cp87GTA

I got the 406 put together and in this last week or so. Put it in the first time last sunday and got it fired monday night. The pan hit my frame so I took a bfh and bent it up a little. When I fired it the crank hit the pan, had to tap it on the side to keep the crank from hitting. The fancy aluminum timming cover that my brother had on it leaked like a sieve. Anyways got four heat cycles on it about 4/5 gallon of fuel. Engine sounded real good even with the mufflers. Pulled the engine back out tuesday evening, retorqued the heads changed the oil pan, and looked over the timming cover. The darned bore for the crank was 3/16 off center. Threw that thing in the scrap pile and used the one from the 383, one piece pan set. Got it back in wednesday night, no leaks this time. Couple more heat cycles. Finished up some more loose ends tonight, ran it for another hour on and off. Change the oil and filter, going racing tomorrow!!

ross

Looks good post new times!! And on a side note you were wanting advice on Intakes the new Chevy High Perfomance mag. just did a test of out of the box intakes if you care to look at it.

cp87GTA

Just got back from the track. Ran a 6.42 @ 105 mph on the second pass off the trailer. The tree messed up on the third round, not once but twice. He staged, I staged, put it on the 2 step and the tree didn't come down. They backed us out and went through the whole thing again. This time it was real late comming down and the cross talk didn't work and I had a .745 light. Had a lot of heat in the motor and trans with all of this fooling around and she ran a 6.56 @ 104.78. Third round was much the same, drawed a dragster and they coudn't get the darned thing to stay running. After firing the car 5 or 6 times they just let me go. Was running 190* comming out of the box and could only run a 6.51 @ 104. On the 4th round the carb decided to start flooding over, only ran 6.61@ 103 and the guy I was running had a .010 package. Needless to say I got my butt handed to me. All in all it was a very good outing for the new motor. With some tunning I think this motor will run very low 6s or very high 5s. Don't have a license and don't have the car certified so I can only run 6.39 anyways.

ross

Sounds like you have a strong runner there. My track will not be reopened untill Oct. at the soonest going to have to do a road trip to get my fix.

cp87GTA

WELL the 406 is BROKE!! Had 8 1/8 mile passes on it. Went to change the oil in it tonight. Had a lot of metal in it. Yanked it, and tore it down. The 3 center mains are spun bad. So far the rod bearings look ok. Don't know if the block can be repaired or not. Not realy sure I'd want to. I'll be calling my machinist tomorrow to talk it over with him. At least I have another 383 down there now getting worked. I may just use the heads and cam I had in the 406 in the 383 I'm having done now. That way I'll be able to tell how much better a 23 cu in more motor is.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

man that sucks about the motor. what did it run with the old 383 package? is that a full tube car?

1QWIKZ

Wow!! Very sorry to hear that!! Well, atleast you have a backup short block....not that it makes it better..

cp87GTA

The car is a 2x3 tube car, with a 4 link, and it ran mid 6.60s in good weather with a hyd roller cam. I talked to my machinist today, and he said he could fix the block and crank. Depends on how bad it's bent if I'll even consider letting him try. I did find another complete 400 minus the intake for $100.00, been bored .030 over. I'm going to pick it up Sat.

AlkyIROC

Welcome to my world. I've had a lot of engine problems in the last 10 years. After numerous engine builds, I finally had the machine shop put the short block together and had them check all the clearances. Haven't had a bottom end problem since.

cp87GTA

Well my machinist won't use my eagle 383 crank. Don't like it, so I ordered a new scat crank, and it hasn't made it here yet. I may be back to the 350 with the 305h. hope it don't come to that. Think I'm going to go internally balanced when I put the 406 back together. He is pretty sure he can save the block. The guy that machined it for my brother had to have screwed it up. The other 406 I found was junk, the fellow stored it 4 or 5 years ago and didn't oil it up. It was locked up, so we pulled the heads. It accually had stalagmites in the cyclinders. What a shame, i dought if a .60 would have cleaned it up.

car_fixer

damn, hate rusty engines. Why wouldnt he use the crank?

