FE 1957 - Breton Blue/Teal Blue - 327, T700, modified chassis - original body

[NES304]

Stinky don't do it for me 

[fe350chev]

Me neither  . The new title does do it for me, but its gunna be a 4 speed now, T700 trans. Ummm, Maybe it should read "Deano's FE with Hot grey, maybe hot red, maybe stock 327, maybe stroked 327 with a new crank and alloy small chamber heads, maybe a 2j toyota, maybe a 1uz....". Na, I want old school look I have decided. I want a period V8 that would have been a likely option for a young bloke that wanted to do it up in the early to mid 70's, so looks like I am definitely sticking with the 327, perhaps with better heads or injection so your pretty safe there boys to change the trans and it should be about right.

[fe350chev]

I want a bit of a vote, who thinks I should do it original colours in 2k or that other blue/grey colour from the suzuki. They are the options I have narrowed it down to.

[fe350chev]

forgot to show uze this for my hot tanks etc.

[fe350chev]

Okey dokey, today I finished the tear down on the 327. The whole engine I have been able to identify, except I cannot ID the cam so I am assuming it could have been different in the kit assembled cars here.

It has a forged early 67 GMT 4577 crank, the head is a single camel hump 22 December 1966 Canadian with the smaller valves, perfect for torque with a bit of very mild porting and enlarged intake valve to 1.8.  The Canadian block had original gm pistons, some marked with a 9 and some with a 10. I don't think they are .10 oversize because that is the size of the bore but haven't had a chance to check properly, but the block was made in February 1967. This motor was probably one of the earlier ones made at McKinnons and the heads were probably the same they already made for the Studebaker. The factory 750 carb with the 3905793 intake four barrel manifold would have been over carbved for this applicat, especially with those heads. Flat top pustons, The rod are C2 corvette forged rods.
 
I am very pleased that the crankshaft has been knife edged and drilled heavily for balancing and the bearings are standards on both big end and mains.

so basically its a virgin original engine which is kind of cool. I have a really good idea if what I am wanting to achieve with the build now.

It would be appreciated if someone could identify the cam, which may have been from oz. It has j30 and number 2944 on it. At the very front it has a single number 3 and the other end at the back it has a '&' symbol wtf

[Old_Mt_Isa_Boy]

I think I know what WTF stands for   

That's about it though, the rest is certainly techo. Cannot believe your attention to detail. Its great.

Regards Wayne b

[fe350chev]

Ha, the distributor was made on the same day as engine was cast Wayne, this gm stuff is amazing the way one can track everything down, so I would day its with a 275 or a 300 horsepower cam. its more of a torque motor for sure. I would like to measure the lift of the cam lobes tomoz to see if its a 30/30 cam. A high lift cam .450 to .470 and longer duration only on the exhaust port due to my intention to dedicate it to lpg (and I wanna raise the comp from 10:1 to 10:5 to one) this should allow better cylinder filling for the less dense lpg. This head, although not for high revs, which is not what I am after, I want take off and torque cos ill be running 15" wheels and 3.08 gearing, with the very small runners it has, combined with the low first gear of the t700 trans, especially in a light car, should be a great runner for my application. I would like to run a twin injection type intake plenum but I'd rather modify the bonnet with 2 old school square filters on top of 2 mixers, perhaps 300cfm each. Still racking my brain how to keep it looking minimal and still get a cold air intake.

[fe350chev]

Well folks. More good news. Originally I thought the bores at first sight were worn but turns out are virgin.

[fe350chev]

So, where are we up to. Dennis is a legend, he did an awesome job of the spot welding for the lip on the sills. The sills, doglegs, floors, patches in rear, chassis kit, front crossmembers, gearbox mount, and subframe strengthening and repairs are all complete. 

[JB]

So where are the photos then?

[fe350chev]

Been too busy with the taxi, just a quick update. I will take some early next week as I think the kids and missus have plans to go somewhere tomoz and want me to go. I wanna do decent pics with it flipped

[fe350chev]

Right, finally I got around to getting all the approvals and all the stars aligned to start on the new shed. I ran outa light to take more pics, but I dig all the trenches today and spread about 11 cubic metres of dust today. Will take some more progress pics. Havent had time to put up progress pics of FE but the FC is getting more attention ATM.

