Page 1: Exterior
Page 2: Engine/Drivetrain
Page 3: Interior
Page 4: Track Results
This was the rebuilt 350 that came in the car when I bought it. I had added an Edelbrock performer cam and intake and hedman headers. It surved its purpose but......
...it was time for something new. I needed more power so I decided to start from scratch.
This was my goal...
I found a 4 bolt main block from a 73 vette that had already been bored .030, decked, and align honed.
Then came a Scat cast steel crank and Scat 6 inch i-beam rods. The pistons are Keith Black Hyperutectics.
The heads are Pro-Topline that have 220cc intake runners and yielded a compression ratio of 10:1 with the pistons I used. The camshaft is a Crower Hydraulic roller with 232/240 duration @.050 and 0.539/0.559 lift. The rest of the valvetrain is the best that Comp Cams has to offer. I went with an edelbrock performer rpm air gap intake and a 750 vacuum secondary Speed Demon carb. The ignition is a mallary unilite with a hyfire 6al box. Desktop dyno showed 487 horsepower and 507 lbft of torque with this combo. The engine pulled very hard and could spin the tires through second gear and 40 mph even with the stock 2.73 gears.
Here are some pics as the engine came together.
Here's a comparison of the stock converter with the new 3000 stall B&M one.
The motor went in in early May 2003 and didn't run right from the start. Turns out a valve wasn't closing all the way on number 7 cylinder and the rings never seated for that cylinder. Then in early August the oil had a silver hew to it so I pulled the engine and tore it down and what did I find? The thrust bearing was wiped out along with a nice fresh 1/8 inch groove cut into the thrust flange of the crank. As of 12/03 the motor is rebuilt and waiting for the transmission to get rebuilt. Everything should be back together and in the car by mid March 04.
As of now the motor is back together and I am just waiting to finish school and get the transmission rebuilt. Here are some updated pics of the motor. I used some better valve covers because the old ones warped and wouldn't hold a seal anymore.
Well I decided that the current cam in the motor was too tame. Time for something new. How about a Bullet Racing custom ground hydraulic roller. 252/258 @.050 with .540 valve lift.
Here's a comparison of the old cam with the new. You can tell there's going to be a difference when you can visually see a difference in the lobes. The old cam is on the left and the new is on the right.
I also decided that since I was stepping up the cam I had better step up the intake. So I got a Victor Jr intake and it is pretty impressive to be able to see the intake valve from the plenum! Here's some final pics of the engine in the car.
10-20-04
Disaster strikes again. After getting a new cam and intake installed I find silver in the oil. Think I've narrowed it down to a bad trunion on one of my rocker arms.
This is what came off of the dipstick:
And this is what came out of the rocker arm trunion:
If you look close you can see little bits of what looks like flakes of chrome plating, not good. Hopefully I can get a replacement from comp. I've been through enough with this engine already. I just want to drive the damn thing!
10-24-04
Well I got the engine out....again...and this is what I found once I got it apart:
The cam is walking forward in the block causing my cam button to eat through the timing chain cover.
1-8-05
Well I got everything figured out and so far so good. I had a chance to get to the chassis dyno over x-mas break for a few baseline pulls and this is what I got:
The first one is the best pull. The horsepower kept climbing but the airfuel ratio was way lean. I was hoping for about 380-400 at the wheels but I guess this will have to work for now.
