Coop's new old van

Took the 250ci short block over to a good friends shop to assist me with the rebuild.


I also took the 4L60e over to a friends tranny shop. He took it apart installed a new pump, seals, and also up graded the 3rd gear from the stock 4 pack clutch gear to a much better 9 pack.


Inbetween I spent some time cleaning up some other stuff from the van and collected parts.









There were 17 holes in that doghouse lid that had to be wielded shut and grinded down along with a few dents to be banged out. Between that and wire brushing the belly pan I think I spent two days on this Sorry I have a lot of pics to post so this is going to come in pieces over the next week or so.

Damn, I think I need to resize all my pics

When you go to upload them, usually, it defaults to 800 pixels. If you use the drop down list to choose 640 pixels, that should stop the pics from being cut off. Thanks for the pics by the way, keep them coming. Looks like you're moving right along! Nice work

Had the crank balanced and polished with a nice new set of ross flat top forged pistons.



I also grinded and filed down all the casting lines and imperfections on the crank before sending it out.

After getting the crank, pistons, and rods back. It was time to have the block boiled, give a quick hone, and give it a good scrubbing with some wire brushes and scotch bright pads.









Now I was all set to start to reassemble the block. I was starting to think that I was really going to have the van up and running for the summer

On the way home from work one night two days before I was going to start reassembling my engine. I got a call from my friend telling me I had to come over and get all my stuff now before it was gone Because this happened.


The building caught fire while taking out a gas tank from a 69 Camaro. The good news was no one was seriously hurt. My friend did suffer some bad burns to his face and hands. These pics are from the following day when I went to pick up my block and help get what we were able to save before they knocked the building down the night before. His neighbor let us put what we could behind his fence. Lucky for me most of my engine parts were at my house but I did lose a few things from the fire. Here is what was left of my friends 54 Hillman and the Camaro he was working on.

This is what the Hillman looked like before the fire. He owned this car for 35 years.



I took these pics just a few days before the fire when I was there cleaning my block
Here are a few pics of what we were able to save.


And my nice clean block was looking pretty trashed.



So as far as my engine goes it was just about back to square one.

The night of the fire I took home all of the parts we were able to save. It was pretty late when I got home but I needed to at least soak my parts in something. So I had to steal one of my daughters toy boxes, fill it with mineral spirits and place my parts in it. I let them soak in there for a few days and then I took them out, cleaned them all up, then wiped them all down with some oil, and wrapped them up in some news paper.


And this is what my crank was looking like.

I'm glad nobody was seriously hurt but that sucks all the way around. I do have my old L6 just sitting here in a million pieces so if you need any parts, I'll give them to you. Let me know. I sold the head but I have the valve cover, oil pan and sump, pushrods, rockers, springs and so on. I have the block too but you might not want to pay shipping on that. I have my 3 speed still too but I want a little money for it.
Let me know and good luck, Sam

samsvan wrote:I'm glad nobody was seriously hurt but that sucks all the way around. I do have my old L6 just sitting here in a million pieces so if you need any parts, I'll give them to you. Let me know. I sold the head but I have the valve cover, oil pan and sump, pushrods, rockers, springs and so on. I have the block too but you might not want to pay shipping on that. I have my 3 speed still too but I want a little money for it.
Let me know and good luck, Sam

HI Sam, I can't thank you enough for your offer. Vanners are a special brand of people. This all went down over the winter. The block and all the parts posted above were savable. Lucky for me all my stuff was in the front of the shop. Thankfully there was a loft there that saved my most important parts along with some of my friends things from getting destroyed. Also thank god my friend was able to get the firemen to look the other way before they knocked the whole place down. All I really lost was the crank gear, all the hardware, and my balancer. Everything else was at my house. Also I have the 250ci from the van that blew the rod still sitting in the back of my shop. So I took all the hardware and the crank gear I lost off that one. Good thing I held on to that one I am not quite up to date with where I'm at yet but I am getting there. I will post more tomorrow. If I do think of anything I will let you know. Thanks again, Sam

vanny wrote:When you go to upload them, usually, it defaults to 800 pixels. If you use the drop down list to choose 640 pixels, that should stop the pics from being cut off. Thanks for the pics by the way, keep them coming. Looks like you're moving right along! Nice work

Thanks for the tip Vanny and the kind words.

So after a month or so of helping my friend get settled in to work out of his house. We started to get back to my engine. Eric (my friend) did a great job glass beading my block and crank. He then took the crank and had it repolished for me. So he did the right thing in getting me back to where I was before the fire.



While I was waiting for the block and crank to be done. I gave my oil pan and head a quick cleaning, so my buddy can go through the head to see what it needs. I then took it to the machine shop. Eric wants to do a little modification to the baffle to keep the oil from sloshing around, so I didn't kill myself making the oil pan look nice till he dose his thing.

So now it was time to press in the cam bearings, install the crank, rods, pistons ect..... I joked with him saying I should name my van The Flame Broiled 6  

My daughter Grace has to inspect all my work so I don't miss anything.

Some of the other things I have been doing for my van. I took my new rear springs I picked up from Kookykrispy at last years Nats apart, cleaned them up and painted them. I also started cleaning up and painting a few of the engine parts I've had sitting on the loft in my garage for almost a year now.


Painted them with some Por-15 rust preventative then a quick sanding with some 320 grit sand paper. Then painted them with some Por-15 chassis black.



My side covers and the timing cover.



And this more or less is where I'm at ATM

Just for fun here is a pic of all my rides.

Nice lineup! Great work on detailing. Finished product turned out really sharp!!!

Thanks Vanny, I'm not finished yet But I will do a better job of keeping you all posted.

It looks like it's coming together nicely. Also glad to hear nobody was hurt in that fire. Keep up the great work.

Got a few things done in what was a very busy weekend.




My daughter got to drive the van under Daddy power.

And one with both my girls and I

Dont =EVER!! Loose that last foto coop- worth gold in years to come!! Nice work on the parts esp. those springs.!!

Twinpilot001 wrote:Dont =EVER!! Loose that last foto  coop- worth gold in years to come!! Nice work on the parts esp. those springs.!!

Thanks TP. I probably spend way to much time on things that most people don't look at or won't even see, but I'll know I hope there are many more photo's like that to come, I try to involve the kids in all my projects as much as I can

Hahaha...Now THAT'S a great photo indeed. Great work on those parts as well. My girls are always interested in my projects as well. Both turned out to be natural welders....Saaaweeeeeet!!!!!

Big W wrote:Hahaha...Now THAT'S a great photo indeed. Great work on those parts as well. My girls are always interested in my projects as well. Both turned out to be natural welders....Saaaweeeeeet!!!!!

That's awesome!!! Here is another one for you. This is from last year before my second was born.

The Van looks "Great"...Coop moving right along love the stance that Nova does not look to shabby either..!!!.. ..My mother had a 1972 identical when I was a kid same colour....Too bad about the fire thats one of my biggest fears I disconnected all the battery's in my vans in the garage when they are sitting... at least nobody got seriously hurt in the fire..!!!...

Still waiting to get my head back from the machine shop So while I'm waiting I got a few more things ready for when I do

















I think my oven is do for a cleaning

Gonna look like a new penny Nice work

I have a question for you for those of us who aren't familiar with taping off parts for painting...What kind of tape did you use and I'm assuming that you used the exacto knife to trim it with?

Beautiful job by the way. Looks Fantastic!