Time to save this block!

[jauringer]

Helping a binder buddy out and want to get some opinions on this block as it's not looking too good.

Here's a little background as there's definitely a story with this one. (I'll try to keep it short).

About 7 years ago my buddies Dad decides to get a frame off resto w/ performance engine rebuild on the 77 SSII sv304 w/ "e" heads that he has owned since new. He does his research, finds a builder with IH's under his belt, and spares no expense bringing his truck back to new condition.

Unfortunately, the series of events that follow the completion of this project are what brings us to the problems to date, 7 years later. The situation started south right after break in, with lifters banging intermittently as well as a few other minor issues that were engine related. The father ends up dieing shortly after and any plans for warranty work are put on hold. After some time (within 12mo/12,000m)it becomes his sons family heirloom, my buddy. His attempts to continue where his Dad left off were unsuccessful as the engine builder vanished. Some repairs were completed by a third party but the noise is eventually blamed on "IH engines always have lifter noise"

fast-forward, 7 years and under 10k later son moves to tyler tx for new job and we meet, killer truck btw. It doesn't take long to find out he had been misinformed, zero oil to the heads, very little to the lifters, and the cam bearings probably took a dump.

So we pull the engine and tear it down to find that the cam bearings are indeed toast. However, after a little cleaning and further inspection, it's seems that the cam bearing failure is not the biggest issue. We've got some lifter bore wear! Every bore in varying amounts is worn on the top and bottom ends ~1/8". Quite a few have wear throughout the entire bore and the #1i can be felt with a finger.

90% of the lifters weren't spinning, at least for some period of time, and all are scuffed along the length of the body. There's even a little transfer on some from rubbing the bore. The wear varies but it is very clear that these lifters are cocking in their bore now, turning into a metal cutting tool. Lifters are not the ht855's. He's running a comp 260h cam and I can only guess the lifters came with it. Mic shows the lifters to be the proper od and the portions of the lifter bores that are still good show proper diameter as well. The edges of the bores are worn as little as .0005" to as much as a few thousands of an inch. Placed into the bore, the lifters are easily cocked by hand.
Clearances show to be .0035" in the still good areas when compared to the od of the proper johnson lifter. I've considered honing the bores since IH gives me another .001 inch to stay spec but it won't clean them all up and I don't know how comfortable I feel with .0045" lifter bore clearance anyway?

The quick and easy answer for most of us would be toss the block. Not an option here, this was the last thing his Dad did before he died and with the exception of the engine upgrades, this is a 100% stock, not stone left unturned, all numbers matching purest type build. (ie: the alternator is bad so he'll have one built in the original case)

I can only think of one way to fix this block and want to make sure I'm not missing something here. As usual, any info/opinions on the situation would be much appreciated. Oh, and sorry, I didn't do very good at keeping this short did I?

Thanks,
jason

 

[Robert Kenney]

I find that the normal lifter to bore clearance is .0035 best on best on the sv engines. Lifter should measure .997 the bores 1.000 + bore tolerance and wear..
What your photos show looks more or less normal... There May be a tad bit of scratching but overall I think you are ok.

 

[jauringer]

I'll be darn. Wasn't expecting that answer but it's good to hear for sure. I had already made a few calls to find a rotler machine that will bush these bores. Some of those top and bottom edges will have as much as .008" clearance.

As always, thank you sir.

Jason

 

[Robert Kenney]

.008 is a lot for sure.
Your only choice is to bush them. The photos don't convey the magnitude of wear nore do the dimensions you gave.

 

[jauringer]

Sounds like some info was lost in my long winded/poorly worded post.

.0035" clearance is only on the portions of the bores that are are still good. I posted because this has been the first question I'm asked when discussing this issue.....thinking the wear must have started from the original clearances being out of spec. It wasn't.

Every bore in varying amounts is worn on the top and bottom ends ~1/8".....the edges of the bores are worn as little as .0005" to as much as a few thousands of an inch.

With the exception of the #1 intake. All the wear areas in the center portion of the bores looks like they can be cleaned up. The big issue I see are the partialy bell shaped ends.

