New Engine Developments

Here's an update of what's been done on the new bad boy recently.

First off, Mark finished porting and polishing my Dart heads. He did a beautiful job as you can see.

The first pic is of the entire head. The one to the right shows the cleanup on the chamber.

The next two pics show the work done on the intake and exhaust runners.

Next in the Rat freak show is the crucial setup of the valve train geometry. The first pic shows us measuring the piston to deck clearance which turned out real well at a few thousanths.

To the left is a pic of the roller lifters which we contoured to fit flush with the block to prevent any horizontal loading.

Next we set up piston number 1 with tester springs and adjustable pushrods as a testbed for obtaining the right valvetrain geometry.

Finally we used precise measuring instruments to adjust the pushrod so the rocker roller tip to center valve are centered at half lift so the valve guide isn't loaded during the cycle. Also the sweep across the top of the valve was measured to make sure the roller tip remains in the center of the tip of the valve for the majority of the cycle. These two parameters are crucial and take a lot of time to achieve both, but then the pushrod length will be perfect and sent in to be made. The first pic shows the instrument we also used to check piston to valve clearance since I sure as hell don't want the valve to run into the piston when we start her up.

Next we are going to set up the heads and we should be able to assemble the engine shortly. I can hear the cam rumble already!

Here's a picture of the 4" Cowl Induction Fiberglass Hood from Harwood that I just got. I can't wait to get it painted!