Pontiac OHC-6 Tear Down - Top End Failure

[@PendeltonWhiskey]

My dad bought a 67 tempest in about 1969 and that 6 cylinder was a hot little engine. Very fun car to drive. I used to get up in the middle of the night and sneak it out of town and drive the hell out of it. I didn't have a driver's license yet. I've always loved that car and would love to have one of my own. I'd definitely want a 6

[@scrappy7571]

Cam failures were extremely common for this engine back in the day. The oils were just not good enough, and lack of timely oil changes sure didn't help. Also the TORX bolts, that was the first time we saw anything with those. The tool trucks in the 60's didn't have them, we had to chisel the bolts loose...ugh!

[@Rick-S-6063]

One trick to extending the life of the cam and followers was to avoid pressing the accelerator and setting the choke when the engine was cold. It was beneficial to crank the starter until the oil pressure light had gone out. That meant oil had reached the upper end of the engine. Then it was time to set the choke and fire her up.

[@russabrams3982]

Looks like the same wear on the cam and followers that happened to my Pontiac OHC . Glad you did the teardown, a made the effort to diagnose the noise !

[@critterIMHO]

Happy see the OHC6 being saved, but years ago when I looked at building one of these, I couldn’t find a cam anywhere. Of course this was before the interweb.

[@alexrivera4337]

You make watching the video worth it! Keep up the great work

[@enriquenietojr5452]

Great Program, the young lady is very well versed in her knowledge of engines and there direction is very well grounded. Thanks for picking this car because I had been interseted in the grand prix not realizing that the was before the grand prix became popular.

[@MrHevyshevy]

I learned something. Didn’t know the cam was in the cover.

[@phillipfontenot2075]

Just watched your video for the first time I'm a retired mechanic and drive a 69 firebird, my wife also has a 69 bird as well mine is a 5 speed manual her's is a 4 speed auto I also drive a 58 Ford Fairlane manual transmission ,if you can learn to drive that Camaro like a motorcycle meaning the shifting it won't beat you up and it will be fun to drive,injoy Ed the content.

[@dclipper8052]

This car would be a the perfect recipient of the 4200 Atlas I-6. With a turbo, it would have plenty of power up top, it woud cruise long distance efficiently, it would run silky smooth as I-6s do, and it might even be lighter than the original engine. Richard has some videos on them.

[@hughporter1741]

I remember replacing the timing belt on the 250 OHC ci in a '68 Firebird, had to pull the harmonic balancer in order to do that. That car sure was a runner, even though the engine wasn't the higher powered sprint engine. I used to burn rubber around corners (3 on the floor) and sometimes go to the local drag strip, used to get the jump on many larger stock V8 engine cars. I heard that many Chevy 6 engine parts can interchange, including the 292 crank & rods. Imagine the power you could get from that, along with a hotter cam & 4 barrel setup.💪

[@Cultofpersonality09129]

Glad to see you guys are doing a collaboration with Richard!

[@relaxinmaxin7246]

This car would be best served by returning it to its original motive power and running gear.

[@deliveryguyrx]

I agree.Everybody and their grandmother has a V8.

[@zombywoof1072]

@@deliveryguyrx It's too bad she can't appreciate the history. It's like bolting a gas turbine engine to a P-47 Thunderbolt because it's better than the original Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp. True, it is. But it misses the point doesn't it?

[@gbsgarage]

Liv; I love your stuff, but that car would be 1000% better with the ohc 6!

[@alkennedy1124]

Oh yes and ona financial note O’Reilly‘s auto parts commercial that you did ,,, it pops up on Matt’s recovery and off road towing channel it hits on almost every commercial spot on that channel nice thanks I’m talking about the one at Travis shop/ rental house !!! ,,,thanks BigAl California. Just look up Matt’s off road recovery and towing and you will see your self on the O’Reilly‘s auto parts commercial nice BigAl

[@Fiftyx60]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. I came of age in the late 70s and early 80s and never even knew this engine existed. It's pretty cool, when you think about it, but we all wanted V8s, and a 6 cyl would have been completely out of the question.

