Thread: I couldn't build it for $3 K either!

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Henry,

When I started this thread I really didn't know if I had anything to add that was interesting. I'm pleased that some folks are enjoying it. Thanks.

Mike

By the way, those Henry Rifles are pretty cool pieces. I passed on a good repro a few years ago, wish I hadn't now though. The dollar/euro exchange rate has really pushed the prices up.

My g.g.grandfather was a private in the 7th Illinois during the civil war. Much of the 7th bought Henrys with their own money. That's where my interest - and screen name came from. I have no direct proof that he carried a Henry. (The gun you could load on Sunday and shoot all week)

Originally Posted by PatMonaco

Hey Don...where was that picture taken? Kennywood?

Yep, sure was. Bet you've been there a few times too Pat. Is it still the cool amusement park it was?

BTW Mike, I really look forward to every update you are doing on your rod. Thanks to you, JRobinson, Bobby, and all the others taking the time to snap pictures so we all can enjoy the builds.

Don

Don...by the way, I forgot to commend you on the beautiful rod you put together. One gorgeous piece of art!

As far as Kennywood.... I'm 60 years old. I haven't been there in almost 40 years. I just checked their website and it looks like they are alive and well.

http://www.kennywood.com/

Hope you and your family have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving.

Pat

Hello everybody!

I sure am glad the old forum is back!

I've been getting some work done, but not too much writing. I had this quick update done before the crash and I'll try to get more done in the next few days.

Even though I'm still quite a ways from needing it, I've been thinking more seriously about the engine. I hate to wait to the last minute since machine shops around here sometimes take awhile.

Now, I'm a consumate pack rat and will take any free Chevy V8 engine that I can get my hands on. I had a few older engines that were good canidates, but I was really hopeing to go with a one-piece rear main and maybe a roller cam. I had 2 one-piece seal engines but only one was machined for a roller cam. It was pulled from an '89 1 ton, but I didn't know anything else about it.

The deeper I got the worse it looked. It was bored .040 over and the crank was turned .010 under on the rods and mains. It was obviously a cheapie rebuild as it had a mix and match set of rods. There were 2 stamped #8, 1 #5 and 1 #3, but none were in the right place. The rest were not numbered at all. It had a cam lobe worn down nearly round and had spit out a pushrod, that wound up chewed up in the oil pan! This engine had been rode hard and put up wet!!

The heads were the "swirl port" type typical of TBI truck motors. I gave them to a friend who needed a set for his son's truck. They were probably the most valuable thing on the whole engine and that ain't sayin' much!

A trip the machine shop confirmed what I already suspected. The block was too thin for any more overbore. The crank was salvagable with a regrind and the rods would need resizing. Pretty much a load of junk. At least it was free junk.

So I took a little road trip to some local salvage yards to see what I could come up with before tearing into one of the older engines I had. I wanted a later model engine because the new stuff seals so much better against oil leaks than the older engines. The motor in this car is going to be out in the open and I wanted it to stay clean. The roller cam and better heads are obviously a big plus too.

On my last stop I found a complete '99 Vortec 350. The yard had it in the "core" engine area and I had to take it "as is". Now I usually don't gamble, but I crossed my fingers and paid my money.

Turned out to be a pretty good gamble. It had a blown head gasket between cylinders 3 and 5 and looked like it had been run that way a long time. The block and crank appeared to be perfect,though. The cylinders still had faint honing marks visible and the piston skirts had no wear at all! I spent a good hour with my micrometers carefully measuring everything. The bores had less than .001 wear! The crank is on the high side of standard. One head looked great, but the head with the bad gasket didn't.

I made another trip to the machine shop for a second opinion. The suspect head was cracked pretty bad in #3 chamber, but everything else was good. So good in fact that, after consulting with the machine shop owner, I'm just going to re-ring it and run it. With a little cam change it should make my goal of 270-300 HP with ease and still be pretty tame.

I was able to trade the Vortec injection unit and exhaust manifolds (which I had no use for) back to the same yard I got the engine from for another Vortec head.

I should wind up with less than a grand in the ready to run long block, even with the cam change and I don't think that's too bad for a Vortec based engine. I might could have gotten by cheaper with one of the older engines I already had, but I doubt it. Anything I had would have needed boring and that work adds up fast. Mark this one up to dumb luck!

Looks like you found you a good engine there. I'm running exactly the same motor (mine came out of a boat) and I really like it. Fires right up, makes good HP, and gets 20 MPG .

Your horsetrading in getting a replacement head was pretty smart too. Glad to see your thread back to life.

Don

Great find. Some times being lucky is just as important as being good. It sounds like you have both.

Glad to see an update!

Good is always followed by Lucky...

Yeah, it's good to be back!

Funny how I missed posting updates. CHR has become the place I go even if I only have a few minutes on the computer.

I lurk on some others, but this is usually the only board I post on. It's pretty laid back around here and I like that.

Mike

After getting the ball rolling on the engine, it was time to get back on the body. As I said earlier in the thread, I'm trying to get the interior unit ready to glue in.

One area that had been nagging at me was the door alignment. I had the hinge area fixed, but the latch side of the body was sprung out at the top. This caused a 1/2" gap at the bottom of the door.

I first thought about tying the left and right sides of the body together with a "bulkhead" piece. I thought I could just line everything up and glass it in. It didn't work out like I wanted. There isn't a lot of room under the seat and I just ran out of room. Plus, it made the interior unit almost impossible to get into the body.

What I finally came up with was an adjustable brace that ran from the door frame down to a bracket on the floor. The bracket is bolted through the floor to the trans crossmember. The long piece in the pics is sandwiched between 2 pieces of wood with bolts and then those pieces are glued and fiberglassed to the door frame. The "brace" is a just a turnbuckle. This gives me the ability to adjust the door alignment in the future. It also makes the body very solid. You can shake the whole car with no flex in the door frame. I'm happy with it now.

Very clever solution! I assume it's all hidden when the interior is in place?

Thanks J.R.

Yep, it's hidden under the seat.

Mike

That is a smart way to do it. I remember a T that Car Craft built in the '60's as a project. They bolted a piece of angle iron up the door jam with a bent leg in it that fastened to the floor, to accomplish what you have done here. Your idea gives you some fine tuning as time goes on.

Don

Don

If that's the car that had coil springs front and rear, I have that build-up in an old Hot Rod annual somewhere. I didn't remember the door brace.

Of course that doesn't surprise me at all.

Mike

Since some of us missed this thread, how about an overal pic of the car. I would like to get a peek.