Yeah, if you're not chasing crazy power numbers, you don't need anything special in a flywheel. But I get what you're doing now, and it makes sense.

 

Will your starter motor work with a spacer?

 

It will work just fine, if he puts it between the transmission and bellhousing.

 

I presume to mean between the block plate and the engine?

 

If you put it between the block plate and engine, or between the block plate and bellhousing, that is going to change starter depth, yes. But that's also the hard way to do it, when you've got a transmission that has a removable bellhousing.

 

It's just the stock block plate that was already there. Nothing forward of the trans mounting face changes

 

A bit of a set-back on the distributor. It seems I have the C5TF 12127 unit. I spent the time to disassemble, clean, lube, put light advance springs on, only to find out the vacuum advance pod is obsolete and can't be bought anywhere.

 

So is the vacuum unit for the 240 or a 300 motor and what year as I dont de-code numbers so well.
If you are making changes to the motor and you already did the light springs then all you need is one that will bolt to the dist. body.
I know the one on the motor in my 81 F100 is adjustable and that may help you dial it in.
I do not know if that dist. came in the 81 or the later years as I dont think the motor came with the truck from the factory but do hear they are adjustable through the years fro Ford.
Dave ----

 

Thanks FuzzFace
I searched, included old posts on this forum, and all I came up with is the vacuum pod is obsolete and made from unobtainium!

At this point, I'm just gonna cut my losses and get a HEI distributor. These use the standard GM module, and those are just as easy to carry a spare and replace as points or a module such as the pertronics that fit in the stock distributor. It seems that once all is said and done, the cost for another rebuilt distributor, a electronic module and a good coil are within a few bucks of a complete HEI unit.

 

Engine is back from the machine shop and went safely .060 over.....just barely. The last of the cylinder wear on #1 came out at .003" before final size. I went with Sealed Power H653CP pistons with a 19cc dish.
I won't know until I do an actual chamber volume measurement, along with measuring deck height, what the final compression ratio will be. If I have to do some chamber work to bring the CR to 9-1, then that's what will happen.

And then I went to retrieve the cam thrust plate by pulling off the cam gear from the old cam.....and I broke it. Didn't figure on it being cast iron. New timing gears are iron, so they should make a delightful whine. New cam is stock profile.

The machine shop painted the block and head with a nice metallic grey color. I like it. I think I'll leave it that way, and paint the sheet metal stuff black

Other'n that, assembly will commence shortly. I bought a new HEI distributor, so instead of a set of points or spare Pertronix module in the tool box, there'll be a spare GM module. Just in case

Also, the transmission adapter is pretty much done. The stock bellhousing was off center with the crank centerline by .022". I corrected that with the adapter I made. I just have the trans bolt holes left to drill and tap, and cut .125" off the face.

 

Thanks for the update - lots of progress was made.

The #1 cylinder on the 300 is almost always the one with the most wear. I once checked a block's thrust surfaces for wear and ordered .020 over pistons, only to find out from my block machinist that #1 was too big fore-and-aft for .020 over. Bigger pistons were ordered and those .020s went into a new block.

To get the cast thrust plate off safely requires grabbing it in Vee blocks very close to the cam journal. They are potato-chip-brittle. And those special short head grade 8 bolts are also required to clear most cam gears.

 

And now I know! Sometimes, an education costs a bit. I ordered a thrust plate and the small parts from headbolts.com.

The next step will be getting the block and internals squeeky clean, along with a clean assembly area.

 

Finally, I have begun assembly on the ol' 300. At .060" over, this will be it's final build. Maybe mine too. At least I hope so. Block has been washed with soap and water, and the bores are clean. I usually wipe 'em out with WD40 and a white paper towel after washing until there is no trace of residue on the paper towel. Even aft hot-tanking, there was still some old oil residue left in the oil galleys. So those were all cleaned out with pipe cleaner brushes.
With the block clean, the timing gear was put onto the crank, and it was laid into the block. A little heat on the timing gear, and it almost drops right on. I've "pre torqued" the main caps to 45ft/lbs for now. I'll do final torquing at a later time.
But first. I need to get a ring squaring tool to gap the rings. All I have in my collection is the one I made for the 3.701" bore drag race VW motor, and 95.5mm for the Harley. It worked for both. I coulda made one for the 4" bore Ford motor. But I bought a cheapo one from Summit for $25 instead of using a valuable chunk of aluminum bar stock and lathe cut it to suit.
I noticed one of the timing cover bolt holes has the first thread pulled up. As if at one time it was either cross threaded or too short of a bolt was used and only caught the first thread. I'll have to fix that so I don't get a leak.
I've also done a chamber volume check, and that is 72cc on the 240 head. Depending on where I end up on deck height, that should put 'er in the neighborhood of 9-1 CR.
I've finalized my final configuration to be EFI exhaust manifolds and the stock intake with the 1 barrel Holley Sniper EFI.

 

Looks good!
Sounds like you did some work on the combustion chambers. Would you post a chamber picture?
Are you going to use a stock profile cam?

 

I can post a picture a little later, but they are in as cast condition. I would think the added volume comes from having had a couple valve jobs done over the course of its life.
I am, however considering unshrouding the valves out to the gasket line. It might add a CC or two more volume, and bring the CR down just a smidge.
The cam is a stock profile, so I might be dancin' on the edge CR wise.