Kubs

Well by dry I mean not completely dry. I was told to use the quick seat you wipe a thin coat of WD40 on the cylinder walls and then rub a small amount of the quick seat lubricant on them. The guy machining my block assembles engines this way and he says it works better than oiling up the piston/rings before dropping them in. Im still not sure which way to go when I assemble mine.

tpi 421 vette

I guess everybody has their own idea's. I haven't had any issues getting the rings to seat. I think well oiled pistons/rings/cylinders is safer than minimizing the oil on them. One thing also is I use engine oil on those parts rather than assembly oil which is alot thicker. Maybe your machinist avoids assembly lube on them like I do. The Lucas assembly lube I use on everything else is almost like STP. It thicker and very sticky.

cv67

Use oil,besides as soon as you start it oil will be splashing up there anyway. you need that initial protection.

Dr.Huxtable

K yeah thats what i thought. It took me like 2 min to slip a wrench up there so i really don't care about ease of install. but if it would help my times or strengthen the drive train I'd do it. zfdoc wants 189 plus shipping for them Thats half my new throttle body.

thanks willie

Kubs

Those are a waste of money. I dont see how it will stiffen the drivetrain up at all. Use jacks on the trans and diff to line up the beam. If you can easily slide all 4 bolts up and down in the holes tighten them and you have it aligned perfect. It wont come loose and it will be stiff.

cv67

Always someone out there to take your money.
one vendor may be good at one thing or have a good product but doesnt mean everything sold is beneficial. Gm woulda thought of it.

To each their own though.

Dr.Huxtable

Exactly. Thanks for the tips guys!

pantera1683

The other benefit is they keep your tires planted when taking off. Without them some people experience the rear end kicking out to the left. Check on the ZR-1 section, a lot of us over there have them and like them. I'm not a racer so the only thing I really cared about was that they made Reinstalling the C-Beam easier.

Since you are a welder, why don't you just fab up your own.

Dr.Huxtable

Sounds like a plan to me, they seem easy enough to make. I'll fab up some samples and post my results on here and give all my dimensions so others can benefit.

One thing i do want to get are these:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...d-we-make.html

These i cannot make lol and i can def see a benefit of them

383vett

I had a set of those when I was running the irs. Definitely helped keep the tires flat during launch. Well spent $$$.

Dr.Huxtable

Yeah i was gonna say you got a solid rear end now but it's good to know they're worth it. Because of $$$ i'll prob get these next season. I'm just hoping i can get this baby all together and running and get some times in before the season is over! At least it lasts longer here in the south. open till Nov

383vett

Keep us posted along the way.

Dr.Huxtable

Well i started dropping the rear end out of that car. This a** needs a good cleaning

I'm gonna go through and replace all the bushings, look at a potential blown seal on one of the outer yokes of the dana 44, wire wheel and steel wool down everything so it's purty and then shoot either some 3M undercoating or truck bed liner on the whole under side. Might also put some longer bump stops in and look into some new shocks. Old ones have got to be pretty far gone. 117k and 22 years musta taken their toll. Brake pads are also gone so those will need replacing.

Let me know of anything else you can think of while i'm under there. I'd like to go over the D44 itself to make sure everything is nice and snug.

Dr.Huxtable

Well i got the dana 44 out tonight completely and all tore down! Glad i'm going through it all, she def needs a good cleaning up and checking over. I think the seals are bad on the housing also looks like one of the wheel hubs is bad. Here's some pics:









Here's prob number 1. I don't think that's supposed to come apart like that Although the bearings themselves were in great shape. I'll prob just re pack them and use it for now. I replace it when i destroy it at the strip







Prob number 2, i think the outter seals are gone. Due to the oil all around them. Let me know if thats true or not. All the oil on the outside is older. nothing wet or recent lookin

vader86

Corvette bearings are sealed, they dont open up for repacking. Did someone put an Fbody bearing in it?

Dr.Huxtable

Hey guys the motor is pretty much done!!!

Jim degreed the cam tonight and found that it was only half a degree retarded! He told me that he had the cam made with 2 degrees advance so that leaves us with 1.5 degrees advance.

The push rod length was a hundredth over oem length but Jim is just so amazing that he happened to have a set of rods on hand just the right length!

Check this beast out!

Dr.Huxtable

No yeah i know they don't like a standard hub but this hub is obviously on it's way out and came apart as you can see in the pic. The other side didn't. To replace these you have to replace the whole hub as i'm sure your aware.

But since it came apart like that when i say repack basically what i mean is i'm gonna pack some fresh grease in there since i have access and put her back together can only spend so much money at one time, got a motor build to finish!

Kubs

The engine looks good!!

I would NOT by any means put that bearing back together. they are not made to come apart and you are not helping yourself by just adding grease and shoving it back in. You could end up with major damage to your car the first trip you make with the new motor.

Dr.Huxtable

Thanks! Yeah i was looking at some new hubs this morning on rockauto.com

Not to terribly priced. Can't wait to get this motor here to me, Christmas is early this year

Kubs

Rock Auto has some well priced hubs, and they last just as long as the expensive ones on my road race car. about 2 weekend events. Street car and drag racing they will last a long time. Its the side loading they cant take.