[@garywilson12]

liv, i see your a vice grip garage girl, awesome! your show and dericks are my favorite to watch, such good content on both

[@elebeu]

Close, in 1966 the monojet single barrel 6 cyl. was 165hp and the Sprint was 207. Also, the belt is adjusted by loosening the bolts holding the distributor/oil pump housing and sliding it up or down.

[@Cradletothegrave67]

Your a different breed Girl…And it’s Awesome. Always an Adventure. Keep up the good work, can’t wait for the next step !! 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

[@i7887]

A different breed? She was just there to have booty jeans and to run around and act surprised.

[@mroptical1982]

Hello Liv great job on going through the engine to find out what happened looking forward to watching your build on the car Wishing you well Take Care

[@57torg]

Hi Liv, this is very interesting to me. I have always wondered how it looked under that functionally animated designed cam cover. Thank you

[@joedudek5976]

The OHC6 had oiling problems. The oil went from the (small) pump to the crank and rods first, and then to the head. As the bottom end wore, the oil delivery to the top end went down until, ultimately, there was insufficient pressure and flow to properly operate the lash adjusters and lubricate the cam. They were sweet, but were prone to failure between 80 and 120k miles. There is also the possibility of insufficient surface hardening of the cam and cam followers.

[@marcushaynes843]

I say find and rebuild a big block Pontiac V8 (389,455). Put it in the Tempest. But save that OHC6. It can be rebuilt and can be used to power a generator in case of a power outage.

[@upfactoryracing4148]

Yeah might have to weld up that bracket if not source able. Rockin the VGG Independence!

[@stevenbaker5099]

The parts for the OHC 6 are hard to come by. That bracket looks aluminum. Find an aluminum specialist in the repair.

[@546cowboy6]

Worked on one of those once and actually owned one for a month before it went to hell in a hand basket. The one I owned was bought for me by a friend who could buy at auction when my '68 Firebird had the front end wrecked for a replacement if needed. Like I said it was a very short time before it burned a piston costing me more than I care to say. I traded it in and had to stop a short distance from the used car dealer for it to cool down before I traded it in. I worked in a GM dealer and got one that they actually gave to the porter to work on and I had to fix hie mess up and grind the valve seats at a different angle to actually get the coeerct angle on them. I don't know how long that worked but it ran leaving the shop.

[@jamesgovett3225]

I can remember here in Australia that General Motors-Holden very nearly used the Pontiac OHC six in our HR series Holdens in 1967 but it never eventuated, we kept using a six that was the same design as a Chevy 2 / Nova and in 1968 we used Chevrolet 307 and 327 small blocks in our Holdens as well with Holden designed V8’s as well as 350 Chevs in later models, we used a variety of GM designed engines and also used the Buick 3800 V6 in front engine rear wheel drive from 1988 in atmo and supercharged forms for many years in our Holden commodores and many variants of the LS small blocks into the late teens

[@tomclayton6875]

Jay Leno has a very similar car with Overhead Cam Six and it's a sweet car keeping the 6 and upgrading the brakes and suspension, incl. the steering box. John Delorean's idea to compete with the European cars he admired so much. He did also replace the cam rockers with hardened aftermarket's which were a problem on the original which also allowed him to raise the oil pressure as well and improve engine life. You should check out his video, these cars a kinda rare. Horsepower isn't really an issue as the handling and lighter weight make this a very fun car to drive.

[@w41duvernay]

Good time to look for a Sprint 6 engine to replace this one. There is a seller in Ga. on ebay that got a 1 bbl of this "Rehol-261".

[@Hanzyscure]

Impossible

[@KatarinasGarage]

Clearly you didn't listen to the video. She's swapping it to a v8. Due to parts availability and budget. Plus She's got quite the surplus of LS engines if that's what she chooses. While dissapointing it's completely understandable as to why she's swapping the engine.

[@Hanzyscure]

@@KatarinasGarage Apparently you don't understand finding a Sprint OHC 6 is impossible.

