The AClockworkGarage.com Race car build thread.

[Marik_bathory]

Progress is lookin' good. Glad to see the motor is clean! Paint looks great too.

Thanks, the valve covers actually don't look as good in person. the red didn't lay down smooth. I'm gonna let it fly though. hopefully this weekend I'll have some real progress on the car. gonna port and paint the manifold this weekend, and try to get the lifters springs and cam installed. Paint a few pullys and button everything up.

Also we're going to be officially endorsing some BS snake oil garbage that actually friggin' works (just not on the timescale they say it does) Stay tuned for that.

[Marik_bathory]

OK here's the Saturday update. We hit the car this morning with intentions of getting many things done. and immediatly hit a snag. the 3/8" plugs I'd bought for the coolant passages were too small. oh well if that's the worst that happens today everything will be fine. (foreshadowing, oh noes)

That's a small matter, we moved on to the rest of the manifold prep including the port matching. Don did the first one and our intrepid assistant jumped in and did the other five. and a pretty good job she did too.

Before:
After:
Not a bad job for a first timer. I'll have the manifold at home for the rest of the week so I'll work on smoothing out the runners a bit and getting the manifold painted.

Don put his skillful hands getting the heads to match. Not much material removed, just enough the get the flow smoothed out.


Meanwhile I did what I do best. I spray painted things. As the brackets came off the motor I gave em a quick clean and a coat of gunmetal.
I'm an artist...

That's when things went belly up.

[Marik_bathory]

What in the seven hells is that...


Series III forged internals? I'm sorry but this calls for a dancing Banana.
She looks good inside. Onto the heart of the build, the GT1 cam.

The new bumpstick found it's way home with the aid of plenty of engine ass lube. We're twelve sometimes.


Get that sync'd up with a brand new Cloyes timing gear set.


We're home free! What could possibly go wrong?


you had to say it... looks like the threads in the bottom of the camshaft are cross threaded. Not at the opening mind you but at the back. How does that even happen? After a quick attempt to chase them with a tap we realized that our tap was tapered and wasn't going to reach the only threads that really needed it. Were in a holding pattern until we can solve this crisis. Suggestions welcome.

[SSEiMan01]

Looks good so far! Weird that the threads are borked that far back though.

[Marik_bathory]

As promised: snake oil.

At my day job I am merchandising coordinator for a large national crappy tool supplier. We sell this Stuff called "Evapo-rust." Just dunk your rusty parts in it for 15 minutes and the rust just melts away.



But I was curious and it was only 10 bucks so I grabbed a bottle. Cracked it open and it smelled like... water. Poured it into a tupperware container and touched it. It felt like greasy water. There's nothing to this stuff. There isn't even a do-not-drink warning on the bottle. Pffttt. Whatever dude. Dropped a water pump pulley in it and forgot about it for a week. Took it out, no rust.



No.... that didn't really happen. did it? I don't have a before picture because I didn't expect this stuff to work, but this is that same pulley that came off the original motor in the beginning of this thread.

Being a skeptic myself I wasn't buying it. So I wandered over to the scrap metal pile behind the shed, grabbed a big rusty thing and half submerged it in the stuff for the entire time we were working. (about 6 hours) and here you go:



Simply put, this stuff does what it says it does. Still wouldn't drink it though.

[MattStrike]

How many gallons to submerge a whole car? I want some.

[RJolly87]

How many gallons to submerge a whole car? I want some.

You probably shouldn't, or else you may be posting everything left of the car for sale (couple fenders and a steering wheel)

[Marik_bathory]

The stuff is $10 for that bottle, $40 for a gallon. I'm thinking about soaking a towl in it and laying it over the surface rust on the roof, then taping a plastic bag over it. might work might not, don't know.

for now it's been very handy in dunking fasteners and small parts for paint prep.

[crash93ssei]

I like where this is going so far

Interesting on the rust remover too!

[SSEiMan01]

How many gallons to submerge a whole car? I want some.

You probably shouldn't, or else you may be posting everything left of the car for sale (couple fenders and a steering wheel)

If it's my car...

Interesting stuff, we sell it at work.

[nos4blood70]

Time to power flush my gas door area with that stuff. And my Flowmasters.

[Marik_bathory]

You need to submerge the parts. Mattstrike's got the right idea.

[MattStrike]

How many gallons to submerge a whole car? I want some.

You probably shouldn't, or else you may be posting everything left of the car for sale (couple fenders and a steering wheel)

Well I would strip the car down first of course and I can weld in patches as needed.


What kind of shelf life does the stuff have?

[95naSTA]

Nice cam choice and progress.

[Marik_bathory]

Nice cam choice and progress.

If I'm not mistaken, this was your cam.

[Jrs3800]

Yes, It was mikes cam... I just never got around to using it.. 25 Mpg in town with my driving style has left me keeping my stock cam in there... Seeing it do 40-45 Mpg doing 45-50 Mph makes me love the stock cam..

[BillBoost37]

Looks good guys..

[Jrs3800]

Been a long time Boosty.. Good to see ya again..

On the engine we are using, for a long time it has been my thought that 04 was a mixed year for the forged vs cast rod 3800 series II... My general though is that all 03's used the cast rods, and 04 was mixed and in my opinion more along the lines of early production may have been cast and later would be forged... The engine is an 05 Buick lesabre motor but its the forged series III bottom end.. So needless to say it was simply a series III with a series II upper.. We don't plan on boosting this motor so hopefully the bottom end will hold up for what we want to put it through.. I have heard of these rods breaking under boost... We are still a ways off from a running car tho, but getting closer every weekend..

[Marik_bathory]

We are still a ways off from breaking the transmission tho, but getting closer every weekend..

I fixed your quote...

[95naSTA]

Yes, It was mikes cam... I just never got around to using it.. 25 Mpg in town with my driving style has left me keeping my stock cam in there... Seeing it do 40-45 Mpg doing 45-50 Mph makes me love the stock cam..

I had a feeling. Good stuff! That cam put me in front of a couple GTPs back in the day. I bought it 10 years or so ago.