Having friends that let you take advantage of them is always helpful when putting a car together. My buddy, Andy McGrath, gave me free reign of his metal and powdercoating shop (ADM in Concord, CA) and this engine is the result (I have since lost free reign). Ok, so I went a little overboard with the powdercoating. Everything is powdercoated in the original GM blue-green. Everything that could be unbolted and baked was powdercoated.The engine was one of the first things to be re-done, especially since it blew up almost as soon as I got it home. A cracked piston was found when the rip-off shop I took it to torn open the Buick 225. The cylinders were bored .030" over with new everything added back in. The oil pump values were machined to increase oil pressure to help ensure that I don't lose another engine due to poor oil circulation.
Everything replaced was either new or rebuilt. The only exceptions were the Delco distributor and the 2-barrel Rochester carb. Both have performed great and I don't see a need to replace them now. They still keep me smog legal too.
Transmission
A rebuilt SM420 transmission and a rebuilt Dana 20 transfer case with the old-style shifter (straight up and back) were also required equipment. The old T-14 3 speed just didn't have the necessary gearing to rock crawl. The transfer case was lowered one inch by welding on 1-inch channel under the frame and having the nuts exposed outside the frame instead of inside. The whole setup is 4"inches longer than stock and this meant getting new drivelines from Tom Woods of Six States drivelines in Utah.
Hydraulic Clutch
While putting in the new transmission, I went ahead and ripped out the clutch cable and installed a hydraulic master and slave clutch cylinders from a 1989 Wrangler. You can see the Chevy fork(cut-off end) and the mounting bracket (angle iron) for the slave cylinder. Foothill 4x4 in Auburn CA sells this kit which also includes the metal brake line with an attached rubber line and the master cylinder.
Brake Lock
You can also see the piece of crap B&M electric brake lock. I have since replaced it twice with a top of the line Hurst electric brake lock. The first Hurst was a piece of crap also. This one has held up for over a year and cost about $150.
Exhaust
New 2 1/2" aluminized steel exhaust piping was installed because the original had to be torched off in order to install the new transmission. I asked Mike at RPM #2 Exhaust shop in Hayward CA, to fab up a custom installation that would allow me to drop the transfer case and transmission without having to disconnect the exhaust. Mike came up with this, putting the cross-over tube in front of the oil pan instead of behind the bellhousing. A new "FlowMaster" type muffler was installed and it sounds sweet. Gota have the chrome tip too!
Steering
A power saginaw steering conversion (which shows how badly I cut through the engine mount) was definitely required after almost running over the gas station's gas pump with the old manual steering. The old Ross steering box was torched off the frame and a new steering linkage was made. This connector allows me to easily pull out the linkage from the box. A 465 4-bolt steering box was attached to the frame using a 1/2" plate welded and bolted to the frame
After my trip to Moab, we decided to rip out all the steering and remake everything. On the trail, my turning radius was terrible (lockers don't help), and the pitman arm was hitting the tie rod because of our poor postioning job of the steering box. So, we had to move the steering box forward two inches. Here is a good photo of the positioning of the 1/2" thick Saginaw steering box adapter plate I made. This was welded and bolted to the frame. Where bolted, the two bolt holes in the frame insert pipe welded in so that the frame would not collapse when tightening the two bolts holding it to the frame. You can also see the mounting location for the shackle reversal installation.
To help eliminate the steering slop, new steering linkage was fabbed up with a Heim joint to help tighten things up. As you can see, I haven't had time to weld up the huge cuts into the engine mount, but I did clean up the torch marks!
