<VV> Re: The Rest of the Story! - Update - Decision

[ChiefTAM@aol.com]

Today, we looked the heads over good, and except for some casting flash that 
I will have to remove, they look good.  Seats, guides and rings all look good 
too.

We measured everything and looked at it real good.  The engine appears to be 
original, (we know it is the original engine as it is numbers matching with 
the vin.) and unrebuilt.  The 69 engine had A.I.R. smog parts on it as you know, 
and the previous owner took everything off.  We were a little confused as to 
the originality as there were brass nuts on the exhaust, acorn nuts on the 
upper head studs, and even more confusing, there appears to be two thicknesses of 
steel head gaskets in the motor, and we don't believe the factory put in two 
thicknesses.  

As we measured everything, we are at orginal standard bores, pistons and 
bearings.  Except for the previously mentioned marks on the top edge of the piston 
and the light scoring in the cylinder, everything looks real good.  What we 
have surmised is that a previous owner (car was only driven 1500 miles from 
1984 to 1999, when it had 42,000 miles overall) probably due to bad gas, removed 
the smog equipment, and put two thicknesses of head gasket to reduce the 
compression to compensate for the lower octane of gasoline.  While open, they put 
the acorn nuts on and used brass nuts on the exhaust.

Because of the condition of everything, the little wear on the inside 
overall, we are going to just hone the cylinder, put in new gaskets, rings and 
bearings (standard) and put it back together.  This might not be the best way to go, 
but we are going to give it a shot.  Hope to have it back on the road by 
maybe next weekend.  I'll let you know.

Todd
Dallas