I'm pretty jazzed right now. I finally got to order the major engine components for my tunnel port 427 project. Here's the list:

Shelby aluminum 427 block at 4.37 bore
Billet crank at 4.25 stroke (yeah baby, 511 cubic inches!)
Dove aluminum high exhaust tunnel port heads
Shelby forged H-Beam BBC rods
Custom forged 12.25:1 compression pistons
Comp Cams 292/292 .645 110/106 cam

Already had these things:

Titanium valves 2.25/1.75
Crane roller lifters
Harland Sharp roller rockers
Aluminum shaft supports with end stands
HD Shafts

Should be picking up the other misc pieces that I need over the next two or three months and then start assembly. With any luck I'll be firing it up in the Spring.

Just had to share the good news!

-Scouder

 

Oh My God!. Where have you been hiding. What an awesome setup!

I hope you have better luck getting your short-block than I've had. See my other recent posts for that sad story. I hope you're not dealing with Flatlander.

 

Sounds like Christmas came early for you

I am drooling right now. How much did you pay for this setup?

 

Definately Christmas early! I've been thinking about this day for 4 years as the rest of the truck was being built. As for costs, here they are:

5250.00 Shelby aluminum 427 block at 4.37 bore
2750.00 Billet crank at 4.25 stroke
2400.00 Dove aluminum high exhaust tunnel port heads
625.00 Shelby forged H-Beam BBC rods
675.00 Custom forged 12.25:1 compression pistons
275.00 Comp Cams 292/292 .645 110/106 cam
----------
11975.00

-Scouder

 

WOW!! I think my wife would leave me if I spent that much on an engine.

Your truck is beautiful. I hope to do a frame off restoration someday. But for now it's just a daily driver.

What brand of headers are those? Did you have any problem clearing the steering box?

Good luck with the build.

 

Dude,
Thats a STELLAR project you got goin there. Beauty truck man, nice setup. Seeing and reading about yours makes me want to do something cool with my truck.
Good stuff man,

 

Mypa'struck,

The headers are from FPA. I had him make them up to fit the exhaust port for the higher performance heads, which have a higher exhaust port position than the truck heads. These headers will bolt right on a CJ or Edelbrock style head. I also had him put a 3 1/2 collector on so I could run 3" exhaust. They do not have any interference problems. Unfortunately I wont be able to use them as I have switched to the Dove high-exhaust port heads, which have a custom exhaust height and spacing. So I will be making my own headers soon. I'll probably just sell the old ones to offset the cost of the new ones. Seems crazy to have custom headers made and then never use 'em dont it?

-Scouder

 

This a "to drool over project" :-) you've done everything the way I would, provided I was a wealthy bachelor :-)

Seriously, what a nice combination of hardware. Why not an ARB in the rear 60?

I assume this to be a show truck. I'd hate to put it through any off-road shoot-out or rock-climbing. But, then I look at that hardware and it screams to go blasting through some mud-pit :-)

Really nice work!

 

Time to beef up the drivetrain, holy smokes!! Have fun.

 

gtex,

Thanks for the compliments amigo. The reason for the Detroit in the rear is simple. When I first started this project 4 years ago it was just going to be a simple rebuild, a few months, a few select pieces, nothing special. The Detroit seemed a natural solution, it was cheaper than the ARB (who can afford one of those?) and it was bullet proof.

The problem is that I kept finding myself saying "well, while I've got it tore down this far I might as well take an extra couple of months and do this or that" until it became a full fledged project. Cant have an open front 60. Cant have limited slip. Might as well spend the extra and have an ARB, etc...

I'm not disappointed though, Detroit will still do fine.

And by the way. No show truck. I will certainly take it to shows just for fun, but this baby will be for playing in the hills. My weekend toy. Seems it would be a crime to spend all this time and money then park it!

-Scouder

 

Careful, there I was just going to do a quick repaint on my BMW and clean up the engine and interior and ended up with this:







..........and that is precisely the type of thinking that got me there.

Alas, it looks like I'm well on my way to the same problem with my Truck. I think its a sickness................

Nice truck you have there

 

Nice BMW DuckRyder.

About the truck engine... :-staun

Yeah. My dream engine.

I must ask, though, why the 12.25:1 compression ratio?

 

So, I guess those headers wouldn't fit a stock 390, ehh? Too bad...

 

Man if he can afford a motor like that alittle race gas probaly ain't gonna hurt the wallet I'm gonna run outta slober if I don't stop reading this thread.

 

Dory,

According to popular automotive math this thing should run on premium pump gas at 12.25:1. I spent many hours calculating and researching exactly which compression ratio to use. Here's my logic:

If we forget about Static Compression Ratio (SCR) for a minute and focus on (DCR) or Dynamic Compression Ratio, which is actually much more important, we can come up with some fairly accurate estimates of what it will live with. Common wisdom says that a street engine on premium pump gas will typically like a DCR of between 7.5 and 8.5:1. I have some real life data on existing engines that shows the detonation threshold on various FE engines to be in the 8.6 range. Of course this depends on how well they are "packing" the cylinders, temperature, etc... but seems to be a starting point.

DCR is determined by the intake valve closing event on the cam, stroke, rod length, cyl volume etc... so I computed mine using the components I was going to order. Since I wanted some margin for error I computed my DCR at 8.25:1. Then it's a simple conversion to determine which SCR will create that DCR. In my case it turned out to be 10.93. Now some will say that you can add another point for aluminum heads because of their thermal properties, but I thought these heads/manfold might create more cylinder pressure than "more typical" parts, so I didn't add any.

So at this point I have what I feel is a mathematically conservative 10.93:1. But I live at 6750 feet. Using the commonly accepted formula of .2 points of compression increase for every 1000 feet I can now add 1.35 points of compression. This gives me 12.28:1. Round it to a nice 12.25:1.

The other factor is that the cam is ground with 4 degrees of advance built in. Chances are that I will run it 2 degrees retarded, which buys me about another quarter piont of margin.

Basically I'm trusting the math with a pretty significant margin built in. If it works I'll be vindicated, if not I'll feel pretty disappointed.

-Scouder