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10/20/2020
I finally got the garage finished just in time for the cold weather. The last two weeks have been a push to check that box, so I can concentrate on the cars in a finished workshop for the winter.
My first task is to determine what engine was sourced and partly installed in Ginger's engine bay. I know it's a GM 5.7 liter, but beyond that it's a mystery.
Engine No. 1
I took a picture of the block vin and casting numbers and went to work online to see what I had. The best I can tell, since the vin was moved from the factory location to a tag on the underside of the block, is that it is probably a crate engine or a rebuild. The casting number is 10243880, which identifies the block as a Gen 1 (1995-2000) 350 cubic inch Chevrolet small block. This particular block has a 4-bolt main and one piece rear main seal.
I checked the records and found out that these heads were used in Chevrolet truck engines after 1996. They are 64cc heads, which weren't the best flowing stock heads, but good enough and inexpensive to buy. Ported, they can support up to 480ish horsepower.
The Edelbrock carburetor is a 750cfm 4 barrel, with manual choke. It should easily support 400-500 horsepower.
The intake is an Edelbrock Performer 2116, which is a street/strip intake. It is supposed to make good linear power from idle to 5,500rpm.
The shorty headers collect into a Magnaflow exhaust system, the dual mufflers mounted out back just before the chrome exhaust tips. There is no crossover pipe.
It took me a while to decide what to do about the throttle linkage. You can see the original cable laid over above the brake master cylinder in this photo. I didn't find any brackets to make the old cable operate with the new carburetor, so it took me some shopping around to figure out how to make it work. I decided to ditch the old cable and start from scratch.
I bought a pre fab aluminum bracket assembly and universal cable from JEGS which ended up working well. I cut the cable to the correct length and everything went together in a way that made me happy. The bracket was also useful for hiding some wires running to temp sensors at the front of the intake.
I decided to include a pressure regulator when setting up the fuel system. A carburetor can run without it, but works best with a constant 6psi or so. Since I am using a mechanical fuel pump without knowing its output pressure, it made sense to me to run a regulator.
Mounting became a bit of a puzzle with the way coolant lines were crowding the carb inlet. I wanted as neat an engine bay as I could, without lines running from the engine across to the inner fender, so I bought a sheet of 1/4 inch aluminum and tried my hand at fabricating a bracket for the fuel pressure regulator. It turned out better than I hoped.
The original core support was out of the car when I bought it. I noticed some rust at the bottom of it, and made the decision to replace it with a new one. It not only looks better, it makes the 50 year old parts it's attached to look worse. Oh, well. I'm not going to do a frame-off on this car, so maybe I won't notice once all the parts are in there.
Speaking of other parts, I found a new aluminum radiator in the pile of stuff included with the car. I bit the bullet and ordered new electric fans and mounted them when they came in. It looks great, and eliminates all the mechanical fan, clutch, and massive shroud nonsense. I think it will cool way better and tidy up the engine bay. Ginger won't be a concours, numbers matching trailer queen. My hope is that she will be a fun everyday driver that will see a lot of use.
With the radiator installed, the engine bay is looking more finished! I had to fabricate mounts for the electric fan to be fitted as well as the upper radiator support. I made the former out of steel straps and the latter out of aluminum sheet, which I formed in a metal brake and mounted using the factory bolt locations for the fan shroud.
It took me about two months of working on the car before I realized the engine had no dipstick to check the oil level! I found one at Summit Racing, and after shortening it about ten inches, it looked right at home.
There was no coolant expansion tank in the pile of parts that came with Ginger, so I decided to go with the original-style aluminum. Nothing had ever been mounted in the stock location for this style tank, which tells me she originally came with a copper radiator which didn't require an expansion tank. However, with the new aluminum radiator it fits and looks good.
The brake master cylinder was looking a little crusty compared to everything else, so I sourced a new cap for it, then painted it and the firewall a semi-gloss black. I used the opportunity to replace the faded emissions sticker to complete the refresh. Some new hardware for the hood latches and master cylinder completed the new feeling. The little details often make the biggest difference.
