Just a little background here. I have been forced to drive my very well worn 70 chevelle as a daily driver. Drive to Work is about 40 miles a day. Well, the engine proved to just too worn out to make the drive any longer. I had 406 small block with a pretty good cam just sitting on the stand waiting for the day for me to get around to it. Well , now , on with the fun lessons learned. first, double check those valves. Wont run good with valves too tight. give yourself more time, it will take more time than you would like to admit! if the headers are glowing after ya break the cam in, Dont panic, just advance the timing. Get the ignition into the cylinders. just always remember, the trans is probably just as bad as the engine. So dont make jokes that the trans is next to go. that engine that you just installed probably makes twice the power and will make short of a well worn trans. So , most importantly , dont tell everyone that this engine swap is in the best interest of reliablity I spent a weekend on this and I made it to work one day!! later, jeff
I ***ume from your description that the engine is installed and running now? Not sure how built up that 406 is, but my guess is that at 40 miles/day, your gas bill will also be more than it was. A piece of advice for those with fresh engines, prime the oil system first, or at least spin the engine over to build oil pressure with the spark plugs out before you fire it up. New engines should not be fired up without having the oil pump ready to make pressure. Hope your trans was not a big problem to get fixed to match the new engine.
Yes , the new engine runs, and run it does. I figured that I didnt have much to lose in the gas milage, the old engine had a flat cam and was just plain worn out. I agree about the prime the oil system, you wouldnt want to hurt your new engine. I havnt yet fixed the trans. I am checking what I can afford.
oO! oO! I have one! Don't go through all the work of dropping your motor back in and lining it all up, bolting it to the transmission, then finally realize you left out the throwout bearing for the clutch. Good times...
Yeah, DO NOT drop a nut all the way to the oil pan AFTER the engine is in place and bolted in on a car/truck that you can't get the oil pan off with said engine bolted in. TING!
Ever hear the sound of a 4bbl carb that was only slapped on hand tight? I have, sounds like "BZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!" A feller at the drag strip pulled off the staging lanes to check under his hood, I felt like rubber neckin so I asked him what was up. He tells me it's running like **** and thinks he has an exhaust leak on the headers of his SBC. He fires it back up and I could see the heads flappin and rattlin, bangin against the block with each combustion. He never tightened the head bolts. I never saw that before in my life. I wouldn't think it could even run but he drove it to the strip that way!
Hey just a litttle update. I put in a fresh junk yard trans (free) and plan on putting on many miles! It shifts great, I just have to live with the lack of vac***e. The 406 has the perfect daily driver hot rod idle , which affects the power brakes and the trans shifting.
I put a cam in a low-milage SBC a few years ago. When I put the motor in the car, and fired it up, it would idle fair, but any higher RPM's and it would pop out the intake and exhaust, and start running hot. I had it running for a bit trying to figure out what was going on, and it was spitting so much fire out the exhaust that the cast iron exhaust manifold were starting to glow red. We starting thinking about what it was doing, and the only thing that made complete sense was that the cam was timed wrong. I pulled the front off the motor, and the marks were lined up correctly. Well, I read a bit about cams in the mean time, and found out that eldebrock cams are 180 degree off of some stock chevy cams. So instead of having the timing gears mark to mark, they were supposed to be both marks up. Put it back in right, got it running, and all was good. By then, it was dark out, near midnight.. I broke that cam in good making a bunch of runs down the holler with no hood. It was quite a difference from the 200ci v-6 that was in it...
Ouch, I made the same transmission mistake as well. But I went one better. I pulled out a tired-as-hell straight six, and bolted a mildly built 350 to the 6-cyl spec turbo 350. Trans lasted 3 whole days before becoming undriveable. A 350 out of a chevy C-10 fixed that problem after having to borrow buddies cars for two weeks to get to work.
yeeeeah - remove 283, install punchy 350, drive one week, destroy tired old powerglide, spend next month rebuilding and installing 200-4r
I got only one day. I hope to some day put in an overdrive trans. gave away a 700-r4 when I moved, thought I needed the room, now I need the trans. jeff
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