I haven't posted any builds in a while. I've been in a little funk because of struggles to get parts in and get engines out the door. Parts availability hasn't really bounced back since 2020 and everything is slow or hard to get. I've been planning this build for a little bit and since my interest has waned, I thought I would post it up here in hopes that you guys will give me a coach's talk to get everything going.
Let me preempt everything by saying that Tunnel Port heads have always been my favorite. I don't care that the intakes have big tubes running through them. They're just cool and when properly prepped, they make some big horsepower. As a matter of fact, some of my highest horsepower FE's have been TP engines. The majority of them have been 465ci to 511ci, but while I was sitting and pondering the meaning of life a little while ago, I realized that I had never built a smaller displacement TP engine. One thought led to another and then I started looking around the shop for spare parts. I still have some Project JJ parts left over........timing cover.......crankshaft......timing set..... Then I remembered that I had a C8AX oil pan sitting in the corner. Only "major" parts I needed were the block, heads, and intake, so I started scouring my normal sources for those items.
Ended up doing a little horse trading for some new parts and ended up with a set of fairly nice TP heads, a 1x4 intake, and a 427 S/O service block. Bingo.
Also snagged a little Dominator carburetor.....
So, now we have a little more direction. Bore should finish up at 4.250" and JJ's 352 crank will be used, which will put us at 397 cubic inches.
I sent the oil pan and intake off to Bobby Crumpley to be vapor blasted. Here's the end results for that:
I also sent the carb down to Drew and he's currently working on it for me:
For the rotating assembly, I will be using a set of custom R&R aluminum rods coupled with a set of custom Diamond pistons. Both of which have yet to be ordered as I'm waiting on the head work to be completed.
The heads are getting a set of SI stainless intake valves and a set of Manley stainless exhaust valves. The brands are mismatched, because (believe it or not) there are no companies that had blanks in stock for both valves. I tried Ferrea, I tried SI, I tried Manley, I tried Mast, and I tried Victory. So I did what I could. Once the heads are fully machined and set up correctly, they will be "ported" along with the intake manifold. I put "ported" in quotes because they normally end up smaller than they were from the factory in terms of port volume, but end up flowing around 370 cfm.
The camshaft is one of my custom solid rollers that I had Comp Cams grind for me. They also performed their "MSE" treatment, which is a micropolishing treatment on the surfaces of the journals and lobes.
This will be a long work in progress, just because of the amount of custom parts involved, port work, etc. However, the goal is to have a nostalgic looking, odd-ball displacement, Tunnel Port that screams. I know that there were some engines built back "in the day" with the 427/352, bore/stroke combination and also some built with the 428/330, bore/stroke combination. I have never handled one of those combinations, so that's all the more incentive to get some more data into my head.
That's all I have for now.
I do a lot of "dyno mule" builds just to try new parts or concepts out and often sell them after completion. My good engine builder buddy, Dale Meers, looked me in the eye the other day and said, "You absolutely can NOT sell this one. You need to quit talking about it, find a car, and do some racing." We will see.
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