72 Demon now underway

Thanks to all who have appreciated on the progress. Following posts will give a glimpse into more of the finished product.

We got slowed down by what can only be described as a demon in the engine build. It is not our first setback, having already had a block that was supposedly fulled checked - get machined, blueprinted and assembled as a short block at a now defunct LMS before finding the tower that supports the china wall on the LA block was cracked through when we went to install the heads. That was back in 2009-10.

When we got the new block (a 76 police 360 hi-nod), we decided to also give the top end a little massage and had the 915 iron heads (Aerohead prepped) ported to Hughes Stage 1 specs with bowl clean up and port match to the RPMAG intake, and did a cam change from the Comp in the other short block to a Hughes hydraulic roller (roughly .560 x 240 @.050). The top end already had Hughes 1.6 rockers and we proceeded to set it all up with for proper rocker geometry with custom Smith Bros pushrods. Then the motor sat for a couple years while the electrical, chassis, and other stuff went on.

When we went to start it and do the cam break-in after the normal burn off and smoking we continued to get vapor and sweet anti freeze smell from the exhaust.

After shut down, the attempt to start the next day confirmed our nightmare, the motor was locked up solid with water.

So another teardown of the motor in the car. Second pic shows what we found up top. First pic is the head on that side after pressure test in LMS hydro tank. Staining around the porous area was one of the culprits.

It has been resolved and the motor will go back together with some new heads - will post the details when we bolt it back together.