[fe350chev]

[fe350chev]

The chrome was too bad to polish up on many bits of the FE  pit pits and more bloody pits. So I have started restoring them while watching telly, probably and good way to attack this part, slow and steady bit by bit until my chrome chest is empty and all the chrome is stored ready to go on ey!

[fe350chev]

[fe350chev]

Not sure how to go about this, whether to chrome plate just the mount, cos why draw attention to a booster, I think I would rather booster be baby bum smooth like the car firewall and continue a plated gold or chrome theme from inside the car to some components outside.

[pedro]

You must be getting excited about the shed Deano, looks like it's going to be a decent size.
  Pedro

[FCRB26]

Gold plating .

You gone loco essay.

[fe350chev]

Yeah Pedster, it's not really big enough but will do for now. It will be 18.3 long, by 7.6 wide and 3.2 or some crap high, slab is fairly strong being 500 wide and 500 deep trenches at the business end and 300mm by 500mm deep all round (and c entre trench) with overall thickness of 125mm. So will easily suit a hoist   in future. The advantage of me digging and doing the cutting and filling myself is that I can use that money saved into putting in extra concrete  . I am not even Greek heritage but you would think so ey!  

I recently did a demolition job where a bunch of greek market gardeners made a school playground and it was more solid than a WW2 bunker and the foundation buggered up my bushes in the excavator trying to knock the walls over.

Anywho, I am so pleased with how the floor has turned out. Now just about to tack in some speaker stuff and am thinking about the design of the fuel system for the straight gas setup. Thinking of a concealed filler cos of gas ones being considerable smaller etc. Also thinking of how I am gunna spruce up the chassis kit.

[fe350chev]

Pete, the local Maccas kids like a bid 'o' bling mudda 

Another thing Ive been working on is my potato rust solution extraction system, using its oxalic acid potential. This is a very good way of removing rust for more delicate items such as fuel lines and their protective shrouds (for removal purposes) or longer things that normal acids would stuff up. Its also useful for removing unsightly concrete rust stains. (Just cut a potato, smear / rub into stained concrete (cut face) with salt sprinked on as u go, dip in white vinegar and rub in again, etc repeating process for stubborn concrete rust). For long items per 4l of water mixture, i have found that if you put say 4 litres (trial quantity before filling with straight water to check capacity) in a long narrow pvc tube with one end capped and a screw cap other end, pre mix half cup golden syrup, with hot water (hot water speeds up any chemical process for metal stripping of rust  ), then add 2 tablespoons of the cheapest washing powder you can find, then cut up 4 small potatoes into four equal pieces (shape of potato chips) and skewer them at spacings of say 1 foot apart, which is a formula that will work with any potato type and any length. If you have a 6 foot length of rod or tube to do, add mixture first into pipe on its end, put 2 potato pieces at the bottom, skewer the other pieces onto it so you get equal concentration along the rusted part and before screwing the end onto the pipe with the completely submersed part, put 2 pieces of potato on at other end and then close it up with screw cap. Depending on the rust, check in about a week, this method will happen very quickly only after a given time of a week, usually the most work will be done after the reaction has occurred after 6 days. best to leave in warm sun to speed up process. All you do is flush item and brush it off when its done, blow off immediately and then hit it with crc or rust protection solution (preferably the paint prep stuff).


Electrolysis is not very easy on long things due to the size of the anode required, otherwise I wouldn't bother with this. This method is per 4l of water. If you can be bothered, better results can be achieved by adding a cup per 4l of white vinegar to the mix at the end of 6 days for 24 hrs prior to opening, but not necessary, but this etches the surface better for paining.

Anyway, Have a look how this nearly 50 year old manifold came up. I am so bloody happy cos there was so much water in this manifold I was worried it might have been etched by rust to buggery, but it had a good amount of blowby oil deposit too   , anyway I am not quite happy with that bit of stubborn rust so a day in my back yard electrolysis tank using mild methods (not acid) will get rid of that bit what is left. I think I will store this, its so good and the heads cos all matching numbers. I will file the gasket flange by hand.