do yourself a favor and grab a punch and hammer and mark every thing !!
if you have numbered punches great , if not just use multiple dots in different patterns .

 

Mike,

Rods are marked.

This project is going slower than I had hoped. Currently I have not had enough time to get the block to a shop for cleaning. I have been told a couple of times now that it should be a universal block as in '67 they were all made to support a 360/390 build as it was the end of the line for the 352. A sonic check will tell the tale. If that is the case I have been offered a set of lightly used 410 pistons which will work well with my 352 rods and yield about a .055-ish deck. We'll see. If that won't fly I was also offered a set of 390 rods as that is all I lack and will overbore a 360 block I have to 4.080". I did get a 3U crank locally which is turn-able so I am making progress, albeit slow. Once block is checked and machined hopefully I'll get things moving faster.


I just need more time in a day!!!

 

This project has taken a rather different direction. I've ended up doing a complete overhaul as the innards were so gunked up. I located a 390 crank, rods and bought a set of KB 150_030 pistons. The block will be machined .080" over to bring total bore to 4.080 (from the 4.00" of the original 352). I selected a Comp 270H cam and an Edelbrock RPM performer intake. Figured it was out; might as well go the whole 9 yards.

Block is at the machine shop and is probably close to done at this point with the exception of decking. Will zero deck this build. Offset boring was necessary as there was some core shift with cylinders 5-8. Once complete both banks of cylinders will have about .140" wall thickness remaining.

Will keep you all posted!

 

funny how little projects always get bigger , but like you said while it's apart might as well go for it ..

any thoughts on heads ?

 

It is, Mike.... But I'm not laughing...

It's also funny (still, not laughing) how parts seem to accumulate. I have three head sets to choose from now: C6AE-r low riser intake heads, C8AE-h and the original C7AE-a heads. I wanted to use the original C7's as we were using the original block, but two of the exhaust upper bolt holes were so badly stripped they were ovalized and would require welding. The C6 R code heads had too large a volume for the pistons I chose and would have landed me in the 8.5:1 range (my target was 9-9.5:1). The C8's were chosen even though they likely had the most miles on them, but the bolt holes etc were perfect. Their volume should put me around 9.2:1 SCR. Condition of the head otherwise was fine and they will be getting mag bronze guides, a new set of SI "port flow" swirl polished valves (intake and exhaust) and a performance valve job including hardened exhaust seats. Valve work will include unshrouding all valves and a multi angle valve job with radius blend into the port. The machinist has done quite a bit of porting in his career and says that after this valve job he sees a typical increase of 50+ cfm flow on the intakes. His extensive porting post valve work usually only nets about an extra 5% flow and he feels the added effort especially on an iron head just isn't worth the effort. So, as far as heads go I guess they are getting an extensive workout. Just not ready to step up to a set of Survival aluminum heads yet, but the bottom end is being quality build so that swap could be made at a later date. Doubt I'll need it though.

Valve springs are single Comp springs as recommended for that cam. I bought new rocker shafts as one of mine was broken. Rockers look and mic fine. Will use new push rods as well.

Complete bottom end will be balanced and blueprinted. Rod bushings will be fitted to their individual wrist pins. Got a set of moly rings for the slugs.

What else did I forget....?

 

throw a 750 holley on there and an electronic ignition system and sounds like you'll have a very nice running 390.

did you cc the combustion chamber c8ae-h is listed at 72cc just wondering what it actually cc'd at

 

C8's cc'd at 71.5. The c6's at 77!!! Way above published but would have been good with a smaller dish piston.

 

Quick update:

All the motor's back home now. Block still waiting in the VW until i can toss it up on the engine stand.

Heads are completely rebuilt with a multi angle valve job. Unshrouded too. Flowed and found significant improvement with a simple valve job which included new swirl polished valves that were back cut as well. No more will be done to them.

Here are a few pictures:

Block is waiting for a washing before galley plugs installed.



Crank just came off the balancer. It got a final polish after this step. Then it was bagged up.



