First off I like your official Lunatti degree wheel I'm envious and impressed Mike! The 460 is coming along nicely! How's the foot today? You got any swelling?

 

Thank you. I gotta add your name to the degree wheel. My foot is fine. Like before, no pain, just feels like pressure. The black & blue is now black & yeller. And NO, there is no smelling!

I wish I could get all the pistons installed tonight, but I'm waiting on some stuff I ordered. It should all be here before the weekend. My makeshift connecting rod vise broke, so I ordered a store bought one. And as per Total Seal's instructions I ordered Quick Seat for the cylinder walls. And I ordered a rod bolt stretch gauge because the ARP 2000's in the rods have a specific stretch requirement, rather than a torque spec.

 

My dang rod vise won't be here til Monday. I paid for 2 day shipping, which would be Friday. Summit and I will have a little talk. So there won't be a lot of work done on the engine this weekend.

This afternoon I whoop'd up a set up cylinder head stands. Store bought ones are stupid expensive, and flimsy. Mine are sturdy, made in America, by an American, and all the materials were already laying around! It was 99 degrees w/ 100% humidity today. I waited til late in the afternoon to make these things, but I was sweating so much that I couldn't look down while welding without filling the hood lens with sweat. Lots of fun. I've lived in extreme environments on 5 continents, and none of them out-suck Mississippi in the summer.

I used the stands to leak test the Trick Flow cylinder heads. Was half expecting having to lap valves, but none of the valves leaked. And I had the air gun in the ports, with 175 psi. I'm very pleased! I was gonna test the D0VE heads, but I don't have any 18mm spark plugs to fill the holes. I'll find one later.

 

Hey, which Trick Flow heads are those? Sorry if you already mentioned earlier in the thread. I skimmed through, but didn't notice. I wanted to compare their specs to my AFR heads for shoots and gaggles.

 

Power Port 290, TFS-53410001

 

Thank you, sir.

I was wondering if you thought you were going to have any clearance issues with the headers since the TFS heads have raised exhaust ports, but since you're not using long tubes, maybe that won't be an issue.

 

I haven't mocked up these heads with the L&L headers, but in anticipation of going with these heads, I did do a lot of looking at the mock up with D0VE heads. There shouldn't be any issue. Damn there's a night and day difference between the ports on these heads vs the D0VE's. Especially the exhaust ports.

 

Nice job on the American made and designed head stands! The heads really look amazing !
Did you need to chase threads on the block or did they take care of that at the machine shop ? How's the test stand coming ?
On aluminum heads how do you deal with the dissimilar metals (Galvanic corrosion) like exhaust manifold studs and the like?
How's Mike today?

 

Yeah, comparing the pics of your heads to some of mine, it looks like your exhaust ports are more oval shaped than mine. Very large!

I was like you and was going to use a set of D0VE heads. Here's a shot of the factory D0VE valves on top of the valves in my AFR heads which are nearly the same size as the valves in your TFS heads. A lot bigger, huh?

 

I did use thread chasers (not taps) on every hole before and after the machine shop. The L&L headers came with black oxide header bolts. I haven't thought about it until now, but I'll probably get ARP chrome moly studs. I'm down to the "Twenty dollar death" phase now.

The test stand is 90% complete. I just need to finish the wiring. And I've been thinking about putting an electric fan on it. The original intent was to keep cost down by using stuff I already have. But I think a 3000 cfm E-fan would be the smart choice. It'll dang sure look cooler with it!

I'm fine. Thanks for asking. Nothing impressive about my broke toe. It's ugly, sits silently between it's peers, doing what it's told, and not getting out of line. Just like it's namesake.

 

Doosenberry, you dog gone right those valves are bigger! And the exhaust ports on the Trick Flow's require Cobra Jet exhaust manifolds / headers. Fortunately, the L&L headers have CJ flanges.

 

Who new even toes are susceptible to peer pressure As long as there isn't a revolt and they decide to take different paths

 

That toe obeys it's master. Big toe on right foot can be a a little combative, but it always does the right thing.

 

Not having my connecting rod vise has me at a stand still on assembly. Not a good way to spend a weekend. And an idle engine build is the "good idea fairy's" workshop. While sitting and staring at the engine, I noticed that the Dot on the crankshaft gear, is about 1/3 tooth aft of the keyway. I checked some old timing sets from a 302 and 400 I had laying around, and all of them have the dot directly above the keyway. Then I checked piston TDC, and sure enough the piston is at TDC when the keyway is straight up, but .040" on it's way down when the dots line up. Of course I got paranoid and assumed that Lunati deliberately or accidently set a little retard into the timing set. But that didn't make sense, because I've degree'd the camshaft, and the intake closing point is accurate. Then I dug out the OEM 460 crankshaft gear. It's the same as the aftermarket gear. Big relief. I'd still like to know why it's made that way. I hate not knowing something. And I'll really hate it if I've made an idiot mistake and don't catch it in time.

Before doing that this afternoon, I helped my friend get some hay in. This morning he switched from bailing round bails, to bailing square bails. I haven't thrown square bails on a trailer since I was in my early 20's. It sucks! I asked him if he knew he was square bailing round bail Bahia grass. It took a few seconds for that to penetrate, then he laughed so hard that I thought he was gonna need oxygen.

 

All I see is some flip flop feet IN the MAN SHOP area. I am calling OSHA on you, then I am calling your high school shop teacher, and then I am telling Penny.

Your work looks cooler than mine. But I already have the axle (bottom one) completely removed, so I am relaxing now.