66 Fairlane Hardtop gets a birthday

[BruceS]

Andy, what color is that?  The photos look like a light violet, and probably metallic.  Looks like the painter did an outstanding job too.  Thanks, Bruce

[Bolted to Floor]

The car looks amazing and in less than a month. I heard cars could be painted that fast outside of a TV show, but never saw it. Congrats for being the chosen one.

[66FAIRLANE]

Its a 1980's Honda colour. Purpley, silvery & yes metallic. It wasn't a full bare metal job. He just repaired the bad bits, buzzed the lot back & shot the whole car. Never seen it look so good.

[66FAIRLANE]

Just a brief update. Travel, family commitments & a persistent back injury have meant time not a lot of time on the car. I have managed to get the windscreen trim & wiper panel back on. Very scary procedure on a freshly painted car! The window mechanisms were very tight so out they came & had a soak in petrol. Several soaks & lots of compressed air later they were ready to lube. I used boat trailer bearing grease in the gear mechanism & silicon spray lube on rollers & spring area. The spring was prised open with a screwdriver for cleaning & lube. Managed to get them back in & one window yesterday. The difference is amazing. Have placed more sound deadener inside the doors on the outer skin & am doing more now in the boot (trunk ). Have my block back from the machine shop. They hit porosity in one of the bores & fitted a sleeve. I now have to dummy it up for zero deck & return it. Hardest thing is finding the time & having my back hold up.

[66FAIRLANE]

Getting more done as my back allows. Have full interior back in car, boot (ok,...trunk) fully sound deadened with carpet & battery box back in.
Managed to dummy up the block for final decking yesterday. I just used one rod & piston & cycled it through the 4 holes. Checked with a depth mic & then straight edge & feeler gauges to confirm. Will most likely gap the rings while I still have the block & then while it is at the shop I can assemble pistons, rods & rings in preparation. A few pics.

[jayb]

Looks good!  Your machine shop should indicate or reference off the crank centerline, which will correct the variation in deck heights.

[66FAIRLANE]

Got my block back from the machine shop zero decked. On to my bench, cam bearings installed & rear plugs in. One of them a previous owner had taped UNC so a special plug was made from a bolt.









I then had to wrestle the block onto my stand by myself due to the Chinabateatingfuckwit disease isolation. So I thought I would do the right thing and at least wear Chinese safety boots! Probably the last time as the weather is turning cold here. Block got painted, more plugs in, bottom end and cam in and all clocked up. That's how it sits now.

[gdaddy01]

no wonder your back hurts , we do what we have to do , don't we ?

[66FAIRLANE]

That's for sure, we do what we gotsta do. It does bite back sometimes though. This was well dodgy and a bit scary as the fold out trestle the block was on is piss weak and was wobbling all over the shop. A deep breathe and a drink was had when it was safe on the stand!

[66FAIRLANE]

Not much of an update but I have made some progress. Bottom end is in and heads back on. Currently measuring up the manifold as its going to need a tickle to sit properly. Looks like a bit of an angle top to bottom on one side (005 to 0020) and a straight 020ish off the other side. Also dummying the rocker assemblies to see if everything clears the holes. There is some evidence on some close conversations between pushrods and the bottom of the pushrod holes in the manifold. Also between retainers and underside of rockers as pictured.

I checked my valvetrain geometry mathematically. I measured the height of the fulcrum point of the valve (centre of rocker roller) from the rocker stand pad. Then deduced how far that was at mid lift (taking lash into account). Then for the rocker to be perpendicular to the valve at this point (line between valve fulcrum & shaft fulcrum) how far off the pad my rocker shaft centre had to be. This will give the same arc travel above & below midlift thus giving the smallest tip pattern & maximum use of rocker ratio...……...I think. Anyway the figures ended up that I need the shafts 050 higher. For a street engine I think this is close enough so won't be shimming stands.....unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Heres a few pics.

[mbrunson427]

That's looking great!

[66FAIRLANE]

Have my manifold back from the machine shop. It needed a bit of a nibble to sit down properly. .020 to .030 on one face & a straight .020 off the other. I dummied it up with rocker gear again and the tubes on one side are very close. They may again 'lend their support' to a few pushrods....or maybe not. I did a little blending on the sides & roof of the port & it is ready to fit on permanently. I also have my sump cleaned and painted ready to go. Just need to clean up some more bits & it's full steam ahead. Seems like I spend most of my time cleaning stuff!

[funsummer]

Andy,
As a fellow Aussie with a love for the FE, can i ask what your comp ratio/ fuel/ timing/ cam @ 0.50 stats are?
i have a machined block on the stand and all parts that i have to build and i am concerned i might end up with comp just to high. i see you got flat tops so that gives me hope!!
I am in west Aus and everyone i speak to recommends running 95 not 98. General thoughts are the 98 is very inconsistent.
Lovely thread, great colour and good work on your behalf.
Hope the back holds out.
Joel

[66FAIRLANE]

Hi Joel
Which heads do you have? The Edelbrock heads were about the only affordable head back when I first built this. The chamber sorta suits both 390 & 428. Unless you have pop ups or purely flat the compression is never going to be crazy with these heads on a 390. I didn't measure the chambers this build because it is what it is. Years ago when I did, the chambers were bigger than the Edelbrock spec anyway. I have zero decked this block & with the head facing over the years and the 10cc reliefs in the pistons it will probably just approach 10:1. I have never had detonation issues with multiple different carbs & now EFI. BUT I have always had a fairly slippery converter & they cover a multitude of tuning sins. With my old cam of 240/245@050 and a 110 split I used 18 degrees of initial with a quick curve up to 38 total & no vacuum (old converted YL twin point). I have not run the cam in this build for about 23 years and then it was in an old worn out engine with poor exhaust & it went surprisingly well. So I am looking forward to seeing how it runs in a fresh build. It will have more dynamic compression & I have pulled some converter out but I still don't think detonation will be an issue. I always use BP 98 without problems.

[66FAIRLANE]

Slow progress but getting closer.