1967 Chevy Van 350 V8 Engine Conversion Project Continues In the Final Stages

Saturday August 13, 2016 Guerneville CA.

The project

Another day working on the old van engine conversion project.

Here’s my work area. The engine is mostly in and fits ok.engine

 

New bolts installed

I started out by installing the new bolts I purchased the other day for the engine motor mounts that bolts to the frame.bolts

 

Made this little sheet metal tray

Then I constructed this little five by eight inch pan I made to support the radiator overflow container. I tried to install it but I couldn’t get the drill in the tight spot to drill holes for some pop rivets to mount it. I put it aside for now as I wanted to get some other stuff done.tray

 

Repairing the clutch linkage

I went under the van and removed the clutch linkage I put on the other day. This lever is wearing badly in the hole and is cutting into the other part that fastens to the lever using that hole. I needed to use that other part to fabricate the new improved piece I have for it. But I didn’t do any more work on that until later.lever

 

Electric fuel pump bracket

I needed a bracket to hold the electric fuel pump fuses and relay, so I fabricated this bracket which I added on to the engine puller bracket.bracket

 

A little paint makes it all look a lot better. Not my best paint job, but it will do.paintpart

 

Rotated the new starter a bit

Then I went under the van and pulled my new starter off. I wanted to rotate it a bit to expose the wire hook up better. This new type can be rotated a little so I did it. Before the solenoid was right on top, but now it’s a little down the side so I can get the big wires on it easier.starter

 

No go on the spark plug wires

The next thing I tried to do was install the spark plug wires, but they wouldn’t work out. Some of them were too short to make it, so I’ll have to get some longer ones. The type of spark plug wires seem to be related to what kind of exhaust manifold you have. I seem to have wires not for my type of manifold. I put that aside for now as there isn’t much I can do about it until I go shopping again.

Hooked up the throttle linkage

Most of the rest of the day I spent making adjustments to the throttle linkage to get the throttle hooked up. This isn’t as easy as it seems as the throttle has to go to the lower stop so it will idle and it has to go to the higher stop, but not hit the stop or pushing the gas peddle to the floor might tear it all apart, so there has to be just the right range to get to full throttle, but not go past it so things don’t get broken with a big foot. I fiddled and monkeyed with the levers for quite some time until I got it just right which means I had to go under the van a lot of times which is a bit hard on the body, but good exercise.

I plan to replace the lighter bicycle cable once I purchase a better one, but the new cable will use the same adjustments as the old one.

Annealed the new clutch lever bolt

About this time, it was starting to get dark, so I did one last thing. I got the torch out and heated the new bolt I bought to cherry red and let it cool slowly so the heat treatment will be gone and I can machine it to what I need to make a new clutch lever to replace the old one.

That was it for me today. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but that’s just the way these things go.

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