Stroking a Tired Pontiac 326 for a LeMans Rebuild - MuscleCar S2, E13

muscle cars LeMans project held an ugly secret but it doesn't scare Lu yes he can build engines and yes they run [Music] [Applause] it's time for another muscle car and it's time for me to clean up the mess we made last week usually I can pick the projects that we do but this week the project made that decision for me last week we pulled a frame out from under our 67 LeMans straighten it up and some heat and pulleys added some bracing box in the rails building all the unnecessary holes then sanded it down that was a lot of time and effort and we're not gonna push that frame aside and let the rust reclaim it so today French finishing it off with some primer and chassis finish another reason to continue with it we've got the rear end the transmission the disc brake conversion we've even got the wheels and tires but the butter on your biscuit we've got everything we need to stroke out that tired 326 it was less than 50,000 miles on this rather unappreciated engine take a look at this it looked like it could be trashed but surprisingly it was salvageable so we needed to find a shop familiar with Pontiac engines who else then Butler performance in Lawrenceburg Tennessee the best shops in our industry proof from a passion and that's what makes the Butler's one of the top engine builders in the country horsepower 69 Firebird project was powered by a butler all Pontiac designs aluminum for 74 it had the power to tow you in the trunk so having them handle the Machine work was some fire bead blasting a spinning the tumbler and the bat made this old block look new again then it was time for prep pre-fit and mike everything to make sure it's right before assembly all this would be a waste of time without some high flowing heads and since no one makes them for the 3:26 Butler came through again by hogging out our stock ones you've got to love these guys but before we go any further you've probably noticed that we don't have a clean room to build engines in so my first tip for the day and after a full career in the Navy I figure I'm qualified to show you this you want to fan it out so you get as much coverage as you can two swipes each side dunk it and that'll give us our dust free environment that we need to build our engines and if you do it at home the ladies think it's sexy too bad the block wasn't that easy to clean it's been decked and painted original Pontiac blue and see this is called casting flash and it was plenty of it in here as well they ground it all out for better oil flow unlike your Chevy's one of your Pontiac oil galley plugs is hidden behind this freeze-out plug you want to have a both removed in order to clean the block properly and if your machine shop doesn't know that you may want to find another one something else that's unique about the Pontiac there's only one place to grind to make room for your stroker cranker now this Eagle crank will add a half inch stroke to your 3:26 through 400 that's because they share the same blocks just different bore sizes now for you younger guys who don't know it's stroke and an engine means listen up you older guys tell me how to class when an engine is based on the maximum amount of fuel and air mixture the cylinders can hold rated by cubic inches the more cubic inches the more power you can increase that amount by boring out the cylinders or make the piston travel deeper in the cylinder with the longest stroke of the crank hence the name stroker less machine work less money and it will add more to those torque numbers with the upper bearings and seal in place let's move on to prove that theory Pontiac uses these dowel pins to locate the main caps it also prevents you from putting them on backwards on some engines that is possible we're not giving torque specs because every engine is different but keep in mind it's important to work from the center out these Eagle h-beam Chevy style rods are longer than stock Pontiacs longer rods mean more torque raus custom-made these pistons with a dish for nine and a half to one compression ratio needed to run pump gas we're ready for the heads and look at what we got this is the result of their porting and polishing they outfitted the head for screwin studs and the appropriate Springs for our hydraulic roller cam gasket matched our exhaust ports gave us bigger intake valves and cleaned up the Chamber's these heads allow flow any factory GTO head any day mr. gasket makes an entire kit for this engine torquing down the heads follow the same principle inside out earlier we slid in a hydraulic cam with increased lift from comp cams now we'll follow it up with their roller lifters and rockers this engine will be sucking more air than a stock manifold could ever give so butlers custom tray along with Edelbrock's p65 replica manifold and two of their 500 CFM performance series EFM carburetors will feed it well to light it up malee makes this electronic 57 series brakeless distributor the gear is special order from Butler Performance for this combination our goal was not to show you how to assemble an engine everybody's got their own method on that I wanted you to see our parts combination two bullet three twenty six and who are powerful 375 now there'll be a complete build list on the website but after the break the dyno is gonna tell us how well we did our homework we're back ready for this thing man oh yeah bring it on in and Mike's giving up his afternoon nap to give me a hand the engines together with no real surprises here's what's in the former 3:26 an Eagle crank with a half inch stroke there longer h-beam rods Ross custom pistons for nine and a half to one compression original heads will hog doubt by the Butler boys hydraulic valve train from Comp Cams and Edelbrock took care of all the intake after a 40-minute break in re torquing the heads watch that throttle I'm ready to see if the spurts of the chief are gonna shine on us first-pass 357 horses with some in cartooning will hit that predicted 400 mark but that's not all at 2500 we're making 362 foot-pounds of torque and I are on there right for the street it'd be perfect man we I mean it's perfect cost a little under five grand or about twelve bucks a horsepower not bad while this cools down here's what French got done the first coat was an etching primer really the only thing to use on freshly ground steel followed by two coats of high-gloss industrial enamel from auto body color this is plenty tough for the protection that we need and at least half the cost and time of base coat clear coat applications for those high-end jobs we're gonna put the frame back together starting with these polyurethane bushings from profane and if this was a concours restoration I'd be losing major points for this but these are lasts forever giving a firmer ride by tightening everything up unlike the original rubber which allows for some movement you could use a