Building the Engine

This is the first engine I bought to rebuild. Guess what. Two of the cylinders had water sitting in them. And WAAY rusted up.ARRRGGHH. Had to toss the block and get another one off Craigslist. Plus it was sleeved. Didn't use the block, but used it for mock up while I built the frame........I used some of the parts mostly chrome on the new engine. $1,300 plus freight down the drain.

Second block, stripped down, nearly ready to go to machine shop. Found this stock 350 short block, two bolt main in Round Rock.

Little bitty 5K window unit and booster fan. Works pretty good for spot cooling. Block is completely disassembled and freeze plugs and oil passage plugs removed. She's headed out to Leo Machine in South Austin for vatting, line bore check, .030 bore!

Engine built on Conveyor line #2

She's all cleaned up ! ! Those guys at Leo Machine in South Austin are just GREAT guys.

Unfortunately, they were forced out of business due to a lawsuit by some asshole who blew up his engine and blamed them..plus they were older guys and the covid thing and local taxes and being very reasonable in their pricing.....they just decided "F this" ...very unfortunate for faithful customers...

October 7, 2011 - - Bottom side, Assembly will begin tomorrow !

Notice that I modified the upper part of the cylinders by grinding a little bit off to match the head gasket and the combustion chambers in the heads. No little pockets in the cylinders. I ground out the valve shroud area on each cylinder, the heads will "perfect match" the gasket and head shrouds. Ready for freeze plugs and crank.

Is this baby a work of art or WHAT ?!?!? You can see the chamfered upper edges of the cylinders better in this picture. The chamfer at the top of the cylinders was done for "gasket/head match" - no edges in the combustion chambers. Notice the ground tops of the cylinders to "gasket/head" match for valve shroud considerations.

Yea, I know it's only a two bolt main, but the word is that it's still good for 400 hp. Those ARP studs don't hurt anything either..

Ready to get some guts! The blue is Pontiac, mid 50's color. The same as the original Pontiac engine in the 1949 Ford Coupe that my brother built back in the 50"s!

Getting the cam dialed in. Oct. 31, 2011.

First setting of the Crankshaft. All fasteners are ARP high strength studs and bolts.

After confirming REAL top dead center, notice that the "new" factory harmonic balancer's TDC mark is FOUR DEGREES off....

Assembling pistons/rods. Forged 9.1 pistons so I can run pump gas. Heads are 64cc chambers. GREAT quench area. Yeah I know, but this isn't going to be a race engine. It's going into a "SCHITZOPHRENIC multi-personality luxury beauty"..

Scat Rods and spiral pen retainers. Not to worry, the metal shavings were all cleaned up before the rings were installed. Notice the pen retainers are a spiral ring type. The first few were a bitch to get in, but once ya learn, about a 10 second job.

All Pistons/rods/rings ready to roll. The rotating assembly (forged steel crank, rods, pistons) was balanced by the guys at Leo Machine Shop in South Austin.

Cleaning up the combustion chambers - the one on the right hasn't been done yet. Click the zoom icon and look at the crumby surface of the head. Guys at Leo Machine resurfaced for a perfectly smooth gasket seal. Sharp edges can cause detonation. Note the scribe line on the right combustion chamber to match the gasket/engine cylinder. Opened up the chambers a bit, but will have the heads surfaced to keep the chambers at 64cc each, after I get them all the same..plus note the valve bosses inside the runners where I ground down to help out on the runner flows.........what fun !

Some say that all this is unnecessary and a waste of time but that's about all I've got left.

Had to do a little grinding on the connecting rods so that the rods will not come in contact with the camshaft. Upon first assembly, 4 rods hit the cam, so it ALL had to come apart again and adjustments made. Note the ground area of part of the bolt head and big end of the rod. The word is that it shouldn't affect the rod strength. And yes, I'm taking it back to have it all rebalanced. I'm estimating about 1.5 grams were ground off on each of four rods, two each on the same journals. That adds up to 6 grams, roughly, at two different angles/journals. Rods 1,2,5, and 6 hit the cam as it rotated. To keep a minimum of about .050 inch, some grinding of the big end of the rods was required.

