Well, a lot has happened with this project. And I've done a piss poor job of posting my progress. Maybe I can make up for it with a pic filled post.
I was originally planning on using my ported C4-G iron heads with a flat tappet cam on this 504. And then the red truck project happened. Dad and I found a 1999 F-450 that needed a 7.3 Powerstroke engine.
The price for it was really reasonable. And we knew of several low mileage 7.3 engines that were available. After a few months worth of weekends working on it, we had a running truck. After selling the truck, we had enough fun bucks to upgrade the top end of the 504. But time was very short to get the engine done before the big local mud races. We only had 5 weeks. Below is pic of the flyer for the mud races. I found it in the window at the NAPA in town.
The first call I made was to Blair Patrick Racing for a killer set of his Pro-Port heads. Along with the heads I got a set of T&D Race rockers and a set of Crower solid roller lifters with the HIPPO oiling feature. Blair really had to bust his hump to get these heads done in time for me. He had some big challenges to overcome on his end. The lack of Pro-port castings at the time was a biggie. Everybody was out of them. Even Edelbrock was claiming to be out. Somehow through Blair's connection at Edelbrock, several sets of Pro-Port castings were found and expedited to his shop. You will see in the 2 pics below, the quality of Blair's work is top notch. Valve sizes are 2.210 intake and 1.710 exhaust I think. Can't remember. The over-all length of the push tubes came in at 9.250 and they had to have 5/16 balls on each end. Luckily these are a shelf item from Smith Brothers. The cam is one of Blair's more streetable Bullet solid roller grinds. .660 lift with the duration @.050 around 260deg.
My second call was to our gracious forum host and FE Cammer stud, Jay Brown, for another intake adaptor. I had bought Jay's 13001 intake adaptor to use with my C4-G iron LR heads. But the intake port that Blair puts in his Pro-Ports is similar in cross-section to the MR port. I ended up going with Jay's 13006 intake adaptor for the Edelbrock 2863 Yates/Glidden intake manifold. Jay was out of the 13006 at the time I called but crashed one through his shop for me on short notice. Thank you again Jay.
After receiving the intake and adaptor, I did quite a bit of milling to get the two to fit together right and the ports to line up sexy. I milled a little over .200 off the intake flanges. I stopped at .200 off the flanges because I didn't want the flanges getting too thin.
The remainder that needed to be milled came off the 13006 intake adaptor. I milled enough off that I needed to use button head screws to clear the flanges on the 2863 intake. I also milled off the additional flange above the valve cover rail.
Below is a pic of the gasket that Jay recommended for the 2863 intake/13006 intake adaptor combo.
This pic shows the T&D Race Rockers. Blair milled the top of the heads to fit the T&D subplate which is held down with longer headbolts that come with the T&D rocker Kit. They are oiled through the push tubes like a Chebbie. To do this I drilled and tapped the decks and plugged the factory FoMoCo rocker oiling passages. I also drilled and tapped the lifter oiling off-shoots for .075 orifices that I made from 3/8 set screws.
I'm getting ready to paint in this pic. In one of the classes I race in, iron heads are mandatory. So the Pro-Ports have to be painted to look like iron. Bummer....
Now it's starting to take on a stealthy look. Dad rubbed on those old M/T valve covers for a long time.
Getting the truck headers to work took some time. The pick below shows #8 tube upsidedown. I welded additional bead on the edges I ported out to help with sealing. I also welded around each tube before I ported them to prevent breaking through the tube.
The pic below shows the new holes I had to drill in the header flanges. I moved them down about 3/4 to get the tubes lined up with the exhaust ports.
It wasn't easy but the headers lined up pretty nice.
Here's a pic of the end result. The carb is a 1050 Holley Dominator. I found it used on Racingjunk.com. The guy that had it told me it originally came from Reher&Morrison. He raced it a season at Bonneville and then sent it to BRE for more modifications. I've messed with it quite a bit now and have to say that I've never worked on such a sweet carb. Subtle little tweeks are very noticable with this carb. I'm really impressed with the throttle response.
[/UR
The pic below shows the engine at home finally.
[URL=http://s1207.photobucket.com/user/kmccullah1/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20150820_215506_zpsfonvylu6.jpg.html]
The carb sits up quite a bit so a hole in the hood for the air cleaner was needed. I didn't want to butcher my cherry hood so dad volunteered the hood off his "truck garden". It keeps the veggies off the ground so the rabbits can't get them he say's. Since dads retirement, he's came up with all kinds of innovations. Below is a pic of the "truck garden". It used to be a class C motorhome.
The pic below shows the hacked up "truck garden hood". It fit better than my original hood. Too bad it's not the right color. I also took a minute and put on my racing tires.
I wish I had time to put the engine on the dyno. Someday I hope to. But for now I've got a race to run. We put about 40 miles of driving time on it before we raced it. It broke in nicely. Seeing the big grin on dads face the first time I dropped the hammer was priceless. Below is a link to one of the passes I made at the mud drags. The two guys before me had gotten stuck in my lane and had to be pulled out. The guy next to me left before the flag dropped and got a "no time". Basically a DQ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQXKbxLZm3UIt sounded pretty good huh? I gotta get a GoPro someday so I can post better quality videos. I entered Superstock and Prostock. I usually stay away from the Prostock guys because they are bad fast. But I was feeling pretty confident with this new 504. I had transfer case problems on one of my runs in Superstock (it slipped into 2wd somehow after my first Prostock pass
) and didn't finish in the money. But took a 2nd place in Prostock. This 504 pulls so much harder than my old 390. In the video link above, I launched in 3rd gear and low range. The old 390 would NOT pull 3rd gear and low range. So I made a huge torque improvement. The pic below shows the mess after the race.
I ran out of daylight and had to finsh my wash job the next day. Damn what a muddy mess! I took an old drain pan and drilled a hole in the center of it so I could bolt it over my air cleaner.
I spent hours washing off all the clay. At this point I don't know that I will race this truck in the mud anymore. It weighs at least a 1000lbs more than the truck that won the Prostock class. So to be really competitive I've got several mid-70's half ton 4wd trucks that I can turn into dedicated mud racers. And since I have enough motor now to be a threat.....why not?
The next project will be a street legal drag racing truck of some kind. I have several trucks that I could use. Below is a pic of a 1962 F-100. I'm leaning towards this one.
Last but certainly not least...... I need to send out a huge thank you to Blair Patrick for helping me make this all happen. His vast FE experience and sage wisdom were called upon many times over the last few months. I'm sure I woke him up a few times with my poorly timed text msg questions. I'm lucky he's such a patient guy. Again.... thank you Blair.
