This will be an ongoing thread as this baby will be my project car for life! Let's begin with the car.

I purchased the car in California when I was 20. It was t boned in the engine compartment by a suburban, just before storage I did manage to have a shop straighten the frame.

10 years later its time to begin my dream build. So far I have the car, engine, and engine and rear end conversion kit. It will be a long one guys. Hold on tight!

 

The block came to me free from a friend that had it drop off his engine stand. He broke the tab that mounts the starter. Being that welding isnt a big issue, we grabbed a spare bell and the tab was welded back on and way stronger than it was.






Ain't no Marcella welding job. But its strong!


Block specs : Ls6 5.7 liter block bored to 3.905

Pistons : SRP -25 cc inverted dish

Rods : 6.125 H beam rods

Crank : Scat 4 inch stroker


I will be adding a girdle to this install. Main reason why the motor isn't assembled yet. Having my machinist align hone it on Monday. Then I should have a moving short block in no time at all.

I've included part numbers below in case someone new wants the info.

 

Since you are in Beaverton, who is your machinist?
Until recently, I worked at tektronix, so I know Beaverton car shops well

 

Dan Hutchinson from Hutchinson Performance. Great guy. I've used two shops one out of Vancouver (they built my 427, for my next build ) and Dan. He's machined two motors for me now. Great work and will talk with you about build ideas. Hell he evens calls back.

The Vancouver shop took nearly 7 months to sleeve and deck my 427. Workmanship was excellent. Timelessness was not. And they were "nut" jobs

 

What Vancouver shop did you use?

 

Read a little closer...he just doesn't want to be so obvious

 

So my girdle came in from TurboAv. Thanks a bunch!

I spent the last hour bolting it up in order to prepare to line hone it. I'm unsure if i want to go through the trouble of pinning the mains.


Studs going in. I loooove ARP anything!


I tell you what I am very impressed with this piece. Even the way it was sealed to keep it from getting surface rust. I wish i could pick up an extra set.


I used a socket to tap the washers into the stepped space in the girdle. I feel its best to do it this way vs torquing down the nut with the washer uneven. Call me ****, whatever


I've always use lubriplate 105 on my engine builds. Love it for break ins and I like most of you have quite a bit of time pass between engine assembly and fire up. I also use it on my fastener surface lube for correct torque specs. Very accurate for my needs.



Torqued to 60 inner and 50 outer

I have an odd theory about the torque specs for mains. I practice two techniques with my main bolts n studs. When using ARP studs i use only torque specs, but then i use bolts i use torque + angle. I believe the thread pitch changes greatly on my measurements and deviate from stock guidelines when using the finer threads found on studs.

What are your opinions?

 

Personally, I prefer to use UltraTorque on any of the ARP fasteners. I always torque to ARP's recommended spec for their fasteners. If using main bolts, I never use the OEM's torque/angle procedure on ARP bolts unless specified...which I have not yet seen. The ARP bolts are a different material/process than the OEM pieces. Although the OEM main bolts are "TTA" not "TTY", I still prefer not to use the OEM procedure on ARP bolts. My thought is that, if using the ARP pieces with the OEM "TTA" procedure it would be possible to "over-stress" the threads in the block.

With regards to pinning, or not....depends on what your build goals are. I would have probably suggested pinning first, then a girdle...but ya already have it. I'll be pinning the block to match the billet caps...along with a girdle on my next build. But that build is shooting for well over 1K at the wheel. If you're going for 600-700, it's not going to be required...even though I'd tend to err on the side of "overkill". Why the hell not...it's just money, right?

 

Sad thing is that I understand this term

I've found if i use TTA on studs the clamping force is less than TTY

 

I guess I'm not understanding what you're comparing; TTA vs TTY on an ARP BOLT? TTA on an ARP BOLT vs STUD? TTA on an ARP STUD vs TTY on an ARP STUD?

Sorry, just trying to understand the exact comparison.

 

Its hard to explain over net forums. If we meet up sometime in the future i will explain.

Btw. I ended up not using the ptk kit. Not going to work for my application . Ever use the ICE header build kit? Looking into it. Sounds like a wonderful kit.

 

Damn. Sorry to hear that about the kit. Yes, I have seen the ICE kit before....one of those "one of these days" tools, as I don't have much of a call currently to build custom headers, except for my own projects. $800.00 buys a LOT of mandrel bends from Columbia River! lol But as for ease of initial design and repeatability, it looks to be a GREAT system.

 

If hes speaking of nutter i have never had a issue with his work and hes done 4 motors for me on different cars=) I will take what business i have to him and recommend him to anyone that needs work

 

Good for you, Tim. I don't believe that there was any trash-talking going on here, so no need to "go to bat" for anyone. The OP was just trying to relay his experience, while keeping it classy.

 

Do you have pics of the car? I always loved the FDs

 

No ones going to bat:-) he had most of my motors done within 6 weeks.

 

Gotcha. Was gonna say that there's not really any disputing the quality of work that comes out of that shop

 

I've not heard of Hutchinson. Odd. I'll check them out.
My guy is friends with AC. And hasn't done much LS stuff. He did my valve job. He is also excellent. One thing I learned with him is to never say I'm not in a hurry!

I reused the main and rod bolts in my 5.3. Followed the factory TTA procedure. I know it's more accurate than the old torque wrench method, but I still don't like it. :-)

Ron

 

What is the HP goal for this? Just wondering why the girdle?

 

Their quality of work is on par with the best machine work I've seen in 15 years. At no point was there any question about their work.

I am not one to flame any shops. But I do find it important to share my experiences.