well, finished the heads, refaced valves, installed new lunati springs, retainers, locks. heads turned out great, hope all that work pays off. i have a steel shim head gasket and a felpro one that came in the kit. witch one should i use?, i read stories about the shim not sealing without copper seal.
bb 400
- Thread starter 66fury
- Start date
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
You can run the steel shim. I would. It would certainly help compression a little. Two things. Get the Copper Coat in the spray can and paint them good, both sides. Also, they require retorquing the head bolts after engine break in. As long as you do those two things, you'll not have a problem. Pics of the heads please? I would like to see them.
Garys1969RR
Well-Known Member
I have always used the steel shim .020" thick head gasket. Used to spray it with aluminum spray paint, lately using spray copper coat. Have never had a problem with either method. They have always sealed well, even with 13 to 1 C/R . I alwats start at 30 ft lbs, and follow the factory recommended torque sequence pattern. Then go to 40, 50, 60, and finally 70 ft lbs. Same sequence as before. This pulls the head down very evenly to the block.
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
They work good too, don't they Gary? I've used spray paint some myself.....and of course read on forums where "you caint do that, blah blah blah" but you're right, it works good.
Garys1969RR
Well-Known Member
Yes they work great, Rusty! The reason I like them so much is the price for one, @ $25 a set. Also they allow me to get a nice tight quench area when used with closed chamber heads, and a piston that comes close to the deck. With my .017" deck clearance and a .020" head gasket, I have .037" squish/quench area. This seems about right to me.
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Also keep in mind if you ever switch to Alum heads, you must use multi layer head gaskets. These are alot more expensive. I've heard $150 a set. Does any one know if they are available at a lesser price? Thanks
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Also keep in mind if you ever switch to Alum heads, you must use multi layer head gaskets. These are alot more expensive. I've heard $150 a set. Does any one know if they are available at a lesser price? Thanks
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
About right? That's perfect quench distance.
haven't had time to work on it, rusty i will get the pics of the work i did on the heads posted when i have more time. i did pick up a holley 3310 750 vacuum sec. what jets should i use? and what spring in the sec? lifters, cam, lifters and time gears came in today
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
I would try it untouched first for a baseline. Those carburetors are very forgiving and will run well on a large number of engines just like they are.
Garys1969RR
Well-Known Member
Hey 66, I am running a Holley 3310 vac secondary that I got from Rusty. Works great! Its on a 451 with a 509 cam, 292 deg total duration. I am currently using the yellow spring in the secondary, which opens them sooner. This motor likes alot of carb, and I am drag racing it, so the earlier opening seems to work better for my combination. I have ran them with stock jetting, and as Rusty said, they work well as the factory built them.
all i can say is WOW, motor runs awesome. Has a ton of low end snap and great throttle responce, and sounds awesome. runs super cool, i ran it for a good hour and could touch the head. I want to thank everyone that replied and helped me achieve my goal. Special thanks to rustratrod. i have one small issue, when stomp on it, i get a little poping at higher rpm. Im thinking its the pv in the holley. I bought the carb used, but it sat for a couple years dry. it idles great not flooding, great responce. i put the lightest springs i could find in the distributor, what do you guys think could be the problem..
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
Poppin at high RPM usually indicates it's leanin out. We used to call that "shootin ducks" at the strip. The vacuum secondary carburetors are somewhat limited in tuning on the secondary side. You can put in a lighter spring and see. You might also try raising the float level just a hair. I always adjust them with the carburetor level.......not the car but the carburetor. Adjust the floats so that you just barely get a little trickle out of the sight plug hole......maybe a touch more than a trickle on the secondary side. If it still shoots ducks after that......it might need more carburetor. And it's entirely possible. Even on a low compression 400. It's not the compression that dictates carburetor size. It's cubes and RPM. 400 cubes slingin at high RPM will want some carburetor.
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
I think a bad power valve would cause an overly rich condition, but it's worth checking out. Where is the timing set?
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
That's not enough. Keep playin with it.
Supershafts
Well-Known Member
Then what you want is this . . . . .
AND CONNECT THAT...... TO THIS
OK that's to much SNAP than you can handle. . . . . .
You want to connect that to this . . . . .
Now there is your snap...
rsd859
Well-Known Member
Glad to hear you met your goal!
RustyRatRod
Well-Known Member
I like the air cleaner nozzle. That's badassary.
Supershafts
Well-Known Member
The air cleaner trick is a good cheat....
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The air cleaner trick is a good cheat....
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The air cleaner trick is a good cheat....
still have small issue. pulled the carb off, cleaned and installed a new kit. changed pv to a 3.5 (had 8.5 inches of vacuum at idle in gear) fine tuned ex pump. changed jets to 70 prim, and 76 sec. also installed plain spring for sec. also set float level just under hole, it runs great but still seems to blubber during mid and top end. Plugs are still burning black. any suggestions..
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