W72 Pontiac 400 new pics!

I decided to send some pictures of the 400 Pontiac engine I stripped to the core.
This is before the hot tanking and core plug removal. That happens next week at Beatty & Woods. The engine is standard bore and completely stock. I got a nasty surprise with the crankshaft. It is scored big time. I included a close up of the bearing journals so you can see the ridges between rod bearings. It looks like the owner ran it hard without fresh oil. I'm amazed the crank didn't seize or snap. The tolerances were probably too large to seize. I bet it rattled something fierce. Looks like I need new crankshaft and rods for sure.
Notice the split dowel pins in the main bearing saddles? Pontiac started doing this in 1976 or so on their W72 blocks to reduce stress under load. It must have worked because this engine was punished for certain and the crank didn't break. It helps that they used Arma Steel as well. The bearing caps and the journals aren't blue so it wasn't heat damage. Just dirty oil and low oil pressure. By the way, this is one of the early W72 units with 40 psi pump and non sump pan. This was built in July 1977.

Famous for 15 seconds, dead forever!

I was watching some YouTube videos of various car wrecks, stunts gone wrong and drag strip crashes when I realized Andy Warhol's quote about everyone being famous for fifteen minutes needed updating. The majority of the videoes were short, a couple of minutes is a long one. The truly nasty ones were a minute or less.
I felt sorry for the guy who lost his Corvette to a nitrous oxide induced fireball right at the start of the dragstrip. Especially when he gets to hear the chortling commentary his callow buddy made on the camcorder. At least he did the right thing. He took it to the strip, wore a helmet and qualified safety personel extinguished the blaze and carted away the remains. My sympathy wanes when it comes to stunt drivers, street racers and assorted lunatics with no respect for safety or human life.
I wasn't going to watch the crash videos. I was watching various engine dyno runs. You Tube had other plans. Those neat "related videos" they stack up soon drift away from intended target. The next thing you know, it's flying bodies and car/bike collisions.
One neat fact the videos demontrate is how safe modern cars have become. Crush zone technology, air bags, anti skid control and a host of other systems make it possible to walk away from accidents that are certifiably fatal with older cars. It doesn't make me want to leap into a Ferrari Testarossa and pile it into a retaining wall at a buck forty. I'm kind of conservative that way, rather be alive and anonymous than famous for 15 seconds and dead forever.

Car Heaven a Good Idea but needs work!

I'm having real trouble accepting Car Heaven's program. Ostensibly, it is a noble effort to reduce excess waste and responsibly recycle reusable materials. It is promoted heavily by auto journalists and backed by the Clean Air Foundation. A look at their web page shows they've done a great job on certain fronts. The gasoline, diesel fuel, oils and lubricants which average 19 liters per vehicle, are being recovered through re use or responsible disposal. The same goes for various parts like gas tanks, CFCs and HCFCs which are regfrigerant liquids and mercury switches.
When it comes to actual engine and drivetrain components and tires, Car Heaven starts slipping off track. It states in the Parts ReUse category that depending on their condition or sale potential parts are dismantled, reconditioned and sold to customers, minimizing the need for manufacturing new parts. So far so good. Then it says none of the parts of the vehicle that contribute to emissions (the engine, transmission, exhaust, electrical system, catalytic converter, sensors, cooling system, distributor and starter) are re used. However, front and rear ends, body panels, wheels, windows and windshields are re sold to customers.

One can only presume the said drivetrain and electrical components are sold to metal foundries and metal vendors since all of the said items are patently re usable. Remember this is for cars 1995 and older. Just where are you going to locate a 2.8 V6 engine eight years from now? The supply of affordable replacement parts is at risk with this program.
The most astounding part of the procedure has to do with the eventual destruction of the car. It is shredded using a machine that pulverises the car into fist sized chunks in minutes. Then magnetic devices are used to separate the ferrous and non ferrous metals for resale. The nonmetallic particles such as rubber, plastics, foam, dirt, glass and metal particles are landfilled.
Plastics, foam rubber, in other words your vinyl interior, dashboard, carpets, headliners, all that stuff made of volatile organic compounds and petrochemical by products are plowed into the ground! This make sense to a group concerned about environmetal stewardship?It smells rotten to me. Putting that stuff in the ground is irresponsible. Car Heaven needs serious work to fix that problem!

