Reading this again... I'm curious, what did you to with the engine besides painting it? Tickle it a bit? if yes, how? Any known results in Torque/HP? Replace any specific parts that were worn out?
Yes...it is tickled a bit !!
First however, per our discussion a few days ago, I attached the ground wire properly to the alternator case from the picture you sent. Happy to report...it works !!
The engine was not worn out. I ordered this car from the factory in April of 1971 ( I'm an old guy ) so it has never been abused except for an occasional street race. The only thing worn I could tell were the cam bearings. I was dropping oil pressure at idle but it would come back to normal when rpm's increased. That is kind of a telltale sign on Clevelands that the cam bearings are worn, although it could have been rod bearings or oil pump. Anyway, the lower oil pressure is what got me started:
Bored .030 over to 357 C.I.
Balanced and blueprinted.
New pistons, same configuration as stock, rod, cam and crank bearings. High flow oil pump.
Cam Research .540/.560 cam. Cam Research only grinds Ford cams. Scott Main raced Clevelands back in the day successfully as Super Stock champion. He knows that engine very well. All of their cams are custom ground so I told him what I was doing to the engine and where I wanted power in and out, and he ground the cam. Highly recommend Cam Research.
Edelbrock Performer intake, 670cfm Holley Street Avenger. Need nothing larger for street, it would just be a waste of gas and I'm not racing anymore anyway.
Hooker ceramic long tube headers.
A little head work, new valves springs, etc. Had the compression chambers reworked a little and dropped compression to about 10.1 to make it a little easier to run the 93 octane crappy gas now available. This engine in 1971 was spec'd for 98 octane gas and it would knock and ping on anything less.
I think that's about all....at least that I remember. Ran all the numbers through my computer dyno software and it came back at 463 hp and 432 lb/ft torque.
Now that is theoretical horsepower and torque, and probably would not do that in actuality. However it sounds extremely strong, so whatever it is, it's considerably more than the 285 factory spec.
Thanks for the interest. I appreciate it.
Dick