Well, I will be picking up my balanced and blueprinted 364 from the engine shop Saturday. She is absolutely stunning...but I am the proud papa. Thought I would show you all and ask your opinions.

I added satin finished Eelco finned valley pan and covers, for a little better seal and a different look. Am I the only one who sees the beauty in this engine?

Made it a four barrel with dual exhaust, as it was a special with a two pot and single exhaust. Freeman's in Montana has been excellent for parts, and my engine builder loved building this motor. Ballanced to 4/10ths of a gram front to back...is that a bit overkill?

Wow!, if it runs as good as it looks, you'll have the hottest 57 on the block!. Nice job!

Heck no, you are not the only one who thinks a nailhead is a thing of beauty. Way to go!

SSs...sweet. Dandy Dave!

Great work! There's nothing I like more than a freshly painted engine. The valve covers add just the right amount of flash to it without looking aftermarket. Nice.

Thanks for the comments guys. Now I have two problems: It is too nice to put in the car...I just want to look at it! And: Now the rest of the car needs to be brought up to this condition! There really is not such thing as doing a car half way is there? It is all or Nothing. Sigh...

1. It's NOT too nice to put in the car. I wish all my engines looked as nice as that. All fine automobiles DESERVE an engine that looks that good. It BELONGS in the car.

2. If you don't put it in the car, you can't drive it and enjoy it. You have to run it to enjoy it. As you look at it on the stnad, just picture the day you have the entire car in this condition and you're pulling into a local cruise spot causing the chiropractor's business to jump by all the necks snapping to see your ride. Those thoughts should be more inspiration to "git er done".

A very nice job there. I can't wait to see finished pictures. Next week maybe.

I have high hopes for it to be going back together this weekend. Here is what is DONE DONE...firewall and inner fenders all stripped and repainted in semi-gloss. Wiring has been gone through and cleaned up, all wires stripped of a coating of black spray bomb (spray cans can be our friends when used properly) Frame painted with POR-15. All removable underhood tin has been blasted and powder coated semigloss black. Radiator recored and painted (heater core is also done. Power steering box in and hooked up. Waiting on motor. All Accessories are rebuilt, rebearinged and sealed. Ready to go back together. Photos to follow.

By the way - here are a few shots to give you all an idea of what I started with. A half brush painted firewall, wrong color engine painted over 50 years of grease, overspray everywhere - but the good news - NO RUST anywhere. 50 years of leaking valve covers were good for something!

Looks great...I know what you mean about wrong colour - my '62 V6 was painted incorrectly as well...sigh.

On a side note, were all battery hold downs that orange colour? I purchased one (forget for which car) which appears to be the same colour as in the photo. The one for my '56 is fairly uniformly surface rust colour.

My battery hold down was missing, and I found this NOS piece on ebay. It was an aftermarket unit made under the name Kan't Karrode. It is basically a heavy plastic halo that holds the battery down. Most cars I have seen have a black steel halo around the battery. This one came in a tattered original box.

Further UPDATE: Engine is in and exhaust is done. Will be finishing up everything and taking it over to the engine shop for the final time for them to do the initial start-up on it on Saturday.

And I have already swapped the tensioner to the back side of the generator. That was a weak moment on the brain at 11 pm.

Very nice....keep the updates coming. Can't wait to see the pic where you're behind the wheel cruisin' down the road.

me either!

UPDATE: Engine has just failed at the motor shop. It may have just been a rocker stud, but it was running and up to temp for 10 minutes and there was a sudden bang and the motor stopped. Pulled a rocker cover and found a broken rocker stud. They are pulling the motor now to determine the failure and the extent of the damage.

I will keep you all posted.

Oh Man! What a shame. That thing looked so good. Hope it's repairable.

I hope that a machine shop mistake that happened to me twice did not happen here. Generic shims were placed under the outter valve springs and covered the recess in the head for the inner valve spring resulting in binding. It too ran for a few minutes and stopped. We found bent pushrods, bent and broken rocker shafts, broken rocker towers, broken rockers, bent cam and cracks in block at the central cam webbing. I caught the mistake on the second engine...this was after I insisted that they pay particular attention to this...I have heard of other nailheads dying this way.

Willie

Old Tank: Thank you for that. I will pass on that information and be sure to have them look for cracks in the places you mentioned. The shop called me at 3:25 to tell me what had happened. By the time I arrived at the shop, it was 5:15; the motor was back out of the car and torn down (completely!) Determined the #7 exhaust valve had stuck in a seat (seat retainer broke) and kept that valve down, it struck the piston, forcing it into the rocker which then inpacted the pushrod, bending it. The shop is standing behind their work, and not charging me a dime for anything, as they put it, "It's on us...our fault!" Parts had already been ordered for delivery tomorrow from California. They are replacing ALL of the valve train and all of the rods to ensure everything is copensetic. Further, they are magnafluxing the heads and checking all remaining internals before reassembling the engine. They are not just looking at the #7 cylinder.

Old Tank,

Very useful info, the engine in our Caballero gonna need a rebuild and I will keep that one in mind. 57Wagon did they determine why it got stuck (the valve)?

Cheers Dyna

PS: Good luck now and hope you will get the wagon with working engine back so you can enjoy the summer in it...

What was determined is that the exhaust valve somehow gaulled and became stuck in the valve guide on the # 7 cylinder. Everything was where it was supposed to be, so we are not sure why this happened. Could have been a bad guide, a small piece of metal found it's way into the area, or the valve nicked the guide.

They replaced the guides, and added more clearance to the top of the valve by shortening the guides, then rehoned them. By shortening the guides we should eliminate contact with the broad end of the valve if that is indeed what happened. The engine should be done this weekend.

An FYI on your engine Dyna: Do not let them replace the valve seats on your heads with hardened seats. There is not enough meat between the valve seats and the water jackets on our engines to do that and you will more than likely get water leaks and engine damage by doing so. My engine guys were told this by a Nailhead expert out of California.