MADMAC

Looks great Jake. Can't wait to hear it!

Is that a good thing or a bad thing Mike?

All right; well the deal is done. I finally convinced my friend to let me get it. I went out there yesterday and was able to get the motor to run. The block and tranny should be over here tommorrow. And Sam, do I have to remove the head to see the cast numbers you showed in your picture? I still couldn't see them on the motor but they might just be covered with 30 years of gunk.

Thanks for the heads up Sam. I looked all around but couldn't see anything. The motors sat for a while and it's old and dirty of course, but when I go to pick it up this weekend I'll show you guys some video. Thats of course if it starts...

Unfortunately when I got home from work today my computer locked me out of the site for about ten minutes. I don't know if it was locking me out or if there was a problem with the search but it was kinda weird... I logged in looked at the "Super Scott" post and when I tried to go back to the message forum it kept saying "Internet Cannot Display"... so I closed the page and clicked my short-cut on my home page and the same thing kept happening. Tried doing a Google search and got the same results. I kept hitting the refresh icon and finally through Google it showed the homepage. Logged in and everything has been fine so far. Kinda weird, huh? So we'll see if it's locking me out. Hopefully not.

Well I was finally able to go and check out the "mystery" motor that I've been talking about. The air cleaner shows 7.4 liter, it's in front of a TH400 and it's only got one thermostat housing. I forgot my tape measure at the house to measure the water pump bolt hole location but I do beleive it's a straight forward 454 !!! I tried getting it to crank over but the starters' no good. So this coming up weekend I'm gonna take a starter that I have laying around and try to fire her up. The motor and tranny are still installed so I wasn't able to check the cast numbers but I will as soon as I get a chance to cross reference everything. The motors nothing to look at but I've made worse motors look nice so I'm not too worried about the way it looks right now. I'll post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

And just so everybody knows; I'm not bashing the 700R4 I've just heard they are a headache. I've never put one behind any of my motors so I'm just going off what I've heard or read. But like I said earlier my rebuilt TH400 is a tough cookie; I can't beleive it didn't go out when I had my "accident" that I mentioned earlier.

Get your money back and just get a regular Turbo350 or 400. I know the idea of getting decent gas mileage with a Classic Car is a great thought. But with all the headaches I've read on the boards in the Club, I just don't think it's worth the time or the money. I mean you say you spent $2,300; you could've bought a killer Hydromatic for that. Even though some in the Club have had success in the Club with the 700R4, good work is hard to find. Talk with lots of people in your area who have overdrives and ask them how theirs have held up. Otherwise just go with a good ole' regular transmission. If you really wanted to get good gas mileage (by keeping your RPM's low with the overdrive) would you really have bought or built an almost 40 year old car? Turbo's are tough Tranny's, one time I skipped gears and screeched the wheels of the Monte on the Highway at about 70, terrified I got off the highway, limped it home, took it out and looked through it and everything was ok!

Unfortunately when I first got the computer (not too long ago) my friend installed the AVG free edition, it worked fine for a while but now my computer is running ridiculously slow... I feel like I'm on a Commadore 64!!! Somethings definitely wrong, it keeps telling me I have a security breach or something and I keep getting the little popup noise every couple of minutes. Thanks for the advice Allan. As soon as I get all this squared away, I'll be able to post my pictures and some really cool videos. Thanks again.

Well, my stupid computers' crashed and my cell phone is on the fritz. I'm having a guy come later to pick it up to see if it can be fixed. I know it's been talked about before, but what is the best Antivirus program? Mt brother was coming back and forth to my house while I was gone and who knows what he was looking at?...

I forgot to mention that my buddy wants to give me the 400 thats behind it as well. I think I've got him convinced on trading my SBC with a few odds and ends for the 454 and tranny. We'll see...

Thanks guys. I was gonna try to go check it out this last weekend but I had a million things to do around the house. As soon as I get back from the Drags I'm gonna go check it out. Supposedly it has never been cracked open and is still running. We'll see. I'll keep you guys posted. (Where can I find pictures of the double thermostats on the intake?)Thanks again.

I've been trying to get my friend to let me get a 454 one of his Uncle wants to give him. It's a mid to late 70's block out of a truck. Is this a tall deck? What exactly is a tall deck? I've talked to guys who say stay away from truck Big Blocks. But I also talked to one guy at the local Pinks show, and he had a 71 Monte that ran 11's, with a truck motor. What should I do? He's thinking about selling it to me but I don't want a motor that I could never make perform. I don't have an unlimited budget(I'm still building a small block that I haven't barely touched, but that'll stop if I get that Big Block cause thats what I really wanted in the first place.)

None yet. I'm at a stand still right now, but you guys will be the first to know.

Just wondering; you still thinking about selling the A/C? Is it complete and what do you think you'd want for it?

Thanks Jake!(And no everydody he's not talking about my Mother! He's talking about my dog) I will.

Finally done painting. Now for the assembly.(Taking donations for parts... JK)

You might have a pocket in the cooling system. One time while working on a friends car(a Ford...go figure) this happened to us. Checked everything, all the parts checked out. When all else failed,we drained the block and radiator, and filled her back up very slowly and it did the trick. I don't know of a better way to drain the cooling system. I'm sure there is a better way of making sure you don't have a "Hot Pocket". (Hmmm... Hot Pockets...)

Here's a few more of my Small block. My buddy who took this picture said "the Fonz!" right as he snapped the picture...I couldn't stop laughing! And look! I'm actually smiling...

How the heck do you change it? It won't even let me down load it. It said my new image was too big so I resized it and nothing happens when I put in URL code. Any advice would be appreciated.

Well of course "the Family" will know! Thats funny...

I don't know if I'll end up doing the heads. We'll see whenever I end up getting some new ones. The pair I had were a good cast but they ended up having small cracks , but whenever I get some new ones I'll just have to see how sloppy they are. Even then, I don't know because it took me FOREVER! and I didn't even smooth the whole block. But hey, it's not gonna be a show car or anything.(and like I said no one will ever know but me )

but heres a couple pictures of my SBC 355, 4 bolt main I'm building. I questioned the machinist I've always used because the block didn't seem to be as clean as I thought it should've been. But he assured me he boiled it and everything was fine. He told me "The Man" has been cracking down on him. Now he's gotta use more "friendly" alkaline based baths. But it's a whole lot clener than it was... My first attempt at deburring a block. I got all the major flash off the edges and around the oil boss assembly and ground all numbers off the exterior. Now I just have to wait for the primer to cure and then I'll post pictures of the finished product. (At least as far as paint goes.)

Congrats on finding your babys' "Birth Certificate"! That's really cool;I wish I could find mine but I've crawled around every square inch of my car...well, mostly. But then again I wasn't really looking for the buildsheet.

I gotta admit, that is a really cool looking hood. By chance did you get the weight?