Progress Is Made

"MM54" (mm54mk2) 12/27/2018 at 22:10 • Filed to: '71Chevelle

3

5

Survived the nasty cold over Christmas, got home today and decided to finish getting the Chevelle ready for engine removal. I went a little further than that.

Coworker stopped by to borrow a 3-jaw puller and provide moral and “what the hell is it caught on now” support

With the 307 out and on the stand (not pictured) for the sake of it-has-to-be-somewhere, the next step is to finish stripping parts from the firewall and begin the reconditioning of that area, working forward .

Once free from the chassis, the engine immediately did a 180 to look at where it’s been for 47 years. This made it easy to remove the clutch/flywheel and get it on the engine stand.

Relatedly, I stopped by the machine shop that has my 350 block last week and we finalized the plan for the bottom end. Parts are on order and machine work will begin soon (I’m doing the assembly, but having parts sent there so they can bore/hone accordingly, etc.).

lone_liberal > MM54 12/27/2018 at 23:06

0

Nice! That 350 will be a huge improvement on that sad 307. I can’t wait until my smog-headed 350 gets either switched out or transformed.

MM54 > lone_liberal 12/27/2018 at 23:23

0

The 307 runs very well, but burns a ton of oil and never made all that much power in the first place. It’s got just over 100k on it and is very much ready for retirement.

An equivalent-year-stock 350 would be a pretty good improvement for sure; the engine I’m building is certainly not that, though. It’s a 350 block, but it’ll be displacing 383ci when I’m done with it ;)

Urambo Tauro > MM54 12/27/2018 at 23:56

1

Wrenching on the clutch out in the open like that is too easy. It feels like cheating.

lone_liberal > MM54 12/28/2018 at 00:22

1

My ‘71 Camaro originally had a 307 from the factory but it was replaced by a ‘77 truck engine at some point. That 350 runs really  well and doesn’t burn oil but it’s gutless as hell and it does drip a little out of the rear main seal. It would be a good block to use for a build but I dream of a 383 crate engine.

MM54 > Urambo Tauro 12/28/2018 at 11:17

2

It’s a nice change of pace. This clutch has like 150 miles on it, and it kills me to say it but I don’t think it’s going to hold up behind the new engine (it’s a relatively cheap ‘zoom’ stock replacement clutch kit) . Not really sure what to do with it, it’s not even broken in the whole way !