Re: 1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali

by 77mali Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:10 pm

$650 is a good price. Thanks Bill- I'll look into that one! Still waiting for the engine shop quote.... Sleep

by 1973 454 MONTE Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:42 pm

I still have the 74 chevelle 400sb for sale

by G3NUT Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:45 pm

I have a std bore 350 block casting number 3970010 2 bolt main if your interested.
$50.00

by DiscoMalibu Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:56 pm

Figured I might as well add to the outpouring of support. I have a locked up, complete 283 for sale geek

by 77mali Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:34 pm

G3nut-
Just sent you a PM. I'd like to take a peek at it.

Thanks a bunch guys but if i get a used block it will be a local sale.

I appreciate everyone's advice, words of support & encouragement, etc...
I'll "Git 'er Done"!

by 77mali Sun Jun 17, 2012 8:55 pm

Started the engine bay clean up including some steering & suspension work.
http://www.g3gm.com/t5609-center-link-removal-question#49287

Now that the engine is kind of in limbo...might as well. Very Happy

It's funny how much grease & dirt/sand accumulates over the years. It acted as a preservative on some of the parts! These are of both sides, showing the "cleaner" passenger side. Nice shade of GM blue on the spindles!

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030510

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030510

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030511

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030512

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030513

Trans looks decent up front except a bell housing dowel slot which looks likes its shot on the drivers side. Will repair this with "JB Stick" epoxy before the engine goes back in. Have to pull the Trans to install a new gasket for the pan & check it out too.
1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030425

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030425

The firewall is in good shape...I have no idea what the heck this stuff is under the AC/ blower fan housing location? Hopefully it's britle and will come off with a plastic scraper.
1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030426

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030426

by pila Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:04 pm

Are you using that transmission? If so, it's a great time to change that front seal . Idea

by 77mali Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:29 pm

The seal looks to be in new condition. Not even a hint of a leak evident. I am going to pull it & check- it neads a new seal for the pan for sure. You are talking about the bell-housing seal right?

by DiscoMalibu Wed Jun 20, 2012 12:52 am

That mainshaft/input shaft seal where your torque converter slides on. You'd hate to put that back together and then find out it leaks.

If you're going to replace the pan gasket, might as well put a filter in it too. It's cheap enough, unfortunately the ATF isn't. Plus when you do the gasket, the pan gets dimples where the bolts are. Take a block of wood and straighten em out before you reinstall the pan. A film of high-temp RTV won't hurt either. Damn I hate leaks! Mad

Your front suspension is cleaner than mine when I got it all apart. Even your control arm bushings look better. Mine had chunks missing out of them! What a pain they are to replace when you don't have the right tools. Embarassed

What do you plan to do there as far as paint goes?

by 77mali Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:28 am

Thanks for the tip.

Isn't the input supposed to allow fluid into the torque converter? When I took the converter off it had/has clean fluid in it. No evidence of fluid around any of the visible seal materials though.

Paint is still undecided....playing around with some ideas but nothing definate.

by DiscoMalibu Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:05 am

Yes. Pila and I are talking about that orange seal in the picture that sits over the shaft of the torque converter.

I cleaned that crap out of my control arms, spindles and springs. Then gave 'em two healthy coats of POR-15. I was thinking about having them sandblasted and powdercoated but that was the better route on a poormans budget. I wanted something that might hold up better to road dirt and chipping and so on. Undercoat is kinda useless and doesn't really look that great.

I'm going with everything semi-gloss but I think I might leave the suspension parts high-gloss from the POR-15. It's nice to look under the front of an old car and see shiny things. Smile

by 77mali Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:25 am

Por 15 is awesome stuff, it's not UV resistant though. You may want to consider topcoating it. My plan is to coat the suspension parts w/ it too & use Duplicolor engine enamel over them with a Hi Temp clear coat. Headers are right there over the contol arms, very hot in a small area. Powder coats are nice but I don't have the extra $$ either.

by DiscoMalibu Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:58 am

Yeah that's a good point. I painted my frame and firewall with Dupli-color high temp semi-gloss. Of course now everything is bolted on the car and it's be a pain to paint 'em with high-gloss. Why couldn't you have reminded me of this sooner, haha! Oh well, might just do everything in semi-gloss at that rate.
I had considered wrapping my headers to keep the heat down in the engine bay but even the wrap is expensive, arrgh. Mad

by pila Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:05 pm

I suggested the trans front seal replacement because it's cheap insurance against a leak. Moving the torque converter out & into an old seal can sometimes cause a leak if the seal is getting stiffer with age.

by 77mali Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:48 pm

Well finally got the shop to "Listen" after they sent me a quote for just a piston & ring kit... Rolling Eyes

!!! I expect the quote in the next day or two and the good news is that they are going to take my engine block as an even exchange & give me a re-manned block; same casting, to be able to reuse all the lower end parts, including the rear main seal.

Spent some time in the heat this afternoon taking out the pistons. The plan is to save some money by "Self-Disassembly" & to bring the bare block and all the loose parts for them to clean, blueprint/rebalance & reassemble the bottom end. I'm going to have them also assemble the heads, harmonic-balancer & crank pully which will pretty much leave me with only the intake & carb to reinstall. Hopefully she'll be all taken apart/boxed up, etc & off to the shop next week. This will give me an opportunity to focus on the engine bay & suspension so the engine will not have to sit too long before painting & reinstall.
1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030514

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030514

Bearings were in decent shape under the connecting rods and the crank surface looks good too- might only need a good jet wash & very light machine work on the rear near the seal. I did find some very small particles back there but by no means "earth shattering".
1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030515

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030515

The other bearing surfaces look pretty much like this one, which is decent.
1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030517

by 77mali Wed Jun 20, 2012 8:01 pm

pila wrote:I suggested the trans front seal replacement because it's cheap insurance against a leak. Moving the torque converter out & into an old seal can sometimes cause a leak if the seal is getting stiffer with age.

