Day 2 '68 Chevelle SS
 

I'm a long-time lurker here, and finally signed up to share this Day 2 Chevelle I bought last summer. Previous owner bought it in 1974, and last drove it about 1985. He passed away recently, and I bought it from his brother.

68 SS396 Fathom Blue/Medium Teal
Originally bench seat 4spd, now has buckets.

Engine in it was an L78 out of a 69 Nova, JH suffix.
Trans is a numbers-matching M20, and has KF (3.55 posi) 12-bolt.
1111169 Distributor in the trunk likely original to the car as well.

It has some cool period speed stuff on it, such as Mr. Gasket Vertigate, traction bars, Steel bellhousing, a Fly Eye air cleaner (was in the trunk and warped from being burnt), L60-15s on 15x8 Corvette ralleys, Headers, Thrush glasspacks, etc.

I sent the VIN from the L78 block to Wes at "Lost Muscle Cars" and he found the car is registered in Pennsylvania! I'm now in contact with the owner, and might be able to reunite it with its original car, which he had no idea was really an L78 car! (but was known to be an SS 4spd car)

The one oddity of the stamp is the last digit being double stamped with an 8 over the top of a 7.

7 is lined up in the gang, and the 8 off center assumed to be a factory "fix" from someone forgetting to change the last digit in the gang holder, and stamping the previous car's VIN on it. Knowing the history of the engine, I have no other explanation for the double stamped digit.

I decided to get the car roadworthy this summer, and drive it just the way it was in 1985 when it was last driven.

I cleaned the garage to host a Northstar Chevelle Club "work meeting" to have some help and motivation to try firing up the L78... honestly, I spent as much time cleaning as it would have taken me to just do it myself, but it was a good feeling to get this done, and made for a fun day with a bunch of great people tinkering on a cool old project.

Unfortunately, there were issues with the #1 cylinder. There was a stuck exhaust valve, so we had to dig deeper.

Any hope of firing it up was gone when this HUGE crack in the #1 cylinder wall was found.

After everyone else went home, the kids and I got to work getting the L78 pulled out so we could drop this rat in its place. We'll break it in on a 4bbl, but eventually I want to put this Edelbrock TR2 on it and really lean into the car's "Day 2" flavor.

The engine is an unknown, acquired when I bought out a barn full of parts from an estate. It's a 1989 Marine (9XA suffix) 454. Forged crank, roller rockers, 074 "L88" aluminum heads, but never looked too deep into it yet. Borescope through the spark plug and drain plug revealed a few things about it. Pistons are 13cc dome, part number came back as 1971 LS5, so it will only be about 8.5:1 with the 118cc heads. 4-bolt mains and 7/16" dimple rods, and cam measured out to .525/.510 lift, so a lot milder than I expected from an engine with these heads. Everything looks fresh, heads never been run, pistons clean, and still has assembly lube on the cam. It already had a Chevelle pan on it, so we just dropped it in as-is.

Transmission VIN stamp confirmed to match the car once it came out. I could read the date before, but VIN was covered with grease.

Nice looking Chevelle! Great to see your kids involved with the project :biggthumpup: Bet the guy with the Nova is bummed about that cracked block.

A sleeve will fix that right up.

Cool project Derek! so that low compression may make it run like a pig you may want to swap for some small chamber heads or get bigger domed pistons! my 69 is being built day two also I'll be following along on your journey
did you ever find rest of the valve? LOL

Hey, Derek, good to see you posting..:biggthumpup:
The block is already .060 over. How much more can be removed for a sleeve and then have that bored to match the rest ? Wouldn't it need all the cylinders sleeved at that point and bring it all back to standard ?

I have a 427 sitting here that's supposed to be 12:1 with 840 heads, so swapping heads between the two would make both of them better. The goal for now is just to get the car running and driving on the cheap with stuff I have on hand. After throwing money at another car for years, this one is going to be fun to play with mostly used parts and stuff I have laying around.

We broke the valve on Saturday. The valve was stuck open, so when we set the lash, without realizing it wasn't closed, the rocker was tightened down enough to make it hit the piston. Whoops...

An important thing to remember when setting valve lash is to compare the thread reveal relative to the other valves, if one has more thread reveal compared to other valves then something is wrong.

If the other cylinders are still nice, a sleeve can be put in that same cylinder and bored to match the piston if the piston is still OK. The block has to be bore a lot more that .060 to install the sleeve and the sleeve some smaller than standard so all is well.


Jason

It's a shame about the L78 Nova block being damaged. Chances are you might not own the Chevelle if it wasn't for the damaged motor. My guess the reason it was parked and found it's way to your ownership was because of the blown up motor. Thanks for sharing your cars story.
Rob

Looks more like it had water in it and froze. The valve was slightly open and was rusted in place too. No indication of a broken piston or metal shavings in the oil when it was drained. We never got around to cutting the filter open to inspect for shavings after the broken cylinder wall discovery.

