Son of a Gun!

[69a100]

A full size bull elk rising from his bed, made entirely from exhaust tubing........................
View attachment 1010647

I'm liking the table, did he build that too? What's the center post on that?

 

[IQ52]

I'm liking the table, did he build that too? What's the center post on that?

His dad (me) built the stand that "Lucifer" rides on. The center post is a piece of log firewood I turned on our lathe, same lathe I turn the counterweights on the crankshafts.

 

[Cranky]

His dad (me) built the stand that "Lucifer" rides on. The center post is a piece of log firewood I turned on our lathe, same lathe I turn the counterweights on the crankshafts.

You use an engine lathe to turn wood too??

 

[IQ52]

The flywheel register, rear main seal journal and main bearing journals all lined up on this crankshaft.

Yesterday Cody surrendered his art showroom back to me. We are setting up the washroom and clean room again so that we have someplace to assemble the 400/450 for the '73 Charger and the 440 for his Plymouth Trail Duster hunting rig.

At least now I won't have to go back to washing everything in that cold garage and assembling engines in the converted master bedroom like I did years ago.

 

[Cranky]

Btw, I've used my engine lathe to turn wood before.....don't really like to but rather 'machine' wood than cut cast iron on it.

 

[IQ52]

Because we are using the KB-251 pistons we've machined all the flat pads in the 346 combustion chambers. After doing a clean mill on both heads the flats were anywhere from .084" deep to .102" deep. They are all now .110".

Tapping the block so we can use a 1/8" IPS x 3/8" compression fitting to install the dipstick tube.

Have my parts washing and bagging room back..........

............along with the engine assembly room.

Wondered how the addition of the ARP rod bolts and rebuild would effect the factory 400 rod length. Factory length was 6.358" and we have lengths now.....

#1) 6.355"
#2) 6.355"
#3) 6.357"
#4) 6.351" bought this one off eBay & rebuilt it when the original had a defective small end.
#5) 6.356"
#6) 6.356"
#7) 6.357"
#8) 6.355"

Original #4) 6.356"......I had the press fit small end honed out so the pin would slide in/out so I could test each piston in the block and test each crank throw for stroke in that bore.

Four pistons measured 1.722 compression height and four were 1.723. I'll do a piston/rod dance and with the known tested stroke then cut each piston quench pad so that I have zero (.000") piston to head clearance with NO gasket. Then on assembly slip in the FelPro 8519 PT1 head gasket for the quench distance.

 

[polyjohn]

Great read indeed!

Nice to see stuff like this still being done.
I had my 440 crank 'turned down' for my 4oo block but didn't know about the throw issue?
Will be using 440 rods with o.990 pins and 440 source stroker pistons.
Gonna go with some 452 heads as they is hard as iron lol.
My Moparmate ran them for years with a 600 holley in his 65 440-Dart.
Melted the fenderwell headers 'to nothing' around the flanges and NO seat recession on the heads at all...

The 2.20 valves are impressive but he now runs 2.250 custom valves in his 915's.
They were ex Weslake valves from a ovalport bigblock head.

 

[qkcuda]

Great read indeed!

Nice to see stuff like this still being done.
I had my 440 crank 'turned down' for my 4oo block but didn't know about the throw issue?
Will be using 440 rods with o.990 pins and 440 source stroker pistons.
Gonna go with some 452 heads as they is hard as iron lol.
My Moparmate ran them for years with a 600 holley in his 65 440-Dart.
Melted the fenderwell headers 'to nothing' around the flanges and NO seat recession on the heads at all...

The 2.20 valves are impressive but he now runs 2.250 custom valves in his 915's.
They were ex Weslake valves from a ovalport bigblock head.

View attachment 1066821 View attachment 1066822

Never seen heads like that before. They look like big block W2's

 

[polyjohn]

Hi qk, they are called ‘Weslake heads’ and were cast by mother Mopar back in the late 60’s.
Supposedly to replace Hemi heads on the banned 426 NASCAR engines for 1970.
Big block W2’s or as I call them W1’s lol.
Only two pairs ever made, this set of stock open chamber and another set at the ex Chrysler Museum.(closed chamber). Reported to make over 600hp.
I have the complete engine sent to Weslake Engineering UK for developing in 1968/69.
Ovalport intake and ‘D’ port exhausts with one-off forged rockers like over sized W2’s, (you can see the the d-port exhaust on the right hand side.)
Also has the extra cooling ports like motor home heads.(below the big valve in between the calipers)

 

[qkcuda]

Very cool!

 

[IQ52]

Intake manifold didn't fit until we did some milling on it....................

 

[IQ52]

And getting the valve covers to bolt down with studs and hex nuts or hex bolts..........miserable....

Until we went to these stainless steel washers and button head screws............

 

[IQ52]

Hidden under those valve covers is our homemade rocker arm relocation kit to center and narrow the sweep on the valve tip.

 

[IQ52]

Maybe we should check the cam for lifter rotation.............

Put a spot of oil on the EDM solid lifter face and drop it into the dry lifter bore.........

Mark all the lifters with a red felt pen................

And turn the cam over a few times.........all the lifters are rotating..........

 

[IQ52]

Cylinder head assembly..........set up the Rimac to measure all the valve springs..........

We start assembling the pieces.............

Heads completed.............

All porting work done with the digital programmer on the left and the CNC machine on the right........

 

[IQ52]

We're still dinking with it but a/o yesterday...........541 lb-ft @ 3,700 rpm and 533 hp @ 5,400 rpm. 500+ lb-ft from 3,500-5,600 rpm.