[@w41duvernay]

@@Hanzyscure She can always grab some Hemming Motor News and talk with Sprint 6 fourms as well to look. Every once in a while a rebuilt one does come up.

[@mikesblkmstngblltt]

Some fabulous cars in that garage, including the one you’re working on.

[@tommymartin4827]

Holy smokes I had feeling when he said he was bolting on that bracket. Good thing it snapped when it did luckily no one was injured. One of those career ending mistakes. After hours in the shop and hard to explain gezz ..it's going to be legend Best Wishes 👍

[@ronfreeman4999]

It's a shame to park a car for a bad cam and rockers. Keep up the good work young lady.

[@jasonbose3507]

I love your Pontiac and time to put that cool 455ci Big Block with dual carbs feeding that screw blower, so awesome 👍😎 ps/ be careful with those guys, they're reckless and ignorant with machinery. I've never seen such recklessness and unprofessionalism in my 30 years of doing engine work professionally. Thanks Liv!

[@jeanlawson9133]

Pontiac always done major experiments....They had everything first... Electronic ignition etc.. Those are like the Ford cam followers on a 4.6 5.0 5.4 on that Pontiac... Awesome 😎 Thanks for sharing...

[@ws2664]

I ran into a problem like that years ago on a 4 cylinder Pontiac Sunbird that somebody did a head gasket and put to much silicone on the valve cover and the silicone covered the oil holes and restricted oil flow to the cam, I noticed all the orange silicone on the head so make sure the oil holes that go to the valve cover are clear, also an old engine just might have low oil pressure.

[@billwall3913]

I'd take it, my Beaumont has a clapped out 250, and would love the upgrade, also I wish up here in Canada we could ditch the inner fender wells but they are a must to be inspected.

[@CJColvin]

What year Beaumont do you have mate?

[@billwall3913]

@@CJColvin 69

[@CJColvin]

@@billwall3913 Awesome brother.

[@Carl_Jr]

Your Pontiac knowledge is impressive! Take notes, kids! The Liv is talking! 😎👍 Oh yeah. Tell Danny it's gallery not galley. A galley is the kitchen in a ship. Trust me. It took me a while of losing arguments before I finally caved into calling it a gallery. 🤣

[@joshlambrecht2357]

Im not sure if Pontiac were ahead of its time there. Jaguar had been producing the xk 6 for almost 17 years by the time this engine was introduced. The xk was a phenomenal engine. Still is. Twin cam hemi inline six with a 4.125 stroke and rods that are 7.75” long. Still, Thanks for showing us this unicorn engine. Also thanks for the research on it. Many of them scrapped without a second thought.

[@McBuggs.]

Pontiac Tempest - 2nd Generation 1964 - 1967: Base OHC Inline 6 (1Barrel Carb) 165 HP. Sprint Inline 6 (4Barrel Carb High Compression 207 HP) was a pretty respectful stock HP for it's time. One year later, the Ford Custom bone stock 302 V8 was 210 HP ... That's only 3 HP difference between a 6cyl & V8. There, was also a Tempest and GTO factory wagon. I think and agree, the inline 6 engine(s) should be tucked away in a safe place - replaced by a modern power plant where parts are easily available. If for only as a weekend show car, trailer it, but keep the factory Inline 6 in it for it's originality. (IMHO)

[@hydroy1]

One ride in a 400 GTO with a Turbo 400 trans and you quickly realize safe storage for any OHC 6 ( even the Sprint ) and that crazy switch pitch Turbin 300 two speed trans is the closest DUMPSTER ! and you are correct, the first year for the OHC 6 was 1964.

[@McBuggs.]

