Could be. Know any of previous life of the car?
Professor_Brap said:Could be. Know any of previous life of the car?
Previous owner bought it at auction, drove it until the motor mount rubber deteriorated enough that the cooling fan plowed into the radiator under hard braking. They believed it had 90,000-something miles on it; I'm pretty sure the odometer has been around at least once myself. That's about all I know. I haven't even figured out if it's the original engine, as they hadn't started stamping the blocks with VINs, although it does decode to a 1966 225.
Big thanks to Charlie and Ken from slantsix.org who donated an engine block, a pair of crankshafts, and several other parts to get this back together, and several others who offered parts as well.
bentwrench said:++ forged steel crank
-- only 4 main bearings
I hope that is not a factor in the failure.
There are 4 main bearings, but Chrysler pulled them out of the 413 Wedge parts bin. They are a factor if you try to build a high winding engine, but for a boosted motor that doesn't spin significantly higher than stock, this shouldn't be a problem.
I've read the article on stroker cranks, but I'm afraid that won't be in the budget this go-round. I did work out an interesting possibility with a cast crank and Ford 5.4 connecting rods, though...
Heard back from the machine shop - it looks like they'll need to bore the block 0.040" over and turn the crank 0.010" under. I've decided to go with stock replacement pistons - there's not much in the way of direct replacement forged pistons, and a custom set wasn't in the budget. I've seen cheap "Enginetech" pistons used on 100-150 hp shots of nitrous or medium boost turbos, so I'm not too worried about it.
Other items in the plan include a used Comp 264S cam, head porting (watching the Dremel and die grinder thread with interest), and 340-spec valve springs.
Ordered a Cloyes timing chain. It looked like it had this nice sturdy cam sproket.
That wasn't what I got when I opened the package.
This style cam sprocket is known to fail at high RPM at those thin spokes. None of the other "daily driver grade" replacements looked like I could be sure they'd have the solid cam sprocket. I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy an Australian-made double roller slant six timing chain at four times the price. Unfortunately it looks like this is one part where there isn't any intermediates between the cheap junk and money is no object.
Engine, crank, and new pistons pressed to the old rods are back from the machine shop, looking a lot cleaner.
Engine looks great! That cam sprocket is such a bummer, especially in receiving something different than the photo. Nothing worse than new parts that are garbage.
That timing chain would probably be OK for an engine that never sees over 3000 RPM. To be fair, that's a somewhat plausible assumption for your average slant six. But I was trying to avoid that specific sprocket. Found a good one, though - the JP Performance / Rollmaster parts cost about four times as much, but they've established a name as a supplier that won't cut any corners on you.
Four times as much is a tough pill to swallow unless the original part was $15. I'm enjoying your build.
Mezzanine said:Four times as much is a tough pill to swallow unless the original part was $15. I'm enjoying your build.
Close, the original part was $21.
Since this part was imported from Australia, the following should be read in a Crocodile Dundee voice.
That's not a timing chain. This is a timing chain.
Before starting this rebuild, I picked up a copy of Doug Dutra's guide to rebuilding slant sixes. He covers a number of block mods. These probably would have been better to do before I took the block to the machine shop, but oh well. First up: There's a bit of a ridge in the water pump opening where the water enters the block.
I'll hit it with a grinder...
That should flow a bit better.
Youre building an engine for a megasquirt powered mopar a body. Im tuning mine.
Your slant will probably lay similar numbers to my small block when done.
I love this place.
Made a run up to the office on the weekend to get some extra protection against flash rust on the block and do a bit more of the mods. First up was porting the entrance to the oil galleys. I tried using some red grease to seal dust out from inside.
The tool seemed to have slung the grease out though.
And there's a spot on the oil galley that would make a good feed spot for the turbo oil line. So I've drilled and tapped it.
This will let me ditch that awkward combination of pipe fittings currently hanging off my oil pressure sending port.
I'm now back in the office a couple days a week and able to do a bit more work on this car. So I decided to start with disassembling the cylinder head. Unfortunately, the Habor Freight valve spring compressor I bought is more accurately described as a valve spring jumper-offer. I managed to get one spring out before deciding I need to rent one a bigger and better tool.
Since the previous valve spring compressor was doing way too much to live up to the Horrible Fright nickname - a compressor that won't stay on a compressed spring is rather alarming - I rented a bigger compressor from Autozone.
With this compressor, and some percussion persuasion, the valves came out in no time. I'm starting to think I should not be re-using those old exhaust valves - check out the stem wear pattern. Edit: After looking up replacement valves, this may be a machined grove and not actual wear.
And it looks like there's some potential for some mild porting. There's a point about 3/8" into the head where the material above the valve seat doesn't quite line up with the shape of the intake port. You can sort of see the ridge in this picture.
So, after watching the Uncle Tony's Garage video on head porting, I got out my RTX and got started. The ports have a bit of a noticeable undercut near the trasition to the valve seats.
Now, let's take a grindstone to it. This cut a bit faster than I expected - I nearly cut into the valve seat while trying to get this photo. So I turned down the cutting tool speed to get more control.
Finished one cylinder today and started on another before the grindstone wore out. I might want to come back and give that grove on the valve guide some more attention.
ive used this method for lapping valves and it's much safer than freehanding a dremel. Something to consider if your setup can access the valve stems like this.
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