Casting number says this was a gm crate motor at some point, which explains why it was obviously not always in the car when I pulled it, and that would likely also explain gm head and intake gaskets and how super clean it is inside and that the bore crosshatching isn’t just visible, it’s clear as day.
Bore measures 4.000 so standard, no overbore. Anyone have some super cheap forged 350 pistons?
8-digit block casting number means it's newer than 1970's. roller cam? engine stand is blocking my view of rear main seal. i hope it's a 1-piece.
Yeah 10243880 1pc roller cam.
it was in a 92 roadmonster, so it had junk tbi heads. Vortec heads need cleaning, and $10 used lt1 corvette cam is right at the top of their lift capacity unmodified.
This car has presence. I want to see it make a drag pass so bad.
Wow, summit has hypereutectic pistons with coated skirts for $80. Those will take a 150 shot, i do that all the time. I can budget those for what i saved on the back wheels and buying a used converter. I still have $100 in my back pocket with different front wheels if I have to swap them out.
Cleaning up vortec heads. Cast surfaces hit with wire cup on angle grinder, which deposited many bristles into my protective shorts and t shirt(and a couple into my hands) and gasket surfaces hit with roloc scotch brite wheel on angle die grinder.
Your protective shorts must be the same brand as mine. They didn't do E36 M3 to keep my shoes from filling up with plasma cutter slag. LOL
Had to stick it together so I could stand back and look. Will paint balancer and timing cover when theyre off
I love watching these challenge builds. I hope to bring a car to the challenge one day.
Bttowns said:I love watching these challenge builds. I hope to bring a car to the challenge one day.
Don’t worry about bringing a car, just bring yourself! Honestly, you’ll have zero regrets.
I'm just popping in to offer some support and enthusiasm for this build. Super high on the swagger scale, and just darn cool. I haven't been to a challenge yet, and would love to make it down to spectate this year, and am shooting to have a car ready for 2020.
You, Patrick, are an inspiration. Carry on.
If you still need a front motor plate, I think the one I picked up at Summit for essentially scrap value is for a Chevy. I haven't made brackets out of it yet, and it even still has its price tag on it.
If $20 or whatever it was is too pricey, you could still use it for a pattern at least.
Thanks for the kind words. Today was an off work day because i’m waiting on special order material for 3 jobs, so i took time to clean out the brass horde and turn it in.
234 pounds/279 dollars later i am over halfway to the lathe i am going to look at tomorrow at 5. Cleaning out the brass gave me room to get some stuff off the trailer so it’s free to load a lathe onto, and made room in the garage to jockey stuff around should it follow me home. Unfortunately i came into a ton of lathe tooling last year and sold all of it on ebay, but for enough that I won’t feel bad about buying just the stuff i need as needed. I kept all the mills figuring i would end up with a bridgeport and not a lathe but i need a lathe now, and have always wanted one.
I see you're getting some handy use out of that mini, minivan!
Notice
Do not use abrasive pad/bristle devices to clean the gasket surfaces of engine components. Abrasive pads should not be used for the following reasons:
- Abrasive pads will produce fine grit that the oil filter will not be able to remove from the oil. THIS GRIT IS ABRASIVE AND HAS BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE INTERNAL ENGINE DAMAGE. Abrasive pads can easily remove enough material to round cylinder head surfaces. This has been known to affect the gasket's ability to seal, especially in the narrow seal areas between the combustion chambers and coolant jackets.
- Abrasive pads, wire and abrasive rubber finger wheels can also remove enough metal to affect cylinder head, block, oil pan rail, and intake manifold runner flatness, which can cause coolant and oil leaks and air leaks. It takes about 15 seconds to remove 0.203 mm (0.008 in) of metal with an abrasive pad.
- Abrasive pads, Abrasive rubber fingers wheels & wire wheels with high speeds grinders produce air bourn debris that can travel throughout the shop contaminating other work being performed outside of the immediate work area.
When cleaning engine gasket sealing surfaces and/or cleaning parts from an engine that are to be reused, surface conditioning disks (typically constructed of woven fiber or molded bristles) that contain abrasives, such as a high amount of Aluminum Oxide, should NOT be used.
The use of such surface conditioning disks dislodges Aluminum Oxide (from the disk) and metal particles, which can lead to premature engine bearing failure.
The presence of Aluminum Oxide in engine oil has been shown to cause premature engine bearing failure. In some cases, this failure occurs in as little as 2,200 km (1,000 mi) or less after the repair has been made.
Surface conditioning disks may grind the component material and imbed it into the disk. This can result when more aggressive grinding of the gasket surface takes place.
