Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

SShink · 3K+ Club

Yet another 'New Heartbeat' for the Malibu

67ss · 1K+ Club

I suspect they are using the Gm hot cam in this engine with the fact of the 1.6 rocker arms. Bryan’s engine made about the same numbers with the hot cam and ported vortec heads. The hot cam if I remember is 224/224 duration and 525/525 lift with 1.6 rockers.

SShink · 3K+ Club

I think you're spot on Chris P. I followed Bryan once in his Chevelle going to the Anoka show, and remember I really liked how his car sounded. Hopefully, mine will be similar. It's not all about the sound, but it's a part of the experience.

Larry Lucast · Active Member

Since the advent of YouTube, whenever I am planning an engine build, I make a preliminary design, then search YouTube just to listen to one running.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Larry Lucast wrote:
Since the advent of YouTube, whenever I am planning an engine build, I make a preliminary design, then search YouTube just to listen to one running.

Great minds think alike Larry. Trust me, I've been all over the internet finding any YR1 crate 350 videos or clips to listen to.

SShink · 3K+ Club

The new heartbeat has arrived! The truck showed up over lunch, and while the driver wasn't happy helping me pull it up the driveway on the pallet jack (supposed to be 'end of driveway' drop off, so I get it that he probably wasn't supposed to help me), it's in the garage now.

Everything looks o.k. so far from the shipping, and the included dyno sheet shows Peak Torque at 432 ft. lbs and Peak HP at 402. The good news on the torque is that at 3000 RPM it's almost 400 ft. lbs. and peaks at 4300 rpm, so a nice flat torque band in the mid RPM range. Should be a well behaved street engine with plenty of torque.

They did share the roller cam specs on the sheet included with the engine as follows; 220/224 @50 .528in/.536ex on 112LSA. So Chris P., you were pretty darn close.

67ss · 1K+ Club

Makes as much torque as the 383 did. Can't wait to here it run.

Lost in the 60s · President

Um, you paid $65 for lift gate door delivery and the driver wasn't happy he had to help drag it up the driveway ? He should have backed up and dropped it in your door.

Good to see it got there all safe and sound.

Jon H · 1K+ Club

New garage walls, new engine, a great start to the new year!

SShink · 3K+ Club

Since it FINALLY got over 30 degrees outside, I heated up the garage and did a bunch of engine and parts, so the engine is pretty close to being ready to drop in. Now I need a day in the 40's to power wash the engine bay on the car so that I can paint that next.

I did find the tensile strength limits of the cheap brass oil gauge adapter and snapped it off inside the block. Luckily an easy out took it right out and I had a spare that I didn't torque as much, so all is good. Chris P. and Chris S. would have been proud of me that I over torqued it, since when I pulled the 383, I found a lot of fasteners that weren't as tight as they should have been. One of the pics shows the broken adapter.

Felt good making some progress again.

Sorry for the sideways pics...I can't figure out how to rotate them. They're correct in my pic files, but the site is flipping them.

SShink · 3K+ Club

More progress today thanks to some warm weather around 50 degrees and 'working from home'.

Ran the garden hose upstairs from the hot water heater so that the water was good and hot, mixed in some soap, and I had pre-soaked things with Purple Power degreaser, and things came off pretty well. I've got a little degreasing by hand to do, and some wire brushing, but shouldn't be too big of a job.

I did find a few nuts from some previous inhabitants, so that was interesting...

The thing I was VERY happy about is i took the stainless strip at the bottom of the windshield by the wipers off with a large fear of finding big rust holes, but it was 99% solid! What rust was there was very minimal, and surface only. I'll throw some rusty metal primer there when I'm painting the engine bay and will hit it with the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black paint I'm using. Also looks like someone made a swan out of the seam sealer. Must have been a Friday afternoon assembly. lol

Hope to get it completely prepped tomorrow and at least the large areas painted.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Great news Stan. If you’re under the hood of a muscle car spring must be must be close.

SShink · 3K+ Club

Spent some quality time with the Malibu this weekend huffing paint fumes while getting the engine bay ready to hopefully drop in the engine later this week.

I'm not sure which makes more sense whether to take everything apart to clean/paint or do it in place that required a ton of masking and crawling in and out of the engine bay.

I decided to install the rain/dust shields on the inner fenders, and while pleased with the outcome, man that was a pain drilling the holes and bending the staples underneath! This is the first Chevelle I've had in a long time with the shields in place, but I do like how it cleans up the engine compartment.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

On my 66 in addition to the shields for the control arms they also had shields for between the inner fenders and the frame. Years can be different. Does yours also have those shields?

BLyke · 1K+ Club

The dust shields look good! when is the transplant scheduled for?

69SSConv · Active Member

I agree! When I did mine, I remember it being very slow and tedious work. Can't say I want to do it again.

SShink · 3K+ Club

BLyke wrote:
The dust shields look good! when is the transplant scheduled for?

Hopefully later this week/weekend.

SShink · 3K+ Club

jim larson wrote:
On my 66 in addition to the shields for the control arms they also had shields for between the inner fenders and the frame. Years can be different. Does yours also have those shields?

No shields between the inner fender and frame. There's a gap there of up to 1/4", so not very well sealed.

SShink · 3K+ Club

She's running on ship's power now! Took an extra day off this week and got it up and running Friday afternoon. Had some help from the northside Chris team, so appreciate that guys.

I've got about 35 miles on the break in so far, and really like how it's running. The little bit I got on it felt even stronger than the 383, so happy about that too. Now that I have good vacuum for brakes, I found the next weakest link as now one of the drums is pulling to the right. Need to get the front disk conversion done next.

Now it's time to get the rest of the break in miles on it for the next oil change.

Here's a video of it idling:

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Looks great sounds great! Thirty-five miles, looks like you’re the first out this spring.

bowtie · Secretary

Sounds good Stan!

Lost in the 60s · President

The brake pulling could be rust. The drums rust and will pull until they get cleaned off.

Sounds very similar to the "other" engine, so you didn't lose much power...

SShink · 3K+ Club

Lost in the 60s wrote:

Sounds very similar to the "other" engine, so you didn't lose much power...

Went for another drive last night, and only 50 miles left before the 200 mile oil/filter change, then I can really find out. I've only had it up to a little over 4000 rpm a few times per the break in instructions. Gotta say, this engine is as strong, if not stronger, than the 383 with better throttle response and the torque curve just seems in a better place as it just keeps pulling.