Well Joe, I saw your reply to my post the other day that said "shouldn't you be up in the garage working? :)." So I did just that. These past two days I put around 12 hours of work into the engine. I put a heli-coil in the bolt hole that was stripped out of my head only to find out that there was another one that needed a heli-coil too. With that finished I bolted the heads down and checked my piston to valve clearance and found out that I have in excess of .100" clearance. I knew I wasn't going to have problems because the guy I purchased the heads off of was running a slightly larger solid lifter cam than I am running and was also running a larger dome piston (12:1 CR).

I sprayed the head gaskets down with some hi-tack spray and torqued the heads down by following the torque pattern (I also used Permatex #2 non-hardening sealant on the threads). Bolting the heads down took a lot of time. With both heads bolted down I went back over the bolts one more time on each head to be sure that they were still correctly torqued. I put my lifters, pushrods and rocker arms and adjusted the valves. I checked for coil bind and have more than the recommended .060" clearance. I also put the lifter valley oil shield in place. I stayed up until 1:00AM doing all of that Thursday night.

Tonight (Friday night) I just finished up installing my intake manifold. I barely had enough RTV sealant but managed to squeeze just a little bit more out of the tube. Here are the pictures of my engine which is pretty much finished.





I have a feeling these heads are going to flow very nicely. The exhaust ports are huge (gasket matched to 2 1/8" headers). The valve train looks like a work of art with the titanium retainers, super locks, magnum 1.72 roller rocker arms and hardened pushrods. I still have to slap a coat of paint on the heads yet. I'm really getting close to dropping the engine in now. I'd say I probably have another 3-4 weeks before the engine will be in the car. We'll see how everything goes.


[Modified by bence13_33, 10:44 PM 4/5/2002]

 

Sweet dude.

I should have my engine by the middle of next week, I'll post pics too.

Are you going to use a scattershield?

 

Steve:
You're going to have a nice running 468. Those heads that you are getting are a really nice flowing set of heads. I wish I could have gone with aluminum heads but the budget just wouldn't allow it. When you do get that engine I would definitely like to see some pictures :yesnod:.

You know it :D. I have the Lakewood blow-proof bellhousing sitting in my basement ready to bolt on. My recommendation to you would be get one :). It will probably be the best $230 that you spend.

 

Cherish these last few weeks with the small block, man! You're gonna miss her...
Or maybe not.
I know I won't miss my L-48 wannabe LM-1!
-Steve

 

Cherish these last few weeks? LOL I haven't driven the car in over three months :(. I don't think I'll miss the 350 much. I might miss the reliability of the 350 though. I'm just hoping that this engine is going to stay together for me....afterall I did build it entirely on my own (with the exception of assembling the heads). While I'm anxious to break this engine in....I'm also very nervous. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Just came today with some other goodies. Pics to follow shortly.

My canfields aren't what I'm worried about, it's the LS-6 intake. It's probably the best flowing factory intake ever made for a big block, but I'm worried it'll defeat the flow characteristics of my canfields.

We'll see.

When are you planning on getting your engine dropped back in?

 

Bence - did you grind out the exhaust port to gasket match them? Exhaust flow books always req. a small lip in the bottom side for exhaust reversion. True tuned headers have Plus and minus flow.

I know your doing a great job!:) Just remember somebody is always faster! Your well on the way to a nice machine. :seeya


[Modified by gkull, 9:31 AM 4/6/2002]

 

you will be fine. it is gonna be a lot of fun :yesnod: :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

 

Steve:
I plan on dropping the 468 in as soon as I can pull the 350 and repaint the engine bay. I'm gonna get on my uncle's case and start nagging him about getting the engine hoist to me.

George:
Hmm...I don't remember changing my name :D. I didn't do any porting to the heads. The guy that I purchased them off of did the port job (very nice I might add). He was running them on his 3200lb Camaro w/ 454 that ran 10.90s in the 1/4. I know of a lot of people around my area that are already faster than my 468 is gonna be so I won't be too let down when I am slightly slower than them at the track.

QuikVet:
I hope so :cheers:

 

Bence there is always someone faster :( . All we can do is build something that we can afford (or not ;) ) and have fun with it. It's truely amazing what people like Monty & Merlin are achieving for street driven cars. Your car is street driven and not a race car only, so things like reliablility and maintenance is a factor. Sounds to me like you'll be very happy (if not a bit scared :lol: ) with your final results :D !

 

Awesome! Great! Congratulations Shane!

Looks like you're getting pretty good at this assembly stuff. Wanna put mine together next :lol:

 

Mike:
I just wanted to build something that I could afford and be pleased with the results. Of course it wouldn't hurt if the engine turned out to be somewhat fast :).

Joe:
It's coming along slowly but surely, I just have to figure out what I'm going to do about a pilot bushing now. How's that 540 coming along? Did you ever decide upon a set of heads (after AFR kinda stiffed ya)?

 

Shane,

Nice job!! More that what I would attempt- that's for sure!!! I am glad to see things are coming along. I was happy to see that other post regarding the pilot bushing area and the tapped hole for the clutch linkage. I will be emailing the machine shop to make sure that crank/block are set up correctly.

Are you sure that oil pan will fit well?? I was thinking about going with one as well.

Bob :cheers:

 

Bob:
I was told the pan would fit. I checked the engine compartment and it appears as though it will fit...I guess I'll find out whenever it's time to install the engine. I'm hoping that it's going to fit it's a really nice oil pan.

 

Shane,

I do like that pan. Especially since it holds 6 quarts!! I still can't imagine driving my car with that size motor in it.... I hope I can get this thing done soon........

Bob :cheers:

 

Bence, Your engine is looking great! It really gets exciting when your close to being finished, hang in there! My motor is all done now and on Sunday we are going to fire it up for the first time, should be plenty loud. I have sent some pictures of the engine to a fellow forum friend to post for me, check it out when you can. Good luck, Tom

 

Looking real good!!!
:cheers:

 

Thanks for sharing the pics. Your making great progress.
Once you get it back on the road, you MUST stomp the crap out of those local loud mouths that have been doubting you and your cars abilities.
"Post-race" pictures of thier facial expression would be priceless! :lol:

 

No heads yet, but I do have everything for the shortblock. Between work and our house, I haven't had any time for the car :( Basically, I'm procrastinating on the head decision :lol: I'll probably call AFR again soon to check on stock, and if they're still not ready I'll go with the Darts.

I'd be happy to just get the front suspension rebuild finished and get back on the road! :cheers:



[Modified by Flareside, 1:27 PM 4/7/2002]

 

Looking good! Hope to be doing the same thing in a couple of weeks with my "small" block!