[steve25]

A tube of this goes a long way.

[HWYSTR455]

Originally Posted by steve25

I have a notion that Herb Adams with the hand that he had in this and his eye for wanting to use it in his 64 road racer is the only reason why that rear bulkhead dry sump pump was added to the Design.

The big question I have is how he got this costly change passed the eyes of his upper supervisor’s during preproduction.

I think I have seen signs of this oil system in photos of one of the experimental overhead cam motors, so it may have been around for a while, but to include it in even a limited production motor still had to be a big cost.

I guess like we have heard in stories over the years that even though upper management was against this motor Pontiac sales already had so many orders for F body’s with this motor, and since parts where already made they had to reluctantly go with since the cost would then be covered.

To me all the positive advertising and word of mouth that came from the making of this last true super car was worth any monetary loss the division would have to swallow, in fact to me this is what set the stage for the later huge sales numbers of the TA models post 1974.

Herb Adams is active on Facebook, bet someone could message him, he's very friendly and sure he would be happy to talk Pontiac stuff. (He did accept my friend request)

Not sure his son manages the account or not, but seriously doubt it. Believe his son does still do some VSE parts, not sure on that either, but recall at one point he did.

Back in the VSE days, I spent many hours over time talking to him. True enthusiast.

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[steve25]

Thanks !
I will see how it goes in regards to contacting him.

[gpguy]

Super Nice. Great Project and good luck with it.

[Jim Moshier]

I use a little of my wife Jergen's hand lotion before I start working on the cars, and then use hand cleaner with pumice.

[HWYSTR455]

Um. What are we talking about again? .. Heheh!

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[mgarblik]

Back on track. A little more short block assembly today. In the pics you can see how I like to attach the oil pick-up. I have been TIG welding them with a silicon bronze rod for decades. No issues. Also stretched the rod bolts into place for the final time. .0075" is what ARP specs. for stretch on these 7/16" rod bolts. A few pics below.

[steve25]

Thanks for the up date!

[mgarblik]

It's been a while but another little update on the re- re build of this SD-455 engine. The short block is now complete and I disassembled one head today to take a look. Everything is pretty dry in there but only a tiny bit of rust here and there. The heads are not ported or gasket matched. It has had a valve job and bronze guide liners installed and honed to fit. The guides are perfect. The original valves were reused and guides may have been cut for PC seals. Since I have never worked on a set, I don't know how they came from the factory. My plan is to lap the valves to get a visual look at the valve job, test the springs, upgrade to viton valve seals, clean and put them back together. The keepers were reused and in marginal condition. They will be replaced. Overall happy they don't look all hacked up inside. In the pics you will notice these heads have NO casting codes on the exhaust ports. Also no stampings on them anywhere. I looked carefully. No date code or day night shift. Only the part number, that's all. The connecting rods were "A" series forgings and I was told heads without any numbers were early castings?

[mgarblik]

Few more pics. Sorry some of these pictures are sideways. Don't know why it does this or how to turn them.

[steve25]

Thanks for the update .

[HWYSTR455]

Did SD heads come with 1 piece valves? Honestly don't know that.


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[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Did SD heads come with 1 piece valves? Honestly don't know that.


.

The intakes look like a nice one piece valve. I will need to look at the exhaust valves closer tomorrow to tell. I am not sure.

[PAUL K]

The early SD heads were casting 485215. Soon after production started they made a change to the casting and the new number was 485216 hence the "16" cast on the exhaust ports. The 16 heads also gained two rectangular blocks on the center exhaust ports below the 1 & 6.

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

It's been a while but another little update on the re- re build of this SD-455 engine. The short block is now complete and I disassembled one head today to take a look. Everything is pretty dry in there but only a tiny bit of rust here and there. The heads are not ported or gasket matched. It has had a valve job and bronze guide liners installed and honed to fit. The guides are perfect. The original valves were reused and guides may have been cut for PC seals. Since I have never worked on a set, I don't know how they came from the factory. My plan is to lap the valves to get a visual look at the valve job, test the springs, upgrade to viton valve seals, clean and put them back together. The keepers were reused and in marginal condition. They will be replaced. Overall happy they don't look all hacked up inside. In the pics you will notice these heads have NO casting codes on the exhaust ports. Also no stampings on them anywhere. I looked carefully. No date code or day night shift. Only the part number, that's all. The connecting rods were "A" series forgings and I was told heads without any numbers were early castings?

Pontiacs have beautiful chambers when you compare them to Chevy chambers of that era. All the machined cuts, nice.
Every time I look at them I always think of the 90cc head prototype that was made.
Its amazing PMD got that low CR engine to run so well. 10-1 would have ruled the streets.

[steve25]

Besides that, and I hope I don’t offend any owners of these cars here, but Fords and non nail head Buicks ( V8s ) and AMCs have the worst valve jobs and or castings.

Not that they don’t seal but they have sunken sharp rideges and under cuts and castings that either have very bad core shift or bad castings period!

Zoom in on the picture of the rusty Ford 460 head I posted and look at the under cut below the main 45 degree seat of the intake valve, and then there’s the chamber lip above the intake valve so this Ford head already started off life with a sunken seat which is something you want to avoid at all cost with intake valves.

Next look at the Buick head and the huge lip running around under the main seat of the intake valve.

Even on aftermarket heads there can be terrible transitions from the top of the valve job to the chamber.

On the Edelbrock big port Rpm heads for BBM motors they have a bad lip above the intake valve.
Sorry that I don’t have a photo.

The brand that hands down makes you shake your head in flat out disbelief are AMC V8 heads.
The last set I did I spent 30 minutes on EACH valve just hand blending out the ridges left by the machining of the valve job

You never find the kinda crap on a Pontiac head thank God.

[sdbob]

Thanks for all the information. Amazing.

[mgarblik]

If I had to guess and that's what it is, I would say the last digit is a 5. Awfully hard to tell a 5 from a 6 in this circumstance. What do you guys think? Paul, do you happen to know what changes were made to the 16 casting? Any idea how many early castings were produced? All kind of interesting. I guess I can remove the paint and try to get a cleaner look at the part number.

[mgarblik]

Some better ID pics.

[nas t eh]

That is a 5