Today was a good day, while I didnt have any boxes waiting for me when I got home, I was able to finally get an engine! I've had a bunch of deals fall thru in the last couple weeks. I decided I wasnt going to bed tonight till I had an engine in the driveway. So here we have what I think is a '65 230ci 6 banger. I havent run the numbers as of yet, had to give it a bath first. I will run them tonight and confirm when I know for sure. It came out of a 65 GMC pickup with a 3 on the tree behind it. Yet another ran when parked motor. I was able to turn it over, good sign! I didnt have a battery or any gas to try to light it off with, so I took a leap of faith on it. I know it needs a valve cover gasket and side cover gaskets, she leaks a bit. I'm going to clean it up a bit more and paint it up. Heres some pics, before and after
Well, my month old baby girl stopped breathing on me last night, took an unexpected ride in an ambulance and now after a very long night at the hospital, shes doing just fine. We are still at the hospital, hope we can go home later today. This lil girl is trying to kill me already!
Glad your little one is doing better! Family and health are the most important things, with out those you've got nothing. Look after the little one and then come back to the car, it will wait as will we for more updates when you get back to it. Ken
Thanks for the well wishes. I got my baby Izabelle all wrapped up in my arms and we are hamb'in it up at the hospital
Well, just to give an update, My lil girl is out of the hospital. They cant find anything wrong with her, so I guess we just wait and see for now. My family would like to thank everyone for the well wishes. So back to work........I hit the engine with so super trucker degreaser and gave it a bath. After it dried, gave it a good coat or 2 with OMG thats orange paint. It looks pretty good so far. I also gave the T5 tranny a scrub down with the degreaser and then hit it with the acid bath, It cleaned up really well for being totally black with grease and goo. Waiting on a speedway clutch disc and the xmember still aint showed up. So after those show, I will bolt it all together and slide it into its new home. After its where its going to live, I can measure for a driveline and get it ordered. I'm planning on making it run and drive, then start on my gambino stuff. Heres some pics for ya to enjoy.......
Well, just a lil update. The bellhousing I planned on using dont fit, of course it dont, why would it? The original clutch disc I bought does fit, so I dont need the $80 disc from speedway that I already bought, so I guess I will send it back. I yanked the nose off for a trial fit of the motor and trans, began to slide it in and the bolt I had in the chain broke, Dropping the engine onto my left hand with a full head of steam. Well as you can guess, that really pissed me off to have my hand caught between a 250 and a 54 chev. So with superhuman angry hillbilly stregth, I lifted the engine off my hand and said a whole bunch of nasty words while jumping around like a crazed maniac. The broken bolt looks like it will be a giant pain in the ass to remove, yay! The motor mount kit dont look like its going to work, it hits the drag link in the steering. I'm still waiting for the T5 xmember, so it might all work out yet. I knew the stock xmemeber wouldnt work with the T5, but I just had to see the motor in the rails. Now that I've dropped the engine, I scratched the piss out of my purdy orange paintjob, damn it!
I would really like to work on my car today, but its memorial weekend, and of course its raining. Between storms, I yanked the motor and trans back out, split the tranny off again and changed to the correct bellhousing, Thanks to Jared(sweet70beast) for hooking me up with the right stuff. I think I got the right combo now to make it all work right. I'm still working on cutting the tranny xmember out to make room for the HRW T5 xmember, that still aint shown up yet. I killed my last sawzall blade, so I'm going to have to wait till tuesday to get some of those to finish the xmember removal. The frame mount on the motor mount kit aint going to work, So I'm going to call Chassis Engineering on tuesday and see if I can get the proper frame mounts. For future ref, The chassis engineering 41-48 250 kit wont bolt right into a 54 chev like I was told. The engine side of the kit will be perfect, frame side not so much. Some simple mods may be in order to make it work right and still look good doing it. If I end up modding the frame side, I will take lots of pics for ya'all. So now to an update on my mashed hand, I'm pretty sure its broken, its very swollen and painful, black and blue as well. I've got a electrical tape cast on it for now, cant afford to visit a dr to tell me what I already know, that takes money away from my kids and my car. I guess that 12 years as a combat medic will come in handy if I can find my medic pack in the shed. I did fix the problem so it wont happen again, shorter grade 8 bolts with a big thick washer tightned down against the chain should help. I know it goes without saying, but double check your pulling points and use proper hardware and equipment. It only takes a second for things to go very wrong and you get very hurt. When you work alone like I do most of the time, something like this could have been alot worse. Be safe everyone, cant drive em if your dead.
Quick update, The rain stopped for a bit, so I dug around the toolbox and found a sawzall blade. I finally got the xmember out! Now comes the task of drilling out the rivets and preparing the frame for the new xmember. More pictures to come......
