They really do look good.

And while I appreciate the compliment, it was more a lack of options than genius. I asked my brother in law how they do it on big diesels, and he said hydraulics. So I went to harbor freight to see what I could cobble together. Was a damn good thing I got the 10-ton unit and not the 4-ton unit, too. Took 17,000 lbs to break free.

 

Oh hey we have one of those presses too. It isn't ever a good day when you go buy one of those. My rear subframe moved so far after welding in a new diff mount I couldn't bolt it back in the car lol.

 

Dang I haven't seen so much stuff fighting to come out like that in awhile, glad you were able to persevere through and get it apart.

 

yeah, it's not like you wake up and say, "Hmmm, I think I want a 10-ton hydraulic power pack just for kicks and giggles...."

 

In the grand scheme, I ended up OK. by the end of yesterday, I wanted to have the cam degreed, and it was. I got the deck height measured up for gaskets. I had built in an extra few hours for bullshit, and the balancer and retainer plate ate that up. Only thing I didn't get that I had wanted to get was the pushrods measured. What I'll be doing is mounting the heads on some shims so I can set wipe and and then measure for pushrods. If I can get that done tonight, I'll be stoked. If I can't, it will be the weekend.

But for real, though, I'm pretty happy with what I got done in two days. Not my first rodeo fighting through problems, but I was sweating that cam plate. I'll be getting the old LS1-style BOLTED cam retainer, lol...

 

When I read the extractor snapped off I was like, "the motor doesn't want new parts"

 

by that analogy, it wanted the heads, just not the cam. Heads were a breeze to get off. Funny to say, but I think I have less time in getting the heads off than the cam...

 

Lol, doing an in car head swap is always my least favorite, particularly when said car has head studs.

 

you know, I was really worried about that, but it was fine. Especially LS7, because the heads are taller. The biggest issue I had was getting the header on the driver side far enough out of the way to get the head off that front, lower stud. I've had a couple of things that made me think I should have dropped the motor, but in the end I think this will be faster.

 

You gonna earn all them horsepowers but in the end it will be so worth it.

 

Moar Update!

So, just to be thorough and keep everything up to date (and a couple of people might find this interesting):

Deck height. At Tony's recommendation, I went back and measured all eight cylinders. looks like the block had a slight taper on the final machining. Driver side bank went 0.0055, 0.0060, 0.0065, 0.0075 front to back. Pass side went 0.0055, 0.0065, 0.0070, 0.0070. So if you're going to run a tight quench, verify all eight holes!

Head gasket will be 0.042" thick cometic and is on the way.

On to rocker geometry. The YT kit I got is very well thought out and very complete. For reference, on the 346 build I ran the YT 1.7's, and they were non-adjustable. The kit came with 0.0625 shims, but 0.125" shim gave the best wipe pattern, so I had to go to Lowes with a set of calipers and sift through their washer drawers to find 16 washers at 0.125", etc, etc. If anyone reading this thread read the other thread, maybe this will spark a memory.

By way of comparison, this kit is adjustable, has thicker pedestal bases, and comes with 0.040 shims. On the wipe, the narrowest and best centered was with the pedestals shimmed 0.040. It was nearly perfect. Very very happy with how this came out. Also, the 10mm bolt upgrade is so very worth it. Especially if you plan to run lift like I am. The rockers feel very rigid in place. much more so than the stock rocker system I pulled off the old heads. They are a bit heavier over the nose so you need to spring to compensate. I'm looking forward to seeing how well these Manley Nextek's do in the running engine.


No shim, the pattern is very wide and biased to the intake side.


With the 040 shim, the wipe is centered and narrower than the other two. It is still wider than my 346 set up was, but I'm running 0.100 more lift! That will automatically make for a wider wipe.


080 shim. Wipe pattern is to the exhaust side and very wide. VERY wide.

Having set the wipe, I went ahead and measured for pushrods. Now, I don't have the HG yet, so I used the ARP washers as 0.1225" shims (not a typo, they measured 0.1225") under the head. Since my HG is 0.042", I simply subtracted 0.080 from my measured pushrod to get the final length. I was hoping to be able to use the old ones, but they are too long by 0.300". I measured 8.160" on the intake side and 8.120" on the exhaust side. Now, since these are adjustable, I didn't bother measuring all of them. There's 0.100" travel in the adjusters either direction. Since I am unlikely to use up even 0.030 of that, it should be a quick setup. I plan to set up with 0.002" lash to really take advantage of ramp rates and slightly improve intake manifold vacuum.

There's that update. Over the weekend, i'll start reassembly as much as possible.

 

Meant to add in previous post, but for those of you who look at Tony's parts and think too expensive, etc, I get it. But you also get in tech knowledge and connections far more than the value of the parts.