Thanks,
jason

 

[jauringer]

This May give a little better picture of the situation. I took the remaining measurements and put together a spreadsheet. The top and bottom measurements are in the first 1/8" along the vertically axis in the wear areas. The center measurement was taken just above the oil hole. Various measurements taken horizontally along the bore compare well with the middle #s below. I thought there would be a pattern here but I'm just not seeing one.


Top 1/8: center: bottom 1/8

8i 1.0032: 1.0005: 1.0017
e 1.0030: 1.0007: 1.0010

6i 1.0013: 1.0003: 1.0016
e 1.0020: 1.0000: 1.0008

4i 1.0022: 1.0002: 1.0000:
e 1.0020: 1.0001: 1.0028:

2i 1.0036: 1.0002: 1.0006
e 1.0031: 1.0001: 1.0038

7e 1.0022: 1.0002: 1.0018
I 1.0023: 1.0002: 1.0001

5e 1.0010: 1.0001: 1.0010
I 1.0028: 1.0003: 1.0017

3e 1.0006: 1.0000: 1.0000
I 1.0004: 1.0001: 1.0012

1e 1.0020: 1.0002: 1.0006
I 1.0010: 1.0015: 1.0010

 

[jauringer]

Update here. It's been quite time consuming journey to say the least but I learned a lot along the way so that at least made it bearable.

The original plan was to find a rottler machine for a lifter bore bush/relocation job. Unfortunately, this is a hipo option and not many shops have this type of machinery laying around. The few in texas that did wouldn't even consider messing with an IH and the owner had decided shipping across the country is not an option. Option 2 was finding someone that would just bush them, no big time machinery necessary. We ended up being the happiest with "watt" @ watt's racing just outside of dallas who was recommended to me by bhj products. He was willing to do the work and we felt good about him...$1500-$2000 job. This was pretty much going to be the plan until I remembered a possible option I ran into in the very beginning. I emailed dennis @ wydendorf machine in michigan And after exchanging a few emails, we decided this would be a good compromise between cost and finished product. Dennis makes lifter bore bushing kits for the more popular engines.

It's a custom job so the kit is $549 as opposed to $399 and it comes with a piloted reamer, piloted finishing tool, bushing driver, drill attachment, 16 oillite bushings, and directions. After recording all pertinant data, block wall thickness, bushing thickness, cam tunnel interference, etc, we pulled the trigger on it. It should be here sometime next week. (3 week total lead time).

Bushing specs are as follows:

finished od: 1.125"
finished id: .9990"-.9995" (clearance tightened a hair)
length: 1.5"

I'll be tackling instillation, including the oil holes. The oe oil hole orientation is helpful. The bores are at an angle but the holes are vertical allowing me to fit a drill bit through it @ 180deg. My current plan is to measure and drill a small pilot hole before install and then finish it out in the block. It's obviously stripped so clean up won't be a problem. I'm still working out the type of bit I need and if any specialty bit suites this job better?recommendations are much appreciated. I'll take pics along the way to document here.

Ford kit pictured.

 

[Robert Kenney]

I got your pm. I have thought about your questions for a while..

Here are my thoughts..

1) lifter to bore clearance= .003-.0035 oem new. I feel this is to get enough oil to the cam/lifter interface with the low pressure lifter feed gallery pressure in the sv oil system.
2) I don't like the .003-.0035 with the bronze liners. They are softer than iron block material and with the large clearance the lifter rocks around rendering the effective bearing contact area very small. This will accelerate the softer bronze liner wear..
3) I recommend setting the lifter bore to lifter clearance at .001-.0015. The lifter will be more stable.
4) you will need to suppliment the cam oiling. It is common to groove the lower end of the lifter bore so it oils the lobe before it contacts the lifter ahead of the lifter. You should calculate the decrease oil clearance from the tighter bore clearance and groove to add 30% back with the groove.

A quick search found this thread. Gives you a visual of the grooving .

Jeep strokers • lifter bore grooving tool?