Recommended Cleaning Procedure
General Motors recommends the use of a razor blade or plastic gasket scraper to clean the gasket surface on engine components that are to be reused. When cleaning gasket surfaces, please note the following:
Above is the gist of something that I heard of a few years ago and have since factored into any engine work I do that might expose the internals of the engine to the residue of these abrasive pads.
Pete
I am aware of that one, and i had the valve covers on for most of the process, and then used one can of brake cleaner on each head to thoroughly douche them of any stray crap and the layer of yuck since these came straight from the junkyard. Usually go to just a blade but these were nasty and had some rust to take care of. Not enough to need machined but enough that they were not being scraped clean. The block should be ok enough just to scrape. I’ve never killed anything doing it this way and then doing a quick oil change after running a bit.
The challenge is a different animal, if i were building this without the $2000 cap, these heads would have been sent to the machine shop to get tanked, valves lapped, and new seals. Basically anything beyond completion of the event is icing on the cake, and it’s going to get pushed hard as long as it can take it then i’ll build a real engine and sell this one as a core for likely what I have into it.
In reply to Patrick :
FYI, I have personally destroyed two engines due to using a "cookie" on things that access oil.
My T-bird was knocking and cam lobes flattened by the time I drove home to West Park... from Strongsville.
In reply to Patrick :
Sweet score on the lathe. I had one like it when I was a boy. It needs to be solidly supported, the ways are a little flexible, but it will do great work after you get it set up. Did you get a batch of gears for the lead screw? I seldom set it to cut threads, but if you have the gears, it will. Edit:It appears the lead screw reversing box is broken
So now that i’m home and have soaked the tool holder in penetrant and tarped it for the night, i have procured an Atlas th54 10”x36” lathe.
Things: advertised as a wood lathe on letgo for over a month. Very nice hard working young man who is selling those of grandpa’s tools that they didn’t keep for themselves as they sold the family farm. Someone went to look yesterday, kid said they claimed they knew all about lathes, and fired it up and broke the lead screw reversing gearbox casting and gears because they were too stupid to realize the trolley deal was locked in place. So dude broke it and left. Because of that(and knowing i’m never going to do any threading so why do i need that part) i was able to get it, bolted to the Grizzly welding table with 1/8” thick steel top for $320. He thinks he has another chuck in the tools they took home and is supposed to call me if he finds it.
He has a much larger lathe if anyone is interested
Ninja edit i did get a can full of gears
Very nice! Gotta love an old Atlas.
Seems like you can usually find parts on ebay for those. So fixing it up is an option. And you seem adept at working the rummage sales and auctions - lots of hidden finds there.
I like CDCO-Tools for cheap Chinese tooling. Good selection and the quality is similar to the MSC "Import" line. Their wedge-type tool post set is reasonably priced and worth every penny.
I like Carbide Depot for quality indexable cutting inserts for good prices. Nice guys, family business. Look at their "Dragon" line for the bargain options.
If you do get into any milling check out Maritool out of Chicago. Another family business that makes fantastic tool holders, collets, and end mills. I buy these amazing high-helix end mills for aluminum cutting. I call the 1/2" one my Metal Sprinkler!
Enjoy!
Last year i bought the entire tool set of a machinist who passed away some years ago. I derped up and included all the new carbides with all the hand made cutters that i sold on ebay. I don’t feel horrible because 2 lots paid for everything and i got a ton of tools that i can and do use. I still have one chest that I don’t think i went through so hopefully there will be some lathe tooling in there. I need to make a very specific cutter, that i can not discuss because it’s part of the stuff for the car nobody will see until it rolls out of the trailer in October.
hopefully i can get help to unload tomorrow, i think the plan is to build some wheels out of 4 harbor freight moving dolleys and some 3/4” plywood so it’s movable. The i can move the welders around because they’re on carts and set the lathe up in the back by my fabrication area.
You really want to fix the reverse box. Power feeding longer cuts makes much neater finish as well as less load on your hands.
TurnerX19 said:You really want to fix the reverse box. Power feeding longer cuts makes much neater finish as well as less load on your hands.
Dusterbd13 sent me to the manuals so i can hopefully isolate the parts needed. Housing looks and feels cast iron, So if i get the gear he stripped i can see if my dad can weld it, he’s the only person that I would trust to weld cast iron and have it hold.
The gear to move the bed lost a tooth in the incident, but for the time being it’s a functioning machine, that’s sitting on my trailer
Temporary home, now to learn how to use it
Ordered new traverse gear for 35.44 shipped so i’m in it for $355.44
i chucked something up in it and spun it and didn’t die, so I have that going for me
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