1. For one thing, the ATI balancer I used is 2 lbs lighter than the ATI off the shelf balancer. It's an aluminum rim with a custom rubber, and weighs 2 lbs lighter. The whole thing is balanced as a unit. Tony turned one around drop ship within a few hours of me telling him the hub is questionable.

2. When I told Tony my original deck height measurements, he asked me to do all eight. When I reported back, he said on a stock block, it is not unusual to have a couple thou taper front to back. He nailed that one.

3. Regarding pushrods, I was concerned about the wait time for the pushrods going past Christmas. So he said to give him the measurements and he would call Manton to call in a favor on quick turnaround time.

Oh, and something else i meant to post up and just remembered. I'll start with a question. When oil pools up in the intake manifold, where does it pool up? Would that be the bottom? SO if you put your map sensor port on the bottom of the intake a la sniper, where does the oil go? Does an oil soaked map sensor affect power? Either way, new map on the way. And i won't be putting the sniper back on for comparison. That kind of did me in on it once and for all.

 

Looks like its all coming together nicely.
Will you be running a vacuum pump or catch can?
I bought a one way check valve breather from UPR, a pcv valve , cheap catch can. Stuffed the can with stainless steel wire, Put one way breather on top, ,Threaded pcv valve into can and ran a dash 10 pipe from pcv valve to intake manifold, dash 18 pipe from oil fill on valve cover to can , dirty side and a dash 10 from cold air intake to valve cover ,clean side. Works great, under normal driving the cans under slight vacuum , and when i get into it the breather opens to atmosphere.. I checked can once and it had collected maybe a 1/4 inch water, no oil.
Engines built well

 

Vacuum pump. That's what's weird. I ran a vacuum pump on this motor before teardown, and I know I'm getting good vacuum. At first I didn't have it connected, and maybe that's where all the oil came from. Not much could have come from the chambers, the ports are far too clean for that. I have no hoses going from valve cover to intake manifold, though...

 

I thought about getting a vacuum pump, had heard there not ideal for street usage. I do 20min runs on road courses also and was unsure if the pumps like that.
Think thats old hat know with the newer designed pumps.
I took the intake off last week to put heat shielding under it . Checked the inside and it didnt have any oil film at all so the cans doing its job.

 

Nice! I run a heat shield under mine also. GZ makes a 25K mile (40K km) vacuum pump. You can run the discharge side to a catch can.

 

Bad *** build and attention to detail as usual Darth. The hiccups are always fun. If it wasn't that it would've been something else. I'm glad you got another balancer from Tony. I think that's a very important piece and with Tony's finishing touches it makes it that much better.

I'd have to say these parts are paired perfectly. There's been some talks about different parts etc but this entire setup was planned to be what it was from the beginning for a specific reason and had a specific target in mind. I believe with the parts choices, the build will meet and probably exceed all your goals and expectations. Could it be faster or make more power, umm yeah duh. But that wasn't the only goal so I'm pumped about this build. This car is going to be very mild mannered for the power it creates. I believe it was posted earlier but the 440 LS7 making 707whp with Mamo top end is a daily driver. Very unassuming and putting 700+ to the wheels. This build will most likely be close.

I'm still going to test the Mamo MSD and the low pro sniper on the dyno. Or that's the plan anyway. I don't have as clear of goals with my car but it's going to spend more time at the track than GH is planning to so I'll be experimenting a bit with intakes as I go. We know the Mamo MSD will carry to 7200 no problem with a 440 and that's a lot of cylinder to fill with air. Mine will be going in soon but still a few months for any numbers because I'm going to have someone else wire it this time. I'm sick of wiring lol.

So I can't wait for this build to be done and see how Darth likes it and how it performs in the dyno and mostly track even though he won't get many hits unless he comes up by me for the rental at US41 on 4/24!!! But the dyno numbers will suffice for now. I just need to know the number I'm going to beat!

And give me some motivation lol

Attachment 708678

Attachment 708679

 

thanks! Yours and mine will be an interesting comparison. Cams virtually identical, heads virtually identical. Only difference will be bottom end. I think you are running higher compression, because you're running corn? You'll win at the track, because you're a lot lighter. But if the fireball camaro can be a street car, I guess all bets are off.

 

I can't wait. You need to come up for rental and we can race! I'm not toooooo much lighter lol.

I'm at 13.5:1 on C85 for fuel. Everything is very similar. I did the triple disc clutch because I'll be spraying eventually. I can't remember if you have the Holley 105tb. Top ends are almost identical except your heads have a little more knowledge in them. I think our lifters are a little different but both solid so shouldn't matter. Bottom ends are similar too really except I'm bigger bore. So very much apples to apples. Streetcar ftw!

 

I forgot about my throttle spacer