 

[Robert Kenney]

A quick calculation is a groove .050x.025= .0012sq/inch

this is the area differance of going from a .0035 clearance to a .001 clearance * 30%

oem oil cross sction = .004

 

[jauringer]

Great info, thanks a bunch Robert. The groove didn't cross my mind and is definitly a good idea. I tell ya, covering a lot of new territory here! I really appreciate the help.

Updates soon.

Jason

 

[jauringer]

I'm glad to say my buddy's block is in usable condition again. Dennis @ wydendorf machine was extremely helpful and his kit was really well done. I don't think I could find those same tools in a better quality if I tried. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a 5axis cnc lifter bore correction. Obviously this kit was never intended to even try to go there. However, using it for oil metering or to repair lifter bore damage as we did worked out well. The circles I found this kit to be most associated with were the cleveland guys. It looks to be a very common modification to restrict oil supply to the lifters. It's listed in some of their FAQ's and oiling correction articles. Of course, I know nothing about a cleveland engine other than I can almost fit my head in it's lifter bore oilers.

They seem to be doing well with the kit and that's nice to see when you're considering doing the same. However, doing something like this for the first time with no guidance can be quite overwhelming. When you add into the equation that it's somebody else's block...well, I can't remember the last time I felt this uncomfortable. Even knowing the block was unacceptable as is did little to help my mindset.

Here's what some of the tools look like. He used a floating assembly for the reamers. You just applied power and some pressure. It's an extension and adapters running backwards! Note the machined 3/8" socket extension. It's designed to fit into a 1/2" chuck on a hd drill. We rented a unit from home depot used to mix concrete. 10 amp/500rpm max, heavy as heck but fit the requirements nicely.

Two carbide, straight fluted reamers with a 1.5" pilot. One for the block and one for the bronze. For bore repair, dennis prefers that at least 75% of the bore is still in spec for the pilot to perform the task it's intended for. He had ours fitted just as snug as bug in a rug.
Block reamer

Bushing id, finishing reamer.

Every step along the way presented some kind of unique challenge. When we were reaming the bores oversized, the bottoms of the lifter bores are not even and the the last bit breaking through rough cast was very tough. It wanted to cock the reamer hard, right at the end. Being a floating assembly, I had basically no control over the reamer. It's was just one of those things. It's easy to fix once you know about it but scary as hell figuring it out. We came real close to trashing the first bore right out the gate! Here was the fix.

That steel rule in the cam tunnel was just the right size. It allowed the pilot and cutting edge of the reamer to penetrate and then stop. It left no room for cocking and made life much easier for the rest of the bores.

After the bores where reamed, diameter was checked along with surface finish. It was common to see a dull finish by the oil hole as the chatter there was unavoidable. The directions did prepared us for that and changing pressure on the tool did help to reduce the issue. With the exception of the exit, the reamer ate through that block with ease. I operated the drill and Matt was the oil man. I don't have much experience when it comes to precision reamers so I was surprised to see the tight tolerances they carry. It pretty much drilled exactly what it said it was going to.

Here's a shot at the half way point I think.

Next we measured the bushing od's as well as the thin wall side of the lifter bore. IH was no where close to haveing those bores centered in the casting so there's one thin side and one thick side. While I had verified our minimum thickness was no where close to a problem, I still didn't want to slam the biggest bushing we had in the thinnest wall bore either. Bronze expands at a much higher rate than the block. That's why .0015"-.002" press fit is all that's recommended. While the bushings didn't vary much, there was some. So the thickest castings received the higher press fit and the thinner castings received the least.

The next challenge was to measure the oil hole locations and transfer them to the bushings. We brainstormed this one for a long time, walking through every isle at stores like home depot, hoping the bulb would light up. We got the job done but it certainly wasn't by some amazing ingenuity. We had no room for risks. We needed a method that would be worth screwing up a bushing for. This is one of those deals that get's better as the project is done more. Each time someone does it a better idea would come up.

This was the magic tool, sheesh.