Old Autos' 20th Anniversary and a swap meet

Old Autos newspaper celebrated their 20th year in business with a great wine and dine at a golf club near Aberfoyle. It was wonderful to meet so many of the fine writers and enthusiasts that made the paper the number one purveyor of news in Canada. Murray McEwan and Murray Cutler faced a tough battle when they started the paper up as there was no internet to speak of in consumers hands at the time. (It was still mostly a product of university campuses and the military.) Anyway, the party was fabulous, everybody had a good time and I was so overwhelmed by it I forgot to sign the scrapbook McEwan had on the table! So I'm saying it here and now, Happy Anniversary and let's go for twenty more years.
My next big auto adventure is the upcoming 40th annual antique Cars & Parts Flea Market held Dec 2nd at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. It's a great way to see vintage stuff and meet up with collectors before the snow flies. I won't be selling at a booth this time, I cleared out lots of merchandise over the summer and need to restock. It's getting tough to find good parts now. I doubt I'll ever find another 1965 L76 Holley Corvette carburetor or a 1955 Chryco AM radio complete from vacuum tubes to chrome knobs. Those were just two of the beauties I sold to happy restorers this year. Maybe I can unload some Pontiac engine pieces.

Buying a Pontiac W72 engine

This glorious American made V8 performance car engine was silenced about 17 years ago. If you only include big bore engines, add another couple of years to cover the loss of Pontiac's 455 in 1977. When North Americans started restoring muscle cars in the 1980s, the choice of engines in wrecking yards was pretty good. Today, Chevrolet V8 enthusiasts still have ample opportunity to find what they want. What if you're restoring a different brand such as Pontiac, Oldsmobile or something from the full size line such as a Cadillac 472?

They're still out there. With internet auction houses and online classified ads, the entire continent is available for searching. The parts are still hard to find for restorers and if you don't know what to look for, it's easy to pay more and get less. Parts need to be examined in detail and preferably up close. There's only so much a digital camera can display. Another problem that has risen from the "buy it now" button is a reluctance to ask proper questions and making sure the engine or part in question meets your needs.

A good case in point is the engine purchase I made recently for my 1980 turbo Trans Am Special Edition. I restored the car a few years ago doing everything over except the engine because believe it or not, it ran perfectly when I got it seven years ago. This wasn't any trailer queen, but an honest 97,500 kilometer car needing everthing to make it look new. The engine runs fine and it is numbers matching. However I've put seven years of summer driving on it and I'm nervous about driving such a low production engine. They only made the turbo 4.9 V8 for two years. I decided to build a replacement engine to power the car and store the turbo V8 away.

I went on the prowl for a Pontiac V8 and found a nice 1974 455 HO YY code block. It was bored .030 over, had been magnafluxed, hot tanked and included main bearing caps. It needed another hot tank to melt out the cam bearings and check up before ordering new parts. It had spun a rod bearing within 200 miles and the owner gave up on it. I was ready to use that one when I came across another Pontiac V8. This one was complete and even cheaper than the 455. The suffix code Y6 made it a 1977 Pontiac W72 high performance Trans Am engine. It also had the satin chromed valve covers, 6X4 cylinder heads, oil pan, water pump, timing case, pushrod valley cover plus all the little pieces you have to buy if you're using a short block.

Let's look at the math. The 455 was $350 for a bare block ready to hot tank and start over. The 400 W72 was $300 and it came with everything from original oil pan to intake manifold. Buying these little bits and pieces cost money. A replacement timing case is $179. A fuel pump cam and eccentric is $40. Since the engines share the same pieces externally, you end up saving money on the rebuild. Remember this when you see a nice short block for sale. If you don't have the other goodies, some one else has and you'll be paying for them.