Sleepy 445 build

[mbrunson427]

If you're not opposed to making the trek to Billings, Automotive Performance Center in Billings will do good work for you. I have friends up there in Billings and that's their go-to place.

[stuart olson]

OK. I called R&R and Robbi. Robbi says he would use Keller to do the machining and build it at his place. R&R sounds like he has his stuff completely together. Both are backed up for months. Both seemed to be thinking north of what I have on hand but south of what I could come up with by spring.

So I am now thinking plan G. Got a message out to a fellow who tried to sell me a set rebuilt low mile heads to slap on the pushrod bending 360 that's in the truck so I can get back to sorting out exhaust, brakes, steering, springs, wheels, and tires for the rest of the summer. If i can get those heads and put them on for under a grand I think it will be worth it to get all the rest dealt with before I foot the bill for the engine.

[Royce]

R&R is a top flight machinist... He does not do any assembly work so you would have to do it yourself or find someone besides Brian

[Rory428]

I don`t know how far you are from Wright Minn., but some of the fastest NHRA Stock Eliminator FE Fords came out of Line Performance in Wright Minn. Lance & Ben Line both run 428 CJ powered 69 Mustangs (Their brother is Pro Stock racer Jason Line). I have no idea if they do "normal" street engine work, but may be worth a look. What are your planned use for this engine? A heavy truck used for towing does not need a lot of cam or carb if it mainly gonna see less than 3500 RPM. Also, be sure to check whatever headers you plan to use, to see if the exhaust port locations are compatable. C6AE-R heads have the earlier high port location, most truck heads use the later lower port location, as do the Hedman and FlowTech headers that I used on my 74 F350s 390. (D2TE heads).

[stuart olson]

So question. Will CJ valve heads clear a 360 STD block?

[My427stang]

So question. Will CJ valve heads clear a 360 STD block?

Yes, at higher lifts, MUCH higher than can be run with stock style guides, the exhaust gets close with a 1.67 valve, but nothing to worry about for even a very rowdy build

[stuart olson]

OK so looking at what the bores and heads look like on the engine in the truck I am going with the bad gas explanation. IE bad gas from the recently reactivated front tank coated the valvestems in varnish and caused them to sick when the engine was shut off. This caused the pushrods to bend next time I went to start the truck. The bores still look really nice. So now I have a dilemma.

Do I clean out the old heads real good and slap them back on with a new headgasket kit so the truck is self mobile till spring when I put the new motor in?

Or do I put on the rebuilt heads, CJ intake, headers, and a cam. Drive it like that till I can swing a set of Survival FElony heads and a Blue Thunder intake and build a big boy motor next winter most likely?

Hmmmmmm. Decisions decisions.

[My427stang]

Personally, if you are happy enough with reduced power, I would do heads, intake and headers now and skip the cam.

The CJ intake and headers will make a noticeable difference.  Doing a cam now and again next year seems like a pain to me.

FYI - Your discussion on bad gas is logical, especially if it was old gas.  I have seen vehicles that sit for a long time, then get filled with fresh gas, do exactly what yours did.  When they sit, the valves stick.  However, it is usually an engine that sat for years and was fired with either old gas, or a tank so varnished that the new gas loosened things up and carried it in.

[stuart olson]

Dual tank truck. Front tank had been out of use for probably 15 or so years. It was empty so I figured it would be fine. Live and learn I guess.

[stuart olson]

So now that its time to winterize everything I finally got around to getting the old motor back together. This is phase "how to do everything wrong, the wrong way" of eventually getting a 445 stuffed under the hood. Step one was have the heads finished. While the shop was getting that done I told them to "pick a cam" so they did. I warned you this was a cringeworthy segment! I also decided that the CJ intake was kinda crusty so I had it tanked at Keller in Mandan. BTW you have to remove the rad, bumper, and entire grille assembly to get the cam out of an FE in a pickup with a 73-77 style grille. A 78-79 you could probably just pull the rad and center section of the grille. At any rate that pain in the ass finished I started taking pictures.

[stuart olson]

The hackery is just beginning on this one! While the intake was off of the motor at my buddy Dave's at least 1 leaf fell in the motor through the core holes while I was scraping gasket surfaces. I thought about pulling the motor for two seconds, concluded firstly that I have a spare block, and secondly its fricking cold out. I turned the screw it light on and made a mental note to change the oil extra often for awhile. The engine has about 100 miles on it since reassembly, and no problems so far on that front. Here is a photo of the cam card in case you were wondering. We put it in straight up.

[stuart olson]

I got the engine a little farther than the next picture and went to start it and do the break in. No damn spark! At that point it was 8 PM on a Sunday and I decided to bag it. Turned out the tac wire running from the firewall to the coil was broken in no less than 3 places. How it was working fine before is one of life's great mysteries.

[stuart olson]

Spark problem solved, it was time to do the cam break in. However after a bit of deep thinking on the subject I decided to head further gas related issues off at the pass at this point. I pumped the 6 month old stuff out of the good rear tank into the varnished up front tank. I then pumped good gas out of one of those wonderfull "safety can" contraptions into the rear tank for the break in.

[stuart olson]

Cam break in started, the engine decided to immediately over heat. Always get lever-vent radiator caps, and always install the vent hose! I am pretty sure that what happend was when I filled the coolant up the thermostat was tight enough the block couldn't vent. I put about 3 gallons in it and had no further problems.

[stuart olson]

I forgot to mention earlier that in addition to installing a cam I had someone else pick. I also used random old pushrods from three different motors. Seems to run nice and smooth so I guess that worked out. I also failed to mention earlier that the heads were decked .012 mostly to clean up the gasket surfaces. I also put the stock manifolds back on for now. Nothing broke when they came off, and its kinda cold out for crawling around under the truck doing a new exhaust system. So it will get to the headers in the spring. At any rate the machine lives! https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=QTOJ1jva53c