Inliners International Forums General Discussion Truck Talk Under Pop's Weeds

Need? Like most of us here it's want. Really, who needs a 50 year old truck motor? I would like to come that way sometime.

Beater, that's an excellent point about the 5 carb manifolds being for the big port heads.

I would think the D chamber would be slightly better, but if you have a head with the round chamber, work with that (it is a truck after all ).

Have the D Chamber head in the hot tank. Will Mag and Pressure test it tomorrow. Check out the new pic's, yanked her out of the graveyard today. Will hit her with a pressure washer tomorrow after work and start tearing the front clip off. Any thing I need to be wary of??? Hidden screws???

Thanks guys, you've been awesome!!

http://s1185.photobucket.com/home/speakfordadead/index

Try to hit all the bolts and nuts with a good penetrating oil. Some of them will just be easier to break but some may be sheet metal clips with nuts that twist. Glad to see your progress.

Pressure washing really brought out the fact that this truck is just about as cherry as they get. A little bit of rust on the bottom of the doors and a ding and tear in each rear fender.... wow!!! What a resto this is going to be.
Does anyone want to tackle the next questions??
I found a set of balanced Venolia pistons. I researched the job number today and called them. These pistons were ordered in 1984 by my pops. They are 4.080 with a .003 tolerance built into the skirt. Isn't 80 thou a pretty steep cut? Am I risking taking out a lot of life out of the block? What is the best cut for deck height? Can I safely cut .060???? I have balanced 7.000 rods to go with the pistons. With a stock 302 crank will I have enough clearance??? I'm planning on opening up the intakes and exhausts and cutting unleaded fuel seats. Is there a source of aftermarket valve guides? Or will stock guides tolerate a .005 ream??? I will have the valves done to go with the cam, but I need to know how much this little sister needs to breath. I am using a big port head but I am not sure how much bigger I can go. Help oh machinest guru's... help!

California Bill Fisher's 1955 GMC speed manual says it is safe to go to 4.125. At .080 you have .045 left for another bore. They actually made 302 pistons up to 4.1875. That is pushing it. You should try to locate a copy of this little book. It has way more 302 info than the '54 edition of the Chevrolet, GMC, & Buick Speed Manual.

Good books...( as I am reading through a first edition copy of Floyd Clymers "How to hop up chevrolet and gmc engines")

I'll keep saying this till someone does it. We need a new GMC Speed Manual! A lot has been done to these engines since 1955. Chrysler rear seals, Hudson rods, V8 valves, new porting techniques. Builders are using HEI ignition, coil packs, fuel injection, superchargers, turbos and much more. Old sources have disappeared and new ones have turned up. This needs to be done while the guys who have continued to develop these engines can contribute. Beater

Learned many things this week. The Head will not pass Mag... need to send it to Oakland, CA to have the exhaust ports welded. I have lot's of 248 and 270 heads but the other 302 heads are buried in a container that is going to take me a few days to get through. If I don't find more 302 heads by Monday I'm gonna take a road trip.
Got the bed off today... My nephew John wanted to learn how to restore a car. He came down Weds. and already has learned how to take off rusty bolts and today learned how to use a cutting torch. Look at him go.... right on John....!!!!!

new pic's
http://s1185.photobucket.com/home/speakfordadead/index

seems to me the above author has good writing skills + hand on tech know how on the jimmy....

Two Cheers for Beater to write a new book!!!

You guys know me. I'm a BSer and a poop stirrer not someone who actually gets stuff done. Besides I don't know near enough about the subject. Thats why I want a book. Beater

Sorry to distract on the thread...

Beater you under estimate yourself

1) you know how to write
2) you have worked on the jimmy so you no stranger to the engine
3) you know a lot of folks who have these
4) you drive a Mac which the publishers prefer (why I don't know but they do)
5) you know how to research material - look where you started with EFI from 0 to being dangerous enough to almost getting the thing running last year.

I can't think of another inliner better suited for the job. Sure you may not have all the tech knowledge - goto talk to Jerry W.

Good job to take on the research part next winter before the folks that have the tech are sadly no longer available to ask. ITS your time to shine. Go do it.

The front clip is off!!!!!!

http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z358/speakfordadead/?action=view¤t=Frontclipisoff008.jpg

More pics and more progress. Went container diving Friday and found some very interesting doo-dads. Five jug intake, full race cam, (which will go to the cam doctor to verify) and many other little heartstopping accessories. Straight eight buick clifford intake. Two more five jugs, nicson big port with three Zeniths. Wow....
Heart stopper....
Not to mention that I am glad I didn't send off the head, Pops said there were more in the honey hole and I stopped looking after I found two big port 302 heads. Pristine condition. AWESOME!!!

