Token

Hey guys, it's been quite a while since I've posted. Just letting you know I'm not dead. Unfortunately, I wrecked my winter car so I've been forced to drive my Firebird all season, and Michigan has taken its toll on everything. I figured I'd post some pictures of what I'm currently running.



I started with a bare 350 block, bored .040" over. It's a four-bolt main purchased from a fellow TGO member. The second motor I bought from him, actually.

I ported the Vortec heads I had, starting by laying the gasket on them. There was plenty of material to be removed- approximately .150" on the diameter!

They cleaned up pretty well. I did a 3-angle valve job on them after I was done cutting them up.


After honing the block, I was sure to clean out all of the coolant passages and oil galleys with compressed air.

Beginning assembly of the lower-end...


If you've ever removed an intake manifold, you'll have noticed the massive amounts of sludge that form on that spider retainer. Well I went ahead and added a preventative measure to this- mini drain holes!


Meaty H-beam rods


Here's a good picture of the bottom end assembled. What you can't see are the forged flat-top pistons! Properly adjusted the new high pressure oil pump and tack-welded the pickup, so it won't fall off.


Putting the valvetrain together is cake when you have a special tool to bleed out all of your lifters!


The crowning touches


Breaking it in on an engine stand was a GREAT idea... My damn FelPro intake gaskets didn't seal properly against my Vortec heads. I had to find my water leak and go through it all over again. What a waste of some break-in oil! Better safe than sorry- it's much easier to remove an intake when it's on a stand!



FINISHED PRODUCT:

cool84

very nice. i wish i could break in a motor on a stand. i had to do my motor swap with a borrowed hoist and hope it worked when it went in.

Supervisor42

Running mine in on a stand revealed a brand-new rear main seal that leaked. I woulda been screwed. It also helped remove the "temporary paint" from the headers. It's definately worth the hassle.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

uh oh. What gasket do you mean there?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The real way to avoid that is to use a real lubricant - not that stuff boiled off from crud pumped out of the ground.

Token

I use synthetic only sir


header gasket of course!

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

If it's a "real" synthetic, you shouldn't have to worry about sludge build-up in there.

VenomX-87

Dude that engine looks sweet, i wish i had the time to build and engine for my T.A. i get like 3 to 4 hours a week spare.

when it comes to synthetic oil it is only like 5w20 isn't that to thin for our engines?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Not sure what's on the shelves down under, but you can get synthetic in a bunch of different viscosity ratings. Check out http://www.amsoil.com/products/motoroils/index.aspx for one example.

kaptinkafeen

iTrader: (2)

Great looking mill.
What type of valve covers are you using - I am having a hard time finding taller center bolt v.c. to accomodate higher lift #.
-Andrew

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

haha, I was going to say, gee five7, got any lubrication suggestions?

Oh, exhaust, fair enough. I guess Vortecs are shabby on that side...

Token

I run Mobil 1 5w40

Thanks man, I try

I think they're proform, but I'm not sure. I bought them polished but I took some scotch brite to them to cut the shine off

the Vortec exhaust is horrible!!!!

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

You shouldn't have to run 5W-40, as 5W-30 would be fine unless you left clearances loose. But, Mobil 1 is better than the pretenders put out by the other major oil companies.

Did you gasket match the headers?

Token

Yeah I trmmed the headers up too

I picked 5w40 because I gapped my rings a little further, as this is a potential nitrous motor. I didn't want it to burn any oil so I went thicker. Is it still cool to go with 5w30?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

If you just gapped the compression rings wider for nitrous, no problem. If you gapped the oil control rings wider, that would be a problem (and the higher viscosity wouldn't help much).

How about your bearing clearance?

Gallileo60

You know what I dont like about your motor?????????? ITS NOT IN MY CAR..............Looks really good man......Hope to see some vid of it running...Congrats...Tom

Token

Thanks Tom! I've already put about 5-6000 miles on it since I put the motor in the car last summer. I love it!

I didn't touch the oil control rings at all. And my bearing clearances are not abnormal, they're within spec... If I can recall about 1.5 to 2.5? they were all consistent for every rod, and every main. I just don't remember what it was. Everything was all milled before I assembled it.

Just wondering, why not use 40 weight?

Token

Mellow idling
Microphone inside the car

and please excuse my lame rolling stones joke, I can't get no.... f'ing traction... The car is squeaky as hell because that was the beginning of the cold season when everything starts to get noisy. You can distinctly hear a severe lack of traction from my 2.73 open rear with bald tires! But the exhaust note is cute.

formula forever

very nice