68 Chevelle...
 

Great story...and it is good to see the young folks engaged in the process. These photos remind of long ago car projects :wink:

Only one thing...the photo of the young man kneeling on the concrete floor...my knees hurt just looking at him :rolleyes2:

Good luck with the project.

-wilma

It's not all back together yet, but I couldn't resist getting some pictures of it outside today with its new 15x5 and 15x8 aluminum slots with 6.40-15 and L60-15 bias ply tires.

The tunnel ram is just set in place, for now. The '55 is also mine. My Dad bought it for $60 in 1975 to build an American Graffiti car, and never finished it. I bought it from him about 7 years ago.

Love the 68!!

Big fan of the 55 210!!! Please share about that one too!!!

Ryan W31

His oldest son, Cale has one too, that he has been working on restoring. That one has more of a recent story. Maybe Derek can post a link to the build thread on our Chevelle club forum.

Did you just pick those slots up new ?? Man, they are really shiny.

Yeah, they're new from US Mags.
I wasn't having much luck finding direct drilled vintage 15s in the sizes I needed, so I bought new. I might spray them with something to etch them a bit to dull the finish.

Most of those type wheels came as uni-lug, back in the day. Ugh !! just put some polish on and let it dry, or mud or something besides etching them. They really make the car stand out as it is.

I had a thread on my '55 on Team Chevelle, but looks like the pictures are all gone now, so I will have to start a new one.

Cale's car hasn't seen much progress yet this winter, but does have an engine in it now, so I should update the thread again. Here's the project thread: https://nschevelles.activeboard.com/t68972460/cales-55/

It will be pretty much a 60s style hotrod as well, except a few safety items I'm requiring him to have.

Nice 68!! Fathom Blue. Some ultra fine Scotch Bright will knock the shine down on them slots.

Great post Derek.I'll be following and good luck.

Man, I love your '68. I had a real 138 '68 that just needed too much work than I could do at the time, so I sold it. I'd love to get another with the cool rolling tach. Also, I love your slots, and even though they're super shiny, they look great to me. I may have to pick up a set for my Camaro as the OG owner had them on BITD and they looked great.

Derek, on your front wheels they are 15x5? Do you recall the backspace? I'm thinking of getting a pair of skinny slots for the front of my 68. I have a set of 15x8 rallys I would paint black for the back, a change up from the Cragars.

15x5 with 2.5" backspace
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/usm-u10115506125

We spent some time this week getting this 454 ready to run, and did cam break in last night. There's a little more work to do tonight, then I plan to bring it to a car show in Rushford MN tomorrow.

I've got that valve spring compressor and I love it.

Yeah, it works pretty well. We pulled the inner valve springs out for cam break-in.

Nice wrench technique. Was this Cale's car or yours, can't remember?

This one is mine. Cale's car is a Neptune Green '55 210.

This thing has been fighting us every step of the way. One of the 074 heads had water weeping through a hole in the casting, so now we're swapping them out for a set of 840s and sticking these on a shelf for now.

I still haven't been able to drive it yet.

Looks like it has been welded on for a repair and not done very well. sucks when a project fights back continually.

That looks like a pretty easy fix.

Yeah, this one has been a battle. I'm not very experienced with mechanical work, so we're learning as we go. I've done a lot of metal fab and body work over the years, as well as a lot of suspension and brake work, but pretty new to going this deep into engine work.

Cale is learning quickly though... all good experience for him.

We got it running again today with the 840 heads on it... just when we thought it was ready for a test drive, the brake pedal went to the floor. That didn't stop me from moving it
around the yard to get some good new pictures, and a couple of it next to my Pro-Touring '69

Lookin' good, Derek. The body looks good, save for a couple dents for PDR and it would be quite straight.
I should talk to Karl and see if he thinks Scot would be interested in a PDR day at the Treasure Chest... :dunno:

Great project car, now has come to life!!!

Ryan W

It needs patches on the lower fenders and a good buff.the paint is cracking and showing its age though. It's not original paint, but was done before Tommy bought it in 1974.

Thanks! The car would need absolutely everything if it was restored, but it is a great period musclecar to drive just the way it is.

Wheels & Tires on Point !!! Stance is Killer ! I Dig It Alot ! Just needs some old school ladder bars ...

It has these lower traction bars on it. I've only seen a few pairs of these, and not sure who made them. When the axle wraps, it tightens up the U-bolt. I'll report back when I can pull a few holeshots and see how well they work. :cool: