I came by my Chevrolet Orange preference honestly and at an early age. My first '57 was barely 8 years old when I bought it to drive to high school. The new engine was of course Orange. My '48 Ford pickup got an Orange 350. My '32 Ford had an Orange 350. By the time I bought a Chevy pickup the motors were all black and you could hardly see the block anyway. A buddy brought me a fresh 350 for my wife's '79 Malibu, it was rebuilder black. Didn't take long to make it Orange. It took me a long time to get used to the street rodders painting everything body color. My greatest appreciation is seeing a nice '40 Ford and raising the hood and finding a 327 that looks like it was taken out of a new 1966 Impala. Painted valve covers and satin black air cleaner. No bling, just understated detail.
The way I look at it is, the guy is willing to paint it for me at no extra charge, so I am happy with that! Now, getting back on topic... I am waiting to hear from him this week so I can pick up my engine and FINALLY get it installed. Looking forward to the new setup.
**UPDATE** Picking engine up tomorrow as far as I know. Guy said it would be complete and ready to go by afternoon, so I am looking forward to this!! Next thing I have to do is come up with $$$ to pay for installation. Let y'all know how it goes
Well shoot!! They got everything together and found that the oil pan had some leaks, so they had to braze them. Then they had to mill the intake for some reason. He said the good news is that it will be ready to go tomorrow, because he is closed all week next week. So I will have it tomorrow for sure! YAY!!!
Got engine back, not as impressed as I had thought. They removed the old oil filter canister setup and said they were imstalling upgraded oil filter screw on type. But there is NOTHING there! So now I guess I got to buy the upgrade kit and install it myself or reinstall the old canaster setup (I have all the parts just not the gasket. Anyway, he also did not install the valve cover gaskets or distributor, and apparently he lost the bolts that bolt the coil to the intake manifold. So Idk, I'm gonna find what ever else is missing and replace it as I go. I just hope I have enough time to install and make sure she runs good because I have to leave here the last week of July to go get my tags renewed. I'm TRYING to stay positive about all this, key word TRYING!!
Are you referring to the missing plug wires when you say distributor not installed? In the photos I see he marked TDC on the dampener and has the mark lined up with TDC on the timing tab. The distributor has the clamp in place, but that may only be snugged down and not tight. Take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor is just before the position I noted on your photo for the no. 1 plug wire. If the rotor is in that position it is as the factory did it at assembly. If not, no matter, just put no. 1 where the rotor points and continue on clockwise with the wires. He may have left the valve cover gaskets off because the lifters are not adjusted. Remove a cover and check that there is no lash (clearance) between the rocker arms and valve stems. Also, he has put the fuel pump plate on the block, is the fuel pump push rod in there? You will want that push rod on the heel of the lobe when installing the pump. See that 3/8-16 hole on the front of the block that intersects with the fuel pump rod? Using a bolt long enough to hold the push rod up against the cam lobe just tighten it (even finger tight should do it) and after you get the pump on remove that bolt and put a short one in that hole to prevent a leak. Before you rotate the crank be sure to check your rotor position and mark it on the cap if you don’t have plug wires yet.
I installed the dizzy and had to reach down inside to turn the oil pump shaft to line it up tdc. I forgot to check the fuel pump pushrod, will do that tomorrow. I have no plug wiresor new plugs as of yet. (That's not an issue) What I was referring was the carb not installed and setup, dizzy, coil, valve covers, and the oil filter adapter kit which we discussed multiple times, so I don't know how or why this stuff wasn't done. But anyway, I did a finger tight job on the lock down for dizzy and coil, found the bolts for valve covers and did some of the stuff that I saw. I will get it together, I just wish it was done like he said he was going to.. I think the biggest thing be the oil filter adapter kit and the distributor/ carb. Otherwise I guess I'll be learning more as I go
Thinking I will get the gasket and updated oil filter kit myself, that way I don't have to screw around trying to find old type filter at each oil change. Also, in looking at the paint job, it seems like a spray bomb job, not what I was expecting! I'll take care of that later. I just hope the oil pan doesnt leak, since he said they found leaks and had to braze it, I dont think i trust this guy as much now. Might just snag a pan at salvage yard to be safe. Other than that, I look forward to getting it installed and running finally.
Picked up water pump today, also found a shop that rebuilds carburetors. I'm thinking of having this one rebuilt and then installing them both on the engine. I hope to have the engine installed soon, I want to know that it runs well and no issues before I try to make the road trip back home. Anyway, as I said I will keep you all updated as best I can with this and as soon as I am able to I will share the trial runs with the newly rebuilt 283. I still check this and appreciate all the advice and comments, all are welcome. Thanks
Found a local "ol' timer" garage that quoted me a rebuild price for my rochester 2jet. $160. I'm not sure if this is high or low for carb work, but he is the only one locally who even knows what a rochester is and willing to rebuild it and get it back to me the same day. My thoughts.. Is it worth rebuilding? Are these hard to rebuild? Is this something that I can do with a rebuild kit myself? Thanks in advance
At that price, I would want references - way too cheap! Sometimes one can pay too little for a service. As to your questions: "Is it worth rebuilding?" - Probably "Are these hard to rebuild?" - No "Is this something that I can do with a rebuild kit myself?" - Probably Jon
**UPDATE** Well, I finally got my motor mounts today, and I plan to install them tomorrow. Still waiting on my flywheel to arrive, but in the meantime I figure I'll get everything setup and ready for when that does get here. I was able to install the bell housing on my sm420, and it mated up nice to the 283, very pleased with that. I found a local shop who deals with ONLY antique, vintage, classic, American vehicles and will be taking truck to him when ready to get exhaust fabricated. (Decided to go with dual setup) Checklist as of now. water pump (check) motor mounts (check) sbc starter (pending) flywheel (pending) dual exhaust (pending) carburetor (check) temp sending unit (check) oil sending unit (pending) clutch assembly (check) So far so good, wanted to let you all know that I didn't forget about ya. Been busy trying to get this finished so I can get back home before fall. Anyway, as soon as it stops raining I will post more pics and update what I have done thus far. Thanks for following my progress, I hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe/healthy through this pandemic and unrest. Be well everybody. p.s. some recent pics...
WOW! Sweet looking setup! I only just saw this, for some reason I did not receive any notifications of a new post to my thread. Anyway, Appreciate the post, it looks good. Mine is almost complete, a few parts to get and then should be ready to finalize the install and get back to driving.