Lets face it, most of us with our trucks are always looking to make a good thing better. I thought it might be cool to start a thread about one thing we've done to our FE lately that we thought was a pretty good value for the dollar and a good mod. Might give the rest of us an idea of what we want to do next. I'll start with an oddball engine mod I just did: Moroso crankcase evac system.

We all want less sludge build up and better ring seal right? That means a pcv setup to create negative crankcase pressure BUT that also means a resulting contaminated intake charge (bad), a warmer charge (bad), and it leans it out a little (bad). This is why you see many racers running just breathers. Solution? The aforementioned Moroso kit...less than twenty bucks at Summit. All you've gotta do is weld in the supplied bung to your header collector, screw on the one way valve, connect that up with vacuum hose to the supplied breathers onto your valve covers, and your good to go. Negative crankcase pressure, better ring seal, cleaner oil, with no intake charge contamination. Pretty slick!

Don't try this if you've gotta deq that sucker though

Lets hear yours!

 

Hydraulic rollers. They are not simple, they are not cheap. But, just looking at them I can't help but see how much sense they make. You get the consistency of a hydraulic setup wit the no-nonsense no friction setup of a roller.

I don't know how much power it adds, but I sure like the concept. It makes me look at the old flat-tappet lifter on cam lobes and wonder how that ever worked :-)

It remains to be seen how well they run and last. But at a glance, I have to think this is a better deal.

 

Flat tappets work almost like a roller, well sort of. The lifter rides one side of the cam lobe and the lobe spins it as the lifter rides it, it's not as much friction as you'd think. Cheap mods? how about the 428CJ windage tray? Doing a little die grinding on the oiling passages before you assemble the motor? ( this not only helps in the longetivity dept, but also takes some stress off the oilpump, freeing up a little power). Pertronix in place of the points. Headers are a MUST , especially in pickups. They're so easy to install in em, and give a huge boost over the crappy manifolds. Aluminum intake over the boat anchor iron intake.

 

Hi Seth, speaking of PCV systems, the best mod I ever did to my CJ was to reverse the flow direction of the PCV. In the stock configuration, the breather from the air cleaner goes to the front of the driver’s vc and the PCV draws from the rear of the passenger vc. Whenever I made a pass down the strip, the firewall would get a good oiling on that side. My theory was the combined effects of the motor angled back, the oil drains back to the rear of the head, the motor torqueing over on that side, the acceleration pushing the oil back, full-throttle blow-by and minimal PCV vacuum was overwhelming the system. So what I did was install the PCV on the driver’s vc and the breather on the passenger vc. Now the PCV draws at a higher point where hardly any oil is. Result, no more oiled firewall! I run the same setup on the pickup and there is much less oil staining on the passenger vc. A few years ago I suggested it on the network54 board but it landed on deaf ears until one guy with the same problem tried it. Cured his problem and now he’s sold and tells others, funny how that works.

Barry

 

I did this same mod on my V-8 89 Ranger the other day. I was running the "Cobra" ( Crane Energizer) roller rockers before and swapped heads and am now running Comp rollers. The Crane rollers apparently had restrictors in the pushrod cups to limit the oil to the top, cause the amount of oil coming up now is far greater than it was before, so much so that I had to move the PCV valve and eventually swap valve covers to a set that's got baffles. I drove it on a 350 mile trip before moving the PCV and it consumed 3 quarts of oil.

 

All good stuff guys, keep them coming. Barry, I remember us discussing the pcv location a couple of years ago and I switched mine to the upper driver cover then. It really does make a difference, I'm a firm believer too. Glad you mentioned it as this is simple, free, and a great idea.

 

I moved from a 360 to my current 390 in two steps. The first step may be a bit ludicrous but please realize I was working with little money.

First step:

Find a 390 in the back of my machinist-friend's shop with block, crank, rods, old pistons. No heads. Got .030" cast pistons at around 9.5:1 or so. Rebuild heads from the original 360 that already had 100K+ miles on it and was already rebuilt once (by my brother). Total mileage on heads was something over 200K. D2's I believe. Cut crank. Get a "b-range" cam, something very mild. Double roller timing chain. Used stock 2-bbl with a 2->4 bbl adapter and a Holley 750 (only thing I had). NOT BALANCED.

Result: It ate the cam at around 5K miles, but I might be lucky it did. Ran GREAT. Lots of low-end torque, kinda limped after 5000RPM, but held together for a while. Eating the cam is probably because the original block I found was out of line, or I just didn't clean the lifter bores enough. As for balancing, I had put the 360 flywheel and damper on the 390, believing they were the same (just like MANY gurus here say). Vibrated like a *******. Had to go hunt down a 390 flywheel and damper. It is very possible my brother put in a 361 crank and had the snout turned down. Not sure...

Step 2:

Find a 360 block from a junkyard that has NOT already been rebuilt and just plain died of old age. Disassemble and examine bearings for wear patterns. Looked nice and straight.

