for the minitub.

[TheSilverBuick]

Funny you should mention the plasma cutter versus cutting wheel. I just watched an episode of Muscle Car this weekend where they were replacing a floor pan and the guy specifically said he was going to use a cut off wheel instead of a plasma cutter because it won't leave any slag behind to screw with the weld.

[pintoboy77]

Looking good John keep up the good work.

[milner351]

Started the assembly of the short block last night.

The main bearing clearances and the first rod bearing I measured are coming in on the high side of the tolerance range, I will probably run 10w40 or 20w50 if the oil pressure gets low at hot idle.

My old adjustable ring compressor wasn't getting the job done so I stopped before breaking a ring or piston.... I've borrowed a couple compressors from Fordman and another friend at work - hopefully one of them will work right with these short skirt pistons.

The rods have SPS rod bolts - think I'm safe using ARP torque spec of 35ftlb with moly, or should I try to measure stretch with a mic?
.006-.0065 is the ARP stretch spec.

Speedtalk has some SPS specs, .0055 - .0065 stretch - at only 23 - 26 ftlb.... hmmmmm

[Russell]

The first 302 I put together I was on the wrong page in the book and used the wrong spec on the rod bolts. Not sure what killed that motor but it is knocking real bad.