'66 Le Mans...keeping the Pontiac Spirit alive

[Justin@EntropyRad]

Will be watching where it goes..is that an S13 in your avatar?

[PBarkley]

Originally Posted by Justin@EntropyRad

Will be watching where it goes..is that an S13 in your avatar?

Yup...my old 240SX.



'91 model, swapped in a CA18 that had a Forced Performance 20G hybrid turbo and some headwork. She wasn't the most polished 240 out there, but she was very well rounded. I still miss it at times...it was good for harassing most of the Mustangs and Camaros I came across on the street, haha.

Also, I might be shooting you a PM around the time I get the engine back in the LeMans. I think I saw you posting somewhere on YB.com and I checked out y'all's website, and I'm definitely gonna need a new radiator for the car.

[PBarkley]

Another quick update during my Thanksgiving break...finals are next week, and then I've got plenty of work to catch up on with the car.

Had to chase out several holes for the ARP head studs, but they went in smoothly and everything is torqued down with fresh Cometic MLS gaskets. Also got the timing cover, water pump and backing plate installed, and went ahead and threw on the fuel pump and harmonic balancer.







Also picked up the headers, ended up going with Doug's full length ceramics.



Rockers arrived the day before Thanksgiving, had my pushrod checker waiting on standby and verified the lengths for the new pushrods immediately. I'm still waiting on my guy to finish with the carb rebuild, and I've also gotta source the hardware to install the oil pump and the windage tray before I can throw the pan back on. The goal is to get the engine broken in on the engine dyno, mated to the transmission and in the car before I go back school on 15Jan.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving, and I hope the space under y'all's Christmas trees is overflowing with new parts, haha.

[Panteracer]

Peter,
Good to see another Pontiac with a Poncho motor

Bob

[Gscherer78ta]

Did you check those chambers for Volume? The info I have and the chambers I measured on my #46 heads says they are 73cc chambers and when I checked them I got 72cc. Mine had press in rockers as well which I drilled and taped for screw in and I enlarged the exhaust valve to 1.77 on my 400 build.

[PBarkley]

Originally Posted by Gscherer78ta

Did you check those chambers for Volume? The info I have and the chambers I measured on my #46 heads says they are 73cc chambers and when I checked them I got 72cc. Mine had press in rockers as well which I drilled and taped for screw in and I enlarged the exhaust valve to 1.77 on my 400 build.

I didn't do any sort of fluid measurement like you suggested...I went by the chart on Wallace Racing, my date code indicated that they came off a 1969 400, and it didn't give a chamber volume. It simply said 10.0 CR, and my valve size matches what the chart indicated. Leap of faith in hindsight, but all sources I had recommended using the charts from Wallace.

[PBarkley]

Originally Posted by Panteracer

Peter,
Good to see another Pontiac with a Poncho motor

Bob

Sorry I missed this the other day, haha.

I've caught flak from a number of people saying "just go LSx blah blah blah" but I think that would kinda ruin the point of the car.

Hell, I'll go with an IAII block before I go LS in this car.

[PBarkley]

Digging this thread back up, as it has proven to be a valuable way to track the history on this build haha.

So...2015 was my last update, and here we are in 2022. I left the Savannah area in 2016 and returned to the Atlanta area and this project slowed to a crawl until I was able to buy our current house in 2017. While I'm no longer adjacent to a fantastic race track, I do have a dedicated workspace for the car as the house has a basement with a drive-in garage in addition to our upstairs garage! It has proven to be a nice adjustment over the previous cramped garage, but ultimately I will still want to have a standalone building for the shop.

Anyway! Updates!

- The car runs and drives!
- I've nearly completed an entire re-wire of the car (not a hard task, but was absolutely necessary as the original wiring was desperately needing replaced)
- Rear end is factory posi trac unit with 3.55 gears
- Front and rear windshield pans have been replaced
- VintageAir setup nearly complete, I just need to charge the A/C system. Heater system has already been leak checked and pressurized up to operating temp
- Still need to buy BMR sway bars

Hoping to have the last few mechanical kinks worked out in the next few weeks and then I will be taking the car down to my parents in Central GA in anticipation of getting it painted, and then begins the fun task of putting the interior back together!

[camcojb]

Thanks for the update. Post some pics when you have time.