Matt worked on getting proficient with it and I worked on drilling clean holes without distorting the bushings. We ended up getting pretty good. I held the sharp side of a razor blade on the flattest portion of the lifter bore base I could find, then he placed the flange of the slider in the oil hole and then seated the rule base against the razor. We took three measurements. If they didn't match, we kept going. Unfortunately, the measurement had to be transferred to the base of a caliper after that, then to the bushing and drilled. That certainly added to a potential stack of errors but we made it work. I used a dewalt pilot pointed drill bit for the holes. Its was by far the best bit we tested.
Here's a shot of the bushings drilled, labeled, and chamfered for easy entry into the bore. As you can see, green loctite was used as "just cause" type of deal.

So, one more challenge out of the way, on to the next one. I've got to drive these bushings into the bore with oil hole alighned! Oh boy, I did two that night and I think it took be 90 minutes. It was all by eye and feel. If I didn't feel it, I didn't hit it. Cam bearings are nothing compared to this. I hit those two dead on but there was a mistake. The lifter galleries are 7/32" oil holes so I thought I played it safe and used 1/4". Well, it turns out when a 7/32 oil hole comes out of the block at a ~45 degree angle it's larger top to bottom than 1/4". So, Matt pulled out the dental file and went to work. In hindsight, that did turn out a better oil hole but it increased the chance for failed installation.

After takeing a little better measurement, it looked like 5/16 was the top to bottom height. A 5/16 hole will allow for a little space from side to side but I couldn't think of a single reason that would matter to the lifter. I also decided to install the remaining bushings the next day, alone in my garage. I felt like I could concentrate a little better by myself, hopefully beating the 45 min per bushing Mark I had previously set. 16 bushings were driven in, 16 bushing hit the oil hole dead on, thank goodness.

Each bushing was measured, drilled, and driven in to match the highest edge of the base of the lifter bore. We didn't want any hangover of the bushing, yet we wanted as much support as we could get as well. I felt like this position made the most since.

These above pics show the "pattern" of oilite bushing pretty well. It's bronze alloy engineered to have a self lubricating properties as I'm sure most know. That look was retained in some areas after finishing the id but not all. A reamer can be used on oilite as long as it's dead sharp. However, even then some of the pores are smeared closed, reducing it's self lubricating properties. Honing will ruin an oilite bushings structure completely. Those properties are great but at the end of the day, the kit wasn't purchased just for that type of bushing. The main goal was to have a nice, reliable lifter bore. If we happen to get some of the extra features along the way, fantastic. If not, oh well, it was sacrificed for the greater good. I can see that being important if the oil holes are eliminated but this certainly isn't the case here. (continued)

 

[jauringer]

The finishing reamer was the easiest part thank goodness. It was the most interesting to0. Hardly any material was removed that I could see. It seemed to me that it was burnishing the id more than reaming it but I'm certainly not a machinist. The bottom line is the bores came out pretty nice. We ended up at .002" clearance which falls within the kit specs. The lifter feels amazing in the bore, very solid and smooth. It would be great for this engine to take advantage of the better oil control; however, Robert's point above is a very good one. If the cam in these engines can't survive unless the lifters are leaking all over them, then grooving has to be looked at. Robert, thanks for the formula. I need to borrow that and punch in the new clearances.

This was one heck of a project. The unknowns being the toughest to deal with and of course it being someone else's stuff. However, when I look back on it now, I feel like I could do it again in a 3rd the time with minimal surprises.

Anyway here are some more pics of the final bores.

One that shows a little of the oilite finish remaining, not much. Top edges where filed to "point up" like the gallery hole does.

Light from behind didn't work so well.

 

[jeff campbell]

Nice work jason, seem's to me a heck of a lota work tho ? Jeff

 

[FDChappie]

Yea, but he's all set to do 100's more and now that he knows what he's doing they'll be easy. :-}

 

[jeff campbell]

Yuppir howdy !

 

[jauringer]

nice work jason, seem's to me a heck of a lota work tho ? Jeff

Thanks guys. Jeff, as far as it being a lot of work...I guess there's at least 100 cliché's that would fit perfectly here. This should give you a pretty good idea of how important this block is to Matt. There's no question buying an nos block from you would have been the easy route but emotions don't always take "easy" into consideration.