cp87GTA

The snout is .002 too small, and it's an externally balanced engine. the balancer just slips on. he says it must be a pressed fit because they are so out to start with. He didn't want to use the crank i had for the 406 tobegin with, but I told him that's what we would use. The guy has a pretty good rep so he won't do it again for me. My 406 crank was the same way and it had a small gauld spot on it, so it had to move around a little. Every crank in his shop measured at least .002 larger. Some were .0025, the high end stuff, which I'll never have. He had a couple billet cranks and a callies crank that were the largest. I suppose I could have bought one of those $400.00 balancers that have to be honed to fit, but that wouldn't make much since.

car_fixer

No that would seem like good money after questionable money. I decided to go with an internal balance crank for my 383, had to buy another flexplate to do it (one piece rear main seal ) but it is way smoother than the other crank that was in it , even with a mid plate. I definitly would want a good fit on the balancer if it external though.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Man, sorry to hear the bad luck, that kind of stuff sucks!!! Going internal is the way to go, my last 388 was all external, lasted longer than any other engine, but it was all stock bottom end and i imagine it flexed instead of snapping during the 1800+ passes mark LOL!!

Give the Callias Compstar cranks a seriously look, I had a dragslayer in this version i snapped the snout off last year, repuatable shop said if i did'nt have the coin for a $2500 crank than this would suffice...for my budget anyways Either way, those are some stout N/A times for an off the trailer pass, and i dont think you will see much difference losing the 23cid, once you start getting into these numbers ET and power wise it's not as important.

cp87GTA

Well, I got the new 383 in. What a week this has been, think my wife put a spell on me!! Ha Ha. Took all week to put the short block together. 4 bolt 90 350 block, Scat crank, scat 4340 Pro stroker rods, speed pro pistons with a .200 dome. Rod clearence was too tight for my liking so had to order .001 under bearings. Then I couldn't use my bullet cam cause the lifters won't work in a late model block. The tie bars hit the block, what a bummer. I wanted to use the cam and heads I had on the 406. So I used all the parts I had in the old 383. Went with all new valves in the old Dart Iron Eagles, and the 600 lift Comp Cam. The bottom sprocket was miss machined and couldn't get the cam degreed in. Some of this crap they sell now a days, and it was a Cloyes timing setup from Summit. Got it running late Sat night. Had it running Sunday doing some heat cycles ect. Went to get out of the car, and my had slipped off of the rocker panel, went down on my ribs on the door bar. Thought I busted a rib or 2, ended up in the emergency room till 3.30 in the morning. Wife wasn't a happy camper to say the least. Well it's in running and going racing this week end. We have a 2 day event, with the Nostalga cars. Second thought mybe I should just go watch.

car_fixer

Man , I am glad you didnt get too banged up. I ground the block so my lifters would fit, I figured I had no need for hydraulic lifters anymore lol. Let us know how she runs....no the car not the wife lol

IHI

iTrader: (1)

jeezus!!!! stay home, in bed, lock the door and wait a week before going out into public

well, least she's together, and hopefully you can get on the good side of luck for awhile..f..k cars is all i gotta say

cp87GTA

Machinist called me Thursday and said he had my 406 block repaired, and garrented it is right. He had to line bore it after cutting the caps to get them small enough to get it sized. Another $320.00 in that block, and I don't have a crankshaft yet. I'll put it back together over the winter. Going to use a scat crank this time, internal balance. Going to keep the 383 as a spare engine. maybe this 406 will live this time.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

I hope it's all good this time!! Nothing worse than getting caught up in sinking tons of money into something like this, cuz we always look back and think, jeez, i coulda got this this or that instead

I have the same issue with my current heads, bought'em for $2300, sunk another $800 into them getting them fixed after first engine blew, and now need to stick another grand in'em if i want them over the top.....if i cant sell the car, then i'll prolly sell the heads and get something better instead and cut my losses

cp87GTA

Well I went and picked up the 406 tonight. It looks like he did a great job on it. The caps all fit real tight in the block now. He said he had to cut quite a bit off of them to get them round again. Said it was good for at least 650 hp. I won't be making that much, I don't think. I might just take it down and put it on the dyno when I get it done. He has his personal sbc loaned to one of our local racers, 2600 lb 70 Chevelle and it went 5.20s this last weekend.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

