Yesterday saw me working on the project from around lunchtime until 3:15am. Tons of things done, some big and some small, such as making custom bolts and studs as demonstrated here:


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...until the Greaserama car show! A couple of pics showing progress as of August 25, 2011. First, the passenger side:


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A few more details to add to yesterday's Hot-Rod Newport updateTo install a crankshaft balancer (the round, silver thing just behind the Crescent wrench), one needs specialized tools. In this case, that included a balancer-installer: essentially a threaded shaft with a flat spot on one end for a wrench and three pieces on the other end (plate, ( Read more... )

I haven't posted a progress report for a while, so today's a good day to catch up! My goal is to finish by the end of the month, so I can drive it to the Kowtown Custom Greaserama car show. Will he finish in time? Will the gods of the machines smile upon him or throw broken bolts in his path? Check it out:


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Over the past few days, I've made a lot of progress on the 4-door Mopar of DOOOOM: torqued down the headers and installed the valley pan, intake manifold, valve covers and gaskets, Boss EFI throttle unit (carburetor-thingy), lower pulley, and associated bits. Also cleaned up a bunch of minor rust and painted things up all pretty-like. Check it out ( Read more... )

Here's how I spent my summer vacation... er, the weekend after finals: building a big-block Mopar engine! Getting closer to hooking up fuel and spark and seeing if it runs. Check it out:


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First the good news: The cam is installed and the heads are bolted down ( Read more... )

Hi folks! Typing this up now because it's 100°F outside with the heat index (that is, counting humidity), and my next step requires torquing-down 34 bolts 3 times in increments of 40 pound-feet, then 55 lb-ft, then 70 lb-ft while leaned over a fender. I expect to stand inside the engine compartment for a lot of the time, because it's nearly ( Read more... )

It's getting more awesome all the time! Pics to come, but in the mean-time, a short update ( Read more... )

Two big steps forward:

1) Over the past couple of days, I pulled the gunked-up old heads off the 383 block, determined to rebuild the stock block if necessary rather than go crazy with a new, bigger big-block. Turns out it's unnecessary, because the short-block, at least, was rebuilt as advertised, and here's the proof:

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