Friday, July 16, 2004
back at it I hope
Its been along time since I've updated the blog, not much new on the car. still sitting with the front clip off and the inline 6 in place. The 455 has been cleaned up and the block and heads have been painted Buick Red (duplicolor 1604 i think). I ended up getting a set of large port 430 heads from a fellow V8 guy in San Jose and had them done up by Richard Hamilton out in Tuolumne. I still need to get back to him to get the final numbers on valve stem height and spring pressure but at least they look nice. I ordered a TA212 cam from TA Performance (265/280 @ 112*) along with the dual groove bearings, a timing chaing with adjustable gears, adjustable pushrods, lifters, gasket set, etc to get this thing back together.
I've been stressing abit over how to get the old cam bearings out and then get the new ones in. After trying to get a am tool rented locally (no go) or online (no go again) I realized that awhile back I had a couple of the buick cam bearing tools made up. So I guess the problem is solved, now all I have to do is get in there and actually do the work.
I tried putting out a feeler on the 6pack Triumph list for a couple of listers to come out and help move the tub from one frame to another, only one response so far. Got the frame from an ebay, had it trucked in from MI by a jeep guy who was coming to the west coast (abit of serindipity as it turns out), I'm hoping that the frame won't rust out too quickly. The current frame is pinged abit from a passenger side front end collision. It looks to be in real good shape, but the areas where rust creeps in are not really visible. I'm going to try to measure the frame out and get it into autocad - maybe even see about building one out of 2x4 lumber as a prototype. From there I can look into some frame strengthening at some point in the future.
The britishv8.org site has come back up since I last posted about it, but I haven't spent much time on it to see what, if anything, is new.
I've been stressing abit over how to get the old cam bearings out and then get the new ones in. After trying to get a am tool rented locally (no go) or online (no go again) I realized that awhile back I had a couple of the buick cam bearing tools made up. So I guess the problem is solved, now all I have to do is get in there and actually do the work.
I tried putting out a feeler on the 6pack Triumph list for a couple of listers to come out and help move the tub from one frame to another, only one response so far. Got the frame from an ebay, had it trucked in from MI by a jeep guy who was coming to the west coast (abit of serindipity as it turns out), I'm hoping that the frame won't rust out too quickly. The current frame is pinged abit from a passenger side front end collision. It looks to be in real good shape, but the areas where rust creeps in are not really visible. I'm going to try to measure the frame out and get it into autocad - maybe even see about building one out of 2x4 lumber as a prototype. From there I can look into some frame strengthening at some point in the future.
The britishv8.org site has come back up since I last posted about it, but I haven't spent much time on it to see what, if anything, is new.