Get another 390 crank (just didn't return the core on a cut) (2U). Find a set of C7AE rods. TRW forged 10.5:1 pistons. ARP rod bolts. Small-end rebush on the rods, matched to each individual piston pin. Check everything, rod big ends, bearing clearance, etc. etc. Fully balanced, with flywheel and clutch pressure plate as a unit. Rebore of block is done matching each cylinder to the piston, and machinist who understood that forged aluminum deforms differently than cast when heated. Black moly rings. Edelbrock Performer 390, new Holley 750 vacuum secondaries. 292/292,230/230,.554"/.554" cam. Retarded 4 degrees to compensate for the excessive cylinder compression, and help low-end. C8 heads redone with intake/exhaust seats, 428CJ exhaust valves, (stainless/swirled) new intake valves, bronze/silicone valve guides, everything matched to each individual piece. Machinist stayed up all night because he started to port the heads and couldn't stop himself until it was done. He worked a lot on the area underneath the exhaust valve because it was being oversized, evened out hump in exhaust port. Long matched-length 1 7/8" headers to only 2.25" dual exhaust - pair of Thrush mufflers... same exhaust I had on the original 360.

Result: HOLY CRAP. Lots of low-end torque, easily breaks the 33x12.5x16.5 BFG's loose on dry pavement. Had to really crank on the accelerator pump, to the point where it's still not right without the 50cc kit and bigger squirters. Used manifold vacuum with an adustable vacuum advance so it idles around 20 degrees advanced (11" of vacuum), and retards when trying to move to keep it from pinging. Played with dizzy to modify timing too. Original dizzy has one weak spring on all the time, and a strong spring that is actually flopping around. Took another weak spring, replacing the strong spring, making it TWO weak springs keeping the timing retarded, and then shorten the overall advance by pulliing the weights apart and rotating the top piece 180 degrees (is it 15 deg vs 18 deg?). Needs 93 octane.

Pulls good up to 6000RPM where I don't want to go too long because I never put roller rockers in it, it still has the stock rockers shafts because I never got around to it. Double valve springs, uprated retainers, positive-lock valve seals...

Other info: MSD 6AT, 4.10 gear, 435NP, starting off in 2nd gear. I pulled 4000lbs (in the bed) of scrap cast-iron boiler, and it had no problem starting in 2nd gear and hauling ***. I was afraid to lean on it to much with that much weight, I was afraid it was going to blow the drivetrain. Like the 205NP transfer case

Too bad I hardly get to start it anymore because I can't afford the $1200/year in liability insurance. My '97 Cougar with everything is less than that. The cab is badly rusted, the bed is dented to hell, but all other sheet metal was replaced 10 years ago, including new hood/doors/hardware/weatherstip/radiator support/fenders/grill (authentic '74), etc. etc.

ak

 

Little things to free up a few extra horses like an electric fuel pump instead of the cam-driven, friction (though minimal) producing kind.

I also like the more expensive mods like getting a non-side-oiler block machined for cross-bolts. And you'll need the main caps made for the cross-bolts (at least #'s 2,3, and 4).

Other mods like putting an oil restrictor in the passage directly under the rocker stands in addition to a high volume oil pump (which also requires a larger capacity oil pan). Unless you are running pretty high rpms, the rockers don't need as much oil as is being pushed up there anyway. Where you want it is just about everywhere else. The top of a 351W pushrod (cut to length) works nicely as a restrictor. With the rocker stands off, insert the end of the pushrod in the hole and mark where it stops with a scribe or what have you. Cut it at the mark, flip it over, cut side down, and insert. Fits like a glove.

 

That's exactly what I used, except it was from a 302

 

My best bangs for the buck:
#1 $100 used aluminum intake and free Holley 600.
#2 $100 used MSD 6AL ignition.
#3 $60 used headders from junkyard. (I think they're headmans.)
#4 B&M shift kit.
#5 Pertronix.

 

how about the 428CJ windage tray?

I bought one and my engine builder said wasn't possible to use with H Beam Rods.

I'm still curious about MSD type ignition adders. Currently running Mallory unilite Distributor with Pertronix Ignitor II guts, Mallory Coil, Jacobs wires. I see that Mallory makes the HyFire, and I'm not sure if this is same as all the others (kind of seems like from reading Summit descriptions), has anyone used the Mallory HyFire?

 

I an original 428CJ windage tray. It fit mine well. I had to notch it so it would clear the rear main stud nuts. I don't understand your engine builders comment there. Worst case you would have to dent the pan where the bolts were touching to get clearance.

 

He said it was the H Beam Rods. Could be he just didn't want to mess with or forgot and had to tell (layperson) me something. It's just one of the little things I wanted that I'm doing without, and since I'l not making Hi RPM runs with it I'm not losing much HP.

 

One other tip about the 428CJ windage tray: When installing it, check to make sure the oil dipstick doesn't ride up on top of it when putting the dipstick in. The first one I used did this, this drastically shortens the dipstick life, not to mention making it impossible to check the oil. The second one i have now had the same problem, which I corrected before installing the motor by notching the tray.

 

I rebuilt my complete motor for under 1000 bucks

But here is what i added that was worth the money:

Stock 4 barrel Intake Manifold from junkyard: 30 bucks (beats the stock 2 barrel)

750 Holley Carb from swapmeet : 100 bucks

Dynomax Headers: 105 bucks

Crane Energizer Cam: 175 bucks w/ new lifters

Dual Flowmaster 40 series exhaust w/ 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe : 30 bucks... Bought mufflers from a friend (new) and exhaust pipe myself... cut it to what length I wanted it, and welded it up