ALso...anyone have input on the lifters question?

 

Submerge the lifters in oil foil a couple of hours until the air bubbles stop.

 

Well, the valves are all lapped in. The springs shold be here tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest...I'll get the heads all cleaned out and ready to put back together when the springs arrive, then slap'em on the block, put the intake on and put in the new oilpump and weld up the holes in the oilpan.

Will be a longblock by the end of the week for sure.

 

You going up to supervise Dan this week end? Glad AJ was there last Saturday - I though Dan was going to be out of town!

 

I'd love to take a roadtrip..AC is out, temp's pegging 3 digits,...but spoke with Dan, I may head up there shortly and just bring the truck down here.

Thought for sure he and AJ would have gotten it all done this weekend

 

At your house would be so much better, at least for me. Too bad the lottery is so hard to win, I could use some truck funds!..and of course help fund the Chapter truck.

 

A minor setback gent's, got the valve springs last night, but before I installed them decided to check installed height with my make-shift tool...exhaust valves are pretty close, but could probably use .015 shims. Intake valves on one head could use .030's the other head min of 060's, might have to get some thicker shims and offset retainers/locks, I don't know yet...I need to get a good, accurate tool and check them all out, then either order a set of shims, or get individual ones locally...I should have checked this stuff out earlier and been ready for it and just ordered a shim set with the other parts.

Oh well.

 

You have to be impressed with Summit Racing, ordered the tool and shims and FEDX showed up yesterday afternoon with my stuff...next day service without requesting it

So, opened up the shims and then I got a frowny face...they were Comp Cams shims with the correct OD of 1.5, but...the ID hole was only 1/2 inch...we need a 1inch hole.

ANyone ever try to make a bigger hole in .015 and .030 shims? After destroying a few on the drill press I moved to the lathe and bored the holes out to 1 inch to fit correctly.

SO, I got all the springs installed last night, had all the number written down for the installed height, then lost the envelope I had them written on...

But, all the intake springs took .045 shims, except one that took .030...all intake spring installed heights were between 1.800 and 1.805

None of the exhast valves needed shims, but...heights ranged from 1.785 to 1.800 on all of them...then only way to correct the "shorter" ones would be with offset keepers or mill down the spring pockets, but I don't think a few extra pounds of pressure on those valves will hurt us.

I set them at 1.800 because the Summit Cam recommended Cranes springs, the spec on the Crane springs were shown at a bit diferent installed heights, but were 105 closed and 300 open IIRC...the Comp springs I used are spec'ed at 109 closed (at 1.800) and 300 open at (I forget the height, but equates to about .550 lift, IIRC)...since were running .503 lift, I'mm 99.99% sure we will not exceed 300lbs spring pressure on the cam...the reason this is good is both Crane and COMP recommend to not break in a Hyd Flat Tappet cam with more than 300lbs of pressure...so we shuold be good since we'll never hit the lift where the spring exert 300lbs of open pressure.

I'll get the engine back together today.

 

Heads are on...damn...tough to torque to a 140ft/lbs in a hot shop...but it's all good

Had to step out an mow the neighbors pasture, should get it all buttoned up in the AM

 

Sounds like the motor is coming along. Let me know where the next mini project is going to be. I'm free for a bit longer as I haven't landed a job as of yet.

There is a couple of banks that are looking at my project management skills but, no one has signed me up yet so I have some time time to work on the project truck during the week and some of the weekends.

I have to thank TigerDan for the molding I picked up from him during the our work on the project truck. He had just the part I was looking for.

The trip to the junkyard yielded some really good ideas for me and parts that I thought were not available. He saw some really good exhaust manifolds that I think he's going to pick up.

We had a great day and make some headway on the front end. It's starting slowly but, it's going to be a safe and well built truck to drag through the muck. ;-)

Keep me in the loop.... I've been out and about the last week so I'm sorry that this is the first chance I've had to post.

Been to Redding, Ft Bragg, and down the coast this week in the RV and posting has been at a min.

Nice to see motor is moving along.....

AJ

 

Have to delay on the engine for a bit and put the kids trampoline together.

Welcome back AJ, looks like you've been taking advantage of the time off wisely and having some fun!

 

Running into a mild snag with the head studs...posted a question on the 385-series forum...the threads on the stud (7/16th side that goes into the head) look 100% pristine, but will only screw in about 1/2 inch before becoming too tight to continue in by hand....

I already chased the holes in the heads,so that's not a problem...and also, even a new 7/17th nut only spins on flush to the bottom of the stud befor getting tight.

I'd run a thread chaser down them, but don't know if they are cut "special" to aid in sealing/etc. So...I'm in a bit of a holding pattern, but will go ahead and drop the lifters in and seal the intake and be done with that.

 

Well, another snag, went to clean the gaskets off the heat sheild tray for the intake, and they aren't cooperating, I'm afraid if I use a power tool on them, I could destroy the tray, so have it soking in the solvent tank for a bit to see if things will soften up some.

Good excuse to crack a cold one and wait for a bit

 

I have a set of studs off of a 429. I could mail them to you...

 

Hey Dan,

Should they thread in by hand to the shoulder?

No rush to mail them, as I don't have the right PR's yet, but...

Could you put a 7/16th NC nut on them and see if it threads up to the shoulder? If so, then I'll have you send them, if noty and they act like the ones here, we'll run'em