My gole was to get it running for the big "Cruzin' the Coast" car cruzin down here. Over 7000 car were entered. I made it, just barely in time. I used the car show at the air force base in biloxi to see how it would do driving that far. It made it. I got a good picture of it at the show. The guy that had the corvette behind my car let me use the 4 girls that come standered with a vet for this picture.

It had a oil leak, but I was carefull to keep filling it up. I was able to do a lot of the week long cruzin. 2 days in to the week I changed the front cover seal, but that didn't compleatly stop it. So after that week the kid and I pulled the pan so I could fix the leak in the oil pan gasket and found this.

So we just pulled the drive line again. I ordered new Keith black pop up pistons and Eagle forged, cap screw rods to replace this.

I ordered them on sat, got them and had them on the rods in 6 days. This sat we had the rods/pistons in the block by noon.

and by the time I quit to get cleaned up I had it on the trans/cradle, with the heads and intake, starter, valve train, oil in it, and lubed.

I hope to get in ready to go back in the car on sunday.

Wow, not a very good add for Summit, do you know what happened?

Joe

YIKES! Judging by the photos, it looks like somehow that rod bolt got tossed up between those two pistons, and tore 'em up.

I ordered the parts sat night, they got to the house on wed. I took them to the machine shop that day, after work, got them back the next day. I thought that was very good for "Free Shipping".
I must have left the extra rod bolt in the short block. I have a big "windage tray" in it that would keep the bolt up in the rotating parts for longer then you would think. I lucked out that the block was ok, and that the piston didn't give up. I did it in the storage shed, with a drop light, on the floor. I think it was 100 degrees or more in the shed. I know I lost one but didn't think it was in the engine. Normaly I use a engine stand. With the V8 adapter on the block I just cheaped out and did it "as-is". This time I made sure I had help, and was very carefull. With the time change I may not get much done untill next weekend. I want to get it to run/drive for the Datona fiero meet. So I have time. The kid asked me to not blow it up untill he bets his running. I would be happy with his not running for a while, we never seam to have both of them running at the same time for very long.The kid just might be able to go to Daytona with his car.

The cradle I used for this swap came from a 85? Gt with the GT exhaust. It had some after market exhaust hangers welded on the the pipes that go to the tips on both sides. They cut down on the jiggles and held it up better. To get the exhaust down so I could get the pan off with the engine in the car I cut the rubber part so I could leave the welds alone. To put it back I drfilled out the rivets and replaced them with 1/4 inch bolts and used some rubber I cut out of a old stock car race tire. Now it is removable with out cutting any thing. But the springs are still a pain.

Years ago i made a timing tab for this set up, but it is up behind the inner fender linner. So I don't have to remove it to time it I made a new one that I can see. I bought a chevy V8 timing tab from autozone. I hammered the end flat, drilled 1/4 inch holes in the engine mount plate to hold it in place. It is fimsy enough that I can just bend it out of the way to put a belt on. Than I drilled a little hole in the edge of the pully to mark it. Now I can time it better.