....or...'getting into tight squish the easy way'

as it could have just as easily been named.

This gallery is about what I did, how I did it, and why I did it to a 1983 B23F/AW70 that I transplanted into a 1979 245.

There are often stories behind stories, and this particular motor has quite a story behind it. It spans over 20 years.

chapter 1:

This '83 powertrain was originally in a 244DL that my mother bought in 1986. About three years later, she hit an icy patch on a back road coming home late in the evening. The car spun out on the ice, slid backwards into an embankment, and flipped over backwards OVER the embankment and down a hillside. The car landed on its roof.

She was not alone on that hillside. Two other cars had also ended up down the hillside after hitting the ice.

When she realized just what had happened, and where she was, she tried to crawl out of the car. The driver's door opened as if the car was still on its four wheels. She looked around, and saw the other cars, and saw that some passersby were there offering assistance. The police had been called.

The police called my dad, informing him of the accident, and that my mom was fine. He arranged for a tow truck to show up and tow the car home; and then drove over to the field where mom and the car was.

Once all the paperwork was taken care of, the tow truck flipped the 244 back onto it wheels, winched it up onto the bed, and hauled it to my parents' place.

My mom suffered a couple of bruises on her leg; and broke a dental bridge. Other than that, she was fine.

The car looked pretty bad: the roof was crunched in a bit at the windshield; the windshield was very cracked; the hood was crumpled down; and the rear of the car had been crumpled a bit...tucked under from hitting the embankment.

...but all four doors still opened and closed as if nothing had happened.

My dad pulled the spark plugs, cranked the motor over to clear out the cylinders of oil and any fuel, topped off the oil, and started the motor right up.

The insurance company totalled the car; my dad and I bought the wreck.

Then, it was a matter of deciding what to do with what we had bought.

chapter 2:

I found a nice 1979 264GL with a bad V6, and some minor rust issues. I replaced the B27F/BW55 with the B23F/AW70. I changed everything over from the Kjet fuel injection to the LH2.0 that was in the 244. I even swapped out the 79 interior for the 83 interior...from worn leather to nice velour.

I had everything done, looking good, and running really nice. I was doing some scope work as part of my final tuning, and tripped and fell against the car, knocking the coil wire out of the top of the ignition coil and against the primary wiring. The engine immediately stalled.

I found out what I had tripped over, corrected the problem, cussed and swore a while; and put the coil wire back in place. The motor started right back up and ran fine.

Ten days later, while out running around...about 40 miles from the shop...the motor stalled out on the expressway. And would not restart. My mom had to come get me so I could get my truck and carhauler to haul it back to the shop.

I went through the diagnostic procedures for the ignition and fuel injection: the ECU was deader than a doornail. I concluded that the errant secondary voltage from my knocking the coil wire off ten days prior had finally exacted its price. I needed an ECU.

This was 1990. Used ECUs were not readily available, nor were they priced remotely reasonably; and new ones cost about $700. When I considered the cost of the ECU, and the potential cost of other LH2.0 components like the air mass meter at about $400, I decided to go a less costly route: I would convert the B23F from LH2.0 to K-Jetronic, using a 160 cylinder head and all the components from a 1979 240 parts car I had out back.

When the conversion was done, the car ran great. The B23 really liked the Bcam and the Kjet. It was a sweet running sedan. AND, it looked exactly factory.

I sold the car to a lady who wanted to move up from a 244DL with M46 to the GL and auto trans. She loved the car, and was going to drive it forever.

Forever lasted about three years. She hit some heavy slush on the road and slid into a tree with the right front side of the car, just behind the right front wheel.

The chassis was tweaked over to the left about 10 inches, from the right front door forward. That body was toast.

chapter 3:

Sliding into a tree was not part of the plan, and not easily recovered from financially. I was tasked with finding another car that needed a motor. I found a nice 1979 264GL that had motor problems [yeah, another one] in Virginia.

I went after that one; brought it back; swapped the powertrain, and put the '83 powertrain back on the road. The lady drove it for about four years; and then gave it to her son to commute back and forth to college.

By the time he finished school, the salt from the roads during the winter had really taken its toll. The rust was surprising, and it was just about everywhere. It was not worth the effort to fix the rust.

I was sold the car for a good price. I bought it for the powertrain.

chapter 4:

I needed a better powertrain for my youngest son's 1979 wagon, the B21F was getting very tired, and the auto trans did not have overdrive.

...I just happened to end up bringing home a good powertrain that I had been looking after for nearly 20 years. Despite the fact that the shortblock and transmission had over 200,000 miles on them, I knew them, and knew how well they ran.

So, we did the swap; fixed up the body and gave it a paint job. It looked nice, and ran well.

...until the head gasket started to seep coolant about a year later.

Which is the story of how I ended up looking at a head gasket that I had replaced over 16 years ago.