Do you live at the end of the rainbow? Where are the pictures of these treasures? Maybe you should just open a GMC museum. Pops is a pack rat with an agenda! Most of us have to search out these parts and hope we can afford them. Thanks to your dad you have to choose which ones not to use. So glad he saved them!

http://s1185.photobucket.com/home/speakfordadead/index

Beater.... it's definately a honey pot, but the shear manpower it takes to get to this stuff is no laughing matter. In order to get back into this container (it's in a c-30 cube that is listing heavily to starboard and is very unsafe at this point, mostly because we have changed the balance point moving all this stuff)I am going to have to rig some sort of stabilizing system and jack the container hard to port for safety reasons. A stack of quick change rearends and a pile of aluminum flywheels taller than me will have to be moved in order to complete the discovery process. The flathead intakes were incredible. Some very rare birds. Hopefully by this weekend we will have this project well underway and I promise to photo as much as I can to keep you all drooling. I'd really like to sell this stuff to people who will use it. I'm not interested in passing it on to swap meet guys who just want to make a buck. This stuff has been away from daylight so long that it deserves to be run.....

JMHO

That is a noble goal. It is tough to find the guys who want it to use it. I've been fooled a few times by guys who told me they were building cars they were going to keep and drive only to watch them use my gifts to make a profit and move on to the next sucker. But you can't take it with you........, can you?

No, you can't take it with you. Pop's is learning that. It was his sick way of leaving me an inheritance. Thanks Pops, I'm having a blast!!!!

My kids won't feel that way. Most of what I have is crap.

Update on the Jimmy project...
The cam was ordered yesterday. The profile is exciting and all Charles could say was "wow" and 'Hmmm". The profile is based on the following factors...
4.080 bore
4.00 stroke
Big port "D" chamber head, slightly ported with light flow work
Buick straight eight rockers at 1.75 lift (stamped not cast)
Stock Milk jugs
Howard intake with five 97 SP topped Strombergs.

After the Crank gets back from grinding it will go for balancing with a 270 "hsrmonic balancer" rods and pistons as well as the totally coolio Schiefer aluminum flywheel I uncovered out of a stack of about 30. My favorite fab guy is removing the Chevy crank pattern and boring the flywheel for the 270 crank that will go into the 302.

This has been the most fun I have had in years. Pop's doodads are cool. And to think that when I first got here the junk guys were just saying that all this stuff was "crap" and needed to be hauled off. They should be ashamed of themselves!!!!

Headlines.... Stupid Newby Makes Gargantuan Mistake!!!!

So I order the Cam right?? Go out to the #5 trailer and locate the Buick rocker shaft. I tear it down and let the parts sit overnight in the hot tank. Run them through the pressure washer and get really excited. Some new bushings and they will be dandy.
Grab the 228 rocker shaft and start sliding on the buick rockers. Just for Mock up mind you, no bushings yet. Make a complete donkey out of myself after i bolt it down. The rockers are too short and won't hit the valves correctly. Gotta call Charles and have him hold up on the cam.
This could get ugly...... stay tuned...

P.S.
Does anyone know of aftermarket rocker arms for the 302 heads? I see alot about cams and valves in the search forums stuff but no one talks about 302 rocker assemblies....


HAYELP!!!!!

I was able to obtain custom built rocker arms from Harlan Sharp for my uber rare crossflow head. I supplied them with blueprints. They selected an in-house aluminum extrusion and machined them to match my particular engine geometry. I would recommend ordering more than one set if possible to spread out their (your) R&D costs over more parts.

The later stock stamped steel/welded rockers are pretty strong and served very well. They are probably not the weakest link. Beater

Frenchtown flyer...

wow.... nice (kn)rockers.... I'm willing to pay for R&D if it will benefit others.... have several heads... hmmm... maybe I could market them... hmmmm

thanks for the suggestion...

P.S. If you ever need another cross flow head I can hook you up..

I was going through some old stuff and found this. How is it coming?

Yeah.... how goes it beater??? check out the post in bench racing.....

I saw that post before this one. Sorry about your dad. We went to Ventura to visit my oldest son for his 29th birthday. Friday we worked on his Harley and Sunday we worked on his El Camino. I'm the Pops here and I love it. I'm sure your Pops felt as I do. Beater

Help your kids understand what you are doing and why. What your goals are and what you want to do with your projects when you are done. I spent the last year of dad's life taking notes. It was nice to be able to share that information with my family. They are all on board.

Do what you can, what feels good to you while respecting your Pop's plans, but don't get bogged down in his dreams. He had a shot at it and did what he could. Some of us gather projects and dreams enough to fill several lifetimes. Believe me we don't expect our loved ones to to spend their lives putting together the pieces we piled up. Pick some really cool stuff that was special to him and assemble it in a way that would make you both smile. That's what I'd want my boys to do. If the rest of it just got back to folks who valued it I'd be happy. That alone will be a major project for you. You have some major cool stuff let it make you happy. Sometimes I don't know if I own the junk or if the junk owns me, but it just sits there and I'm the one who frets.

Why I don't have near that much of a collection, I have enough that my daughters have asked me to start cataloging and estimating value. Sounds morbid I know and I hope to hang around
for another 10-15 years, but it does make sense to do that.

Any updates?