If all you have to say is that i am doing it wrong... Go away.

I met a guy with a machine shop in his garage. He wanted my turbo kit and offerd to help me build an engine out of spare parts he has laying around to go into my junkyard vettekart build as a trade.
So far. We have a 3.8 stroke Cola crank ground down to small rod journal size. Six inch h beam small journal rods weisko 8cc dome raised pin forged 30 over 400 pistons. An old school Erson proflo cam with 492 lift and unknown duration. Dart pro 180 cc heads 8 yella terra 1.5 rockers (have 15 only useing 8) hope to find 8 1.6 ratio rockers to complete the deal.

Have a few other "outcast" parts. Still have to get some gaskets ect.
Car already has a holley stealth ram and a 58 mm throttle body. I just picked up a set of #50 delphi injectors have a pcmforless chip that i hope to get reflashed for the new combo.

I think ive calculated 12.75/1 compresion and plan to run e85.
now i know some of these parts are suboptimal but im hoping that they are "in the neighborhood" enough to make some decent power. Id be curious as to how it may work together.
i wouldn't mind suggesions for changes. But keep in mind im limited to the cast off parts he has been hoarding...

 

Sounds like it will be more than enough for a vette cart ….

 

Sounds like fun, to me. It's way better than the junkyard 400 I put together years ago, and that thing was super fun.

I'd think that with the HSR and heads that you should be at least 350 horse, as installed.

 

Crank was hurt prettw bad.

 

Cams are cheap, degree yours and see what you have. If it is not what you need buy a cam for the combination. The cam is the heart of the engine so choose wisely.

 

The only thing I'm going to say is that you should figure out exactly what cam you have, or buy one with known specs. The cam makes all the difference in how the motor runs.

 

I have the cam number somewhere. Can get the duration. The lift rather sucks a bit so the duration is not really that important. I am still hoping anouther one in the 520 or so lift range comes along but until one does i may have to run what i have.

I could always throw a little boost at it...

 

Hello there,
I am also a big believer in using compression to make power. I have a BB-427 C3 that runs 12.25-1 on the roads with no problems. I do have a Snow performance Water/Methanol injection system attached to the engine which I have used for a couple years. When the engine is getting the methanol/water injection the fuel becomes the equivalent of 115 octane. On my car it only injects when I accelerate hard or it is really HOT outdoors. I use the standard Blue Windshield washer fluid that I can get cheaply in my Snow System. I drove the car over 8000 miles before the Snow System was installed.

Before building my engine I decided to use a GM factory cast iron Closed Chamber Cylinder heads (Part # 3931063). The "Closed Chamber" style heads can handle the compression that I am running. When building my engine the pistons stick out above the engine block by close to 3/4". The pistons and crankshaft I am using are forged so with a four bolt main block I hope this engine will stay together. My choice in cylinder heads is the reason I can drive this engine on the street. I did spend about $1k on porting and polishing the heads before we built them.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that you need to pick parts based on your "Needs" and not just on the "availability". I knew what I "wanted" in the end and sought out the parts to make it happen. I have a MSD Knock sensor on the engine but that is going to be coming out soon. I am going to install a J&S SAFEGUARD on this car, it will let me have more timing without knocking or detonation and protect my motor. The Safeguard can retard individual cylinders up to 20* and tries to go back up until it senses more noise from that particular cylinder. It can retard any cylinder if it hears abnormal combustion. The earlier units used a different Knock sensor but now they use a standard Bosch Donut style Knock sensor which is very accurate.

Your project sounds like it could be fun, beware of the hidden costs that you are not aware of yet. I spent the better part of 9 months building my BB and I did it working with a local speed shop. I bought the right parts from the shop and we would install them together, it was my first BB and I was intimidated to say the least. Take your time and enjoy the build while learning at the same time.

I wish you the very best of luck!

 

The beauty (for me) of this trade deal is that i don't have to worry about incidental exspences. I have to bring my intake and heads and he has to put a motor under it. If i find a good deal on cam and lifters i will probably swap it. But thats a big if.

I did find the cam numbers and its only a .472 lift not .492.
with 306 advertised duration and 235 @ .50

http://www.pbm-erson.com/Catalog/Ers..._E/ERSE110521S

 

You could run 1.6 rockers and gain ~.047" lift

 

I'm curious... there are 3.8 stroke small block cranks? (I know of the one in the ht383 but thought that was an oddball thing gm did to make a 383 from a stock bore block...)

 

That is exactly the crank that i have.
and no reason to turn down a little extra stroke. Especially since its almost free and the crank is forged.

 

I believe it's also forged. Pretty nice piece for free.

 

Well. Not quite free. More like part of a package purchased at a very good price.

 

That works too.

 

Downloaded a dyno app that estimates 507 chp @5500 and 539tq @ 3500 that seems pretty impressive to me for a motor totally built from 2ndhand damaged cast off craigslist parts.
still need to find 8 roller rockers.

Part of me wants to throw some boost at it... But this may already be more grunt than my 700r4 can take.

 

Keep in mind that would be "GROSS". Chop ~60 hp off that for "as installed" and then you're looking at a number that we're all more familiar with. Still....a great number if that's how it turns out!

 

My goal is/was 400 to the wheels at a streetable RPM i think i will be in that range.

 

It looks that way to me, if that program is decent.

I want to see pics of your Kart project. Do you have a thread on it? I haven't seen it....

 

No build thread here. I joined grass roots motor sports when i bought the corvette back.
at that point it was a total basket case.

I have a sort of build thread over there but probably wont do a serious thread until some things come together.... Ive been getting pretty crazy, including rewireing the whole thing from scrap wire pulled from junk cars and two motorhomes.