Does this require special tool? I have not dug into it yet in the manual. Just curious & thanks for the tip also!

by DiscoMalibu Wed Jun 20, 2012 11:11 pm

Well you could use a seal puller, it's just a basically a claw that grabs the inside of the seal. A flathead screwdriver will work just fine, just grab it behind the metal edge on the outside and pop it out. For installation, if you're careful you can lightly tap it in, but it has to go in straight, you don't want to distort that metal edge or it'll leak. If you have a large socket or a piece of pipe, thats the better way. Just has to go in straight! Then lube up the rubber part of the seal and slide the converter on.

The crank doesn't look too bad, as long as those journals don't have any deep scratches. Atleast ones that you can't catch your fingernail on. Then you'd have to get a reconditioned crank and oversized bearings. But! You need to pull those main bearing caps, that's generally where you'll find wear like that. A piece of debris will come out of that oil port and score the journal. Mine was fine until I got to the rear main and there was a deep scratch. So I had to get a crank that was cut .010 under and get .010 oversize bearings and check the clearances with plastigauge. That's where hands on engine work gets fun. Smile

by 77mali Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:23 pm

My Crank (for sure) is 14088526 (not 14088528-Mercruiser). To make a long story short- it's the second cheapest crank they sell for a Cast Iron Crank so, nothing too special.

From Summit Racing Website: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-14088526/

Brand= GM Performance, Manufacturer's Part Number= 14088526
Part Type= Crankshafts, Product Line= GM Performance Cast Nodular Iron Crankshafts
Summit Racing Part Number= NAL-14088526

Rear Main Seal Style= 1-piece, Engine Stroke= 3.480", Crankshaft Material= Cast iron
Engine Balance= Internal, Lightened= No, Requires Narrow Bearings= No, Rod Bearings Included= No,
Main Bearings Included= No, Cross-Drilled Mains= No

Rod Journal Diameter= 2.100", Main Journal Diameter= 2.448", Balancer Bolt Thread Size= 7/16-20, Crankshaft Snout Style= Standard
Notes: This crank does not have a pilot bearing.

by pila Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:54 pm

Like mentioned, the seal can be pried out OK. A simple tool to push it back in can be made from a length of 2X4 lumber, about 15 inches long, with a slot cut out of the middle, to fit over the input shaft on the trans, and catch the seal on two sides. I have one like that, that I've used for years, and it still works fine. I even painted it silver, to prevent tossing it out by mistake ! It works on the tail shaft seal too....
The nodular crankshaft has some qualities that have been mentioned by performance guys, and it's a better crank than the old plain cast iron cranks. Of course if a SBC engine is built to push 500 or 600 HP, a forged crank would be the way to go.

by 77mali Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:32 pm

Great idea w/ the 2x4!

The crank is fine for this build, 3.48 Stoke. If I ever wanted to get into that HP range- I'd get me a 427 or maybe even a 396 or 454 BBC.

by 77mali Fri Jun 29, 2012 9:09 pm

Drive shaft is out & trans is ready to come out later this weekend. Was surprised how light the shaft was and how easy it came out. It's one of the short one's into the Trans, looks to be about 6" or so. Under the car needs some serious attention it's rust city on all the rear suspension parts and up in front of the gas tank where the back seat recess is. The shocks are gone and looking at the brake lines, I'm thinking of replacing everything in the rear up to the brake line manifold. There is scale on the rear of the frame but it's in good shape, just looks nasty & will be a dirty job for sure to clean & paint. Thank goodness for wire wheels & drills!

Barf

by 77mali Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:41 pm

When I pulled out the 77 shop manual- they refer to the Trans as a "CBC 350".
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2005/11/01/hmn_feature15.html

Doesn't look too bad. Leak is at the dipstick I think but draining & new filter and pan gasket anyway, along with checking the gaskets and such. CBC 350 is Chevy-Buick combined.

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030617

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030617

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030618

Bell housing bolt pattern will fit all 73-77 A Body cars plus 1986-1999 GM small blocks (Gen I). The cross-member is not what I expected but is in great shape.

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030619

1977 Chevelle Malibu Classic Progress Photo's aka Mali - Page 8 P1030619

by pila Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:44 pm

The basic TH350 was used in most GM cars & trucks of course. Chevy has it's own bell housing bolt pattern, and Buick/Olds/pontiac (BOP) are the same, and also include Cadillac.
Overhaul manuals list a few small differences in the 350, for Olds & Pontiac etc, but nothing major.
While you have the trans out, slide the drive shaft yoke into the tail housing & see if there is any play, up & down etc If there is, it's easy to replace the bushing in the tail housing, by removing that housing & tapping the bushing out from the inside, and replacing the O-ring seal when the housing is bolted back on. Of course you need to replace the seal, even if the bushing is OK, along with the front seal we talked about earlier.

by 77mali Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:24 am

Will do, thanks. Gotta read up on service too & see what else might need inspection & replacing. Right now the plan is to finish draining it & take a look under the pan too.

by DiscoMalibu Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:25 pm

Those darn dipstick seals always leak. Mad

Replace the seal and add a little high temp RTV to it. Once again, I absolutely hate leaks.

Another thing you may want to replace while the trans is out is that shift modulator. That's the little round thing on the back that the vacuum line hooks to. When they go bad the trans won't shift right. Just another bit of insurance to get more life out of that transmission.

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