Stella is offically a project......

[Bishop73]

Well, I've been driving Stella (my '70 Chevelle) for a little over a year now. I bought her from a like minded (pro touring) individual who had actually done all of the suspension, brake, trans, gauges, dash, and top end of the motor.

She is now a project rather than a driver. I drove her to work a couple months ago and had an engine problem that day. Some horrible knocking, terrible rotation of the crank, so I shut her down and got her towed home. She's been sitting in the garage since then, waiting for me to take care of her.

Yesterday some friends stopped by to start tearing her down, and did we ever. We weren't able to yank the motor without taking off the front clip, which is what we planned. So now instead of just having the motor out to get repaired, I've got the clip off so I'll do some cleaning and painting. I will do something with the firewall, this one has to go. I really want to keep driving her so I'm torn, with her down this far should I get the few bits of bodywork done and painted? Or just hammer out the motor and keep driving? Guess time will tell.

Current setup is a 454 (thought to be 468) and a TKO 600. Depending on how bad the motor is, we think the crank is broken, but I haven't got into the bottom yet to be sure. I'll likely do a 496 stroker, if it's completely thrashed then maybe I'll go LS.

Anyway, what's a project thread without pics?

Surgery Prep.



Keep the clip, remove the clip?



Off with her clip!!



Home owners association loves me!



She looks so naked.



Almost there...





Cry....



All big blocks blow a little oil.....



Speaking of oil.



And my biggest helper, my 11 year old was knee deep in the tear down and loved it! Says he wants to be a mechanic now!



More pics and info coming soon, would love to hear others thoughts on the best way to go about a 496 build as well as cleaning the firewall up. Should I get paint and body done, thoughts??

[CruizinKev]

nice man! good luck with the project!

[MonzaRacer]

Hey if you want decent parts for rotating assembly give this place a look see, great parts, great prices: http://www.ohiocrank.com/chevbb_rotate.html.
I have several of these kits out, never had anything break and even had one guy have major blower/NOS explosion, lifted the heads and all never hurt bottom end at all.
hope you can smooth out the firewall, freshen up the engine, get her driving again, no need for msjor blow out UNLESS you want to blow out the car and redo it.
Honestly if its a driver, work over the firewall, go through the engine, make your wiring and plumbing right, get it together and drive and enjoy.
Too many people break ,then blow it apart when its already a great driver, it simply had a part failure.
Your car is what I call an 80% driver, it was taken to that "its drivable" stage, and it look good. Take a little time to fix under issues, get a good solid engine build going, while your "fixing". Then get a put together party and stuff it back together. AND DRIVE.
Detail is everything, making it SEMA ready,I wouldnt.
I would say your going to spend at least $2000-$3000 plus your labor, changing to another engine, making big changes in this economy, I JUST DONT SEE DOING A BIG PROJECT RIGHT NOW.
Lets fix engine, finish the engine compartment and drive it.
Lee Abel
AFTERMARKET PERFORMANCE

[SamHatco]

Don't you just love what the PO did to the firewall? Looks like the BFH was at work. Good luck with the project.

Sam

[Bishop73]

I like the way you think Monza. ;). Pretty sure I'll rebuild the motor and clean up the firewall. Thanks for the link, I'll be sure to check them out. It was a facepalm moment when I noticed the "metal work" on the firewall.

[LeighP]

Yep, I agree....tidy up the firewall while you have the room to work, rebuild the existing BBC and slot it all back together and drive it. Car looks pretty good as it is.

[mc84_zz4]

My choice for cleaning up the firewall; is drill and wire brush, every now and then; clean the brush with gas.
It will tear thru layers of crud the best IMO.
After that: wipedown with paint-prep or similar degreaser, several times, scuff with 3m red pads on areas you cannot get with the drill.
For paint, I highly recommend Eastwoods Chasis black www.eastwoods.com , does not need a primer, has great coverage, and they spray fantastic, very forgiving paint too.
BTW, they have a newer chasis black paint that is also resistant to brake fluid.

Frame/engine bay cleanup pics:
http://www.motortopia.com/album/view...engineswap_ch1

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

you dun fuched up now..

[scherp69]

Cry....

Hmmmm......looks like a good candidate for a nice smoothed firewall.

[70ssracer]

what made you think you had to remove the front clip to pull the m/t? I didn't have to on my old 71 and was just curious as what made you do it. After all you really need to do something with that firewall since the clip is off, you'll regret it later if you don't. gl on the new setup

[MonzaRacer]

Honestly for the low buck fix, get a decent size piece of sheet metal or aluminum, cut it to fit firewall, find some good stainless fasteners, order up a Marsen Poly nut kit, make the smooth plate fit use the poly nuts and fit that in place and bolt it down.
Unless you want to weld stuff in.

[Bishop73]

Honestly for the low buck fix, get a decent size piece of sheet metal or aluminum, cut it to fit firewall, find some good stainless fasteners, order up a Marsen Poly nut kit, make the smooth plate fit use the poly nuts and fit that in place and bolt it down.
Unless you want to weld stuff in.

This is the type of thing I was planning, welding something would be great but I think I can live without that. We pulled the clip because the guys helping me didn't think we could get the motor out in my garage with the picker we had, I'm actually glad we did.

On a side note I got the motor down to bare heads and the oil pan off. The crank is in fact broken but everything else seems to be fine at first glance. Hopefully I'll get it completely tore down by this weekend and off to a machine shop. Thank you so much for that link Monza, some great prices on there. I'm thinking now of going a bit bigger if possible, in the 500 range.

[Bishop73]

Time for an update!! As of this past Saturday she is complete and running!! Well, she's put back together with only a few changes, are they ever complete??

Anyway, on with some pics and a short video!

Preparing to go back in:



She's in:





New seats:



And rear!!



New steering wheel as well:



The vid will have to wait, it's still uploading. As you can see I didn't do much with the firewall, kept procrastinating it and just ran out of time. Oh well, she's not built for beauty. ;)

[Bishop73]

Ok, here's a short video of her idling. She now has a 496 stroker with all forged parts (hopefully no more breakage!)

[Motown 454]

It sounds sweet!

[LeighP]

I agree...that is music to my ears.

[CruizinKev]

oh yeah sounds sweet!!!

[joerob727]

Sweet vid Robert. All around great car.

Looking for wheels/tires for my 69. What size are you running? They look like 17s and they fill out your wells nicely.

Thanks.

[Bishop73]

Sweet vid Robert. All around great car.

Looking for wheels/tires for my 69. What size are you running? They look like 17s and they fill out your wells nicely.

Thanks.

Thank you! The wheels are 17 front and 18 rear, I don't know the width or BS as they were on the car when I bought it. Those are the next thing I'd like to replace, although I'll likely just paint/powdercoat the centers.

[wellmaintained]

very nice indeed!