Corvette Progress

The first thing we had to do on the Corvette was get the motor checked out (it was redone 20 years ago and sat), get it painted and install it into the car. I shipped the assembled short block, the heads and the other major components to Taylor Engine in Whittier to have it all torn down and checked out. They found some minor issues which they addressed, but overall the work that was done was very nice. The whole rotating assembly had been balanced, the rods were dressed and there was even a little port work done on the heads. The pistons had been replaced with stock domes which made this 427 10,7:1 compression. It will have to run on C12 racing gas or avgas but it is correct!

When I got everything back I bolted the heads on and then prepped  the motor for paint. After paint I assembled it, and installed the transmission with the new clutch assembly. Then we stuck the whole thing back into the car. Here's what it looked like!

With the motor back from Taylor Engine, I started by masking off the brass freeze plugs and anything else I didn't want painted Chevy orange. The oil pan is just held on with a few bolts for painting, I will remove it after it's painted and install the gaskets after so the gaskets don't get painted. Just one of my things. That I do.

Next I bolted the heads on for good, with the new gaskets. Since these ones won't get exposed to paint it's okay.

Then I masked off everything else, and placed the intake manifold on top for painting. It will be installed with new gaskets after paint.

How orange? That orange. There's a lot of paint on there, it will look this good for a long time.

The next day we screwed the motor all together for the last time, and added the bellhousing, clutch and transmission. Here it is hung from the load leveler on the engine hoist.

It can be a challenge to stick a big block in a second generation Corvette, especially one that's finished within an inch of it's life. There was no room for mistakes anywhere but we got it done. What you don't see is pictures of the three guys holding the motor, the blankets laid everywhere, the feng shui master doing his thing and the cleansing ritual we did halfway through the job.

And here it is, well on it's way to being a concourse quality driving C2 Corvette!