Kind of weird. Makes a lower engine knock but only under certain conditions like mid-RPMs and light load. Oil pressure has dropped - I've been a little concerned about that lately, is fine at RPMs, but low at idle.

I actually won 3 rounds at the track Friday before I decided I couldn't risk this any longer. I had heard not-good noises driving it home from the last race two weeks ago, thought it might be rocker adjustment - sure enough, they were looser than I had set them when I ran them today, but they were all about the same adjustment off - not a "failure" indicator. The alternator had also died on that drive home, I suspected the MSD box wasn't happy and was causing pinging. And, after the first time trial Friday, I backed off the timing and it picked up, which backed up the pinging theory (although I've never heard the engine ping on E85 before). So, I ran it in 3 rounds of eliminations before deciding it was better not to ventilate the crankcase.

There is more racing Saturday. I had planned on running the LS1/T56 '82 Camaro in a stick shift class being run on top of the "normal" Saturday ET classes, but now it looks like I'll have to run it in the classes I normally run the '57 as well.

Should know more Sunday after (if) I have a chance to look into it further, dropping the pan, etc. A couple of fellow racers have offered engines or short blocks - we'll see.

 

Strange symptoms indeed. I'd be interested to hear what you find. I have been following some of your posts on LSX... glad to see you have at least one of your projects together and running!

 

sorry to hear man, when the ta spun the no 1 rod bearing, it was smooth until you touched the gas pedal, then bam bam bam,

sorry about the motor, hope ya get it lined out man.

adam

 

weird.

 

When I unloaded it from the trailer this afternoon and pulled it into the garage, it sounded normal. Oil pressure was 60 psi, but before when it was cold, it would be over 70.

I picked up a 454 longblock from a racer buddy this afternoon (he actually got it through me last year). Started life as a center pivot well engine, natural gas or propane (I forget which). It has 14092359 heads, and I think flat tops (couldn't tell for sure through the spark plug holes). I was thinking I'd put my 98cc 396 heads on it, some sort of cam, and the rest of the stuff off of the 396 to try to match the 396 power. What is a bit weird is all the info I can find on the heads says 427 truck, but the block 14015445 should be a 454 truck.

Weird.

I'm going to go pull the pan off of the 396.

 

Best of luck for the rebuild.

 

#8 rod bearing spun. Actually spun, not just wiped out. I've never spun a bearing before.

No rebuild for now. 454 shortblock is the best choice, I think. I have been offered (for a price) a 468 with ported 049's and TBD cam (idles rumipity, according to the current owner, who bought it to replace the ventilated 454 he was running in his 74 Corolla - but his engine turned out to be rebuildable, so he didn't use the 468).

 

Shipping would be a killer, but send me a # 359 head, I'll port one intake and one exhaust free, just to post pics, then send it back so you could do the others and polishing yourself.

 

Sorry to hear!!

Rebuild for a spare?
Hope you get it down the strip before you get bumped tooo far in points!!!

 

Cap & bearing halves




Cap surface




Back side of bearing halves




Sheared off notch

 

Large chamber, right? Might be okay on gasoline, but probably too low for E85.

This isn't intended to be a long-term set-up, just enough to get through the rest of the season. The LQ4/4L80E was supposed to be next after the 396, but it's far from ready.

 

The more I thought about the time it would take to get the 396 out, parts off of both it and the 454, get new cam/gaskets/etc., and get it back installed and running, I got nervous and decided to take up the 468 offer. Still need to get some of the details like cam and intake type, but it's supposed to be 13:1 (which should be E85 friendly), professionally ported 049 heads, balanced, complete from intake to pan (might need to change the pan for tie rod clearance), even includes a flexplate (can't use the internally-balanced SFI flexplate I have on the 396). If it is too wild for the car, my 750 CFM Holley and 1-3/4" primary headers should serve as "restrictor plate" moderators. It will probably run like the 396 did at sea level (12-teens), or like it did 2 years ago with the 100 shot, 3500 stall converter, and 3.73 gears (11.9's).

 

468 is a torque monster!!!
NOS can only add more fun, should the desire bite!!

I hope it all goes smooth for you, & '57 is back in the winner's circle soon!!
Do you use a windage tray // screen?

