C4 challenge car

In reply to Crazier :

That sounds awesome! After rebuilding mine with only the guidance of fellow GRMers online, I’d have loved an opportunity like that!!!

Well. I hope to start the build tomorow. The block he has for the project is terrible rusty... But a better one would cost, so its time to roll up my sleeves.

I figured id do a breakdown of parts that we have selected so far.

400 block 2 bolt to be bored 30 and zero decked 

Weisco forged domed pistons with 400 cubes and approximately 70cc heads we will get 12.7/1 compresion.

Scat cast 400 crank. We think we can polish it and avoid oversized bearings. 400 cranks are dirt cheap and it costs almost the same to buy new as to recon the old.

8 (8 of the 16 were blown 60 feet in the air during a nitrous mishap 15 are "useable") yella terra 1.5 roller rockers for the exhaust ( need to source 8 1.6 for the intakes)

Knock off green giant 42 lb injectors (e85 takes a lot of flow)

I meet a guy tomorow to pick up a 7th intake.... I don't know what intake I will use in the end. But for $200 i get a (competition yellow...) Ported base and aftermarket runners a harness and stock tb and plenum. Even though my other harness was a better deal, as i made $100 besides keeping the harness... That was a 450 budget hit a 200 hit is better and i can possibly recoop elswhere. So i have (as part of the project) 2 stock (one ported) two stealth rams (one matched to 1206 gaskets) and one with aftermarket runners and a ported base (last two i picked up dont count anymore)

I am not sure how much I will get done this weekend becouse i hope i have to drive back to. Virginia and do a trade for some heads. How do I document a trade? Take pics of what gets traded?

I went today to start my engine building class. Was told that the first step was to "dip" my block but the dip tank was being used. So we began rounding up some of the parts and as we are digging through the piles charlie finds a crank marked "cola38004c" damaged 20+. It appeared to be forged.

One of the mains needs a .020 or .030 grind. None of the old school drag guys will touch anything over .010 it is mine now for the cost of bearings. We have to grind all the mains .010 and just one at .020 (we hope)

Acording to my research just now it is a Cola crank 3.875 stroke 400 crank for 6.0 rods.

I have LOTS of pics, but still no internet... So they will have to wait.

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Been a busy week. Traded my working digital dash, body computer radio amps front speaker boxes airbag airbag modual and sensors hvac comtrols and vents and a few other parts PLUS my 113 heads that looked like brand new from the machine shop for the dart pro 180s. 

Picked out a few more parts from the junk pile at the machine shop. Found a really nice cam but may not be able to use it as it is a large base and i may need a small base to clear my stroke?

Upon further inspection we may have to have the crank ground down to a 350 journal and use bearing spacers and we may have to have a "real" machine shop handle it but charlie is willing to cover half the machine cost and the spacers as it is not what was expected when we made the deal and there is no other matching combo of block crank pistons and rods available. For my application it is probably ok. But clearly its not ideal.

We hung the turbo kit i traded him on one of the motors on the test stand to take measurements to comfirm what vehicles it will fit in.

I was totaly wrong about the price of the classes i am taking with him and that almost derailed the whole deal, but we worked it out.

So far ive had two "classes" they both ran hours longer than expected and i spent more time helping him than working on my own stuff... But i guess that is the real "apprentice experience" and i still learn a ton when i am helping him.

Everything with the engine is on hold until we get the crankshaft looked at. So i will be back to wireing the chassis and hooking up my new engine harness.

I need to get the 383 runing and idleing so i can take a video of it and put it up for sale. Hopefully i can get it sold before the guy i traded the heads to gets too upset and i have to pull them. Its a lot easier to get value from a running driving engine than a pulled out one i think.

I forgot. picked up the headman shorties for $40 there are some "clearancing" dents and the coating is coming off but still a good deal. May not work as well as my UGLY long tubes on HP but according to my research they "may" improve power under the curve. In reality... Power is no longer my problem. My torque converter is now to small and my trans/rear end combo are now insufficient. My hope however is thag my half shafts break before the dana44 or 700r4. I can replacs halfshafts for like $50.

Hanging out at the shop is cool. There are always people dropping in and horsetrading is a daily if not hourly occurance (things get done pretty slowly during the day, charlie seems to get most things done after dark. 

Ok then... If one more person looks at me like im stupid for putting 180 heads on a 400+ inch engine im going to...cry. Lol

Then there are the "that crank is junk people" the "hydrolic flat tappet cams are crap" and the people carrying on about rear main seals. Then we have the guys on me about my stall convetter my 700r4 and my rear diff.

Uhg. People dont throw away prime parts. You dont trade $700 worth of used parts for a set of heads and get the EXACT heads that you need. I got what i could get. I think ive done unbelievably well but i constantly get abuse when i ask for advice or when i am trying to sort through a problem.

I don't have ten grand. Working through the problems, checking the forums ebay and craigslist searching for the deals and the trades keeps me occupied and mostly content. I like it.

My creation wont be perfectly thought out, perfectly planned or perfectly executed.

End rant!

Welding the crank costs too much. Even if i only pay half.

The crank will be ground as much as .130 (small journal ground .030) i have acses to both journal size rods and it may end up offset ground as the damaged journal is MUCH worse on the inside.

