Ok, so here's the deal. I've got a 68 j-code numbers matching survivor, and the engine while still strong, needs some work. The core plugs weep coolant, the engine bay is untidy looking, the valve seats are not hardened yet, etc.
Before I go any farther I want to say that this car has always been in the family and it will always continue to be in the family. That influences a lot of my decisions since I expect future generations to want the car as original as possible. Please note that I'm not using that excuse to do anything unethical, but it's important to understand where I am coming from with this car. When in doubt, box it up.
So I've got the crazy notion that I want to yank the engine, freshen it up a bit and then drop 'er back in. But I don't want to have the downtime involved in that process, and to be perfectly honest I don't really want to mess with the engine at all since it would be pretty cool to have an unmolested numbers matching car in another 50 or so years. So now I'm thinking that I want to build a look-alike engine and then swap the original out and the new one in some weekend.
That way I can just box the original up along with all of the other parts I've changed on the car like the original radiator, the original wheel cylinders, the rusted out original rear bumper...
The way I see it, this will allow me to have the best of all worlds - I still have ownership of the proper engine in running but unmolested condition, never bored, etc. I also don't have a lot of wasted time with no engine in the car. And I can scratch that itch when it comes to wanting to play around with the engine and make it mine so to speak. All without damaging the original engine.
So if I am going to yank the j-code and drop in something that is virtually identical to it in appearance - I clearly want to stroke it to a 347. I'm not a racer and I am not targeting a specific horsepower - truth be told anything more than the 230HP it came with will seem like a monster of an engine to me, so I'm pretty easy to please here.
But I need direction as to what parts to acquire to build this engine. Are there any heads that work well with a 347 that look like the cast iron J-code heads that I am pulling off? Can I still use a J-code intake and hide a 600CFM 4100 under the air cleaner? Is it ridiculous to want to aim for regular gasoline instead of the high test it currently drinks?
I expect I'd like to go with a mild retro-roller cam, nice steel heads up top and a 347 stroker kit below. Is that an asinine proposition? I don't want to use a roller block because I want it to look period correct, right down to the dipstick location.
I know I've got way too many questions right now, but I've never seen anyone attempting to build a sleeper quite like this. I need all new parts too, since I want the original engine to be complete when I crate it up and store it. So I need a donor engine that has all of the attachments and brackets if at all possible. But that still leads to even more questions, like would a j-code distributor still work properly on a 347? Are there any aluminum heads that when painted blue could pass for steel? Am I a fool to go through all of this and still use the stock manifolds?
TL;DR I want to build up a 347 stroker that looks 90% passable for the original J-code but need direction/inspiration for the best approach.
Before I go any farther I want to say that this car has always been in the family and it will always continue to be in the family. That influences a lot of my decisions since I expect future generations to want the car as original as possible. Please note that I'm not using that excuse to do anything unethical, but it's important to understand where I am coming from with this car. When in doubt, box it up.
So I've got the crazy notion that I want to yank the engine, freshen it up a bit and then drop 'er back in. But I don't want to have the downtime involved in that process, and to be perfectly honest I don't really want to mess with the engine at all since it would be pretty cool to have an unmolested numbers matching car in another 50 or so years. So now I'm thinking that I want to build a look-alike engine and then swap the original out and the new one in some weekend.
That way I can just box the original up along with all of the other parts I've changed on the car like the original radiator, the original wheel cylinders, the rusted out original rear bumper...
The way I see it, this will allow me to have the best of all worlds - I still have ownership of the proper engine in running but unmolested condition, never bored, etc. I also don't have a lot of wasted time with no engine in the car. And I can scratch that itch when it comes to wanting to play around with the engine and make it mine so to speak. All without damaging the original engine.
So if I am going to yank the j-code and drop in something that is virtually identical to it in appearance - I clearly want to stroke it to a 347. I'm not a racer and I am not targeting a specific horsepower - truth be told anything more than the 230HP it came with will seem like a monster of an engine to me, so I'm pretty easy to please here.
But I need direction as to what parts to acquire to build this engine. Are there any heads that work well with a 347 that look like the cast iron J-code heads that I am pulling off? Can I still use a J-code intake and hide a 600CFM 4100 under the air cleaner? Is it ridiculous to want to aim for regular gasoline instead of the high test it currently drinks?
I expect I'd like to go with a mild retro-roller cam, nice steel heads up top and a 347 stroker kit below. Is that an asinine proposition? I don't want to use a roller block because I want it to look period correct, right down to the dipstick location.
I know I've got way too many questions right now, but I've never seen anyone attempting to build a sleeper quite like this. I need all new parts too, since I want the original engine to be complete when I crate it up and store it. So I need a donor engine that has all of the attachments and brackets if at all possible. But that still leads to even more questions, like would a j-code distributor still work properly on a 347? Are there any aluminum heads that when painted blue could pass for steel? Am I a fool to go through all of this and still use the stock manifolds?
TL;DR I want to build up a 347 stroker that looks 90% passable for the original J-code but need direction/inspiration for the best approach.
