Well... Cruising the firebird with my son ended on the side of the road with a spun bearing. The good news is I met a car enthusiast who happened to live close to my house and he offered to go home get his trailer and haul me home. I thought I'd never see him again and continued to try and get a tow truck. But much to my surprise and relief he returned and loaded up my car. Turns out he and his wife have owned several firebirds and GTOs in the past. I can't say enough about this guy. He went out of his way to help a total stranger. Hopefully my son learned a valuable Father's Day lesson.

Anyway, the funds for a motor rebuild just aren't there, so my cruising season(s) are over. Father's Day came to an end with a thud. Totally depressed now.

Sorry to hear that! This hoppy sure can be frustrating from time to time! Hope it all works out in the long run.

I know your pain to a certain extent. My turbo 400 lost all forward gears about four weeks ago. Transmission are not easy to swap out in these cars. I now have another turbo 400 installed but I lost a months worth of driving the car.

I had no idea you were even driving your '68 yet... Pictures??

What events led up to the bearing problem? Was the oil level to low, to many RPM?
What is the oil pressure now?

well, mishap that might lead to a future friendship!? Car will get fixed eventually...but you have a new friend....its how I 13 years ago, met one of my current best friends! He was stranded in his Firebird a few blocks from my house....

I think the oil pump died on it. My exhaust is/was kinda loud and with the top down cruising at 65, my oil light came on and I glanced over at the pressure gauge to see it at zero. As I was looking for a safe place to pull over, all of a sudden I heard a whinning type noise. I got it pulled over and shut it down. I checked the oil hoping it was just low, but it read full on the dipstick. Smoke was pouring out of the breather though. When my newly found friend with the trailer returned I needed to get the car running to get it on the trailer when the unmistakable sound of the spun bearing was heard.

I'm gonna pay my new buddy a visit on the weekend and say thanks again.

Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out how to get the car back on the road. My 12 year old son expressed an interest in helping me pull the motor if I do it myself (but on a scale of 1 to 10 as a mechanic, I'm probably a 100. I'm more of a bolt on this or that kinda guy). I would need to rent a hoist and borrow a truck to get the motor to the shop and get it done with limited garage space, or I could just shell out more money to have the motor pulled by the engine builder. The later option would probably save my marriage and some time. I also have to "find" the funds to do the rebuild.

If I have to let the car sit awhile, should I do anything besides removing the fuel from the lies and tank? I was also thinking of getting cheap tires and steel rims for the car to sit on so I don't flat spot my fairly new BFGs. With the cost of kids activities these days (I'm not blaming kids, I just love watching them play their sports as much as I do having the car) the car may be sitting for a long time before I can spend the money on the motor, I'm concerned that the condition of the car will just go south. The thought of just selling it has crossed my mind. At least the buyer would get it back on the road. But I'm not at that point yet.

I'm now looking forward to winter. LOL

I feel your pain buddy. About a month ago I lost oil pressure because the pick up screen was clogged with crap( not really sure what). Anyways the gist is I broke a rod and ruined a piston. So I know how you feel. I decided to bag the 400 and build another motor instead. You might want to consider shopping for a replacement motor for your car. You should be able to find a low mileage replacement for a lot less than a rebuild would cost. You can rent a lift or better yet borrow one. Take your time and take lots of pictures. You can pull your old one and drop in a new one. And I'm sure your son would love to help. Definitely a bonding experience. Things like that tend to last a lifetime. You'll be back on the road before summer's gone. You can do it!

Thanks Firebob. I was thinking the same thing. I plan on starting to document the wiring and engine bay this weekend, and then making a determination of what I want to do myself and what I should send out. Should I just go with a "fix" or take this opportunity to go thru the entire front end of the car. Hopefully I'll be back on the road next season.

I would not worry about the tires to much. Flat spots were a lot more common in older tires.
If your concerned push the car forward and backwards once every other week.

Is the car numbers matching? If yes, I would fix your motor. If no, I would try to find a running motor and just drop it in to keep the car on the road.
Then work on a rebuild of your present motor.
Pulling the motor is not as complicated as it looks or sounds. But, I would pull the motor and transmission at the same time.
I just swapped out my turbo 400 and it was much more difficult doing it by its self.

Any members live by you that could give you a hand for a Saturday?

That sounds like it sucks.

I would agree to pull the motor and trans together. If you son is willing to help you should be able to pull it out in 4-5 hours in most cases. Use a pencil to mark the hood hinges.

Maybe your new friend can let you barrow a cherry picker?

Is the motor all stock? What motor what heads? Was the motor pinging at all before this happened? In any event you are going to need to figure out what went wrong first and then determine the road to repair.

I try and look at these unfortunate events as opportunities to improve upon things, however it doesn't sounds like funds to do so are available for that? If the motor is stock I would look at forged rods/piston, 60lbs oil pump, harden shaft, bearings and possibly a new cam. This is the total rebuild scenario.

Best case I could see is turn the crank and throw in new bearing and oil pump. However I would think you would want to disassemble the whole motor to get all the passages clean.

could also look for a spare 350 Pontiac motor to throw in for the rest of the summer. I see them all the time on craigs list.

I wish you the best of luck.

Yeah people are always replacing their motors with bigger ones or an LS swap this days. Probably could get a decent running one fairly cheap and drop it in while you decide. And then when you get your other one finished you can sell it off to the next guy. I was going to keep a spare loaner motor just in case someone was in need but that plan went south and I found myself in need. A good friend had bought a motor last year that he had decided he wasn't going to use after all and he is letting me borrow it for the summer. How cool is that? Finished the install last weekend a took it for a drive around Saturday. Runs fantastic. I think he said he paid $2200 for it. Probably a bit more than I would've paid but it's a 455 with low compression heads so you could run any kind of gas you want. Plus the guy said it was fresh rebuild and by the way it runs I believe it.

Thanks to everyone for the comments and good advice. I'm going to start to document the engine bay this week end and get an idea of what path I will follow. The engine is not numbers matching. It is a 400 built by the previous owner. I think after the summer season I will look to have it rebuilt. I will keep you all posted. I'm planning to make slight changes to the motor now that I have to rebuild it.

Thanks again.