Also check out, "Mysterious Radical Race Engine! MUST SEE!!!" by Ellison's Machine Shop - Your Engine Guy... 👀 It's in 3 parts. Cool Build! ✌

[@olskool3967]

i am a professional transmission rebuilder and shop owner, retired 2 years. your transmission is a Super Turbine 300, 2sp. most had a maple leaf embossed on the top of the bellhousing. they were made in Canada, and they were air cooled, that is the reason for the holes in the bell housing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[@macho4x4warlock98]

That noise are the cam lobe riders that connect to the hydraulic lifters. You’ll need a cam, cam riders, hydraulic lifters. Good luck finding them. Jay Leno has blog restoration update done in the last 6 months on his channel. He goes over what he had to do on his 4V OHC engine. Basically the same problems as yours.

[@robertedwards4715]

Hell yes Mr.Holder Can't wait to see on Dyno, turbo charged?

[@w41duvernay]

hope he installs a Clifford 4 bbl step up on it first.

[@robertedwards4715]

Yes please rake it . Ol drag racer trick shift weight to rear wheel's. And looks great 👍🤳

[@davidowen888]

Ah....for the love ❤️ of de Pontiac 👌

[@craigdickerson7636]

Hi Liv looks like a fun project now that you've sold the hot rod you can focus all your time on this one looking forward to the next video love the knowledge you have and the eagerness to learn is infectious take care

[@chrishorst6993]

How did the oil get to the cam. Wonder if all that silicone plugged some oil holes

[@markschroeder567]

My first car was a '69 Firebird I bought 1 year old for $1750. It had the basic 6 cyl engine and a 2 speed automatic, it wasn't fast but it was a nice driving car, top end was 105 mph.

[@paulkurilecz4209]

that is a great engine. Given the sludge that is present in the engine, it is likely that the oil passage to the cam was partially block starving the cam and rockers of oil. An interesting point is that the engine had hydraulic lifters/lash adjusters.

[@ericdrinnan5814]

Built a sprint engine! Such a cool engine for its time.

[@scottbaker1018]

Yep I owned one in a 67 lemans OHC Sprint, . Q-Jet and had the factory cast exhaust header. Cracked lifter bore in the head killed it. It was a total blast to drive.

[@Fljeff7]

Looks like rookie engine swapping day

[@callmenortnortin467]

OOOOOPS , That broken bracket might be a little hard to replace ;(

[@lilorbielilorbie2496]

callmenort nortin And they dodged a bullet when that bracket came Real close to breaking the windshield. You can hear it bounce off when it hits right where the rear view mirror is.

[@neal6418]

was thinking the same thing...... what a foolish mistake.....a very potentially dangerous mistake

[@lilorbielilorbie2496]

@@neal6418 Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good . And I think this was one of those times. The way that they don't even say anything about makes you wonder if they even know how close it was.

[@robertcates4066]

I was waiting for the cam gear that she was beating the crap out of to break, these parts are going to be tough to replace!!

[@lilorbielilorbie2496]

@@robertcates4066 That's why she's giving the engine to someone else and she's putting in an ls. Yawn.

[@markbrown6236]

The Independence shirt was almost a neat as seeing the inside of that cam cover.

[@TeemarkConvair]

OH!! memories 223378U607387 '68 F'bird Sprint OHC 4bbl,, put over 150K,,LOVED that car! Ordered new whilst stationed at DOW AFB, Bangor Me. 6 cross country trips. The distributor drive/oil pump carrier was the adjustment for the belt, it slid on a "ramp" up and down. The 230 had shorter cam finger lifters than the '68 250. I believe Clifford Research 6=8 still has parts avail.

[@JohnBingo-p3h]

How are the cam bushings replaced?

[@johndoe6027]

Had one of those when I was i kid Grampa had a 65 GTO tri-power I am now work at Ford in Dearborn R&E center

[@weels1886]

Pretty cool engine. I haven't seen the inside of one of those since the early '70s when my cousin came back from Viet Nam and had to tear into the top-end like you just did. Pretty exotic design for then.

[@quagmiredavis4117]

Needs the quadrajet upgrade used on some of the OHV 6s

[@BuzzLOLOL]

And 3 or 4 speed tranny...

