Got a new update. I went to put on the 452 heads I had ported and the piston was .165 in the hole. I opted to pull the engine and do a rebuild. I did this on the cheap cheap, my goal was to spend little dough. I bought a set of SRP flat top pistons which put the piston about .010 in the hole. I changed the rods from the six pack rods that were in it to a stock rod. I changes the cam from the small purple shaft that was in it to a custom Comp Cams. We used the Ford lobes so the profile wasnt too agressive. Intake duration is 270 and exhaust 269 at .050 on 109 lobe sep. When I got the cam here and read the card I had wished I had used a little smaller lobe but oh well.... its has quite a bit of overlap which is good as im gonna run it on pump gas. The heads flowed 250 cfm at .600 on my bench, which is what the lift on the cam is. The ports are small, but flow well for the size. I ported mostly the bowl area and was worried about going thru to water. I honed the block myself here at home, paid a buddy $100 to resize the rods, another friend balanced it for free. I bought an ATI dampner, and the rings are std tension top and second with a low tension oil ring. I broke the cam in with a set of Schubeck lifters out of my spare Stocker engine, and later installed a new set of Tool steel Ferrea lifters and did another break in on the cam. All and all I added it all up and I had $2300 into the rebuild. Like I said, on the cheap cheap. Its good to have a lot of friends in the industry, and I used all the parts I had laying around !!!
I drove the car all over the street, making sure all was well, changing the oil, adjusting the valves. This was my first big block rebuild, im a small block guy. All has been perfect. I took it to the track last night, the track was packed, it was street race night. I only got one run in, and it spun the tires pretty bad. 60ft was only 1.765, the ET was 11.57 at 115.72 mph. I had a hard time driving it, I couldnt see the tach, and its still a push button tranny. I believe if I shifted it correctly and the car wouldnt have spun it would have gone about a 11.30 or so.
All and all im happy with the results. Im still using the same small 1 5/8" Tri Y headers and 2 1/2" exhaust. Until I get track time on the car I wont know what changes to make to the headers or exhaust. Im pretty sure I need to open up the Y on the last collector and go to a 2 3/4" exhaust system. But im not gonna make any changes till I get some consistent time slips.
These big blocks are a hoot, amazing how streetable a low eleven second car can be.
Mark Lelchook
Performance Welding
Racing Headers
