My seventeen-year-old son Nick's first engine build was a snotty 350, from the crank up, last year. Long story short, we ended up putting the kid-built 350 in my '67 Chevelle in front of a 700R4 as he continued to search for a worthy street warrior of his own. This motor still runs like a raped ape, and doesn't leak a drop!
Nick has since scored a solid '80 Malibu project/driver. He dropped in a used 350, a tired TH350, and a fresh 8.5" Posi 340. When he quickly grenaded the 350 (after a hard lesson in jammed wide open secondary linkages), he immediately started pricing new short blocks etc.
I however, saw the possibility to NOT build another 350 for his Malibu, but maybe rather we'll build a BB together for my Chevelle instead (finally). Yeah! I'll just wait till the end of the season and then "sell" him my strong 350, which he built anyway, to put in his Malibu. He'll be back up, & I'll be down for the winter anyway, so then we'll build a BB for my Chevelle. Yeah, that's a good idea - maybe?!
But I was really only "thinking out loud" at that point. Pondering. Hmmmmm. Only I came home from work THE VERY NEXT DAY to find my Chevelle up on ramps in the driveway with it's motor & tranny sitting comfortably in his Malibu! WHHHAAAT ! "But dad, I thought you said we would...."
So I got over it by that evening and just rolled with it. All I could do really is laugh at this point. I mean I had to hand it to him for hauling out the hoist and single handedly swapping out a motor/tranny in one afternoon with no help and not even scratching my fender or trashing my driveway with fluids! He felt bad though and offered to "put it back" till the end of the season, but I told him 'twas OK and to just go get his cowl hood off of my picnic table and clean up all these tools.
So the lesson to the Dads is "be very careful what you say, and how you say it!"
Oh - and we just scored a 454/4 bolt block for my car, so it's all good stuff!!
Down but PROUD, DA
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