[@quagmiredavis4117]

@@BuzzLOLOL I didn't know a tranny had 3 or 4 speeds ..the ones I know only have reverse. ....oops Different story .. lmao

[@RyanPalmerRegeneratetreatment]

Are you going to Tucson for Duct Tape drags this year?

[@tandjperformancesouthflorida]

Air Cooled Poweglide..or is it a switch pitch tranny?

[@ghostnotebeats]

bro I luv how u let her work on her on car so she can learn...boss move

[@johncleveland5348]

Is that a matching number car???

[@SuperMurrayb]

Interesting video but you should know that sixes were very common back in the sixties. Muscle cars of any type were fairly rare, maybe one out of every ten or fifteen vehicles, but they are the ones people remember. The best selling muscle car at the time was the GTO and they sold 130,000-ish in their best year. The best selling car was the Impala with 1.4 million sold in '64 so there were more than 10 time as many Impalas as "Goats". Lots of cars back then had OHV sixes and three-on-the-tree manual transmissions bur OHC sixes were very rare in detroit iron. The OHC sixes were considered to be higher performance option compared to the workhorse OHV sixes but did not give as much power as a high-compression small block V8 with a 4bbl. The Sprint powered cars were quicker than the same cars powered by a V8 with a 2bbl.

[@jackglabere6653]

How does she keep her hands so clean.

[@robertharker9010]

Love you Olivia, real stuff, and so cool.

[@clintonsmith9931]

First time I saw one of these was in 67 in front of our barracks in the army This was one of first uses of timing belts Said would run for 500 tho without trouble Looks like that one may have almost made it

[@brianhanel6897]

That cam design is very similar td Datsun 240-280z inline six and Thay are cams and follower's also

[@ajonnieq2002]

THE BEAUTY OF THE BELT DRIVE, IS IT WAS DESIGNED FOR THE FARMER TO FIX. CHAIN VS BELT, NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY...😒😒😒 LOVE THIS EP.......

[@gilbertwashburn7095]

I knew that bracket was going to break

[@anthonyrippo1223]

The old motors of yesterday need Zinc in the oil . The government had zinc removed if you dont use a zinc supplement you will blow your camshaft.

[@gbsgarage]

My uncle had that very car. I remember It said Sprint, on the fender. 4-speed. Very advanced, for the time.

[@cliffordkinnear9705]

Poor factory camshaft oiling system design did it in. An exterior oil feed line/tube would constantly deliver oil to the camshaft and rocker arms. Maybe the previous owners kept using engine oil designed for catalytic converters. The absence of zinc in the oil may have ruined the cam lobes too. Maybe the oil pump was wearing out also?

[@VATION3RD-GEN-X-GARAGE]

Now this is just me but instead of sticking the ls in it I'd go through that straight six and overhaul it put a bigger cam and a larger Turbo with a 4l80 transmission and drive that road warrior. ..

[@yamahaxs6501]

that cam cover would make a cool piece of garage art

[@gilbertwashburn7095]

I had one of those overhead cam sixes I rebuilt it high-compression Pistons Portishead Turbo make 418 horsepower

[@tedzehnder961]

That engine is a really rare pc.I hope you saved it,Pontiac guys would scoop it up.

[@rickupdike6453]

nice top end pics 👀👀👌👌

[@MrGamma-gw5zh]

I had a 67 chevelle 300 post car like that. They are lighter than the Malibu. That rear window is hard to get!

[@jasonjones5213]

I was hoping you would do a tear down of that top end.Pretty interesting how that worked.Or didn't work apparently.Still pretty cool though.

[@richiesixsix]

What Mopar is under that cover?

[@jessewait2931]

A 4200 straight 6 out of a Trail Blazer would be cool

[@ericwilson2585]

To awesome girl I'll definitely be following along, and weighting to see that OHC 6 on the turbo booster, right after he does his thing with the Northstar. Just kidding of course, lol.