That's haulin the mail!!!!

cp87GTA

Well, I got the 406 back in, and made it to the track Sunday. Nice day. 1st pass on the rebuild, 1.33 60 fter 6.355@ 107.68 . 2nd pass was close, 1.33 6.349 107.87. Had a couple differant stories on how far it dangled the fronts. One guy said 2ft and about 40 ft out, the other said 1 ft and 30 ft out. The plugs were as black as coal, but I didn't do any tunning, was already going to fast. I believe it'll run pretty close to 6.00, going to change the jets, and do some tunning on it this week. I don't know how long they will let me run it without the liecense. Then I got to figure out the best way to slow it back to 6.40. Thinking rear gear, to lower the shift points and trap rpm. Never ran into this problem before. Ended up breaking a tierod end comming out of the box in the shootout run, had to load it up. I'll have it back out this weekend. Throttle stop or gear To slow it down?

AlkyIROC

Better 60' than I do. I've managed a few 5.9x 1/8 mile runs last year.

Put a cage in it. It will allow you to run quicker than 6.40 and the extra weight can slow you down to stay slower than 6.40 where you don't really need it

I guess under NHRA rules, you would also need the license. Not counting all the extra SFI stuff required to go that fast.

Add some weight into the car
Take some timing out of the ignition
Short shift the gears
Throttle stop if you have one. Throttle limiter to keep the throttle from going to WOT if you don't.

IHI

iTrader: (1)

Rear gear will have issues when going rounds since you'll be slipping the convertor more, so later rounds and esspecially round robin may start to be problematic, but if you can keep'er cool stepping down about 2-3 gear ratios would easily net you even more consistant 60's since your riding the converter and by all rights make finish line driving a much easier experience since the ET should be down, but you should be able to carry more mph at the stripe

Or, just do the ole trick of putting a limiter on the carb that wont allow WOT. Couple buddies do this and all we did was make a bracket that bolted to the carb flange, drilled a hole, welded a stop onto a piece of thread all rod, wist it in and lock it down, works very well for them.

Plus, summer heat and humidity is coming, so it'll slow itself down here before too long.

cp87GTA

The car is built and will pass tech, I won't. I have a bad ticker and have to take blood thinner, so I can't get a licence. I'm also thinking about mufflers, this is about one of the loudest sbc I think I've heard. My neighbors would aprieciate those.

AlkyIROC

I love my mufflers. The extra weight is worth it when my ears aren't ringing at the end of the day plus the windows in the neighborhood don't rattle when I fire the car up now although nobody ever complained.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

i like having mufflers on the car as well, helps keep me sane, and with the bracket racing if you're getting chased down you can hear the other car coming and can help you in judging the stripe

IHI

iTrader: (1)

mufflers= no brainer

then there's the old trick of: just add weight until your slow enough, simple, quick, cheap, and can be undone just as quickly.

or

dial it soft and play the game.

brandoz28

iTrader: (1)

do you run pro with that car or super pro? if you run super pro i'd get a pnuematic (sp) throttle stop to slow it down

BiGgE

iTrader: (2)

I hope you have better luck with SCAT stuff than I did. I was running their 4340 crank and h-beams in an old 388 I had. They rate their h-beams to 650 hp at 8000 rpm. I had about 1000 miles on the motor when it let go. Broke a rod right in the middle of it. Windowed the block, broke the crank, broke the cam, bent valves, scored the piston accross the street, and when I called them they told me that that was a cirlce track rod I had and that my pistons were too heavy. To this day, I fail to see how a heavier piston has anything to do with breaking a rod when you are on the gas. If you are coming into a corner rolling off the throttle at 7500 rpm in a circle track car, sure thing, but not on the gas on the highway...(by the way my pistons are 413 grams)

Anyways, I am still running their stuff because they sold me a new crank and set of supercomp i-beams for like $100 bucks, so I guess you can say they made it right. Of course, I would have preferred it if they had at least helped me out with the rest of it... Nevertheless, next time I build a motor, from the bottom up, I won't be putting SCAT stuff in it. Anyways, I hope you have better luck than I did.

By the way, you've got a movin' car there!