I decided to go with the chrome alternator, since everything else is looking so shiny. I felt like the chrome pulleys that came with the car needed a bit more symmetry. The bracket I painted black, so it would fade into the background a little more. Since I was wiring everything up, I used the opportunity to neatly route the wires and vacuum hoses. Speaking of vacuum hoses, I sourced a complete set of brand new vacuum lines and related hardware which I installed throughout the car.
The old windshield washer pump wasn't wired in at all, and the hoses and sprayers were missing from the wiper arms. I wired in a new pump and sourced all the missing parts, including blades and arms to complete the system. I doubt this car will be driven in bad weather, but it bothered me that such a basic thing had been removed instead of repaired. Good to go!
The engine bay is looking so much more complete, and it's getting really close to firing up!
She's Alive!
She's Alive!
After months of assembly, Ginger is a real car again! I was anxious, never having fired her, and not 100% confident every wire was right and every bolt was tight. But other than a couple water seeps which were solved by thread sealant and clamp tightening, so far so good! Good oil pressure and the initial timing seems close enough. I just need to tune the carburetor and set the advanced timing before she hits the road.
02/23/2021
It was finally warm enough to pull the cars outside and let them run a bit. I really wanted to get Ginger tuned a little better and idle for 30 min or so to uncover any issues my engine build might be hiding. It was the first time I engaged the clutch under power when I drove her in and out of the garage and turned her around. Everything seems to be working as it should! (I'm always a little surprised when that happens)
She runs so good, but some coolant leaks revealed themselves and the expansion tank started pushing antifreeze out after about 15 minutes of idling. After a bit of research, I think it is because I had a pressurized cap on both the radiator and the expansion tank, so pressure wasn't allowed to flow back out of the tank back into the radiator, thereby giving it nowhere to go but out the overflow. I took the spring out of the radiator cap and reinstalled it. Hopefully, that will take care of that. Some thread tape should take care of the leaks.
I also decided to replace the black metal air cleaner lid with a flow-thru style. I felt the 2" tall filter was really restricting the engine, but with the hood clearance issues there wasn't the choice of using a taller one. This should help a little.
I can't wait to get her on the road...
Engine No. 2
07/20/21
The rest of the story of how the first engine was damaged and afterward sent to a professional for a complete overhaul...
After cranking up the engine and driving the car around for a few miles this spring, I noticed a metallic rattling which sounded like something was coming loose in the engine bay. I studied and probed above and beneath, yet there was nothing readily apparent. In fact, the more I looked, the more I became convinced that the sound was emanating from inside the engine itself. Praying I was wrong, I brought Ginger to a shop I use and asked for a second opinion.
Complicating matters, we were packing the house and garage for a move. We had sold our house before we found a replacement, so everything had to go into storage while we moved in with family for a while. It was making it difficult to work on the cars, and I was having to find places to store them.
My mechanic called later with the bad news. He found metal shavings in the pan and traced them to a scored camshaft. The rod that runs from the cam to the mechanical fuel pump arm had done the damage. On further inspection, an excessive amount of play was discovered where the rod ran through it's channel. The channel was too big which allowed the rod to rattle around and cause damage. We think maybe the engine was designed for use with an electric fuel pump instead of the mechanical unit which had been installed. The damage had probably already been done when the guys I bought it from started the engine for me before I bought it. But it was doomed from the beginning, since I would have unknowingly started it myself anyway.
So, what to do?!! I'm moving and storing things, I have a dead car and no shop for myself in which to work for the foreseeable future. I researched a few remanufactured engine companies and the engines available. I ordered a350hp crate engine from JEGS and waited. And waited. Still waiting a few weeks later, I called on it and was told everything was backordered 10 weeks at minimum. That was a problem. Ginger was taking up valuable real estate at the shop. They had already removed the old engine and had parts and pieces on the workbench waiting the arrival of a replacement engine that would never come.
