May 28 '06 BIG update!

she hasnt seen the light of day since last fall so today we rolled her out to take a few pictures. see the progress for yourself:

the front was dropped 3 inches and the rear will be dropped 4"

here you see the 400 horse powerhouse bolted down with Moroso solid zinc dichromate engine mounts:

things are looking really clean underneath now:

interior is coming back together, although the seat will be replaced with a set of buckets before its driven. gotta love that hurst shifter:

if youre wondering about more detailed engine specs here they are:

Eagle Balanced Rotating Assembly
-Cast Steel crank
-Forged Steel Rods
-Keith Black Hypereutectic Pistons
Approx. 9.5:1 compression
Lunati 285 duration cam
Edelbrock Performer RPM Aluminum Heads
-Harland Sharp 1.5 Aluminum Roller Rockers
-Comp Cams Hardened Pushrods
Edelbrock Performer RPM Intake
Holley Street Avenger 670 cfm
Hedman Full Length Headers

nothing ridiculous going on with the motor here, but it will run pretty healthy

as soon as we rig up the radiator, fuel system, and ignition we'll fire it up and ill be there with the camera. hang in there.

July 12 '06

SHE LIVES!

we finally have all the wiring and plumbing together on our motor. our first startup was a little rough, so i dont have video of it, but i do have a couple of recordings from our 3rd and 4th runs today.

on our first couple runs, we had a dead miss. upon popping the valve cover off, we found that the rocker arm stud on cyl. #5 was loose, causing the valve not to work properly. we went over all of the valves and re-torqued them.

todays runs: we still have a bit of sputtering and popping through the exhaust below 3000 rpm and it wont idle below about 1800 or so, partly due to the high cam duration, but mostly because of ignition timing and possibly some tight valves. we may loosen the valves a quarter turn, and run it until they break in a little better.

so heres a video of todays startup. you can hear a squawking sound coming from the distributor a few times. it will be replaced by an MSD with an MSD box and coil before we actually get the truck on the road.

VIDEO 1

we advanced the timing a bit more and ran it again. a little bit smoother, but we still have yet to adjust those valves, and replace the distributor.

VIDEO 2

ill post another update when we get everything smoothed out.

Aug. 1st '06

weve had the engine running normally now for a little while, but i havent had a chance to update the page recently... so here it is.

our problem was far from what we thought. the valves were fine. it turns out the intake manifold wasnt setting right on the head and some oil was leaking into the intake ports. this completely ruined our vacuum and kept fouling the plugs.

so we replaced the manifold with a Performer RPM AIR GAP and then we went ahead and changed the ignition over to MSD with the MSD box and blaster 2 coil. the motor is now idling thunderously at 1000 rpm. heres a video:

CLICKIE HERE FOR FINAL VIDEO

so the next thing is to get the brakes all put back together, lower the rear suspension, rebuild the rear axle, and then shine everything up with some chassis saver underneath. it may yet be on the road before fall.