I could have bought Bolt rods but I already had purchased stud Style rods.

Clay Gauge applied to rod. A long piece was required to give as much adhesion as possible so it wouldn't fall off into the cam valley area. The first one fell off and it took me 30 minutes to find it and dig it out. AAARRGGHH

Clay gauge applied to big end of rod, then reinstalled and rotated to measure actual clearance of Rod/Cam high spot. You can see where the cam lobe "swiped by" the clay gauge. That's not blood. It's CompCams assembly lube.

Clay gauge sliced to show the clearance of the ground rod bolt head and part of the rod to clear hitting the camshaft on four rod locations.

Measuring the clay "clearance" gauge. The rod will clear the cam by .085 inch. These last few are in reverse order. On rods #1,2,5, and 6, the dang rods hit the camshaft. That's what happens sometimes when you are building a "stroker".

383 stroker cam clearance verification. The best and fastest way to check preliminary clearances between the top of each connecting rod and cam is to do the following: Cut a piece of cardboard about 1.5 inches by 3 inches. Normal cardboard boxes have a thickness of about 0.100 inch. Use a "small parts grappler" type pick up tool to hold the cardboard and give it a bend just below where you are holding it. See next picture.

Insert the cardboard, holding the cardboard in the center of the 1.5 inch side between the cam and connecting rods and rotate the crankshaft (TWO REVOLUTIONS) enough to pass the camshaft. If the cardboard touches but does not bind then you have probably over .050 clearance, which is sufficient. If you feel any binding at all, proceed to the next step using a clay strip.

With very clean hands or non-powdered gloves, form a piece of modeling clay into a strip of about 1/2 inch by about 3 inches, clean the underside of the suspect connecting rod with acetone to get as much oil as possible off the connecting rod. The clay will not stick if the rod is oily.

After rotating the crankshaft TWICE past the cam, remove the clay and inspect it. This one shows the impression of the connecting rod bolt head. Reach under the connecting rod and press the clay onto the "bottom" of the connecting rod and rotate the crankshaft so that the rod passes the position of the camshaft. IT IS IMPORTANT that you make TWO rotations of the crankshaft, as the cam turns at half the speed of the crankshaft, so in any given "pass" of the crankshaft, the lobe may be 180 degrees from the closest point.

Remove the clay and inspect it for any deformation of the clay on the back side. If the clay has come close to the cam, it will have a "pressed" area on this side of the clay. If so, cut the clay in two - down the center and measure the thickness of the clay. The measured thickness will be the clearance between the connecting rod bolt head and the cam.

Block has to be ground for rod bolt clearance. The following pictures of bolt/rod grindings are to clear the high lift cam lobes on the top side. I "fit checked" three cylinders, and everything "missed the block"......but I didn't check #1 and #2..oh, well, I'll just take it apart, grind it and take it back to LEO MACHINE for another tank cleaning and start over...GRRRRRRR

I cut some swipers in the windage tray to assist in oil return to the sump. However, I just learned that you want lots of oil to splash the backs of the pistons to cool them. UPDATE ! I have learned recently that the cylinder walls/rings/hypereutectic pistons "like" as much oil as possible to keep the pistons cool. I will probably pull the pan and bend the little tabs back flat...oh well.

I left it as it was with the modified windage tray

This is a zinc sacrificial anode that anybody can get from Summit Racing and many other sources. The theory is, that when dissimilar metals are in contact through a water path, electrons will transfer one by one from the "lower order" metal to the "higher order" metal. When iron and aluminum are involved, the aluminum will corrode. But zinc is a "lower than aluminum order" metal, so the theory is that the zinc will corrode rather than the aluminum. I elected to put it in one of the head water ports. I ground down the tip because while screwing it in by hand, it hit inside.

To assure that it would not contact the internals of the water passage in the head, I first ground down where the scratches appeared then finished with wire brush on my bench grinder, then tested again to be sure there were no scratches on the tip.

This is the head water passage port where it is installed. I'm not sure if it really works, and I'll prolly be dead before the aluminum radiator springs a leak, but what the heck. Fifteen bucks.

