66 Toronado project advice
Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2024 12:01 am
Hello there everyone. First post on here is about to be a massive wall of text so bear with me. I just bought a 66 Toronado from the cousin of the original owner. He drove it about 85,000 miles before the engine dropped a valve in 75 and it has been sitting in the back of their shop ever since. No major rust and the interior is still fairly solid, big issue is the engine. If possible I’d like to save the original, but as the car is still in transport I haven’t been able to confirm the extent of the damage yet. The seller also included a 425 pulled from a ‘67. So here is where I’m at, I’m a fairly young guy that didn’t grow up working on these kind of cars. My only real hands on experience with older cars has been a ‘74 Grand Prix that was mostly suspension and rear work with a good amount of time spent learning about Q-jets. This is pretty much my first full engine build as well. While I’m confident in my ability to perform the work, there is no supplement for the lack of experience that I can hopefully gather from you folks.
So with all that out of the way, here’s the meat and potatoes.
The goal I have in mind is a Car that I can enjoy driving fairly regularly whilst also being able to bring a respectable time at the strip. Want to keep majority of the parts I’ve got, on one hand to keep some originality, and on the other to keep the overall budget in check. Still plenty of room in the budget for things like a cam or pistons but going all out is just asking to enter a money pit I cant climb out of and frankly unnecessary for the end goal. I’ve been doing lots of homework on both the 425 and 455 to get real familiar with them but have no clue where to begin for finding what aftermarket parts are even available, let alone which ones work well together for my application.
I’m sure there will be plenty of other gremlins that appear along the way, but that’s all part of embracing the suck. Any and all advice/comments/criticism is more than welcome. I simply don’t know, what I don’t know.
Looking forward to seeing what sort of game plan I can put together with the help of you folks, thanks.
So with all that out of the way, here’s the meat and potatoes.
The goal I have in mind is a Car that I can enjoy driving fairly regularly whilst also being able to bring a respectable time at the strip. Want to keep majority of the parts I’ve got, on one hand to keep some originality, and on the other to keep the overall budget in check. Still plenty of room in the budget for things like a cam or pistons but going all out is just asking to enter a money pit I cant climb out of and frankly unnecessary for the end goal. I’ve been doing lots of homework on both the 425 and 455 to get real familiar with them but have no clue where to begin for finding what aftermarket parts are even available, let alone which ones work well together for my application.
I’m sure there will be plenty of other gremlins that appear along the way, but that’s all part of embracing the suck. Any and all advice/comments/criticism is more than welcome. I simply don’t know, what I don’t know.
Looking forward to seeing what sort of game plan I can put together with the help of you folks, thanks.