The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

BTW, here is the contraption that I used to preheat the engine.



I plumbed the inlet to the 1500 watt coolant heater into the lower heater hose outlet from the water pump. The outlet went to the temp sender on top of the intake, while the other part of the T is connected to the disconnected heater hose. This way the block water was heated up. I tested it with the infra red gun and it read 180 degrees at the intake. The heater core and the radiator water didnt get the heat since the water pump was not circulating the coolant.

I had one of these same coolant heaters plumbed into my diesel Suburban and it would get the fluid real toasty in the winter.

The square thingy is a magnetic oil pan heater. You just stick it to the bottom of the pan and it heats the oil up to 100 degrees or so.

All together the parts cost about $60. Well worth the expense.

[SS427]

You are the man Steve. Sure would like to have someone like you on my payroll!

[njsteve]

LOL. I'll send you a resume. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

BTW, if anyone is interested in the old pistons and rods out of this engine here are the links.

They make great Christmas gifts!

Or Chanukah gifts - one for each night!

Call now operators are standing by!

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthrea..._For#Post509974

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...975#Post509975

[njsteve]

I scuffed and painted the top of the radiator support yesterday and then installed the ECS Automotive repro emissions sticker I had in my &quot;decal file&quot;.

ECS made their repro 1972 455HO sticker from my original that I peeled off of the 72 Trans Am a few years ago. It is definitely the most accurate one out there. They are happy to make new stickers from your originals if it is one that they don't have in their inventory. (They even gave me a couple free ones for loaning them my original). [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

http://www.ecsautomotive.com/product...co=g&amp;id=11

[StriperSS]

Somewhere I have a photo of another Formula 455 in Vancouver. If I recall correctly, he was a mechanic at Carter Pontiac Buick in Burnaby. I'll hunt for it.

[njsteve]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">LOL. I'll send you a resume. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

BTW, if anyone is interested in the old pistons and rods out of this engine here are the links.

They make great Christmas gifts!

Or Chanukah gifts - one for each night!

Call now operators are standing by!

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthrea..._For#Post509974

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...975#Post509975 </div></div>

Both the rods and the pistons have been sold.

[njsteve]

I have been tuning the carb and timing the past few days. I am currently on 74 jets, 43 primary rods and DA secondary rods. She runs very nicely and pulls well up the RPM range.

Does anyone have a spare pair of BE or BL secondary rods they can &quot;loan&quot; me? The magic setup recipe that I had in the T/A was 74 jet, 44 primary rods and BE secondary rods and that car pulled like crazy (same rear gears, same transmission).

I have around 110 miles on the motor now and I am a firm believer in breaking them in like you are going to drive them: hard. She starts at the first turn of the key and idles nicely. I have been doing a lot of my 8 mile test and tune trips over the past week or so when the weather permits.

[njsteve]

Got the heat riser hoses installed for the Ram Air air cleaner. One of the PerformanceYears.com members, &quot;PB&quot; sent me the correct beveled 455HO plastic elbows and original clamps, as well as the heat stove base plate and 90 degree steel eblow. The corrugated hoses I got from Performance Years for $6 each.

This is sure one Rube-Goldberg contraption once all those hoses are hooked up. No wonder everyone who had one of these cars ripped them out and tossed them in the garbage. It takes two people to remove or install the air cleaner now.

I also discovered that if you don't have the correct &quot;thick&quot; 1/4&quot; carb to intake gasket, the air cleaner heat riser elbow on the drivers side will jam up against the valve cover and will hold up that side up, off the carb.

[njsteve]

BTW, Here is a tip for the squeeling belt syndrome that Pontiacs have. These cars are very sensitive to belt thickness. If they are running multiple belts on the crank and water pump pulleys, the parallel running belts must all be of the same width or else they will scream at high RPMs.

The problem is due to the fact that they are trying to fight each other for traction while turning the same distance of water pump pulley at the same time. Because the thinner belt is sitting lower in the groove than the thicker belt, the thinner one is technically a longer belt by a few millemeters over the same distance of pulley groove.

Unfortunately, most manufacturers have gone to narrower belts for the old cars. I just bought two new belts for the Formula and had to search a while on rockauto.com for a matching set from Goodyear. Rockauto actually lists the widths for each belt, and they were cheap - around $10 total with shipping. The Goodyears were .44 width which is a little bit more than 14/32. The Gates and Delco belts were .4063 (13/32 width). Napa were the worst - they were around 12/32.

Here is the photo after the new same width belts were installed. As you can see, the inner, alternator belt only rides on about 3 inches of the water pump pully - just enough to create the scream if it is a different width. The power steering belt is what really operates the water pump pulley.



Compare that with this photo (courtesy of Steve Hoog) showing two different thickness belts on the water pump pully.

[napa68]

I ran into the same problem with belts on a 69 427 Corvette with A/C, P/S, etc. I had to purchase repro belts to get it right.

BTW, NAPA is the same as Gates.

I love watching for updates. Keep them comming Steve!

Happy New Year!

Tim