Rechecked and torqued all the suspension bolts today and the wife and I took a drive to go out to dinner tonight with it. I have to admit it fun getting the thumbs up signs and people waving when it's out on the road.

Put our chevelle back in its parking spot inside the shop from where we took it out cruising yesterday.

Pulled the intake off mine today....

Not good news....

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/o...g?t=1349714090

http://i375.photobucket.com/albums/o...g?t=1349714051

Wow,what happened to cause that ?

Ouch! I'm sure it's happened before but I've never seen a pic of a roller that broke loose and turned like that.

Sorry about that, looks like some serious work to fix it.

Not really sure of the exact reason it happened, and not sure I will actually know for sure. Ultimately I had a mechanical failure of some sort with the lifter tie-bar breaking which is now somewhere deep within the motor. Unfortunately, the entire motor will now need to be removed and disassembled.

Talking to one of the major part suppliers, he indicated that typically the only time something like this would happen is if the lifter was installed upside down. Both the builder and I discussed this and he is pretty positive this did not happen but as we all know, accidents can and do happen. Either way, once the tie bar is found I will send it in and see about getting the lifters warrantied. Still means I have to replace the cam after only being about a month old.

Guess if there is any good news to be had it is the following. With the motor being pulled I am going to take the opportunity to swap from the -3cc flat tops to a small dome which should bump my compression 1/2 to 1 full point. Hoping/expecting to put the car over 500 rear wheel once it all goes back together.

Had a few events planned for the month that I will now miss unfortunately... Was glad to attend a small local show last weekend and take home a top 20 award. Pretty fitting deal with my car as it seems I get 2-3 weeks of enjoyment before something happens or I start my next project.

What brand of lifters? I like Morel for builds like yours. (personal preference)

Morel 4603

Oh wow... that's a first. :(

So I keep hearing.

O WOW!! sorry to see that man! hope everything turns out ok! i hope its as easy as just changing the cam and lifters man!

Ouch is right. I have a roller cam, going to see what lifters they used in it now.

Because of the metal in the block, the motor will need to be pulled and gone through

These were pretty high end lifters from Morel for my application but hopefully it was a fluke deal and I have the only Morel Lifter bar failure known to man due to natural, mechanical causes.

Anyway, back to your normally scheduled programming!

Oh crap Eric!!!!! :eek:
Did this happen right after I saw you on Saturday?

Best I can guess, it happened Sunday morning on the way out to Alpharetta for the C&O Cruise-in. Heard some ticking when I got off the interstate just before getting to the cruise-in but nothing too bad. Drove it home and it made a few interesting noises and the ticking eventually stopped. Was checking it out Sunday afternoon and noticed the timing had jumped from 18 to 26 initial (Had a full take of 100 octane so it didn't seem to ping/detonate on the cruise.) I knew the car was running bad if you tried to accelerate but was attributing it to an ignition problem. Anyway, pulled the valve cover and realized the rocker was not moving so off came the intake.

yeah i know i was just saying i hope you can pull the motor drop the pan its right there and its easy to fix and clean

Oh man Eric, sorry to hear about your issues.

I was logging in here to say that I took mine out to a friend of mine who live about 40 miles away, out in the country. First real expressway ride, and ride with grumpy, since getting her back on Friday. She shifts awesome now.

Today I moved the Chevelle over in the garage for storage for the winter. Hated to put it away but it's time.

http://chevelleforum.org/picture.php...pictureid=3017

http://chevelleforum.org/picture.php...pictureid=3018

We took 2 of our boys for a nice brisk top down ride last night and snuck into the bodyshop where my truck now lives to see the progress .Probably wont get any time with the Chevelle tonight but might go for another peak at the truck later today.

given a new intake today
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...-10-51_276.jpg

going to blast the rest of the paint off the intake tomorrow and bolt it on :)
anyone need a t-2 big block intake cheap :)

I just look at mine as I walk by it in the garage. I'll get back on it before too long. The shop is getting busier, so my projects have to wait a bit until I get caught up again.

Gonna pick mine up today from the shop , I had new valve covers, spark plug wires, and new power booster and master cylinder installed. I just got my dustshields today from GU so I might install those in the afternoon.

Put some stabilizer in the tank,filled it up and put on 8 miles to get everything hot and circulated in preparation for his winter sleep.

Going to tow mine to the shop Monday and being the motor rebuild, round 2.5!

Ordered some new "track" wheels this evening as well!

Need to get rid of these 15x10 rallys now I suppose.

Went to the swap meet today and found some original cowl induction parts to replace some of the reproduction parts I had to use to get the car going this last summer.

I am still looking for an original hood door Ray, if you find a spare - consider it sold! I really don't want to use the repro part, I can tell it is going to take a lot of time to get it to fit my original GM hood. :(

took of my intake manifold and went to put the new one in but had a friend come over who needed help with her car

Started her up pulled her out of the garage. We had lent a friend our compressor and the only way to get it into the garage is to pull my car out. When I pulled her back in, I wished there were a few more nice weekends before her winter slumber. Who knows, maybe I will make it to the Packard Proving grounds this weekend for their last show of the year.

Motor came out and was sent out to be balanced today

Ordered new fully assembled buckets with TMI sport covers along with a console to replace the bench/column shift. Will be a month or two before these will be ready to go in.

Picked up a 74 Chevy ramp truck (with a 90 suburban front end) to tow the car around to the track with as well!

Been a busy week thus far!!

We need pics of the ramp truck now .

;)

It certainly is not pretty! I'll get some in the next week... It is sitting at the shop to have the winch welded on right now.

Oh, and I blame you for the bucket seat conversion! After your post the other day I started thinking about bucket seats and that is never a good thing!

Glad I could help out with the seat conversion LOL ,Im still considering it on ours .

I vote bucket seats, more comfortable on those long drives you make flash.

Didn't do anything with my car today. Hoping to get her out in the next 10 days before she goes into storage. I have a wedding cake to make, so the next 3 days are too busy to take her out.

We continue to drive the wheels off of ours .

I got my hood fixed and all the front end sheet metal lined up. :D :D :D

Nothing exciting here just more cruisin in the Smoky Mountains with the top down looking at the fall leaves ,pretty nice day .

I hope you enjoyed it. Today was 70+ degrees in the morning. After lunch the bottom dropped out of the thermometer and it was down in the 40's by the time I was done working. :eek:

got the t56 finally in place on the trans mount and everything :)

I ashamed to say mine is just sitting in the garage with a cover over it. Need to put some gas stablizer in the tank and fire it up for a while.

I drove mine to work on friday the 1st time since last year, all the guys loved seeing it restored and I let them take it for a spin. They said its a blast to drive.