1971 Firebird455 - Project

[LeighP]

It wouldn't work with the bar as sold by PTFB....they may be able to get you a narrower bent bar. The bar is very dependant on the width between the spring lower plates. I had to trim the bushings in the bolt on lower mounts slightly to fit my car...if your springs are moved in 2", then you'd definately need a custom bent bar.

[LeighP]

Good day today....went and picked up my new Honeycomb wheels from my importer, then headed down and had the tyres fitted and balanced.
They look really cool. Not the lightest wheels and tyres I've ever seen, though.





17" x 9" - zero offset with 255/50ZR17 Nitto Invo tyres.
Guess I'm the first one in Australia with these new Year One wheels....cool stuff. Pity it'll be a while before the car is done....

[rohrt]

Those look really nice. They have to be lighter then the original steel honeycombs.

[LeighP]

lol...I'm not sure...the original Hneycombs are really heavy...steel with all that urethane molded on them, but these are no lightweight wheels....I really knew about after lifting the shipping boxes and the built wheels around, lol.
Then again, the cast 17 x 9 and 17x8's that I had on my old T/A were surprisingly heavy as well......maybe its the nature of cast larger diameter wheels? I'd hate to see cast wheels in 20"....you'd need two people to fit them.

[LeighP]

Well, picked up the engine and we got it all set up on the build stand in my friend's workshop...going to start the test assembly as soon as he has a day off that lines up with mine.

Well, the guy who was welding up the pieces of my new radiator shroud finally finished it off. Picked it up this morning and finished off fitting the fan pack and checking it all fits with the radiator in etc and in the car.
Works pretty well, the fan pack bolts on its factory mounting points, just had to trim a couple of little pieces of plastic here and there...fits nicely.
When finished, the radiator and shroud will all be painted satin black as is the rest of the engine bay.

[Doug1]

Looking good! I'd have to polish that aluminum rather than paint it. lol

[LeighP]

lol...thought about it, but the only polished alloy I want under the hood is the valve covers.

[LeighP]

Finally at the stage where we can start on the engine.....today we got into mock assembly to check bearing clearances, ring end gaps etc.
Already found that we have to space the 3/4 factory windage tray a little off the billet main caps as the sides just interfer a little with the ARP nuts on the main studs.
Have to grab some plasticene to double check the clearance on the oil pan...looks OK, but its worth checking.
Things are looking good so far.

Here's my mate, the master Pontiac engine guru....we're assembling and setting it up in his workshop.


Crank and new billet main caps....


Factory windage tray....I drilled some extra drainback holes and chamfered the edges, cleaned up any raised burrs around the unit, then had a couple of small cracks welded up and the tray re-inforced where they tend to crack.


Won't have a chance to get back to it till next week, but hopefully we can finish the mock up by then and strip it, clean it and start putting it together for good....

[LeighP]

Met up at my friend's workshop again today to finish off the mock-up build on the engine.
Was able to get everything set up and checked. The piston the valve clearance was fine and we measured up for new pushrods (factory 455 ones were too short).
Luckily, the size we needed was in stock at a big supplier of parts near me, so we took a drive over there and picked up a set of Comp 5/16" pushrods 9.2" long. They printed a perfect pattern on the valve stem end with the 1.65:1 Magnum roller tip rockers when we got back to the workshop.

Next week, its strip down, hotwash and clean everything then start the real assembly.





Was going to use a Milodon gear drive set up that I picked up off a fellow Pontiac guy I know....2nd hand, but wasn't in his engine for long (he likes to try different things)....but being as it had already been fitted, two of the locating holes in the plate that are used for guiding the drilling of two holes into the block had been opened up for their finished size...meant we couldn't use the holes as guides for drilling my block woithout having someone machine up a set of bushes to press fit into the holes with the correct drill size in the middle.
I didn't want to wait, so I picked up a Rollmaster twin row roller timing set instead.

I'll get those bushes made up for the Milodon gear drive at some stage so if I ever want to use it on another engine, I can.

[Lycan]

This gonna be a very nice Firebird, you have a very high standard on the work. Keep up the good work!!!

[LeighP]

Thanks....wish my budget was higher...so much trick gear out there, so little money....lol.

