Art & Inspiration Engines: Lying in Wait

Whoa, that's a serious Oldsmobile. How big is it?

 

Doing a little rearranging and trying to make room in my shop to be able to work in it. First is my NOS 302 Jimmy with a McGurk valve cover and a Wayne side cover, then my Jimmy shortblock built by Mike Kirby @ Sissell’s. It’s a XO/BG engine, going to have a ProCharger and a blowthru carb on an PSI tunnel ram intake. Next is a 292 Chevy inline 6 fresh rebuild waiting to go into my favorite vehicle, my 1965 C20 longbed pickup. Hiding behind that is the 327 for my wife’s 65 Chevy II. It just needs pulled apart, cleaned, painted, detailed, and then reassembled. I’m trying for it to look like a 65 Corvette engine got swapped into her Deuce. Pay no attention to the next one…. And finally the 401 Nailhead I picked up last fall.
These are the ones on stands and able to have their school pictures taken, the rest of my hoard (collection!) is hiding in my shed or under my shelf.

 

I've got two that are ready to be bolted into their projects , the blown small block for the 56 gasser and the little 291 Desoto hemi for the model A.

 

Here are a few of mine
37 21 stud ,maybe my T
65 401
63 401 in run stand
66 401
64 425 still in rusted riv outdoors
64 tempest 230 ohc in 34 chev pick up
61 390 hp awaiting a new crankshaft .
Oh doesn't everybody have a few 5 hp motors kicking around LOL
The transmissions are in the shed outside
2 sp 400
2 sp300
And a few toploaders

 

That is a Mondello Olds 455, 40 over, 10:1, H beams, girdle, Edelbrock heads that Mondello flapped open with rollers on top, and a 10 quart pan. Most fun one can have normally aspirated as long as you can afford 8 MPG with your foot out of it. I didn't buy it for fuel economy.

Alot of impressive engines on this thread.

 

Here's a small part of a big assembly that's scattered between two of my garages !
Some guy dropped of a bunch of 392 Chrysler Hemi parts to be finished, but he never brought the missing parts, and I haven't heard from him in all these years. So yeah, I've had about 75% of the engine for about 10 or 11 years, with no contact.
Someone even did a decent job of porting the heads.

I had to dig this out from under my bench for photos...






Mike

 

Every time I see those Buick vertical valves and those crazy rocker arms I can’t help wondering what those engineers were thinking…. And the generator way out there in right field….
But then there is that beautiful Pontiac OHC 6. What a cool engine.

 

Lol…. No contact. Don’t listen to him, we’re BS-ing almost every night and I know exactly where my Hemi is buried, ass deep to a tall injun in motorcycles and parts…. In there somewhere is my blown alcohol 392 that was supposed to go into my ‘40 Willys pickup nostalgia Gasser. That “decent job” of porting on those heads is the handiwork of old Mike VV hisself. There’s already a heap o cash in the unfinished short block, but I got stuck on the valve train. Cam, roller lifters, pushrods and most of all the rockers - yikes, $$$$+. I couldn’t find a set of Donovan exhaust rockers and Titan’s were $3500+. So the project ground to a halt while I prepared to retire.
It’s under the workbench, just not my workbench….lol.

 

I'm not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers here. If you were to add the cost of parts and materials, plus what you consider fair wages for your work, all at the time that you actually built any one of your engines, then add the cost of inflation since then, would you consider that a fair value for that engine? One of the members builds and sells flatheads advertised in the classifieds for $4500. For the quality of his work and materials, I consider that a fair price. Different engines command different prices due to the rarity of parts, I get that. What I don't get is having things that can be used by others that could finance something special that you want for yourself.

 

Uh I have a use for it I'm gonna start up a small block Chevy museum! Because all of a sudden, there are more flathead Ford engines that sbc! And Bitchy Bob, I had to laugh when you talked about the exposed rafters and busted up concrete, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way buddy!! True gritty hot rodding

 

OK I'm in. 454 that needs to be built for my El Camino. I have 781 heads. Going with a .250 dome piston and a comp 280 hydraulic cam. I will add that all donations are accepted towards this project!!! Fenderwell headers, performer rpm intake, big ol honking carburetor, etc...

 

No feathers ruffled here. You'd have to call me a lot of bad things before I'd get too excited.

Besides the things you mentioned, I would have to include something for the increased scarcity of some of them that I have. 392 Hemi's and Flathead Cadillacs aren't as readily available as they were when I acquired the ones I have, and the good straight 8 Buicks aren't found in every shop corner either. The SBC is a different matter, and your method for arriving at fair value would work for me on those.

 

Lloyd, I'll buy you a couple cans of Wal Mart carb cleaner and some Chev orange paint if you'll clean that anchor up!

 

Now we're talking Steve! Hell yeah! Wait.... I'd rather have brake cleaner

 

Lloyd its actually beach city Bob, I called him bitchy Bob at The Hot Rod reunion once and he chased me once around the pits

 

Yeah I know, but bitchy Bob just sounds so much cooler! Shortly after I joined here I sent him a message telling him that I thought his name was bitchy Bob, and I had just figured out that it was beach city Bob. We both laughed, he told me about his career in the header industry, and we became brothers lol

 

I still call @uncleandy 65 unclean Andy lol... I just try to keep myself entertained somehow.

 

Shit...before you know it I'll be Dumpy69

 

I just figured you had a bunch of knots on your head lol

 

Flatheads, Naiheads, old Chevy truck, & guitars? We can be friends.

While you're at it, buy @Lloyd's paint & glass some REAL beer.

 

Just a replacement belly button engine for a model T

 

Model T.......Waiting for me to finish-----the engine and the car

 

Ha, ha, ha.... Lloyd and I had a conversation about that and laughed, seems we both see some handles and our minds decipher them as something else. I always see Unclean Andy too and there's several others that I can't recall right now. I guess it's that brain phenomenon where someone shows you a picture and one person sees one image out front, and another person sees a different image. Or maybe it's just plain old dain bramage....

 

Nothing wrong with bellybuttons, you just have to dress them up a little....

 

Yeah it's brain damage, too much exhaust and paint fumes buddy lol

 

That thing's gonna be a little monster. What head are you going to use?

 

'still have a few "spares"
all Olds, at least one of each, 303, 324, 371 and 394.

 

I've seen some of them in the background on your roadster build thread, definitely eye candy for us Olds guys.

 

That is pure art, I see so many modifications and I'm not versed at all on early 4 bangers. What cylinder head is going on it? Reminds me of the articles I would read as a kid about the signal hill hill climb event.

 

Plenty of cool jewels in this thread.
But I'm a bottom-feeder. Nothing to see here but a greasy mid-60's vintage 283 and a bare 283 block stashed under my workbench. I do have a reground forged 283 crank and enough other pieces to assemble one good engine.
What's it going in? Well, I'd really like to build another roadster.
Someday.