[@alkennedy1124]

Should pulled the front clip then it would a few things done at one time , all aluminum block is what it needs just wait til you get one to go in it nice O’Reilly‘s auto parts commercial thanks BigAl

[@InnocentMiscreant]

Every cam is a turbo cam except that one this one went from a stock round lobe cam to a flat lobe cam

[@wesleymason8064]

Best lookin mechanic ive seen, she is

[@squidkid2]

Poor straight sixes. They never get any respect. Everyone always goes with a V-8. I think it would be way more interesting to build a high performance straight six and see how fast you could get it to go in the quarter mile. In the late sixties early seventies a friend of mine held the NHRA national record for low e.t. in his class runing a straight six in a '65 Chevy Bel Air. All his friends would brag about fast their cars were and then he would take them to his garage and show them the plaque on his wall for his NHRA national record and that would shut everyone up real quick! Cool video.

[@keohanejj1]

Do Not throw away that powerglide transmission. the OHC 6 makes a good boat anchor.

[@davidbeattie4294]

That six is a gem of innovative, cost effective engineering that just missed the mark. In a pristine environment their cam oiling solution probably worked great. In the real world of missed oil changes and sludge buildup it became a point of failure. Too bad.

[@Donnies_Garage]

Put C10 2wd truck springs in it....I did this in a GTO of mine car had a nice stance....

[@jlletaw1954]

I just don't understand why they didn't go with a cross flow cylinder head design & stay with the "proven" pushrod valve train (same cylinder head design as a V8 cylinder head just longer for the 2 extra cylinders/combustion chambers) that way the intake manifold would mount on one side & the exhaust manifold on the other side instead of having them both "stacked up" one manifold on top of the other manifold...plus, with the intake ports on one side & the exhaust ports on the other side - advances could be made with diameter openings instead of having both intake & exhaust ports "crowded up" on the same side of the cylinder head 🤔

[@Hanzyscure]

John DeLorean was working on a limited budget and time-line to put the OHC 6 into production. GM wasn't impressed with his ability to his not on schedule and over budget pet projects. Thus the poorly designed upper end oiling system and rubber timing belt that wasn't properly researched and tested for durability.

[@marcelaguirre9038]

Did he really say don't get any oil on the shop floor 🤦

[@JustRusting]

SOLD ME, get rid of six, my Dad had one in our Garage for years came out of our 1966 Tempest. I thought it was one of the most beautiful looking cars back in 1972 when i was 8 years old. We took it all apart and scrapped it in 1974. Back then it was just a junk car. Lots of people didnt take care of cars back then. Heck in looked like yours and it was only 9 years old at the time, Paint fade and bondo. Dad tried his hand at do it yourself bondo from Grand Auto, never painting it. Someone hit it in a parking lot and drove off taking out the quarter panel he spent weeks fixing. That and that engine was the death of our old Tempest.

[@brianhanel6897]

I'm telling you look into the4200 vortec boosted there a monster

[@joesilva3019]

hay liv put a 301 /4.9 ltr in that nice little tempest

[@edwardwheeler2527]

I have a 66 or 65 Pontiac Bonneville center council with the shifter and the I believe oil pressure gauge on it you're more than welcome to have if you want the veneer needs to be refinished on it but it is blue on the sides. You contact me with your information I could send you pictures

[@mattspontiacta]

The gasser stance look for the Pontiac? Take a viewer vote on that might be a good idea. I am not a big fan of the old gasser look but some people love it. Let the viewers decide.

[@terryhetherington3364]

Watch Jay Leno. He has a Firebird with that engine and explains it’s weakness and how to fix it.

[@jefferypitts343]

One thing I learned a long time ago, if you don't break the cam in correctly ,it will be rounded off after 15 minutes or less.

[@rickykey1175]

you have a gem girl the best car ever love it from bedford va

[@skunkben8657]

I know a guy selling a factory 4bbl intake an split exhausts for this engine

[@pete1342]

Cam failures were this engine's main claim to fame.

[@upfactoryracing4148]

When you glob RTV it blocks passages and that's the results. Just a fingers smear is all you need

[@joshlambrecht2357]

Seems silly they dint make it a cross flow head.