[Lycan]

I am in the same boat as you, the parts are very expensive here in Sweden. The price is more than double as high than in the US.

[LeighP]

Yeah, though its gotten better recently as the US dollar has dropped against the Australian dollar....I'm actually getting much more US money for my Aussie money, and I import nearly all my parts myself...thats another big cost saver....not having to pay for someone elses profit and overheads for importing parts.

[LeighP]

FINAL ASSEMBLY....wahoo! :grin:

Stripped the engine down from the partial "mock-up" build this morning.....took it outside on the stand and hit it with degreaser, then a hot water and detergent scrub down....blow it all off and had a final check that everything looked good. Back into the workshop....

Prepped the cam and slid it in, then set up the main studs and bearings ready for the crank.



After we set up the BOP Viton rear main seal as per BOP Engineerings instructions (you have to follow them exactly), we dropped the crank in and then we lubed and torqued the main studs to spec (ARP's spec, not factory).



My friend stripped down the Mellings Select oil pump for an inspection and clean...really was pretty good, but he cleaned off a little burr or two.
Heres where we ran into todays problem.....I'm running a Canton Road Race oil pan and it required use of the correct Canton pickup....which I already had.
Went to fit it up only to find it has a manufacturing fault...the pipe on the pick up has been welded in at a slight angle (should be parallel to the pickup body we think), which means the pickup will not fit onto the pump correctly.
I'll be calling Canton in the morning to get another one...ASAP. See what they say about it.

[gearbanger]

There may not be anything wrong with that pickup. You need the pickup to be parallel front to back and sideways with the bottom of the pan. The pontiac oil pump bottom is not so you can really compare it to the pickup. You need to install it and get a look at it in relation to the pan and get it within about 3/8" from the bottom of the pan if you possibly can. That's really all that matters.

[LeighP]

Thats the problem, you can't install the pickup....it doesn't fit. We tried it on two different correct Pontiac Mellings pumps. You can't get the angle right to push the tube into the pump body as the bracket is then off from where it bolts to the end plate on the pump....if the bracket is aligned with the location of the end plate bolt hole, then the tube is at an angle and can't slide into the pump. The Canton pickup is not adjustable....it bolts in one position and its designed only for their Road Race model pan. Correctly bolted onto the pump, the pickup is pre-positioned at the right location and depth.
The two of us have looked at it, we made up a positioning jig and located it into the sump to better get an idea of how it sits.....its just wrong.
I've ordered a fast delivery of another pickup from Summit. Canton are looking at pics I've sent and they'll email me, but I can't wait for their email reply.....just hope the next one is right. No one else running this pan/pickup combo has reported a problem, my bet is its a one off manufacturing error with the tube.

[cobragt]

Must have made it on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning.

Thats the problem, you can't install the pickup....it doesn't fit. We tried it on two different correct Pontiac Mellings pumps. You can't get the angle right to push the tube into the pump body as the bracket is then off from where it bolts to the end plate on the pump....if the bracket is aligned with the location of the end plate bolt hole, then the tube is at an angle and can't slide into the pump. The Canton pickup is not adjustable....it bolts in one position and its designed only for their Road Race model pan. Correctly bolted onto the pump, the pickup is pre-positioned at the right location and depth.
The two of us have looked at it, we made up a positioning jig and located it into the sump to better get an idea of how it sits.....its just wrong.
I've ordered a fast delivery of another pickup from Summit. Canton are looking at pics I've sent and they'll email me, but I can't wait for their email reply.....just hope the next one is right. No one else running this pan/pickup combo has reported a problem, my bet is its a one off manufacturing error with the tube.

[LeighP]

lol...or maybe after a couple of cold brewskies at lunch....

[gkeeper]

HI, looks good!
i just dont understand the thing withe the motor brackets,
i understand that ull use the chevy clamshell inserts, but with the pontiac mounts? or chevy? the chevy mounts will fit a pontiac block? why to trim off the small metal flanges?

thank you

[Bad Bird]

Hi Leigh,

I love that you're doing a PT car over here. It's rare to see them!

I'm just up from you (in Newcastle) and I've started a new PT project - a '71 454 Corvette. Should be fun!