Getting started for Drag Week 2018

[cjshaker]

Just a quick update on my DW project.
I put on the old double roller chain from my old 390 and that took up most of the slack that was present with the one that was on it when I tore it down, so that made me feel better. I also took apart and cleaned up my old Melling 57-HV pump and put it on. It looked very good inside. Same with my old FPP oil pump drive. These are all parts that are over 25 years old, but they still looked great.





I double checked the clearance on the oil pump pickup, found it was fine, then buttoned up the bottom end with the timing cover and oil pan. Finally feel like I'm making some real progress on it.





I'm in the process of cleaning up my old C4 heads that I had on the 390 in my Highboy. I decided to use them because they had been milled in the past and that should help offset the thicker head gaskets. They also have hardened exhaust seats and had been cut for positive valve stem seals. They look real good after 25 years of use, and the valve seats still looked good enough to go quite a few more miles. The old valve stem seals had seen better days though, so I ordered a new set of those. I'm going to switch out the double springs that I used with my old Crane cam, for the stock springs that were on the original heads. I didn't see any need to put more pressure on the old cam than was necessary, and this engine won't be revving past 5000. I'll also be using all the old valvetrain hardware that I used on my old engine, which includes Crane retainers and keepers, and my old factory adjustable rockers.

I took my old rocker system apart to clean and inspect it. There's several reasons I decided to go this route; one being that, with the adjustables, I'll be able to get my lifter preload exactly where I want it. Second, I'll be getting rid of the old aluminum stands; this set has the old cast iron jobs, which are much more stable and clamp the shaft much better, in my opinion. The rockers still looked great, but the factory shafts had seen better days after all those years of use, so I took a set of Harland Sharp shafts I had laying around and switched them out. That also took some of the slop out of the rockers, so everything seems to be working out very good (knock on wood). When I originally did these heads, I had switched out the original adjusters for Crane units with locking nuts. I think this will make for a pretty bullet proof rocker system for a basically stock engine. All I'm going to need to do is measure for new pushrods when I get the heads on, and I should be good to go.
A shot of my rocker system with the new shafts ready to be switched over...



I'm going to do a quick CC of one chamber on each of the heads to compare the originals to my cut heads, to find out exactly where my compression will be. By tomorrow night, I hope to have the heads mostly done and ready to reassemble. Then maybe I can get them installed this weekend and get my pushrods ordered. The rest of the top end is pretty much ready to install once I get the heads on. Things should be moving along much more quickly once I get them on.

[Heo]

You have that back in the car before you know it

[Stangman]

Nice Doug looking good. Are you gonna clean up the rest of the engine compartment
Cause that baby is gonna stick out like a sore thumb. I didn’t go back and check but are you using
the original intake and carb. Oh yes now i remember yes. She should run nice

[cjshaker]

I cleaned up an RPM intake to throw on it. Since it has no exhaust crossover, and all it needed was a pressure washing, I figured it'd save me time. Still using the original Autolite carb though.

[cjshaker]

Well, I'm at sort of a crossroads here. I spent the last couple days cleaning up my old set of heads and getting them ready. I CC'd them and compared them to the original heads that were on the engine. I was surprised to find that they both came in at exactly 75 CC's. Knowing that my old heads had been cut, I'm wondering if the original heads had been off at some point and were cut also. I guess I'll never know.

I cleaned up the valves, ordered new positive type seals, then started to lap the valves to see what I was dealing with as far as the seats were concerned. Most of the valves and seats were in pretty good shape, considering they had over 25 years of use on them. Mind you, these are original valves, and I only had to replace 2 of them when I did the heads many years ago. There are a few small pits in some of the seats and valves, but nothing I couldn't live with for the time being.





That is until I came to the #2 exhaust valve. It's pitted bad. Like really bad. The seat doesn't look the greatest either. Here's a shot of what it looks like...



Obviously this isn't going to cut it for a 2500 mile trip. I pulled a couple of exhaust valves from the original heads, thinking I could clean one or two of them up and use them, but they weren't looking much better. Then I went to Summit to order a couple of exhaust valves to replace this one and one other that wasn't near as bad, but was still pitted enough that I would feel better if it were replaced. But I'm still pretty concerned about that valve seat. I don't want to be 600+ miles from home and end up with a burned valve, with no way to get the car back. Remember, I'll be driving to the event and driving it back home, so it needs to make the 600 mile trip back to Ohio.

