Installing the new motor and transmission (and burning it up and getting it back.)

(07/07/01) I got started by getting into the job and testing the lacquer thinner for freshness. It was great.

Then I painted the exhaust manifolds before the buzz wore off. (Just kidding.)

We had a tiny spot of trouble with the bellhousing. Nothing that a little JB Weld couldn't fix. The reason this happened is that the 168-tooth flexplate would not allow the torque converter to seat. We couldn't figure out why, so we just grabbed a spare 153-tooth unit from the parts heap and slapped it (and a starter) in.

Then everything bolted up just fine and we were ready to drop it in.

So we did just that. It went in fairly smoothly and bolted up ok, except for some problems with the exhaust crossover pipe. (Tony chose to keep the stock manifolds and single exhaust.) So we cobbled up a crossover out of flex pipe and will have that re-done at a muffler shop.

And after a little bit of connection, persuasion and coercion, it began to look like a real motor.

While we were at it, I installed a set of gauges so that Tony would have some sort of idea what the motor was doing.

The next thing that had to be done was to convert the Powerglide column shift to work with a TH350.

Click here to see how that was done.

(07/11/01) I had to adapt the throttle rod linkage to work with the Edelbrock 1406 carb and do a few other things and then it was time for a test drive.

Oops!!! This doesn't look very good.

This doesn't either. It's the modulator valve for the transmission. It got ejected just as it hit 2nd gear, followed closely by all the ATF, which is that big ol' stripe in the road in the picture above.

This doesn't look a lot better. It's the vacuum modulator that controls when the transmission upshifts at part throttle. It also got ejected when the shift happened.

I found out that it had been incorrectly installed and the retainer was not holding the retaining ring in place. Oops again.

After that was repaired we noticed that there was a little bit of noise coming from the motor. We checked a lot of stuff, valve lash, brackets, pumps, even the fuel pump pushrod. All the time the noise kept getting worse...to the point of being a genuine knock. So we bit the bullet and pulled the motor again.

(07/13/01) Here's what we found. The #4 rod bearing had gotten some sort of metallic contamination into it and was basically toast. It also ate the crankshaft journal. Major Bummer.

So by 4:30 Friday (the 13th) afternoon, we had a new crankshaft, bearings and a gasket set. We spent that evening swabbing the decks of the garage to get rid of the mess we'd made and to prepare for the next day's marathon.

(07/14/01) Here's what we started with at 9:30 Saturday morning. Basically a bare block and a bunch of parts.

And after breaking a ring and having to re-hone the cylinder we got all the pistons in their holes and the motor was assembled by 4:30 or so.

And by 10:00 pm we had the motor and transmission installed (with new ignition wires) and running. We had to re-adjust the valve lash and deal with a couple of small leaks and a broken vacuum line the next day, but it FINALLY made it back onto its own feet.

Tony and Desiree were rather happy to be able to take their own car home with them...and I can't tell ya how happy I was to see it out of the garage. :)

There will probably be more to come, but this is the stopping point for now. I think we may want to work on cosmetics a little as the next phase of the project.

I wish I could say that they lived happily ever after, but it seems that an important lesson was learned. Like how important it is to keep water and oil in the motor. In September 01, I bought the car back from Tony. It seems to have serious problems with the motor... possibly a cracked head or block, since water and steam were spewing out the exhaust when I brought it to my house. I sold this car to a lady in New Jersey at the same time as the 74 Nova, Usunuvabitch.

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