Rods were resized. Small ends got bronze bushings. Oil relief on the small end?
0.00065"!!!



Might be able to see some of the work around the valves to unshroud them.




Head on the flow bench. Exhaust being checked at this stage.



Block is home, as is everything else!

 

When I did my 428cj the machine shop said they'd assemble the lower end for $200 bucks and then warranty it. No brainer for me.

 

Wouldn't it be great....?

I asked. Quoted $750 for bottom end, $750 for top end.

I'll be learning to do this myself! Besides, i always said I wanted to be involved in the build rather than simply dropping off one motor and picking it up when done. Just seems more interesting to me.

 

never seen a bug with a 390 in it before ..lol
engine looking good , take your time on the reassembly !

 

Looks great!

 

Update!!!

Block is painted up and assembly has begun. I did have a small hiccup when I found a hole in #4 level with the bottom of the water jacket. Had to take the block back to the machine shop and have it leak tested for my piece of mind. I also pressure tested it myself at home with some fixtures a new friend from another forum had made for this purpose. No leaks at 30psi and it's good to go.




I checked all the main clearances with plastigauge. The shop had said they spec'd all bearings at 0.0025". Basically they machined the block, installed bearings, torqued to spec and made individual measurements of all mains. Then they subtracted 0.0025" and had the crank grinder individually grind each journal to that specified size. Plastigauge showed a clearance of 0.002". Pretty darned close, and I trust the shops 0.0025" documentation more than the less precise plastic test. It does give a good idea though for those that haven't had the crank index ground. or who don't have precision micrometers at home which I don't....




I also installed the camshaft and gear/fuel pump eccentric and checked end play. It's currently 0.011", but I won't machine the gear mating surface until I have test fit the entire chain set to verify correct length.




I had really hoped to be further along, but with a family of 5 I have a lot of ***** in the air sometimes. For instance my youngest daughter had a track meet this afternoon. She's trying to best the school's mile record which stands at 5:52. She is within 20 seconds.... I wouldn't miss it for any FE. She's too important!

Even with "life" I still think it'll be ready in a few weeks.

Can't wait to get the old iron back on the road!!

 

Nice build.

 

It's been a while and I've just about completed this motor, but here's how things have gone:

After painting the block I noticed a hole in the #4 cylinder wall....



Machine shop hadn't mentioned it so I called them. They saw it but said they thought it was below the water jacket. I measured it at exactly the bottom of the water jacket.... So I took it back to have it checked out. They didn't want to take it to their vendor for a pressure test as all the machine work had been done already so They used a torch to apply some soot to the inside of the cylinder wall. Then they poured a bit of diesel in the water jacket and left it over night to see if any fuel found its way into the cylinder. None did. I had a pal from another forum come over after making some plates up to block off the water passages and we pressurized the block (freeze plugs installed of course) to 30 psi and there seems to be no real issue. Must be a casting defect. The block is .255" thick in that area.

I assembled the bottom end with pistons and rods and checked my deck height. Found an issue here..... #1 was correct at 0.000" deck height, but all other pistons were out of the hole by 7.5 mil.... Huh?

I'm trying to add an image here but photobucket is not cooperating. HATE their new "upgrade".... See if this works....



What happened was this: When the machine shop selected the set of rods to rebuild for me they found that two of that particular set would need replacing. Of the available rods they had one was far shorter than my set and the other was a bit shorter. Those were set aside to not use, but inadvertently ended up back in the set, and of course one ( the shortest) ended up in the #1 spot!!! The #1 rod was used to measure for deck height and square, so when my deck was milled it ended up below the height of the other 7 rods.... Nice, eh? The shop corrected this issue by rebuilding another rod for me which brought all the pistons above deck, and then they milled .007" off the top of each piston. Ultimately this was a good thing. It made me feel better about how I was doing things. I knew I was checking things out properly and taking necessary steps to correct any issues. Also, taking that little bit off the quench area of the piston reduced the dish a bit and bumped my compression just a tad which got me right at 9:1 static CR. I'm told I'll have no issues with pump gas which suits me fine.