And most importantly, I'm still alive. The hard work didn't kill me and I learned a lot as well. Which has really become the hole point to my interest in the this hobby.

Honestly, I can't wait to get his engine fired up and broken in so we can log some info. I could potentially see this mod being very useful for changes to my engine down the road. The cleveland guys are using these same reamers on multiple blocks. A set of custom bushings is all that's needed to do another one.

Jason

 

[jeff campbell]

I can understand that, I get your point, onward ! Good luck, I hope it all comers out top notch, I'm sure it will, doing mpfi as well ? Jeff

 

[Robert Kenney]

You've made great progress. I really think you'll have a better engine with the tight lifter to bore clearance.
I also think a moderate groove will be enough. One more in line with the normal used across the board. By reducing the clearance you'll up the gallery pressure so you'll automatically get more being pushed past the lifter. But also more pump up pressure.

 

[jauringer]

I appreciate the kind words Robert. I hope you're doing well.

After reading your comment on the effect of increased pumping pressures my head spun off my shoulders and exploded into a 1000pieces. I though I was pretty smart bringing the old volume equation out of my 1980's storage chest for this groove calc. Then you had to raise it up a notch with pressure vs volume stuff, lol. Makes perfect sense but turning it into a number is something I must have been absent for. .

for just the clearance volume comparison: I used a standard 1.5"s for bore and lifter length . on the bushed engine I have each lifter assigned to a specific bushing on this block so those clearances all measured @ .002" +- .0001" . stock number are based on a 1" bore and the largest and smallest lifter diameter in the set we're using .

bushed bore @ 1.5"h & .002" lifter/bore clearance:
clearance volume = .0047 in³ [/b ]

stock bore @ 1.5"h & .003" lifter/bore clearance:
clearance volume = .0071 in³ [/b ]

stock bore @ 1.5"h & .0034" lifter/bore clearance:
clearance volume = .0080 in³[/b ]

indicating the stock bores to have total clearance volume of .0024 in³-.0033 in³ [/u ] greater than the bushed bore . the new bushings reduced the total volume of oil required to displace bore clearance by 33%-41% over stock . my data shows the ladder being most likely . considering .0034" is a very typical clearance, over 16 bores the total reduction in clearance volume on the bushed block is[b ] ~.0528in³ , also equal to eliminating the clearance completely on just over 6.5 stock lifter bores !

assuming this all adds up, I can calculate a grove that will work from here but adding the additional oil from a pressure increase is another situation entirely . I am starting to wonder if we're getting to an oil groove too small to make reliably over 16 bores ? I'll admit I've become emotionally attached to this saved clearance so my thought process is somewhat biased I'm sure . . Just ask the owner Matt, any mention of giving some back makes me gringe.

Robert, what do you think? Does this info/logic sound correct and reasonable? Last thought on cam oiling. It seems to me only the odd bank benefits from the stock lifter bore oil flow. The leakage on the even bank doesn't hit the lobe until after it's rotated through the lifter. I'm sure that has a cooling effect but I don't see how it could coat the lobe before contact. Does that thinking sound correct?

Thanks guys, I hope your holidays have been great.
Jason

 

[Robert Kenney]

I can't figure out where your calculations are going with the in/3 and 1.5' bore but here is what you do to calculate the oil clearance cross section area.. You need the area not the clearance volume. The oil clearance area is an orifice where the length of either configuration is the same.

1) area of the lifter @ .997 dia = .7807 sq/in
2) area of the factory bore @ 1.0005 dia. = .7862 sq/in

oem oil cross section = subtract 1 from 2 = .0055 sq/in

3) area of lifter( same as 1 above) .7807 sq in
4) area of new bronze bushed bore @ .999 dia = .7838 sq/in

new oil cross section = subtract 1 from 4 = .0031 sq/in
The net oil cross section change/one lifter after re-bushing
.0031-.0055 = .0024 sq/in.

Now to the groove size to recover 100% of the oem oil cross section the groove has to be .0024 sq/in. Works out to a .05 x .05 groove.. I don't feel you need that even at 50% of that you have a .05 x .025 groove. Still big.. I think 25% or .025 x .025 on the leading edge of the lifter bore will be more than enough and leave more oil pressure in the gallerys for a quiet valve train.