Subscribed. Love to see the progress. Exactly 19 days from now I'm gonna be able to dig into my 54 chevy. Stoked man! I'm doing the taildragger kit with bags as well. Gotta get that mofo on the road to drive it home! Enough about me tho, hope your baby and your hand are well. -D
sorry to hear about your hand,but then agian if it was'nt there ,you'd have alot more scratched paint to fix
Ok, I've offically had enough of the bad weather and rain. So I sent some shop time modding the motor mounts. I was going to call chassis engineering, but I figured it would be just as easy to mod them to work. Heres some pics for ya'all to enjoy. The break down goes like this, cut apart as close to the bracket as I could, grind smooth, remove braces, grind smooth, tack in place level with bracket and eyeball it for center, weld-r-up, fit to frame and grind to fit properly, prime and paint.
I had a giant box waiting for me today, it was the HRW T5 xmember kit. I couldnt just stare at it, so under the car I went to remove rivets and drill holes, Its a very very nice piece, bolted right in just like it should. I figured why stop there, just as well slide the engine and tranny in. The motor mounts proved to just be wrong even after being modded. I had to drill new holes in the engine side of the mount kit, they were not even close to working right, But they are now. So I need to pull it back out and trim up the engine side of the mount so it looks right and clean, but the motor is mounted! looking like I will be running an electric fan, its a tight fit for length. I even cut the hole for the shifter out, just dimpled the floor on all 4 corners of the shift tower from under the car, whipped out the cutoff grinder and connected the dots. Of course I had to sit in it and run it thru the gears a time or 10, It should be very comfortable to drive and shift like it is. Shifter has plenty of room from the dash to the seat, no issues there. Heres some pics......
I havent got much done the last 2 days, workin late. I did finish installing the drivers side dropped upright and steering arm finally. Still waiting on some bag plates from Gambinos, they should be here any day now. My buddy Jarod is on vacation for a couple weeks, so the wiring wont be done till he gets back. I'm going to attempt to figure out the clutch linkage till then, measure the driveshaft and get that ordered up. Working with some other hambers for some more lil parts to get the car closer to complete. I've decided to shave all the chrome except for the beltline, so Its all for sale if anyone needs it. I will post it up as soon as its all removed. I think I'm going to change the flywheel and pressure plate to the 10 1/2" clutch instead of the S-10 itty bitty one. I'm sure the 250 hooked to a T5 with 272:1 gears wont be to rough on a clutch, but no sense in doing it half assed. I want to clean up the engine mounts anyway to look a bit cleaner instead of redrilled. I think I will load the car up and haul it down to my truck shop to weld the frame mounts in now that I know it all fits and will clear everything. Then im going to wash all the years of grease and grime off and prep the frame for paint. My weekend will be spent working on the chop on billyrocka's 50 fleetline, He should be posting a whole bunch of pics on his thread about that. Keep the comments coming hambers, keep me working on this thing!
"Keep the comments coming hambers, keep me working on this thing!" The fact that you have packages coming from Gambino should be motivation enough! Looking good bro, stay after it!<!-- / message -->
Well the weather here has been off and on, so I havent got much done. I did do some swapping this past weekend, traded the stock uprights for some 60's 3 outlet lake pipes. Good score, very clean pieces that have only been used for show. I gotta give them some love to get a shine on them, I will post some pics up when I clean em up
I got my lake pipes today, they are only single outlet though, not the triples I thought they were. They are still nice pieces, the real deal from the late 50's or early 60's. They came off an old custom that used to run around back in the "day". Couldn't get much history on the donor car, but they will once again be going on a custom car. I also scored an old peddle car today, its a modern repop. Im going to slam it and paint it up for my new baby girl, suede black with pink flames outa do nicely. The weather here is still shit, so I aint getting much done. Hoping it clears up soon so I can get back to work. Anyone got a 50" GM driveshaft they wanna sell?
dude I so need to follow ur leed, I just got a 54 and a 327 and tranny and starting on the bags and frame work. I just posted a thread about a rearend , I need some advise what to use?? hit me up.
Hey skip, I posted my advice on your thread. Feel free to ask any questions and I would be happy to offer my info or opinion. Didnt get much done again this weekend. Busy with the family and it rained on my only free day, go figure! I need a shop or at least a garage!
Quick update, Scored a driveshaft from a customer I haul for today. Came out of and oldsmobile cutlass before it got crushed. Its the perfect length, diameter and it fit the tranny and rear end like it was meant for it. Its a smaller diameter, so I may get lucky as far as the driveline tunnel after its bagged......
Well the weather has cleared up, so I got something done today. I started marking out the rear wheel wells and trunk floor for removal. Got out the grinder and the sawzall and went to work. Got one side cut out and fitted the notch into place. Got an idea of its fit, so I went and welded it all up. I'm planning on wrapping the floor up tomorrow and getting the notch welded in. Heres some pictures.....
The Jalopy Journal
