The Square Deal

Like my AMC 443" stroker...... I'm dreaming of getting 50,000 miles out of it before it starts burning oil.

 

This one has 6 1/8" rods in it so it really doesn't have too adverse rod angles-just short pistons. Rod ratio is 1.485. It is WAY better in that aspect than the 381 I had in the B previously, in which I used the short 400 GM rods and off-the-shelf 350 pistons (put together before there were any 383 parts available). That engine never really consumed any excess oil over 3+ decades but I'd be surprised if it ever exceeded 4500 rpm. This one should be good to 7K with the exception of the cam and lifters. When I spec'ed the cam, I told Jones Cam Design I didn't care what happened above 5500 and at that point the cam does indeed fall flat on its face.

Maybe this will sound like a couple of married piston slap Subarus-----

 

After getting the heads on the bench yesterday for close examination, it does appear the right side head has about a 0.0015" lateral warp to it on what was the rear end. I suspect that would run with the now 0.051 thick head gaskets but given the history, I'm going bite that proverbial bullet and get them surfaced. In no way do I want to repeat this exercise.

 

Did a little whittling on the four non conforming head studs. The one to the right is how they are supposed to look for proper seating in the block.




Not sure what those are made out of (8740?) but that was some tough stuff to whittle.

 

For your entertainment:


You have to think maybe the guy had Briggs and Stratton on his mind but perhaps he shouldn't even be working on those.

The second from left is the hardened version that came with the A1 stud kit. The other three are substitutes with the second from right apparently hardened but the other two just plain old washers. I remember counting all this hardware when I got it so the "assembler" lost or borrowed those other 3 washers for something else. I didn't really notice these when I pulled it apart but then everything was covered with black moly assembly grease. I have a full set of ARP washers ordered that should arrive tomorrow. The A1's aren't finished as nice as ARP's version.

Turns out those errant studs above are also from ARP-when really cleaned up the "ARP" and part number (tiny) are forged on the heads and they are 8740. My guess is the guy didn't even try to get the right studs from Dart but then they haven't exactly been respondent with me either. After my discussion with my machinist friend (Wes St John at Internal Combustion Machine) last Wednesday, I'm going to chuck those studs up and cut 2 more threads on the bottom ends. With the re-machined seats, the threads are bottoming out in the counter bores before fully seated. The existing threads were rolled and the untreaded shank slightly undersized but there is sufficient thread length I don't think it is a problem. Also, when I cleaned all the debris out of those stud bores in the block, they are all Helicoiled.

Of a lighter nature, I finished this up a few months back:

 

Nice holder John

 

This makes me wonder what else was not done correctly. Had a friend that had a sbc built by someone that was complete trash. Paid around $10,000. Had to spend another 10 grand for another engine.
This went in a 1966 Chevy II Nova pearl white. I drove it and it was a hand full at 435hp. My friend was worth about 10 mil. at the time, so pocket change for him. Still he spent the money for the
parts that weren't put in the engine. This was around 1998.

 

Life's lessons but I would have never guessed. This guy's specialty is building 30-40k super hot diesels. I'm going to pull some caps when I remove the pan and check the bottom end out. I was going to take the pan off anyway to bevel the right front corner of the sump off (I suspect the front axle U-joint and that portion of the pan may try to occupy the same space at some point). Right now I wouldn't hire that guy to work on a kid's tricycle. I have a lot more than 10k in this. For sure a bucket list project and maybe an answer to what a relatively long stroke, old school sbc is capable of producing for low end torque.

 

This was 25 years or so ago. A lot has changed in that time. With the pan off, there are a few things you can check. I safety wired my pick up bolts when I had my pan off last.
Crankshaft end play can be checked and if you had the want, plastigage of rod and main bearings. That is probably going a little too far but who knows at this point.
I take it that someone else is resurfacing your heads.

 

Today I got the intake manifold reinstalled. Whether or not this is a success will have to wait a few days. I have a thermostat housing "radiator" filler I'm going to install, then fill it with distilled water and run it up to 20psi. I found another stud when assembling that sob cut the seat off of for some undetermined reason so will have to pull and replace it before I put the rockers back on. Not sure how I missed that when cleaning them. I have a stud ordered that will need some massaging in the lathe to make the proper seat. Less massaging than those other four however. With the 3/8's 12 point head ARP manifold bolts, I even managed to get a torque wrench on all of them.

 

Progress! Figures crossed. Ready to hear this beast roar!

 

If this exercise is actually a success, there shouldn't need be any roaring involved. Just low grumbling.

 

Sometimes you buck statistics and win. I ordered 2 studs from McMaster-Carr with the full expectation that there would be some lathe time involved to make one of them work. They arrived today and the shorter one-well it's PERFECT!!!! And both are ARP studs.


I will replace the bastardized one tomorrow. The sealer I'm using has a 72 hour cure time so maybe Sunday I can pressurize the system to test it.

