It's me.

What was I thinking? It all started with a spun bearing and just did not stop.

I converted my auto with the chevy t5 as you all may remember in a previous post. Well let me tell you that is one of the most incredible mods, banging thru the gears, the smoothness of the 85 truck hydraulics and centerforce II clutch hooo weee. Man what a rush.

The crappy vette steering fell out and I again in a previous post fabbed my own version of the steeriods. I have not hooked the pump up yet but holy crap what and outstanding difference. No powersteering and and it blows the old steering away. So responsive and crisp. I will say I did have to change the ujoints to get around the headers and also forgot. I had to shorten the header collector to get the flange away from the clutch slave cylinder.

The Lumina cooling fans from a previous post would not work because the A-arms would not allow clearance so I used only one and the 383 runs cool as a cucumber.

About the 383 stroker. Well I used the 2 bolt main block that came with the car. The stroker rotating assembly was from Speedway Motors. The cam is summit 490/520 lift with 1.6 rokers. 882 heads port matched and bowl porting with new blue racer springs. Melling high volume oiling. Edelbrock intake with the original Qjet carb. That's the nut shell of it. Again Holy Crap this motor was gettin it, I mean it is strong right up until both head gaskets blew.

According to the KB calculator the motor has 10.5-1 compression. I used felpro gaskets and ARP bolts. I have always used gasket sealer on the threads and torgue to 80 ft. lbs. This time I followed ARP instructions and used thread sealer and torqued to 60 ft. lbs. WTF, how did this happen?

Anyway, on the same day this happened the tranny in my Explorer crapped out on me. So the vette is back in the garage, the new tranny goes in tomorrow. So I'll strip the heads off and let you all know what I find. In any case some day there may be someone else may be trying to rebuild this car and all they'll be cursing and screeming about is why some bubba would do this to a vette.

Bubba

 

I don't get it why are you Bubba? Sounds like a sweet ride to me.

And I can't believe you blew your head gaskets. You must have been using some cheap gaskets.

 

Felpro should be a good gasket. Get a machinest strait edge and
check your heads for warpage, and the decks of your block.

 

882's are notorious for being on the weak side in terms of casting quality (thin, porous castings), and if you had all that work done on them I can't say I'm surprised you had head gasket problems. Even in stock trim they are known to warp.

Certainly check them for straightness before putting them back in your rig.

 

and let us know

 

The block was decked with .006 to the piston top. The heads I had milled, but not sure how much was taken off. This is my sixth engine I've built but the first in high performance range. I've replaced many heads and have never had one blow before let alone both.

It is a sweet ride except for the paint. I know there is some hardcore vette people out there that would not agree with moding, eh who cares its my ride and when it's done it will be Bad A$$$$.

Chris

 

i'm curious as to how you got 10.5 to 1 compression with 882 casting 76 c.c. heads.i believe your calculations are off.they,in their stock form are 8.5 to 1 compression and you mentioned bowl porting .this would only make them bigger.
just curious as i can't seeem to get mine anywhere near that number.mike

 

I was refering to the bowl under the intake valves. The compression ratio is from KB calculator. 76cc chamber. -7cc flat top piston, -.006 deck, .041 gasket, 3.75 stroke, 5.7 rods, and 4.040 gasket bore. Unless there's a glitch in their calculator that's what I got.

Chris

 

sorry guy , just re read.383 stroker,my stupid.

 

That's alright, I've missed read a few myself.

 

Hi Chris, Glitch in calculation. The -.006 Should be +.006 for calculations if you are .006 below the deck. To check it run your numbers as 0 deck .047 gasket all the rest the same. I have 0 deck, -5 flattops, 74 cc chamber, .036 gasket, 3.75 stroke and 6" rods and I figure lower than you. I might be wrong but check again. You are not "Bubba" look at my avatar! 63MAKO

 

I have been using a set of 882 heads for 4yrs 175 shot of nitrous and 9.0 compression . one blown head gasket. they have 2.02 /1.60 valves . The 882 gets a bad name because people run them hot and any head that is run hot will warp sometime.

 

Seems to me, real close to 9.45:1 static CR ... not 10.5. Don't care for KB/UEM's cr calculator too much ... nor their site ... like their hypers less. 882 heads ... 'specially milled 882 ... tend to not seal well ... true for most production iron sbc head castings beginning about 1977.

 

63mako, you're right it is supposed to be +.006 here is what I get it's actually closer to 11:1


ENTER YOUR DATA CALCULATED DATA
Cylinder Head Volume (cc)
Cylinder Head Vol
(cubic in.) 04.636
Piston Head Volume (cc)
Piston Head Vol
(cubic in.) -0.427
Gasket Thickness (in.)
Swept Volume
(cubic in.) 47.833
Gasket Bore (in.)
T.D.C. Volume
(cubic in.) 04.817
Cylinder Bore Diameter (in.)
Gasket Volume
(cubic in.) 00.531
Deck Clearance (in.)
Note: Neg. nubmer above deck, Pos. number below deck
Deck Volume
(cubic in.) 00.077
Stroke (in.)
STATIC COMPRESSION RATIO 10.930