I shifted into high gear and made some calls. I found a local engine shop, Matt's Engines of Bloomington, MN, who would try to work me in, but it would still be another 4 weeks. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and so was my mechanic with a lift he couldn't use. I made my decision and we set up a time for me to bring the engine to him. Matt has been building engines out of his shop for many years. I knocked on the door when I got there and he rolled it up to let me in. I saw engines on stands in various stages of completion surrounded by full work benches, shelves overflowing with parts, and machining equipment, and felt my first surge of hope in a while. I left the engine with it's damaged camshaft there with his promise to call me when he had it torn apart.
A week later, I was back in his shop, and we talked over several options. He could reuse the block, so that would save me some money. It turned out that he had a 450hp package that he had built many times. It was reliable with a good record and he could detune it for me if I wanted. I thought about it for a moment. 450 seems like a good number, right? I mean, what kind of person says no to more power? Certainly not me. We had a deal.
The icing on the cake was that included in the price of building the engine, he would take it to the dyno for a break in and tune. I would have the dyno sheets to go with Ginger, which would be nice when it came time to sell her!
I can't wait to get her home and buttoned up! I may even keep her another winter just to enjoy the fruits of my labor. We'll see. Stay tuned! In the meantime, I am staying with family and have taken over their garage for the summer while we look for a new home. I should have Ginger back later next week after my mechanic installs the new engine. I'll have them mount the engine and then I'll bring Ginger home to finish up. I'll have to wire up an electric fuel pump and various other things, but it shouldn't take too much time.
We took the engine to Competition Engines in Eagan, MN. It ended up making 435hp at 5,600rpm and 440 lb.ft. of torque at 4,100rpm. Actually the engine makes over 400 lb.ft. pretty much from idle to redline. The curve is almost flat. It didn't quite make the 450hp because we opted to leave the one inch carb spacer out due to hood clearance issues. It is nice to know there is more power in there to unlock if you wanted. I think she'll be just fine...
This was the last of three electric fuel pumps I installed. With the first two were Carter pumps, but they wouldn't maintain constant pressure so I finally went with this QuickFuel pump made by Holley which is more than up to the task. I also discovered the factory return line was too small, creating backpressure in the system which was also messing with line pressure to the carb. A larger return line solved that issue.
The final piece of the fuel system puzzle was wiring in an oil pressure safety switch, so that if the car stalls or is involved in an accident, the fuel pump will not continue to run with the key on. If the switch doesn't sense enough oil pressure, it will cut power to the pump. This will hopefully help to prevent other bad things from happening that involve burning to death.
08/25/2021
What we've got here is a before and after of Ginger's engine. The before is Version 1 with the Vortec heads, Edelbrock Performer intake, and Edelbrock 650cfm carb. After it's camshaft became damaged, the block was repurposed with a new crank, camshaft, and pistons. It was topped with aluminum heads, high rise Edelbrock intake, and a Quick-fuel Slayer 750 carb. Ginger went from a 300hp-ish crate engine to 436hp cammed monster. I'll just say this, through the block-hugger style headers and 2.5 inch MagnaFlow dual exhaust, she sounds mean. The camshaft isn't an overly aggressive grind, but its enough to give the car that don't-mess-with-me attitude.
Today, I took her around the block for the first time since the new engine was installed. It was a mild shakedown to discover possible leaks or issues. The familiar sound of a Chevrolet V8 coming to life filled the garage as the exhaust rumbled and crackled with a mild lope. The smell of hot rubber and plastic mixed with evaporating chemicals filled the cabin. Everything is new and is still becoming acclimated to the engines heat cycles. My wife watched from the front porch as the car rolled out of the garage door and I could see her smiling, too. This has been an adventure and she is as much a part of it as I am. The engine acted like it was starving for fuel a bit when I let out the clutch, so I readjusted the fuel pressure up to 7psi, which cleared that up. Ginger rolled up the street under her own power once again, and it felt good! I stopped to fuel up with ethanol free about a mile from the house and then drove back and parked in the garage without incident. First impressions were of a very angry and eager engine. This girl is stout! I was smiling like crazy, and had barely used the throttle! Super cool. My other impression was the reminder that she still needs an alignment from all my suspension work. I'll have someone do that for me.
The numbers on the transmission indicate it is a close-ratio M21 Muncie born on March 3, 1969. The VIN number matches that of the car.
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