Engine rebuild update and looking for intake radiator hose gooseneck and distributor hold down clamp

["Dan Curtis" <d.curtis@xxxxxxx>]

For those of you who have been using the list for a while, you may recall 
last spring when I was inquiring about the 401 pistons used in a balanced 
and blueprinted 68/69 390 that I acquired years ago but never used.  The 
long and the short of it is that I was under the impression that this engine 
had pure stock 68/69 390 rotating assembly pieces with the exception of the 
401 pistons.  In that it also had a piston to deck height of about 17 
thousands, would have meant that the blocked had to have been significantly 
decked which was not a particularly good thing.

Well when I brought the engine to the machine shop late last spring, we 
discovered that in fact it had a 401 crankshaft rather than the 390 crank 
which explains why there was such little deck height with the 401 pistons on 
a 68/69 block but it also meant that the block was only marginally decked at 
.020 rather than .070 as I had originally thought.  This same block also had 
the head bolt holes drilled and tapped for 1/2 head bolts...good new all 
around there.  With the higher compression 401 pistons now installed,and the 
rotating assembly rebalanced for the new pistons, the next decision was to 
decide what to do for heads.  As luck would have it, there was what at least 
appeared to be a nice set of ported and polished 291C heads on eBay which 
didn't hit reserve so I contacted the seller, we agreed on a price and I 
sent him a waybill to attach to the shipping box and had him send the heads 
directly to the machine shop.

Unfortunately, the seller had previously bought the heads from someone else 
who was not completely honest with him resulting in my having to install new 
valves as the old ones that were supposed to only have "one season" on them. 
The existing valves were basically junk due to the valve surfaces had been 
reground too many times so that there wasn't even enough surface left to do 
a performance valve job without creating a knife edge on those valves.  This 
would have resulted in the valve edges being to thin and brittle where they 
would be prone to breakage, so the valves had to go.  They were replaced 
with 2.05 and 1.74 stainless valves and after resurfacing the heads, we 
ended up with 54cc ported chambers which worked will with the new pistons. 
We did end up going with a custom thickness copper head gasket at .022 
rather than standard .045 so as to achieve the desired 10.2 to 1 (well 
actually 10.178 on this motor) compression of a stock 68/69 390.

Next up was the cam and valve train.  In that the heads already had the 
double springs and screw in studs,no additional work was needed there.  In 
addition, I had a barely used set of Crower rollers so we used those as 
well.  The machine shop had a pretty stout custom grind roller cam made and 
also installed a new set of solid roller lifters to go with the roller cam. 
they also used a set of hardened pushrods that they cut to match the valve 
train setup. The cam is heft enough that if it were on standard solid or 
hydraulic lifters, it would have an absolute animal rough idle but by using 
the roller it will still be a very stout cam but with a much more reasonable 
idle due to using the roller lifters and rockers. The next decision was for 
the ignition where we opted for a new MSD billet distributor with a 6AL Box 
using a 7000 RPM rev limiter chip which is plenty for what I want to use 
this motor for.

The final piece of putting the overall puzzle together was to use an 8 quart 
Miloden pan with swing arm pickup and dual external oil lines along with the 
infamous rear bearing oiler line in the lifter valley.  On the top end we 
chose to use an original Group 19 R4B and Holley 950 3 Barrel that I found 
on EBay.  Just the same, when the machine shop tunes in and dyno's the 
engine within the next week or two, they will see whether the engine 
produces more power with the 3 barrel or 750 double pumper Holley which I 
also sent them.

Other than having to replace NOS lower compression pistons which required 
rebalancing an already balanced and blueprinted engine and then having to 
replace the valves in the heads that were supposed to ready to go, all has 
gone pretty smoothly, albeit it has taken way longer than I thought it 
would.  Contributing to the long delay is that DHL lost my last shipment of 
parts to the machine shop even though it showed shipment al the way to the 
local distribution center near the machine shop.  Regardless, it looks like 
it is gone forever.  That box had the final pieces needed before setting the 
motor up on the dyno including the new distributor with clamp and bolt, the 
Miloden pan and swing pickup, a starter, water pump, plug wires and the 
intake water hose gooseneck.  All those parts have been reordered and should 
be in next week.

The only pieces I am still missing are the intake radiator hose gooseneck 
and a distributor hold down clamp so if anyone has either of those please 
contact me offline at d.curtis@xxxxxxxx  I am dying to get this motor on the 
dyno and get it tuned in so they can ship it out to me.  Due to getting it 
all setup on the dyno, it will be ready to go when I get it so I can simply 
drop in the AMX that I bought a year ago and get rid of the incorrect 360. 
I am hoping for between 425 and 450 legitimate HP so this car should be an 
absolute blast to drive when I finally get the motor in.

BTW, if anyone is interested in the 360, I may consider selling it when all 
is said and done.  It is a freshly rebuilt '75 360 that I will be installing 
a stock set of 291C head on for a compression ratio of 9.5:1.   It was 
rebuilt less than 2000 miles ago and I have receipts for all new bearings, 
freeze plugs, cam and lifters and as mentioned above, will have a fresh 
valve job on the 291C heads.  I am keeping the '75 big chamber heads in case 
I ever want to use the TRW flat top pistons and rotating assembly that I 
have in storage not to mention that the 360 will run much stronger with the 
291C heads anyway.

Regards,
Dan Curtis
d.curtis@xxxxxxx
602-317-2018