The Beginning: I finally found a usable engine (but still have no car for it): January 5, 2003...
At this point, I have been searching for an original, non-rebuilt engine for my future project ('67-69 Firebird). I have been searching locally for this engine on and off for three or so years. In what I consider an odd turn of events, I just got my lucky break...
My now ex-wife lives with my 4 year old son, Chandler, near Tacoma, WA, which is about a 12 to 16 hour drive from where I am. Naturally, I have visitation with him every other Christmas, and 2002 was my year to have him for the holidays. The plan was that my current wife and I (yeah, I didn't learn my lesson the first time out) and Chandler were going to Alaska to see her family for Christmas. We decided that we would drive up to Tacoma to pick up Chandler (it was MUCH cheaper to fly to Anchorage from SEATAC than from Sacramento), then fly to AK. On the way back, we would simply fly back to SEATAC, drop off Chandler with his mom, and drive back to Sacramento.
Well, the entire time this plan was brewing, I was scouring the surrounding area for an engine to build up. Actually, I have been searching off and on for about 5 years for an engine that was suitable for my future project. Anyways, being entirely dejected for not being able to find a worthy core in my area, I finally decided to go national with the search. I put a post on Scott's Pontiacs.Org BBS saying that I was looking for a 400 that had never been rebuilt, or at least, wasn't worn beyond it's useful lifespan. A few days passed before I received a response from someone that was somewhat local. Mark Walker was the guy's name and he said that he had an original condition 1970 XH 400 that ran and didn't leak a drop AND that he would sell me the shortblock for $250. We got to talking, and he told me about the motor. It sounded very nice! We discussed that it would be a shame to tear the engine apart, being that it ran and didn't leak, so I decided that I would buy the complete motor (including the '62' casting heads) for $450 (this is where it is handy to have a wife that understands and likes my hobby). It was a great deal, as I had just seen two of these motors sell on E-Bay for $750 and $1000 not too long before this. The kicker of it all was that he lived about 15 miles from my ex!
So, the 19th of December came and we packed up for the drive to WA (I won't go into that whole cluster- f%@!, so I can stay with the topic at hand). We did the vacation, yadda yadda yadda... We came back to WA on the 3rd of January at 5am on a red-eye flight from Anchorage. At this point, I had been up for nearly 24 hours and STILL had to go out to Mark's place to pull the motor. Do you think I felt the lack of sleep? Hell no! I was so excited about the engine... who needs sleep? I will have all the sleep I can take after I die... Anyways, I hung around the ex's place until about noon then left to go get the motor. I made a few stops, and got there at about 1pm (keep in mind that this was in the winter, and it gets dark at 5). I pulled up and there was a gentleman that was Mark's friend (sorry dude, I am horrible with names...). He went in the apartment and got Mark so we could start. Both of them commented on how good of a day it was to pull the engine, as it was the first day in a while that a storm wasn't brewing. Hell, the sun was even shining...
As soon as we started, we had a problem. We had no hoist. I must have driven around Puyallup for a good half an hour looking for a place that could rent me a hoist. I finally found one and returned to Mark's place so we could get started. It seemed like it only took an hour to get the engine out, and after sending Mark's friend out on a couple of runs for various odds and ends, the job was done without incident, all before the sun set.
There it was, my new baby. Now, I had about 750 pounds of ballast for my long drive through the mountains to California. Check out the pages I have documenting my tear down and build up to see what is happening with this beast. I didn't take too many pics of the tear-down (sorry...), but I promise I will do a much better job of documenting the build-up...
March 18, 2003...
Well, yesterday was my birthday. The big 2-6. Yippee skippy! I think I celebrated it in a decent fashion... by taking the 400 down to Clay and Paquette's Engine Machine Shop. They have quite a reputation for being a great shop, and their service is unbeatable. This shop is one of many in the area, but they seem to be, by far, more capable than the rest. This is only the first of a few machine shop trips, of course. The purpose of this trip is to have it 'burned' (their term for having all of the crud removed by sticking it in an oven and baking it off), hot tanked, and magnafluxed. The hot tanking actually doesn't look like it does too much from seeing some samples in the shop, but I guess it is useful for dissolving gunk in the passageways... The magnafluxing, of course, will tell me if there are any cracks in the block that will render it useless. I can't wait for the thing to be done! It should look like this, which, if you have seen my other pics, is a vast improvement. We will see...
March 31, 2003...
Okie dokie, I FINALLY got my block back from the machine shop. It looks damn near as good as the clean block I found pics of online. I called them and wondered what the status was after they had it for two weeks (which I thought was plenty for a hot-tank, thermal cleaning, and magnaflux...) and they said that they had finished it that morning. Unfortunately, I couldn't pick it up until the next day because of my schedule (working in the military and going to school full-time). That was just enough time for some minor surface flash rust to form on the block. It isn't bad though... I will post some pics of it after I get the roll of film developed (yeah, I still use film... I prefer it to digital, even though you have to pay for film and developing...). The only thing I couldn't understand is why the block wasn't oiled and bagged. I told them that it would be a while before it was to be built because I would have to save up some cash, but it wasn't bagged until I arrived to pick it up. Oh well, I brought it home and took the bag off and gave it a bath of WD-40 because it didn't look like they covered it well enough the first time. It looks pretty damn good though... If only I had the cash to build it, and the car to put it in... Then I would really be having some fun... On a positive note, the magnaflux results were negative. WOOHOOO!! No cracks... That made my day.
Pictures of the block, post-cleaning and magnaflux, are posted (as of 28 April 2003) and can be viewed here.
May 4, 2003...
Well, I decided to break the seal on my bagged up motor today. I had bathed it in WD-40 before bagging it up to store until I could get the cash to start with the machine work and build-up. I took it out of the bag and thought that since I don't have the cash to build it, I might as well break out the die grinder and take care of some of the casting flash in the lifter valley. I will post before and after pics as soon as I have the roll developed... And of course, I gave it another bath, and rebagged it, so it could sit for another month or more...
Pictures of the casting flash on my block before removal are posted (as of 19 May 2003) and can be viewed here.
Pictures of the block after casting flash removal are posted and can be viewed here.