It’s kinda like a need for more power!
Like it is going to end there…LOL! Good Luck finding a stopping place. I recall how replacing a leaking heater core resulted in a complete restoration for one of the guys on here.
Yep… I’m in the middle of the biggest “while I’m at it” phase… Clean interior replace headliner, while I’m at it replace vynal top, while I’m at it replace carpet, while I’m at it… Etc… Etc… Car is almost stripped down to the shell and going to pull the engine and trans next…
Your 70 is going to be a nice ride with the amount of work you are able to put into it… Good job…
Brian…
well dad broke a bolt off in my head, so just got my heads back from getting a valve job.
![image2 [71558].JPG](https://forum.classiccougarcommunity.com/uploads/db3333/original/2X/a/a351efd232fbed544414bce966e334c3e4b70b27.jpeg)
How do you guys like the stainless steel single grove valves?
![image1 [74226].JPG](https://forum.classiccougarcommunity.com/uploads/db3333/original/2X/d/d708163325977b0139a2bfbabe9c3415cd8f867c.jpeg)
Continuing on the while I’m at it phase… on the right you will see one of my hookers setting on my engine block.
![image1 [71557].JPG](https://forum.classiccougarcommunity.com/uploads/db3333/original/2X/2/227ff7d9a53aff47aa988788c6924070733b14f5.jpeg)
One piece, single groove valves are the only way to go.
generally you will find single keeper grooves on larger head dia valves. The larger head dia lets the valve flex more and has a scraping effect against the cyl head seat which keeps it clean from carbon build up. Smaller head dia valves. The head doesn’t flex as much to scrap the carbon off the cyl head seat. So, I order to keep it clean the valve needs to rotate more when it gets excited at different natural frequencies through the rpm range. So, the smaller valve will have double and triple keeper grooves which doesn’t lock the keys in and allows more rotation. The single groove larger valve will still rotate just not as much as it’s locked into the spring retainer and has to rotate the valve retainer/spring as well.
So, in short single groove keepers is what you will want on your 351c with it’s larger valve dia.
Got her all finished up for the most part today. Having a problem with the water pump pulley and the harmonic balancer pulley rubbing together. Also did the engine break, have the normal adjustments to do cause she is running rough. Also the drivers side header and the steering box tough together and also the passenger header and one of the steering linkages hit when turning to sharp. Got to spin around the block, missing a lot of power and the pulleys grinding is obnoxiously loud. also having trouble with the dwell and timing, dwell is about at 21. but all looks good.
This is good work and I am happy to see a cougar convertible saved from the crusher.
It pains me to see a cougar convertible get strip for parts when it can be rebuilt.
And I love those Cleveland motors. They have a sound to the exhaust that is just different than all the rest. Healthy and bold even without the big cam.
Mick.
Btw that wasn’t the end of that story… What happened the next day is that the lifter decided to grind down and round off the Lobes on the cam. Ended up being another 2 weeks. Now I have a new Lunati cam in there and running just fine ever sense. Starting to have a significant sputtering problem starting last night, don’t know if there is moisture in my gas or what. hopefully not a loose timing chain again.
figured out that was just a condenser. But here is a new problem occurring for those who recognize the wonderful sight of anti-freeze running down your floor board. I guess its time to replace the heater core and the 46 year old noisy fan “while I’m at it”. Also am getting new exhaust done Monday. 2.5" duels with 40 series flowmasters.
Dude, 40’S are going to be LOUD!
the 40s sound great btw. little excessive. But last night I told my father my condenser was going to go out soon. just had a weird feeling, knew something wasn’t running right. so I picked up one on my way home from work and after I picked it up it decided to quit on me. so I got super lucky. Now I have to figure out why my car is burning up condensers. its a wiring issue that the last owners created because they didn’t know what they were doing.
So I’m at work last Wednesday and by starter brakes off in my flywheel… sound weird at all well it gets weirder. I replaced my starter in the parking lot instead of just pushing it inside and putting it on a lift just cause I’m old fashion. It fired right up but there was a terrible grinding noise sounding like 2 pullys rubbing together. so I trailered it home and pulled the transmission off cause weirdly my torque converter went bad at the same time as my starter brakes. weird. so with the “while I’m at it” continuation, I am putting a shift kit on, as long as a new 1700-2000 stall converter, and a new flywheel. Loading the car onto the trailer was not possible due to the headers so we had to compensate. BTW I also switched to petronix a few weeks back. Wow what a clean transmission.
This weekends project is stripping the front fenders and hitting them with some white eastwood epoxy primer. Starting to thing I should have had them sand blasted.
finally replaced all of the needed metal where they just put bondo over. Letting the last coat of primer dry now. definitely not perfect but just primer and definitely an upgrade from before, until I get it into a body shop.
What color are you going to go with? Back to original or one of the past 4 colors?
Competition gold
Ha, that was the original color of my Cougar. So you’re adding a fifth color to the apparent 9 lives of your cat?? 
Haha getting rid of all the other colors first