 

[jauringer]

I calculated the volume remaining in the bores (v=πr²h) volume being in being in cubic inches. One being the bore and the other the lifter. I then subtracted the lifter volume from the bore volume to get clearance volume. This is the best picture I could find to show what I'm thinking. The inner cylinder being solid and displacing the volume of the outer cylinder.

Sounds like I took in the height of the cylinder when I shouldn't have.

Thanks for the help Robert.

Jason

 

[jauringer]

Fyi: Matt and I went over my numbers and I screwed up squaring the radius in all the volume calcs. The mistake was identical across the board so the relationships and percentages ended up the same. Regardless of whether I used the correct formula, I figure the math should still be correct.

Plus, there's still a relationship to be seen in the numbers.

Jason

 

[jauringer]

Well, we're moving right along with this one. I didn't want to turn this into a build thread but I do want to keep it alive so I can post the progress and performance of a bushed block. The one final big decision on this was the oil grooves to the cam lobe. I of course turned this into a bigger deal than it probably was but in the end Matt and I decided not to groove them. With .002" lifter to bore clearance, we're still well above a lot of stock engines on the market. I just didn't feel it was necessary in the end. Now, this could come back and bite me in the ass one way or another. The main concern running through my head is if we loose a lobe at break in, whether it was caused by the lack of grooves or not, they will still get the blame. I guess any normal person would have just grooved them as a cya (cover your ass)deal but I really don't see it being a problem and felt strongly about not wanting to sacrifice any improvements to the oil system if I don't have to.


Anyway, the block was cleaned again for mock up and more measurements. I've found the previous builder was quite bi-polar in his efforts. Most of build was done quite well, even overboard in some aspects. Then other portions were just completely overlooked or disregarded. What initially attracted me to this job was the cam bearing issue. I've also lost new cam bearings at break-in so this gave me an opportunity to scrutinize another block for comparison to my findings. That said, there were a couple other issues that I wanted to look into as well. In the very beginning I told Matt compression ratio, cam timing, and pushrod length are other portions of the build that needed to be scrutinized. It turns out I was 2 for 3.

1.c.r.: the previous buildering installed sealed power hypereutectic pistons which have a shorter compression height. The good news is that he did make up for it by taking material from the deck to account for it. The pistons are currently .015" in the hole and give this engine a compression ratio of 8.6:1. So we're good there.

2. Valve timing: I was right here. The builder installed the cam dot to dot, being ~5 degrees retarded when timed. I read a quote from a professional builder not to long ago that went something like this "if you're not timing the cam in every build you perform then you're not qualified to work on engines."

The cams I've installed come in around 5-6 degrees retarded allowing me to advance the timing gears one tooth to provide a slightly advanced cam timing. This one was no different. Here are couple graphs from the timing data. It's a schneider 256h. The size of this cam is pushing it in a 8.6:1 304 in my opinion but he felt the most comfortable with this choice. He's running a low geared manual tranny so it should fit his needs just fine. It will definitely outperform the retarded comp 260 he had in prior to this.

Schneider 256h
204/204 on 112 lsa, intake installed @ 109

lift curve:

Velocity curve:

3. Pushrod length: right here again. Preload was border line dangerous on about every other valve. The stock pushrods had a variance in length by as much as .020". Using stock pushrods after taking off as much material as they did was big mistake. I didn't see where any were noticeably bent when rolling them on glass but the variance seemed large to me and all were shorter than their original stock length. In more than a few cases a new stock length pushrod would have pushed preload over .125

I called the guys at smith bro's to have an adjustable pushrod made. It came with the same ends that would be on the new set of pushrods once the measurements were made. They told me to take the measurement, lock it down, and then mail it back to them and they would make a set based on that measurement. While very convenient, I knew all 16 valves would have a slightly different measurement due to rocker arm wear, etc. So I jumped on ebay and found a used mitutoyo 12" dial caliper.

