Wow, I didn't think I'd ever get to this point. Between not having time to work on it and changing my mind so many times, I didn't think I'd ever get to hear it run again. I'm a stickler on appearance and I think an engine needs to look the part as well as perform the part. This was a complete 1966 engine when it started, so after many careful considerations and mind changes, I settled on the fact that I'd like for it to look like a 352 that had been upgraded with factory parts from the day. To me, it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for a guy with this engine in 1967-1968 to add a different intake manifold, different valve covers, etc., and have a hopped up 352 that would make some decent power in between the shock towers of a '66 Custom or similar.
Keep in mind that this is not the final iteration. There are a lot of parts in this engine that won't make sense right now because I have future "upgrades" in mind that will make all the parts work together well. The bottom end is pretty final, the camshaft, intake manifold, and valvetrain are final, but the cylinder heads are band-aids at best right now.
I'm still a couple weeks off as I plan to measure and order pushrods this week and I'm waiting on some harmonic balancers, but it's getting close.
*Factory C6ME 352 block, 4.040" finished bore size, bored/honed with torque plates, align honed with ARP main bolts, square decked with BHJ fixture to 10.145".
*Factory 352 crankshaft
*Calico coated King main bearings
*Federal Mogul rod bearings
*Durabond FP cam bearings
*Custom Racetec forged pistons, 1.920" compression height, 5cc flat top, 1mm/2mm Mahle ring pack
*Molnar FE connecting rods
*Factory C6AE-R heads with 5/16" stem 2.080"/1.650" valves. PAC small diameter dual valve springs, 270 seat/680 open, with Manley titanium retainers. A very basic valve job was completed with a nice A-B test in mind in the future. Heads were decked more than I'd like to comment on at this time. However, with the heads milled, the flat tops, and some careful measuring and head gasket selection, I'm at 10.5:1.
*Cam is one of my custom solid rollers, ground by Comp. It's 256/266 @ .050", on a 106 LSA, with .650"/.670" lift at the valve. Lobes are middle of the road on aggression. I have one of Jay's adjustable timing sets as well as one of his 2-piece timing covers. I spent the better part of this past Friday degreeing the cam in a couple of different spots, as well as checking piston/valve clearance at those settings, and then checking piston/valve clearance with each setting on several different cylinders. It's common to have to cut factory heads differing amounts to make the chamber sizes match up and it's best to not take anything for granted with piston/valve clearance. Let's just say that with checking springs and checking pushrods, clearance was pretty tight....tight enough that I swapped over to the real springs and an actual pushrod to get some more comforting numbers.
*Valvetrain is a set of my roller tipped non-adjustable rocker arms. I'll be pairing these up with some HD shafts and POP stands/spacers.
*Intake is a Joe Craine ported "F" PI intake. The plenum divider has not been cut at this time. This is something that I will do at a later date for another A-B comparison.
*Oil system consists of one of my factory appearing pans, with trap doors and baffles. It's not going to be the winner in terms of making power, but it goes with the theme for now. I have a Melling M57B oil pump and various "choke points" along the way in the galleys.
*I have a 1030cfm 3-bbl carb that Drew recolored for me. However, I would count on using an 830cfm dyno carb for the pulls.
*Will be turning the water pump with no other crank driven accessories.
All-in-all, it's just a hyped up factory engine with a few tricks here and there. I expect it to make decent power now but to really shine once the heads are ported. The camshaft duration and spring pressures are really forward-looking in that respect.
Ok, so closest without going over on corrected horsepower will win some goodies. Tell ya what, if someone nails the hp and torque numbers to the single digit, they will get a free set of my non-adjustable rocker arms.