 

Trials and tribulations, more sacrifice to the gods. So yesterday I pressurized the block to 20 psi. I still have two head studs that leak along with drips from both the back cover and the lower right mounting bolt on the FlowKooler 1880 water pump. But the head gasket problem appears over. Both of those leaking studs are on the right side outside row.

It was the second water pump mounting, the first of which I figured I had somehow messed up with the gaskets. I knew that wasn't the case on this go around so looked at the casting when I got it apart. Yep, a big divot there and it is obviously leaking from that into the bolt bore. sigh. The pump is un-run but I bought it several years back and had to both do a little grinding on the front right side to clear my pulley and tap/plug the right side bypass as the Dart block has no provision for that. I sent Summit a note but ordered another anyway. The only benefit being the new impellers are without doubt more efficient than the previous stamped steel versions.


Not sure how the removal of those two studs is going to work out as they are in there with anaerobic sealer now and will likely take some heat to remove with not much protruding to heat. Maybe dueling Weller 550's. I made a couple of 9/16's drive, 7/16-20 nuts out of some grade 8 3/8-16 nuts this morning so maybe have enough room to put some torque on the stud.

 

I have posted before that FlowKooler has some quality control issues. Wait until your impeller comes loose and you have a real problem. I am
not sure if they have resolved the QC issues. Roll the dice. Good luck.

 

Maybe it's a good thing these have no heater hose provision.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...4wQ3pos1609wPtJz2q_SKaVfuf7TYCq6iyinvsAtJ86EU

 

It better be good at that price! Surprised it is not polished or plated.

 

I received the 1880 replacement pump today. First noticed the 5/8" pilot rather than the 3/4" advertised for this unit. Second, no way will it clear a stock timing cover without spacers, let alone the timing cover I'm using. Third, the fan flange is about 5/16" shorter than stock, and last, it no longer has the top heater hose inlet which I need. The casting is much poorer overall quality than the older version, leaks be damned. The last insult is the 10 mm drive 1/4-20 bolts on the rear cover. It's back in its box and headed back to Summit tomorrow. Obviously some corporate changes since I purchased the last one of these.

I dropped the leaker off at McGinnley's Motorsports Wednesday and will check tomorrow on the verdict as to whether it is repairable. If not, I'm going to have to come up with an alternative. No way I was going to get my MIG spool gun tip into that port far enough. The replacement for sure will not be another FlowKooler.

 

Spent a little time with Brett McGinnley yesterday to see what magic he could do with that pump. Turns out, not much. The hollow under the divot was as big or bigger than what could be observed. In short, one of Bill's sinkholes. The new "1880 Flowcrap" is on its way back to Summit and I ordered a Stewart unit from Jegs. This wasn't Summit's problem but I still don't see they should be rewarded for it. In the almost 50 years I have been a Summit customer, that is only the second item I've had to return.

Maybe a side note, but the high flow FlowKooler sbc pumps with the aluminum impellers are now bidirectional with straight fins. What that means is they are not going to be really efficient in either direction.

 

Update. McGinnley couldn't get that leak damned-the divot just kept getting bigger. I'll give it one more try before it hits the scrap bin after hogging it all out with a die grinder and then hitting with high heat on the spool gun. Nothing left to loose. In the meantime, I ordered a Stewart Stage 4 pump. Nice unit and a MUCH better impeller design but alas, I couldn't make that work either. With the fixed blade Flex-a-Lite with it's forward offset, it was into the cross member. With the 19 1/4" flex blade version offset to the rear, that I was using on the previous 381, I couldn't clear the power steering pump pulley. No amount of spacers could alter the outcomes.

Sooo, I borrowed the old FlowKooler 1880 from the 381. I had trimmed the pilot on that back to 1/4" to fit my custom adapter to utilize a junk yard 3 groove steel water pump pulley on the 381. With my current custom aluminum 3 groove pulley, it ended up flush with the front face. The pulley is a pretty tight slip fit on that pilot with 0.002" clearance. Sooo, I trimmed another 1/16" off the water pump pilot and made another adapter with a light press fit pilot through the fan and nesting into the pulley. I also radiused the leading edges of the fan blade to 2". The end result is a whopping 1/4" clearance on the cross member and 3/8" on the power steering pump pulley. I think this will work. The engine mounts are essentially solid for fore-aft movement with delrin "washers" on either side of the softer polyurethane center and those engine mounts are VERY stout, as is the steel fan. That and a very beefed up frame with essentially zero flex.





I received the KRC steel sandwich water pump gaskets this afternoon. I need to double those up for the rear cover of the pump to clear the timing cover a figured those would have less "give" than a regular gasket. Hopefully the pump will go on for the last time tomorrow.

As the water pump saga played out, I've been revising the power steering. The "Howard" clocking plate and a new rebuild kit are installed in the control valve and am working on new hoses. I ended up with several leaks trying to use the old Aeroquip PS hose with newer Eaton hose ends, even though they were outwardly the same dimensional wise. This time around it's Fragola hose ends on Parker 206 hose. Without the radiator on it, I can turn the power steering pump with a ball end hex driver and a 1/2" drill-something else that I will hopefully not have to deal with when firing this beast up.