My 26T Coupe build thread

[Bob Parmenter]

Tomato sauce on the intake is the worst................probably too acidic..........

[Jack F]

Eat off of it HEdoubleL, that thing is pretty enough to make love to.

Jack.

[stovens]

Now Jack you can love your engine, just NOT LOVE your engine!

[roadster32]

I knew there was something odd about Jack !!!

Now Jack you can love your engine, just NOT LOVE your engine!

[roadster32]

I didn't think i had taken any pics of the heads but found these on my I phone so excuse the quality.



What I started with, pretty crusty !!!













After blending & fettling















With a coat of rattle can primer to see how they look



















The heads have had a lot of work comprising of a full port and polish of the ports, chambers & valve throats, Also the pushrod holes have been opened up to 5/8" for the thicker pushrods and bigger valves fitted with uprated valve springs and teflon stem seals.

The AIR ports have been drilled and blocked off with NPT pipe plugs to avoid tubelence.

[lamin8r]

I knew there was something odd about Jack !!!

Definitely sumthin about these Washington folk...hmmm

[roadster32]

Rockit asked about photos of the porting, I took these but its difficult to photo.
















I dummied the heads & intake in place to check stuff and came across a couple of small problems to solve, firstly when the intake bolts are tightened down the washers bite into the paint This obviously don't look very nice so i made up some stepped washers in stainless, they still bite into the paint but now you can't see it














Next thing to address was the vacuum can on the dizzy, Its just zinc plated and will discolour quickly, beats me why MSD don't finish it better as the dizzy is nicely finished. I had a aluminium cover from Dickster but for some reason the MSD can is a bigger diameter so it didn't fit, sparked the lathe up and made one and blacked out the other bits.








I also spun up a back finishing ring to finish it off.








The rear heater connection on a Cadillac comes out the rear of the head (quicker warm up) only problem was that its straight and would foul my firewall, The easy fix was to tap the hole deeper with a 1" NPT tap (luckily i had one as I wouldn't want to buy one these days) and add a 90 degree hose fitting, I gave it a little polish t remove the blue anodising.












Next little problem was the head bolts, I like to usually cover the heads with flathead chrome acorn nut covers but the Cadillac bolts are much bigger, the solution was easy 5/8" stainless acorn nuts bored out with a 55/64" drill gave them a snug tap fit over the heads, a bit of silicone will make sure they stay put.










Next job is to paint the heads & the adaptor plates, probabley gonna be white like the block etc but i'm wondering about flaking them ??? We will see.







Thanks for looking

[stovens]

Steve you put the C back in Custom! Nice little touches that just add to a "Made By Steve Custom." Sad thing is, people are gonna think you bought all the stuff ready made, not realizing it is all homemade custom parts. Love this thread!

[stovens]

I do actually have a question for once. How are you going to paint the space between the heads and the intake manifold? I found that I left it clean to get a good seal when I put my engine together then wonders how to finish it off without getting paint all over everything!

[roadster32]

Steve i already get people asking where did you buy that from

Steve you put the C back in Custom! Nice little touches that just add to a "Made By Steve Custom." Sad thing is, people are gonna think you bought all the stuff ready made, not realizing it is all homemade custom parts. Love this thread!

[roadster32]

I just mask off the gasket surfaces Steve.

I do actually have a question for once. How are you going to paint the space between the heads and the intake manifold? I found that I left it clean to get a good seal when I put my engine together then wonders how to finish it off without getting paint all over everything!

[Dave Severson]

Nice work Steve!!!! People get so hung up looking for the right 'bolt on' that they really limit themselves on the things they can put into a build.

[falconvan]

Great attention to detail, Steve!

[rspears]

Just went back through the latest pictures & words and have to say those stepped washers are super cool. I did not pick up on the way they sit initially, but like you say they still bite into the paint, but it's hidden by the overhanging step, which, by the way, is polished to a high luster... Great solution, and great execution. Like Steve Stovens said, I need to shop for a metal lathe!!

[Whiplash23T]

Absolutely brilliant work again Steve and your problem solving skills is outstanding and too the highest degree.