As far as the seats are concerned, there's no time for me to fix them. You know what happens when you take stuff to a machine shop, where stuff disappears into the Twilight Zone for at least a month or 2....or 6. So it's either run them or throw in the towel at this point. I'm curious what you guys think? Would you risk it?

[jayb]

I'd run that seat in a heartbeat.  That engine is no fire breathing monster, and I'll bet it would go 10K miles before you burned a valve in it.  It is amazing how beat up they can be and still run well.  The key thing I always look for is runout; if you have part of the valve that is off the seat by a few thousandths, that will accelerate the burned valve process.  But it doesn't look like that's the case here, based on what your lapping shows.  Stick a new valve in there and go - Jay

[Heo]

Those are inseart seats right? i think they will be fine for the trip
with new valves lapped in ...but i would not run them my self
joking aside, i have cutters to fix it so i would cut them but ...
Im with jay on this one i think they last thousand of miles

[cjshaker]

Yep, they're inserts on the exhaust sides. I guess the seat doesn't look as bad as I originally thought. I think it was just the valve that worried me into second guessing the seat. So I ordered 4 valves today, figured I might as well replace any that have pitting on them. That intake seat is also the worst on the engine. I'm not sure why both were on that one cylinder, because there were no water leaks that I could spot. All the plugs looked decent, and I had not changed them for the last 20 years that I drove that engine. They just didn't need it and the engine never missed. And yes, I'll put some new ones in this time

Since I couldn't do much else to the engine today, I checked my rear wheel backspacing with the 15x8 Magnum 500s that I had here and determined that the 15x7 steel wheels and 26x8 MT ET Street tires that I was looking at would fit fine in the wheelwell. And just to make myself feel a bit better, I threw some of the stuff I had ready on the engine to get an idea of what it was going to look like. Much better than it should in my opinion..lol

My driver side head is painted and ready to go in this shot. The problem was on the passenger side head, so it's not finished or painted. The rest of the stuff is just loosely bolted on.

[AlanCasida]

Lookin' good, Doug!

[machoneman]

Wow, if this were an old Jasper engine rebuild, that seat would be perfect! LOL!

I'd run it in a heartbeat as well. No kiddin'!

[cjshaker]

Got my parts today, took half a day off and made some real progress, and for once everything went pretty smooth.
I ordered Comp Cams seals this time, instead of the Cranes that I ordered last time, and don't ya know it....they came with that little plastic installer! Using that, along with the tool I ordered to help seat the seals, I flew through the heads in no time. Got them installed, threw in a couple of lifters and one rocker shaft assembly and measured for pushrod length. I went to my stash of parts and found a set of Crane chromoly pushrods that I had that were darn near the perfect length. My adjusters are bottomed out and I'll only have to back them off about one and a half turns to get proper lifter preload. I felt like I hit the lottery today

Anyway, after that, I wiped down the stock lifters, lubed them up and dropped them in, installed the valley pan and checked the RPM intake for fit. It fit perfect, so I laid it on, stabbed the distributor to locate it, and buttoned it up. Next, the water pump went on. Making some real progress now and I hope to have the engine completed and ready to install by Saturday. My stash of thermostat housings are all pretty ate up, so I had to order a new one. All the other parts are lined up and ready to bolt on.

A couple shots showing where I ended up by the end of today. Not bad considering the heads were still apart as of noon today.





Since this car had sat for about 10 years before I bought it, got drove for 2 years, then sat the last 8 years, I was a little concerned about the stock valve springs being on the week side, so I made the decision to use the Crane dual springs that I originally used on my old 390 with these heads. They never sat compressed for any length of time. I have some doubts as to whether or not I should have used them with the stock cam and lifters, but they were spec'd for a pretty mild solid cam with only .520 lift, so I'm hoping they won't cause any issues. I guess I'll find out.

I also got my 7" rims and slicks yesterday, so I just need to paint the rims and get them mounted. The 26" slicks are actually a little shorter than the stock tires that will be on the car, but I figure, if nothing else, it'll help with the stock rear gearing and getting the car off the line. It might have a little nose up attitude though. Either way, it'll look old school with the steel wheels. If you can't be fast, you ought to at least look cool while being slow

[AlanCasida]

Lookin' good, Doug! You'll be ready before you know it.

[Bolted to Floor]

Nice progress Doug.

[Heo]

I dont know Doug...I think i would leave the rims white
In old pics you often the slicks mounted on white rims

[cjshaker]

Heo, those are new rims that are only primered. They will get the correct Wimbledon White for exactly the reasons you mentioned.