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The car has a higher stall converter, i don't know what it is. The trans is rebuilt but im unsure of its mileage it was beefed up, i don't know with what parts.  It will be "ok" or it will break!

In reply to Crazier :

The Dana 44 will hold up better than most people will tell you, as long as you don’t abuse it. 

Its an auto. That helps. Stall is low, that also helps. Preventing sudden shocks to the drive train is the key. But im likely to have between 5 and 600 hp/tq. Will have to be carefull.

I have a disease... I just agreed to buy two corvettes for $2000 each. One is a 90 vert with engine problems and the other an 86 with title issues.

Both my son and daughter will have corvettes as their first cars.

May not get them. Verr has a bad top and the 86 is a vinyl wrapped car.

A new top is only about $200 but the pics were taken in such a way as to hide the defects and there was no mention of the 86 being vinyl. Could be the paint is totally screwed under there, no way to tell. So what else is going on? 

Have to assume that 86 needs a full paint job and needs a title.

Have to assume the 90 needs a whole new motor as well as a top. I'm going sunday to get a better look.

Really they are both parts cars. There was a day that a 2k c4 parts car was a good deal, today is not that day. Running driving cars go for 2k heck there was an 84 z51 for $1800 and an 85 with a procharger and a vacume leak for $3200.

There is a nice running driving 87 vert with a new top in wisconsin right now for $3600 and a running driving but smashed 92 for $1000 (if i was not so far in id be picking that up)

I definaty need to get back to progress on the project. My posts are too long and not that interesting.

Went to the shop on Saturday, put my crank on the lathe, then got a call that the basement in my rental house was flooded and i had to fly. Drove to Muskegon on Sunday to get a deal on a hot water heater.

They apparently needed the lathe and just went ahead with my crank to get it out of the way... I'm a little disappointed not to have done it myself.

The best cam we have been able to salvage is an old Sig Erson hifloII .472 lift and 235 duration. 

A bigger cam may be better but the dyno app estimates 507 chp@ 5400 rpm and 539 tq @ 3500 seems like plenty to me...

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AC and smog delete anyone?

In reply to Crazier :

Oh that would rule for shock value alone.

I am 75% sure i can make it work. One of them may end up being hollowed out for a while (its probably junk anyhow)

I could make it work. But im just wasting time until i can get back in the machine shop.

I was out of town for unrelated reasons and a buddy asked me to look at these. I went ahead and bought them just to fart around with.

Still no progress on the engine build. But at least now i know why...

Basically charlie is purposely delaying until we find a "better" cam. He didnt say so, what he said was "if your in a hurry we can go ahead and waste those parts on that cam" and "you could have made that power with cast junk"

So we are in a holding patern until we come up with a cam that has at least 500 but preferably closer to 600 lift.

And with that info in hand I did some more wheeling and dealing.  I am now in possession of an old style set of brodix T1 215 cc heads with 2.10 intake valves.

They are not mine, but they can be for $50 cash or 100 trade! There are holes in the spring seat area into the intake runners from over porting. 2 in one head and 3 in the other. Actually thers are only two "holes" one crack and two "we are sure that its too thin right there" and. Virtually all of the bolts on the intake side have been helicoiled...badly. And they couldnt get an intake to stay sealed on the heads. PLUS the engine wouldn't run right anyway and smoked like crazy. Becouse the epoxy was loose in two of the holes and would leake under pressure (i assume) through the crack.

Fixing them "right" runs about $50 to $80 per weld or so i was quoted plus machine work and then they still have to be rebuilt. Grand total $400 plus parts. They can be re-epoxied cheaper but clearly there are risks with that.

I have a plan to "fix" them better... I am going to make anouther post about my idea to fix them and for advice.

If i really can fix them nearly free i will either make a trade or just pay for them, then we will do the machine work and swap parts from my otner heads.

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Doing my own valve job!

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I just had to practice on a couple junk ones first and then i was off on my own!

In reply to Crazier :

Nice!

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This intake was cut and welded to fit a 1206 port. Since there are very very few TPI guys running 1206 heads it was virtually useless and has been sitting on a shelf for years. It came with the car but i had no plans to use it, not until i was offered the damaged brodix heads that have also been sitting for years.

I decided to make it an "airgap" intake. Why? My project was and is still stalled and i was bored. It could cool the intake charge or prevent heat soak. It does weigh 3 or 4 pounds less.

Charlie may have horsetraded for anouther block so we can get back to it.

Have been blocks for as little as $150 to $250 but ive had to wait for him to come up witn one or it would impact the budget... Very difficult to put a project off for a month or more for $200...

I guess i forgot to mention that after boreing the block we discovered that it had been decked too much for us to use...

So. Charlie was able to source anouther block for me finally. There are multiple issues with it. Including but not limited to 5 bolts broken and stuck, no main caps and pitted deck/cylendars.

Ive removed 4 of the 5 bolts. The worst two cylendars were cleaned with the bore and we are now ready to test fit to double check out deck height.

Then we use the caps off the junk 400 align hone and deck it!

This project has become endless... I may take a hiatus and work on something else breifly... Plus my latest aquisitions are for daily transportation (mostly) and may take priority for a few days.

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