Vortec 64 cc heads...Heads ready to go on. The purple stuff is for visibility of the grind when "lapping in" the valves to the seats. Click this picture to see how smooth the head surface is now..Notice that the guys at Leo machine marked all the valves even though they did the final lapping and spring install. Learned that these replacement version of these heads will not allow double "spec" springs and retainers. Lift is limited to 0.48" with stock guides and the spring lands are too small so the tops of the valve guides and the spring lands had to be machined to accept the new CompCam springs and allow full travel.

NOTE: Do not do what I did here. The second time I disassembled the engine, that sealer was all scraped off with a razor blade and put back together "DRY" with the blue pre coated head gaskets. Heads ready to go on. The back story is, that I took the engine apart again, scraped off this sealer, and put the thing back together with no sealer on the heads/gaskets. But that's not why I took it back apart.

Very thin coat of gasket sealer around the water transfer holes so water can enter the heads from the block for cooling..DAMN this is pretty!!!! When I disassembled the engine again, I removed all the sealant, as the FelPro head gaskets already have a thin coating of sealant on them, and the water passage sealing is unnecessary. (Besides, the sealant could have added a few thousandths of an inch which could have caused a blown head gasket at the cylinder seals).

Lookin' better..Roller tip rocker arms, but the wrong ones. These rocker arms will not work with these Vortec heads, They have to have little guides on the roller tip end. No, I haven't been bleeding in my engine.. That's CompCams assembly lube. Man, is it sticky...and "Stringy"

CompCams roller rockers. The roller rockers I bought first were the WRONG ONES! Look closely and you can see the small washer things on each side of the roller tip to hold the roller in place. The reason is that the valves are slightly further apart. Vortec heads require that the rocker arms be "guided". Notice the little washers one each side of the rollers. They hold the rocker arm in the correct position. I think due to the fact that the pushrods are not straight above the lifters. You can see on the other head, the pushrods are at a slight angle to each other, so the rocker arms will push off to the sides without the guides on them.

Final assembly of the lower end, I hope. Brass freeze plugs installed. Chrome parts from first engine. All rotating members are balanced by my new buddies at Leo Machine. GREAT guys.

Buttoned up ! Cool ARP fasteners are stainless 12 point head.

Everything's ready for break-in. Will recirculate water from a trash can outside with make-up Y fitting to keep her cool.

Starting to get hoses/wires/gauges installed. Got the valve covers off Craigslist for 50 bucks. I used a few parts off the original engine I bought in the prior photo, but had to buy new rocker arm covers and intake manifold, as it's all different with Vortec heads. Rebuilt and polished up the carb, figuring out fittings for water. The center manifold tap would't work for the recirc to the water pump, so I used the tap on the top driver's side of the manifold with a couple of ells....Cool adjustable rotation outlet on the manifold 'cause I don't know where the thing will have to point once it gets into the car. UPDATE: After installing the engine I decided that the 45 degree outlet caused an air pocket since it's above the radiator, so I got a 90 degree outlet and replaced this one.

That's a Home Depot check valve to hold the water in the block and rubber repair connectors and hose fitting adapters

This alternator mount assembly is for sale. No hope of fitting with steering box on the S-10 front clip. Had to install temporarily to make the water pump operate.

Direct reading Temperature gauge. Note that this morning it's warm and humid. Everything is wet.

Headers will be ceramic coated to resemble chrome, but won't discolor from temperature like chrome will. The headers are for SBC to Chevy S-10 engine swap. The steering shaft will go between the number 1 and numbers 3 and 5 exhaust pipes, since I'm installing an S-10 front clip. Craigs list, 50 bucks.

UPDATE: I abandoned this plan and did not use this recirc configuration. I drilled 3- 3/16" holes in the thermostat perimeter and tossed the recirc connections. Seems to work...................Plumbing fittings and a shaped hose for recirc line. The fitting in the center is too low and too close to make the connection to water pump. Cool adjustable water neck connector to radiator. It can rotate to get the best angle for hose. By the way, all this came off, because I changed the water pump which had no recirc fitting, and the elbow in the intake manifold was plugged because the dang alternator was right on top of the hole.

Water pressure gauge to monitor flow.