Well, it has been years since I posted on here so let me take my Christmas vacation and get this blog caught up...

 I got the motor and transmission out of the car today...what a joyous day it is...ran all the numbers on the motor and trans and found that the motor is a 402 cast in Tonawanda on 3 Jun 71 and is an LS-3 motor...the trans per the numbers is an M21 Muncie 4 speed....IF i got the numbers correct....so I made out like a bandit on the purchase of this car...

 Well, now it is time to get that motor out of the 69 Velle....here is the before picture...

 Minus the Carb and fan w/ fan clutch....

 I have been wondering what lies under those valve covers...and YES my DREAM has come TRUE!

 The heads have been worked, meaning a valve job, upgraded valve springs, roller rockers...what all this means is this is NOT a stock 396 with 325 horses...we are talking more in the neighborhood of the 400 HP range...there are many other things that lead me to believe this as well but we will know once I get it on the street....

 Minus the water pump (which is bad and will be replaced), A/C compressor and lines, also disconnected the steering column and power steering lines...and every single wire, clamp, hose that is mating this motor to the chassis...

 What you can't see is that I disconnected the clutch pedals, gear shifter inside the car, dropped the driveshaft, took off the transmission mounts and brace, disconnected the exhaust pipes from the headers and the most painful job of all...took the motor mounts loose...I have 2 bolts left and we will yank this out of the car tomorrow....YIPPEE!!!

 The Cherry is ready to be PICKED!

Here is a shot of the drive shaft and the old (damaged) radiator support...