BBC 489 build

[Craig Nedrow]

I scoured the shop looking for my pushrod length checker, bugger lost it I guess. I made this from 3/8 crs, turned the end to 5/6 and radius with a file. 1/4-20 ready rod, made one two, and one three inches long, and a nut for a lock. Other end bottomed out tight. Worked well. Exhaust need to be 8.9, intake 7.9, called Summit and had to talk to tech as these are non standard. Maddox was very cool dude, has a 70 Chevelle with a 454 and t56, kinda like I am doing with the 64 Nova, so learned some from our 44 minute conservation. Gotta say Summit racing has the happiest people, to talk to. I ordered Manley brand push rods. That is the last of the internal parts. One ARP head bolt had a bad head, so called them and will get it tomorrow, then the head is done on torque. Getting there. If you look closely, you can see where the roller lifter is centered on the valve stem.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Manley push rods, very nice, weigh 73, and 83 grams each. I did not have any interference with rockers to valve cover. All studs torqued 45 ft lbs, guides adjusted, and tightened. Lash is .035 down from 0 backlash, so I went to 7:00 o'clock. Soaked the Johnson lifters B-4 installing. Shot brake clean down each pushrod followed by air. Installed them full of oil. Rainy tomorrow again, so will gasket match the intake manifold tomorrow. More to come....

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Cleaning, painting all the front end accessories. For now, I will use the old system, but may change if those darn vee belts squeal, hate that. Ok for girls though....just sayin'. Here is the engine at end of day.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

port matching. steps: blue and scribe, second pic is hogging out, port on right is complete.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Nice enough today to work on the doner truck, so got the body off. It is remarkably straight, with two good doors. Plan is to completely strip it down, taking lots of pictures. I plan on removing most of the exterior and interior paint, then fix any rust, imperfections. Somebody put three screw holes through the lower back, but easy weld fix. Spray with gray epoxy primer, (boy they don't give that stuff away, Dupont), glide coat, block sand. I will do base coat clear coat at home, just have to buff out the bugs...I will make some temp spray booth, have done this before, it will turn out great. 1st pic is the old cab.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

This truck also has the big brakes as it was a camper special 8200 GVW rating, so will clean, paint, turn and all new brake parts. Really glad to have these big brakes. It sure is nice to have a doner vehicle. Speaking of doner, I am getting one complete ford 9" 59.5 inches wide, complete, and another complete housing minus the third member, so cool. This is going in the Nova, the last piece of the drive train, and will be part of the coil over four bar setup.