The time has come... 440 freshen for B-body

Small update... dang it's already been almost a month but not much progress to report :???:

I had to convince my cousin a couple weeks ago NOT to tear back apart this 440 which is 80% finished simply so he could "get a feel" for building engines. He's the type of person who is always coming up with grand ideas that seem perfect in his mind but they end up being far from it LOL. I'm having trouble getting him to stick to a set plan on at least getting this car mechanically back together and then working on all the small cosmetic details which he obsesses over. Example: he recently spray-painted some engine bolts purple so they would accent the engine nicely and go with the color of the car. But they were the super-weak Grade 3 or whatever bolts and the paint scrapes off easily when you wrench on it... DUH stop wasting time dude! :violent1: He's just kind of throwing ideas all over the place and doesn't get how to prioritize work when building a car and he doesn't like taking my advice without a lot of arguing because in his mind he wants it to be "his" car.

So after that we're now (kinda) moving along again. Another issue, he doesn't understand the saying "you get what you pay for" and he keeps trying to buy the cheapest parts he can find on Ebay and such. Now we've been waiting weeks for the engine paint and harmonic damper to come in because he thought he was saving money by not using Summit Racing like we usually do; guess he's slowly learning the hard way. He ordered a distributor cap off Ebay and lo and behold, it's exactly the same as the cheap parts-store ones with the shitty aluminum contacts that blow out after a few months running a high-output ignition system like his Mallory HyFire. Could've asked me first but then I would have made him spend more money on a quality product! :banghead:

At this point the long block is assembled and primered on the outside as we wait for the paint to arrive. I lubed and installed the camshaft but not the lifters/valvetrain yet because I want to still rotate the engine to set the static ignition advance. Yesterday I went to the shop by myself (cousin is out of town for spring break) and mocked up the k-member to the engine and mounts. I also hacked out the 8 3/4" rear out of his '72 Polara which we pulled the engine from so that I can pull the entire exhaust system as one piece. That way I can assemble the engine/trans on the ground to start it and break in the cam and have full exhaust with mufflers to keep the noise down and check for internal noises from the engine. It should be happening here soon, just need to find where he put the dang torque converter bolts and the old radiator from the Polara so it can have a cooling system for the cam break-in. Luckily I'm keeping tabs of my labor hours and he's going to pay me for my time and work, if he wasn't I would have walked away a while ago to save my own sanity HA :evil3:

After the cam is broken in then I'll let him have a field day making the engine look pretty to his eccentric whims and I'll start working on the 727 to install a shift kit and take a peek at the internals. I'm also currently testing out the "new" Holley Ultra Street Avenger 770 on my own car and making sure it'll fire up the first time on his 440 and not become a gasoline geyser.