Once it arrived, I measured every valve twice, averaged all 16 measurements and added in .075" preload. With that new data I called smith bro.'s again and ordered a set of ball/ball heat treated pushrods, 8.910" oal. The new pushrods were beautiful and varied by just a couple thousandths.


So this engine had some critical issues to deal with. That last being a prestolite electronic distributor conversion outfitted with a pertronix one. Gear end play was .020" over spec and shaft side play was double high spec at .013" I tested endplay at the beginning and had shims ready for those but replaceing shaft bushings was a surprise. With the exception of a groove to hold the grease cavity cap in the top bushing, they're pretty easy to make from your standard tractor supply oillite bushings.

Cleaned parts.

Stock upper bushing- 5/8" od, 1/2" id, 1" long

Makeshift lathe w/ a triangle dental file.

Ready to be cut down to size. Tractor supply bushing is 5/8 x 1/2 x 1 1/8 long.

Had to make a pilot so both bushings would install straight and on the same plane. I've outlined this procedure somewhere else so I won't go over it again. The lower bushing has been installed using a different (makeshift) pilot to be installed straight in it's bore. Now I'm piloting off the already installed lower bushing to make sure they're on the same plane.

Everything put back together but now with endplay and sideplay specs of a new distributor. I got lucky, I though I would have to broach the id for sure but that was not the case. I had to chamfer the id of the upper bushing but the shaft spins beautifully now, no id sizing needed.

Everything's finally back together and all specs are where they should be.


Main bearing's= .0025"
rods bearing's= .002"
crankshaft endplay=.004"
rod side clearance = .007"-.009"

cam bearing's= .003"
cam endplay= .006"
note re cam: there is a very critical fitment procedure that needs to be followed when installing a new camshaft on new cam bearings. I did mention it here but I've seen where Robert has gone over it more than once. The latest being in "harry's rebuild" I think it's one of the most critical lessons to learn when building one of these.

Lifters = .002"


oil pump and distributor are in spec and ready to go.

Heads have a new multi-angle valve job w/ bronze guide inserts, new intake valves, new umbrella seals, and springs @ 110#/270# vs cam open and close. Retainer to seal and spring bind are both in spec. (the guides were milled by the previous builder)

and the most important thing, everything's clean! I can't tell you how much time I spent cleaning this thing. When in doubt, I gave it bath.

I spent this weekend trying to make it look good. The prep was a pita but it was worth it in the end.

Pic cam out blue but it's just epoxy primer.

I scuffed the epoxy with red scotch-brite and then laid down some eastwood's ceramic engine paint - universal red

I've decided to break this engine in on a stand so while the paint is curing, I'll spend the next few days putting that together. I'm not going to spend 100 hours building some crazy engine stand, it's just going to get the job done and allow me to monitor all aspects of the engine while running. I've wanted one and this seems to be the perfect time to do it considering we've got some freshly prepared lifter bores in her. Plus, the owners been rewiring his truck from front to back and I just don't want to mess with all that while I'm trying to focus on the engine. Not that I think he did a poor job but we already have a lot going on here. A simple stand w/ simple wiring and everything at arms reach sound great to me. Might even have a video of it all, we'll see.

Thanks,
jason

 

[jauringer]

Need a little help with a carb rebuild. It's been a while since I've messed with one and wanted to run a little bit of info by you guys.

Holley shows it to be the "4412" which is the 500 cfm version of the 2300 if I understand it correctly. I believe this is a little large for the applications but figured I would run it by you guys before moving forward.

It has a 50cc pump diaphragm w/ the #28 discharge nozzle and maroon cam. Before converting to TBI, I used to run all 30cc diaphragms I believe. Can I make this setup work or should I have Matt pick up the 30cc kit.

Also, I've see Holley's description of the dry setting for a center hung float bowl but it's not a very precise. Anybody have another, potentially more accurate setting method?

Thanks,
jason

 

[Robert Kenney]

Holley engineered it that way and it should run ok.

Note on the carb page at Holley, says the 30cc is used on the 350 cfm version. My guess it needs the bigger pump shot to cover a poor transition match.

Won't cost much to try it the way it is..