Did the pick up tube fall off? Stud back out?

 

I use this in each of my motors to help keep oil down during accelleration. It's a rear pan baffle for those who don't know.

 

Oil pressure was low, but never dropped out. Lowest I saw it go while going down the track was 55 psi, which was down from 60 earlier in the run. When first put together, it was more like 70, but the solid cam seemed to drop the pressure about 5 psi. Idle was a different story, used to be 40 warm, had dropped to 15 warm by the time I decided not to push it anymore. The pick-up was welded on, mount stud good and tight when I dropped the pump last night. #8 should be getting oil first, so for only the back bearing to be wiped out indicates it wasn't a lubrication problem. In 1995 when the bearings were wiped out by oil pressure loss (the Melling pump got in the way of the tray in the aftermarket pan I bought, and I put the stock pump back in and it couldn't keep up at RPMs), laying the bearing halves out side-by-side from front to back, the worst damage was at the front and least at the back.

I'm not using a windage tray other than what's built into the pan. I don't know what pan or tray the 468 has, or even if the pan it has will clear the tie rod.

No way I'm going to spray the 468. I'm only good to 11.50 without a 6-point, and a roll bar isn't in the cards for the time being. Besides, I doubt the 8.2" 10-bolt would be happy, either. I'd be happy with high-11's, but if I make it to the Division 5 finals in Topeka in September, I'll have to slow it down again, anyway.

 

Just changing the longblock may change your consistency, depending on how well or not you hook-up at launch.

 

It dead hooked at sea level last year, and with a 100 shot here 2 years ago, so it'll probably be okay even with more engine up here.

 

Might be faster thru the traps.

 

I'm guessing about 8-10 mph faster through the traps.

 

I will never understand dragstrips as a regular thing. I'm glad you guys enjoy them, or they might close down. But I just go to get one good set of numbers, then once I have them, I'm headed home to post them up on some forum or another.
They're a good place to safely try a friend or customer's car, and sometimes I watch a customer run, just to help them troubleshoot, but even that I don't do for free, unless I'm there to get numbers for myself.

 

To the best of my knowledge, the American Psychiatric Association hasn't designated hobbyist drag racing as an official disorder, but I'm sure if they were motivated to document it (i.e., if there was any money in it), it wouldn't be much of a challenge.

 

Perhaps not in this case...

Finally got the cam info. Lunati 40213, mechanical flat tappet, .602/.612 lift, 110 lobe sep. So far so good.

Duration: 271/279 - @ .050"! 314/320 adv, 4000-7500 RPM powerband.

This could be interesting. My carb is 750 CFM, it'll want more like a 1050. If you use the CFM calculator to determine RPMs given CID and CFM, it'll be maxed out at 5500 RPMs.

Oh, well, just think "restrictor plate". It won't run to its potential, but it'll most likely outrun the 396. Making some pretty basic assumptions, such as 1 ft-lb torque per cubic inch, and 6200 (396) vs 5500 (468) shift points, the 468 is still a good 50 HP up on the 396 - and I was running the ET required for the class I'll be running Saturday with a 50 shot of nitrous.

Besides, no roll bar, can't go quicker than 11.50, anyway. . .

 

so you can save a few bucks by leaving the bottle empty. do it enough times, you can afford a decent cam.

 

That thought did cross my mind.

 

Well, looks like we may never know. As I was getting the engine ready to pull this evening, I discovered the transmission case has about a 6" long crack in the bellhousing starting between the bottom two bolts on the right side and heading toward the top. I'm not going to do both a temporary engine and transmission.

Next up: Spiced up LQ4 and 4L80E.

(After I get the LS1/4L60E in Berlinetta #1, that is. . .)

 

May the gods of money bless you

 

The plan was to partially finance it by selling off the 396/TH400 stuff.

 

Is there not a local shop that can weld it for you?I know that from the sounds of the crack,I would charge $50 at the most to fix it plenty good enough to last for the next few months.

 

I'm just guessing at the length from my first (and only) look at it two days ago. It could probably be welded. Talking to fellow racers, it seldom lasts. A steel bell housing that bolts to the case would make more sense.

 

Deffinitely.