Last friday the big day was there: all the new parts were going to be installed

Not a shop but a very knowledgeable mechanic from my corvette club did the build so not only did it save me a great deal of cash, but I got to watch, help and learn as well.

It all went very smoothly, the man took all the time neccessary, no rushing and did everything properly. In total we were at it for four days:

- The first day we lifted the engine and removed the old intake, heads and cam+lifters.





Four bolt main, always nice:



- The second day we thoroughly cleaned the engineblock and after that installed the new parts. Engine was in mint condition, only a small amount of carbon deposit. Other than that everything was almost like new.







- On the third day we reinstalled the engine and all the components we took off to do the lift (fan, pumps, headers, etc.).





- The fourth day was all about break-in, timing and adjusting the carb. Fired right up and not a single leak! Man did she sound awesome!

At the end of the afternoon the moment was there: drive it!!

First drive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZwNuoMCydQ (1:04 min.)

A few sprints: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inkvi1vGBVQ (0:26 min.)

Still some small issues to work out though. For one the carb (EDL-1411, 750 cfm) is a tad too big which gives problems in the 1500 to 2000 rpm range (too rich, wants to stall). Secondly the corteco exhaust gaskets are too thin and are leaking already. Anyone tips for a good thicker set?

 

How COOL is that!! Being able to do your own engine with the help of an expert. I am GREEN with envy you lucky guy! Hope you have many, many miles!!!

 

Carburetor CFM has nothing to do with it running rich or lean. You could have a 450 CFM carburetor that runs pig rich on the same motor. Jets, rod and air bleeds set calibration.

BigBlockk

Later.....

 

Exhaust gaskets....I've used Fel-Pro Performance 1404 Header Gasket that I got at Summit Racing. No leaks, no problems.

 

Thanks for the tip vetteguy!

@Bigblokk: what would you suggest doing to solve this problem? We could tweak it some more, but perhaps other things will give a better result? Open to suggestions!

 

You are doing a great job!

 

Is this one of those matched Edelbrock top end kits or just Edelbrock heads and intake and other miscellaneous parts?

What's the total parts list and estimated output before and after?

Looks good for a few days' work

 

I agree with the felpro blue header gaskets.

You don't need to remove the motor for a cam change. What cam did you go with?

 

dosnt it fell good to do the work yourself, get all dirty, smell like a oil can, very tired at the end of the day, but when you hit the key, and she comes alive, thats the greatest feeling--love it-- liked your sprint video

 

Thanks for all the compliments! Doing part of the wrenching myself felt great indeed!

We removed the engine because it makes working on it as well as painting it a lot easier.

The parts list:
- Edelbrock 60909 aluminum performer heads, 64cc Chamber, 170cc Intake Runner;
- Edelbrock 2701 EPS performer manifold, Dual Plane, Square Bore;
- Edelbrock 1411 performer carburator, 750 cfm;
- Edelbrock 9629 pushrods, .100 over;
- CompCam XE268H 12-242-2, camshaft and lifters, Hydraulic Flat Tappet, Advertised Duration 268/ 280, Lift .477/ .480;
- CompCam 1412-16, 1.52 Magnum Roller tip rockers;
- CompCam 2100, Timing chain and gear;
- Corteco engine gasket kit (32222-1CS)

I based my initial selection on the ChevyHighPerformance articles 'The Goodwrench Quest'. But due to costs I had to abandon my 'vortec quest' and went for aluminum heads instead. Turned out shipping cast iron vortec heads to Europe would have been (way) more expensive than buying aluminum heads of the shelf. Crazy world ey?

Anyway, the before output I can be very exact about: 168,5 RWHP and 329,8 Nm RWTQ. There seem to be some differences in European and US horsepower and torque measuring, but I guess it's close enough?

Estimate after output would be around 250 RWHP, but I'll get back on that in a few weeks/months when I've revisited the dynojet.

Further information: '95 Goodwrench engine, 4 bolt main, cast aluminum pistons, ca. 8:1 compression, TH350 auto, stock rear gears (3.55:1).

 

enjoy

 

Congrats looks good. It's always fun when things go right! I always use copper gaskets and some kind of mechanicaly locking header fasteners and forget about them. Also, sometimes your headers flanges can be warped causing the leak like you've described, a thicker gasket will help if it's not too bad, I even used 2 gaskets to get by once until I could get new headers.

 

Great vids

 

You can not expect to bolt an after market carburetor on your engine and it have a perfect calibration for that engine. Edelbrock makes tuning parts (rods, jets and power piston springs) for this carburetor. They also have tuning guides, manuals and technical help online.

BigBlockk

Later.....

 

Thanks, I'll look into that. Problem is that those items are hard to come by over here, so I was hoping for some practical pointers. I'll start reading and perhaps start e new topic to bounce off some ideas.

 

Whilst digging into the carb literature I ordered new exhaust gaskets, which should be in tomorrow. I'll post pictures of the 'old' ones.

 

Installed the Mr.Gasket 150B gaskets today: great result and no RTV needed! Though one header flange is probably warped they sealed off pretty nice. See the difference in thickness below!

Also the mechanic stopped by (2 hr drive!) and retuned timing and carb. Timing turned out to be 6 degrees off, which was easily corrected and carb was a little lean, so set that a tad richer. Advance timing is back at 8 degrees with about 28 degrees of mechanical and vacuum advance making a total of 36 degrees. Runs like a charm now

One small problem remains with the 1500 - 2000 rpm area where she sometimes hesitates, but then continues (before she'd stall). This now only occurs when slowly passing 2000 rpm. Normal and hard accelleration give no problems. This hesitation, as Bigblockk already noted, can probably only be resolved with a calibration kit.

However, for now I'm satisfied as she runs good. Now to make some miles, change oil and filter and then go to the chassis dyno. From there I'll decide how to move on as I'll have more exact info on how she's doing.

Here's how the Corteco gaskets compare to Mr.Gasket in thickness. Please note that the Corteco gaskets are great (still no leaks anywhere), but just too thin for my headers.