445 mud motor build

[390 Cougar Conv]

I have had great luck with the bolt repair. That is one solid repair. That's saving money!!! Clifford

[KMcCullah]

Thanks guys! I'm all for using Heli-coils when possible but with some of the holes being so far off center, plan "B" was necessary. I could have used Keen-serts but cheaped out. Instead I made some out of 12L14 (leaded steel). My part time employer has several Mazak Quick turns that sit idle on swing shift. It took 10 minutes to write the program and 3 minutes to crank out 10 threaded sleeves. 

[390 Cougar Conv]

I have had great luck with the bolt repair. That is one solid repair. That's saving money!!! Clifford

[fe66comet]

I have used the same technique on many old parts that were hard to replace or expensive to remove. Also aluminum parts where electrolysis took the threads out. I use green lock-tight to lock the repair in place so later it does not back out when serviced.

[KMcCullah]

Well I settled at 1.65 for the exhaust valve diameter. 1.66 was brushing the 4.050 cylinder wall. I hope those valves locations don't vary too much.
After a long talk with Les Schmader, I sent everything to him. In our long talk I found out he has done some mud racing also, so he was pretty excited with this project. He says he's pretty busy right now so will see how long he takes. He's had really good results with the C4AE castings in the past. 295/200 is what he says to expect.
Now I'm stuck trying to calculate my DCR. My pistons had a big dome that I turned .110 off of back in the 80's and I don't know what the remaining dome cc volume is. An old TRW catalog would be helpful I think. Pistons are L2292 with a 12:1 compression ratio originally IIRC. Any thoughts?

[kevin]

Kevin. 1977 TRW catalog # rc-277 gives no dome volume just a compression height=1.775   
and a dome hight of 0.225" for 4.050 bore, 0.215 for the plus 030" and 0.195" for the plus 060"
hope this is of some help.

Kevin.NZ.

[My427stang]

Les did nice work on my D2 heads and years ago a friend and I did a 445 with a set of his ported early heads

I was very impressed by both for the cost, and I like dealing with Les very much, I think you will be happy.  Be ready though, he is not slow, but not super fast either, the hot rod stuff is gap filler for production business that keeps the money coming in.

FWIW .. here is a pic of some C8s on a standard bore 390, they are tight.  This is a 2.15/1.67 combo in a 4.05 bore, keep in mind, the valve gets tighter as it opens, so if you are running big lift, be careful

[KMcCullah]

Kevin- Thank you for the data. I knew sombody had to have an old TRW catalog. Now for more math.
Ross- Thank you for the pics and advice. I saw exactly the same thing when I mocked my stuff together. And also noticed the valve getting close with more lift. At .800 lift I had contact. At .600 about .010 clearance.
Go Les go! I can't wait!

[KMcCullah]

Every once in a while, my elcheapo personality pays me a visit. This time around he left me with some ideas for a DIY degree wheel. My old Crane cams wheel is small and pretty ugly.
So with the help of a buddy, we whipped up a degree wheel in Solidworks and printed it out.



So now I will get it laminated, cut it out and stick it to a piece of 16ga aluminum sheet.
I just couldn't justify shelling out for one of those neat 16" Comp Cams wheels and only using it once every few years.

[fe66comet]

I got a degree wheel back in 1980 or so, used it maybe 10 times and loaned it out another dozen or so. So it takes a long time to get your money out of it but it is a cool old stamped Sig Erson one that is etched not painted. I think Kenne Sanfort gave it to me when I worked at Performance Auto Machine on Western.

[KMcCullah]

With the tranny sorted out in my Powerstroke and spring in the air, I have to get rolling with freshening up the 390. I have to get a new-to-me Subaru tuff truck built also. I'm already registered to race on May 10th and 11th!
I talked to Les Schmader yesterday, and he says my heads are on their way back.  Will post pics and numbers when they show up. 
I have spent a lot of time with trying to figure out what the remaining dome volume is for my pistons. As near as I can figure, it's about 4.5 cc's. No clue on the crevice volume. Maybe another .5 cc?
So I came up with this half baked guage block idea for measuring the dome volume with the piston at TDC. I'm sure something similar already exists in the engine building world, so don't lite me up too bad.

I milled a 4.100 diameter counterbore into this 1/2 thick chunk of acrylic. Made it about .200 deep. I still need to drill a hole for my burette. The plan is to stick the guage block to something flat and fill it up to find it's volume. Then stick it to the deck with a piston at TDC and fill it up again. Then subtract the difference to find dome volume. I need to decide what to use for fluid since the likelyhood of fluid passing the rings is high.
What say you guys?

[jayb]

That'll work, make sure you use some grease around the edge of the piston to keep the fluid from leaking past the rings.  I've done something similar by putting the piston down a fixed amount in the bore, say 0.25", and using a flat piece of plastic over the bore.  Then you can calculate the volume of the .25" thick disc, and subtract the volume of fluid to get the dome volume.

[KMcCullah]

I finally got my heads back from Les Schmader. Flow came in pretty good. I especially like the flow at low lift.
235/181@.300
285/200@.500
295/203@.600
300/205@.700


He even autographed them and put a serial number on.

I've been working on the old headers too. I was going to build a new set but the old ones will have to do for now. These are the same headers that were on the truck when dad bought it back in 1976 or so.

I slotted the flanges another 1/8 or so.

I also cut the old three hole flanges off and welded some of them new ball and socket deals on. 
My wife said last night that she is looking forward to a "romantic" Easter weekend. Little does she know....... 

[machoneman]

How well do the old header flange I.D. look compared to the head's exahust port? Maybe it's the picture but it looks like they don't match up well. Maybe weld on a new flange?

[KMcCullah]

They don't line up worth poo. Having the flanges slotted a full 1/4" should help. I tried to get away with 1/8" but kept blowing gaskets. I do have a nice set of flanges but I hate the thought of wasting any more time on these things. I don't know what brand these headers are but they are terrible.