hammer for all it is but it would take some time and you'll probably end up with one arm looking like Popeyes if your neighbor has an arbor press bring back his tools and make up with them in case you missed it last week we boxed in the original arms for strength and raised the caps to lower the ride height without losing that stock appearance with the inner shaft grease a little more will help get them in place get some more points reduction on the concours but well worth it stainless steel brakes offers a complete disc brake conversion for the B body that board is on a racing application this is all the stuff for the front we haven't even unpacked the rear yet these spindles of really close duplicates of the originals they're modified for more brake options but without screwing up your steering geometry these steering parts is stock we got them from around the corner at O'Reilly except for this steering arm a little touch of the doll it needed even stock parts are fun to put on back to the brakes the hub's are bolted to the rotors in case you need something besides these venting it's slide 13 inches the four oversized Pistons in the aluminum calipers will keep you from calling your insurance agent and these top loading pads are just like the big boys at the track they even threw in some braided line to hook things up now this as far as we can go on our front-end for right now because our brake booster and master cylinder hang on a non-existing firewall we do have the stuff to finish up the rear end though these trailing arms are stamped steel and they have a tendency to flex boxing them will take care of that this 12-volt rear end from OSHA comes with a Detroit true track and these bolts will allow me to lock down the carrier bearing caps reducing gear and barring flex most GM axles are held in place with C clips but these 31 spline axles are held in place with these four nine-inch housing ends using retainer plates to hold them in so if you blow your ring and pinion your axles won't become projectiles the rear brake smart conversion kit use 11 inch rotors and these caliper Pistons rotate as they come out applying even pressure to the pads when braking plus they don't recoil this far later on in this show I'll install the rear end finish up the chassis and if we're lucky we're gonna drop in the engine and back in the early 60s the Impala was no slouch between the years 61 and 65 Chevy was stuff in a certain W had engine between the fenders even if warning gearhead then you still heard about it on the radio this week's muscle car flashback the Impala Super Sport 409 before the Camaro and Mustang power was spelled with three words 409 when Chevy debuted the legendary engine back in 61 American Muscle equaled big cars with big displacement in 62 Chevy improved on the 409 with a new set of heads a more aggressive cam to car to a FPS and then you had a 409 409 63 was the peak year it was bustin out a whopping 425 horsepower with solid lifters dual carbs one of the cars that had this powerhouse dropped in it was Bobby Ginn 63 Impala SS less than 17,000 a super sports rolled off a GM to assembly line that year throw a convertible top on it you got one hard to find in power a special interior and exterior trim package including full wheel covers with three blade spinners tack on a steering column served as a warning to all would be challenges oh yeah don't forget that four-speed manual transmission and a posi rear end it's no wonder those boys from the beach sang about it so much with the chrome grille and bumper for headlight body lines that screamed Chevrolet and taillights that look like they were out of this world style points with no problem for this set of wheels and in case you missed all that Chevy wasn't shy with the badging drop in a spacious interior and you've got a car fit for a Sunday stroll or a Saturday night at the track Bobby's dead picked up this Impaler in 81 for $5,500 the car was disassembled and set for the next 20 years then in 2001 Bobby took the car home in trailer loads it's a was why the task of a good challenge I like a good challenge and this was this was a good one late nights and long weekends paid off as this turnkey beauty hit the road for the first time in over 25 years by the mid-60s the Impaler was wildly popular as a full-size car if you ever catch a glimpse of one of these family sedans on the street don't let the size fool you because this baby ain't hauling groceries the 409 was replaced by the 396 which was later bored out to make the infamous 427 which led the way for the monstrous 454 [Music] earlier in the show while the performance took our 326 and turned it into a 375 back at the shop we assembled it and ran it on the dining the frame was painted the front suspension was installed axles went in the rear end and disc brakes all the way around the frame is just about ready to go on the ground our original trailing arms are good to go it's time to install the rear with it lined up and the upper trailing arms on I can now put in my stock Springs and then attach the lower trailing arms from the axles to the chassis I need to order my wheel so we went to trucks and bog fares from there s 10k they was done with them these will work till we get ours this flywheel is part of the d2 series clutch setup from zoom it uses the dual disc that works as a one-two type engagement basically it acts as one whether you're taking it easy or slamming the gears this floater cage has a friction ring it has been cryogenically treated to help resist warpage is what they do they heat it up real hot then they throw it in a vat of liquid nitrogen making it steel stronger the cool thing the disc their mark pressure plate and flywheel side to avoid any confusion during installation this hydraulic throwout bearing is from McLeod so there's no linkage adjustment this liquid scatter shield is boom proof if the clutch blows I won't be counting my toes backing up the stroker as a Richmond super t10 4-speed [Music] [Music] [Applause] that's the easiest way to install an engine and it's gonna stay there the finished body will be reassembled around it our lowered front end was brought down a little bit by the weight of the engine the rest of the car will finish it off we put stock springs in the rear for now when it's all complete we can order the correct ones to level it out we've done a whole diapers load of work this time and it's always nice to take something that's 40 years old and make it look like a baby again except this baby's been genetically improved later

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 343,171

Rating: 4.837944 out of 5

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, muscle car, lemans, rebuild, pontiac, pontiac 326, restoration, horsepower, stock, 326, stroker engine, engine build, engine, engine building

Id: Rb8_9WWiq7s

Length: 17min 4sec (1024 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020