G/E that intake looks great after painting - was it semi flat? I always thought those intakes looked the best of all TPI type I actually bought one and sold it decided not to go from carb to F/I on my 87 trans am ended up selling to my son but it looks like I'll be getting it back soon with LS swap in mind using a 4th gen parts car using tank and all - I wonder how much better that intake would run vs stock TPI keep going, will be following this build

Thanks for the compliments!


The color I used on the intake is a satin back from Eastwood called Underhood Black.

A few questions here for the experienced: I've been going back and forth about putting in a new cam. If I do, would I need to put in new lifters and remeasure for new pushrods? I already have nice 1.5 roller rockers from Crane. I know I would have to take off my oil pan and timing chain cover again but that's not a big deal, it's just time! The engine ran great when I removed it from the car so I'm hesitant to mess with a good thing. Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

It does my heart good to see you building a sbc. Keep up the good work!

If it's a flat tappet cam best to change lifters with. A roller cam you can just swap bumpsticks (though I'd make sure I had no doubt about the lifters). Either way it's best to check your contact on the rocker to stem. A little thing we used to do was trim the corners of the timing chain cover where the ends of the rubber oil pan seal sets. Just radius enough so you can pull the timing cover with the oil pan still on.

Quick update for tonight. Progress is a tad slow but its progress none-the-less!

I figured out my intake situation and decided to buy some new intake gaskets with the same part number is the ones I removed.

I started with tapping the holes in the head to get rid of the old RTV and make sure I was going to get accurate torque readings:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1766/...bca5c2d1_c.jpg

Here is everything I used for the install:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1803/...461a19ca_c.jpg


I used some gray high-strength RTV around the exhaust ports on both sides of the gasket and just a bad of black RTV on the bolts:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1830/...75fde8ae_c.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/875/2...3d75fb67_c.jpg

The gasket kit came with some rubber seals to go on the ends, and I started off using them but they did not seal after I torqued everything down. So, I needed to take everything back apart and used a thick bead of black RTV instead.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1748/...5976eef8_c.jpg

Installed! (The base anyway...)
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1726/...c8dd22c7_c.jpg

Next I was on to getting the transmission cleaned up. I have decided to paint it, so I needed to get it nice and clean for good adhesion.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1728/...b9462321_c.jpg

I also took the time to clean off a lot of the excess RTV for a cleaner look:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1754/...88fc01ed_c.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/895/4...5e5c6f5d_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1810/...a0174cec_c.jpg

That's all for now, hoping some more progress this weekend!

Hit a big milestone this week! My engine bay is finally painted and I'm ready to start putting some parts back on the car! What a long process that was... I spent a ton of hours cleaning, prepping, cleaning again, masking off all the areas that I didn't want to paint, cleaning again, getting my new HVLP gun set up, cleaning up one last time and finally laying down the primer, color and clear coats. I think it came out great and I'm pumped with the results!

For the prep, I first degreased the whole engine bay and then scuffed it with a red ScothBrite pad. I then used Prep-All solvent and some blue shop rags and I kept cleaning and cleaning until the wipes did not show any more dirt. I followed that up with some isopropyl alcohol as a final prep step.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/841/4...439d2a97_c.jpg

I applied some new seam sealer around the edges of the engine bay where the factory stuff had gotten dried out. This stuff is super tacky and I made the mistake of not using gloves... won't do that again! Then I hit any bare metal areas with some self-etching primer:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1786/...6b8c633e_c.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/845/4...ff19808c_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1767/...1618dfcf_c.jpg

Then came the fun part. I had never used an HVLP gun before so this was all new to me. Luckily I had some good guidance from a friend at a local body shop who helped make sure I had all the right equipment and supplies I needed. I used Eastwood Urethane primer and laid on 2 coats and let it dry overnight:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1809/...3bd5a1f3_c.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/917/4...8f6fe89e_c.jpg
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1762/...823cdf7d_c.jpg

2 days later, I sanded to surface with 600 grit and began the cleaning process again. The color was MUCH thinner than the primer and was way easier to work with in terms of mixing it and cleaning my gun afterwards. I put on one coat of color as it covered really well:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1825/...329fb540_c.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/924/4...02234242_c.jpg

The color I chose for the engine bay was Audi Nardo Grey. I was inspired to choose a pretty basic, contrasting color for the engine bay based on some inspiration from the Big Red Camaro. The lighter engine color is used in race cars to easier spot leaks, and I think it just looks plain cool and really "purposeful", which is the theme I am going with for this car. I think the grey will look good against the grey and silver stripes down the side of the car as well. Here is the Big Red Camaro engine bay:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1824/...4ef6bbe6_b.jpg

After the color, I quickly cleaned out my gun and got the clear ready. Again I went with Eastwood and one of their less-expensive clearcoats. I put on 2 light coats followed by one medium coat with 10mins in between each coat. It turned pretty good...not perfect, but OK for an engine bay and pretty good for my first time:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/836/4...40368ee2_c.jpg

I haven't decided if I am going to wet sand the paint yet and seal it with some sort of ceramic coating, but either way I'm very excited as I feel like I have hit a major milestone in the project! Parts can start going back on now! :gitrdun::headspin::cheers::cheers:

car is looking great and really coming along..not sure what your settled on for cam choice? but GM makes the "hot cam" designed for the motor if you're looking for a small step up.

Looks great! Nice job on the prep, paint and color choice. Sometimes less is more. It's always the best feeling when you get to put stuff back together for final assembly and everything's nice and clean! Keep up the good work!

Thumbs up!!

Good job. I think the color choice for the engine bay is spot on. :thumbsup:

Nice job, looks great. :)