My '68 Le Mans

[Too Fast]

Just finished an engine swap in June, pulled the tired 400 2 bbl out and put in my 406, Holley equipped 4 bbl, with headers, Flowmasters, TA spitters, Performer intake/camshaft. No, it is not as fast as Too Fast, I was hoping for a mid 14 second quarter mile transformation, but you can only do so much with a Super Turbine 300 (2-speed auto trans) and a 2.56 rear end. It's like taking off in 3rd with my WS6, then shifting into 5th at 60 MPH.

[Too Fast]

A little more info about the engine I put in the Le Mans. It came out of the car Sondra wrecked in Dec. 1998, our 1967 GTO. The engine has been on an engine stand in my garage since then, and damage to the GTO was so extensive I had to junk it. To start with, she hit a parked car on the fast lane of I-70 on the east side of Indy, just inside 465. Smashed into a BMW who was stopped because a pickup truck was blocking the lane, he was blocking because he was assisting a car that had just spun out and was on the far left, in the breakdown lane. Why he parked in the far left is a mystery to this day.

Anyway, the impact sent Sondra to the hospital for the day, with a broken nose and subsequent surgeries, thankfully that was the worst of her injuries. Some internal stuff, but it healed ok.

The car was so smashed in the front that the harmonic balencer (how do you spell that?) was broken on the snout of the crankshaft (I just found this out last June!), the waterpump, fuel pump were broken. The transmission case was in pieces, the driveshaft pushed into the differential so hard it broke the diff, where the tubes come out to go to the rear tires.

The frame on both sides of the car, about where your feet rest in the front seats,which were a bit rusty anyway, crumpled. The floorboard was pushed up against the brake pedal, doors were crumpled, and the frame over the LR axle had a much tighter bend then should have been there.

So, I was a bit leary about putting the whole engine in without tearing it down to inspect the crank and other things. I did start the engine in the wrecked car a couple weeks after the crash, but it was open headers and I couldn't hear whether it was knocking or not. Oil pressure was still good then, and is ok so far.

You can see why I was hesitant to do the swap, but all is good. Hope it continues that way!

Steve