Hm, steathrams good for power? I'm wanting a torque monster aswell but like I said I want around 400RHP aswell. Moneys not and issue as I know I need to pay to play. Just need to know what to get thst will get me there the fastest. But on a further note, I got my block pretty much stripped down today, all but my freeze plugs and cam bearings. Valves were sealing good, no ridges or damage to the cylinder walls, heads came apart pretty easy. None of the bearings showed alot of wear but thy shouldn't since this engine only had like 80k on it.

 

this thread and car have come along way 15 freaking pages man. talk about motivation.

 

All in just 3 short little years what can I say I love what I do

 

Just saw that I could get a miniram 3 to fit my vortecs. How well would those preform to my standards?

 

What's thr best way to clean the valves and remove the valve seals and freeze plugs?

 

Forgive me for being lazy but what exactly do you have now (dont feel like digging through 15 pages lol). If i know what you have already i would be better use to you as far as putting together something that will get you to the 400 rwhp mark. That is a TALL number to reach with TPI but not impossible by any means. I can give you a quick list of common things that will get you near or right at it. The big things i can think of are:

-355
-Flat top pistons to get a compression of around 10-10.5. Im running 10.5:1 which is just on the cusp of being able to run pump gas.
-A GOOD set of heads. Vortecs are good heads no doubt but there are others on the market that will get you to that power level easier. Vortecs are the best flowing "factory" head but a set of AFR 195s or a set of dart pro1s or dart pro1 platinum's are better. There is lots of talk about how big to go with the intake runners. I dont think i would push it much past 200cc for a 355.
-Cam. If your planning on running EFI i would look into cams in comps XFI range. Im running a flat tappet XFI268 which is a pretty good sized cam. If you have a roller block your already ahead of the game and can run a more modern valvetrain and get a bit more power out of it than im getting right now.
-Dyno don headers. Pretty much all other headers are a compromise. When i get the cash im investing in a set.
-The intake....now the easiest and best is probably going to be a Holley Stealth ram. You will make more hp without sacrificing much if any torque. Its another thing on my list. If you do decide to go and do a conventional TPI setup...get a set of AS&M runners/TPIS runners, edelbrock base, and port the stock plenum and base to match the runners. It will flow loads better than the factory but not as well as the HSR still.

Thats just a quick guideline. There are other combinations that work and make good power but thats a pretty proven combo. For reference...i have a set of dart pro1s on a 355 and it put out 406hp at the crank on an engine dyno with a 4 barrel carb (broke it in then did a few pulls). With a good tune and a few other things im thinking i can get close to that number at the wheels. The carb was running a bit too rich for my motor.

 

To replace the valve seals you will need a valve spring compressor, once u compress a valve removed the keepers and everything else will come apart. If you will be reusing the current valves make sure you keep them in order (assuming you are doing more then just seals, if not no need to remove em, it's a very simple job, especially with the heads off. If there enough carbon build up or you just want to clean em carb parts cleaner works good (not the spray crap in a can, the paint can looking kind with a strainer that you can submerge your parts) As far as the freeze plugs there are a lot of ways to removed them, personally if I have an engine on a stand i drill a hole in em and I use my slide hammer to pop em out. If the engine is still in the car i usually do em the simplest way that the space allows (I.E drill a small hole, thread a screw in attach vicegrips and use a prybar on the vice grips to pop em out, any variation will do

 

I don't want to sound like a *** here, but I hope you have someone who knows about motors when you go to build this 400 HP engine. We are not talking a stock 350 with 250 HP, in a high HP motor you really need to know the correct lift and tourque specs. A motor is not parts you just lay in there and bolt together. Again not trying to be a jerk, just hate to see you go thru all this and have problems later

 

yeah iv already got the heads stripped down, springs, keepers, and valves all out and iv got the can of carb cleaner so I can soak my valves, but I didn't keep them in order, didn't know I needed too but what about the rubber seals?

 

and to answer this, i know my basic stuff around an engine and car but this is my first time being into an engine by myself so thats why im asking all the problems and un sure on alot of things, but yes i have someone here to help me, my step dad who was a mechanic for 20+ years and is use to building stuff like this is overseeing everything and is here if i need the help. and i also have my friend who sold me the engine who has been building for a few years if i need anything so im pretty sure that i can do this and not be able to worry about something going wrong.

 

Like I said, not trying to be a jerk; glad you have some back up. To much money and time involved to have some thing go wrong, goog luck on the build.

 

yeah i know you werent, but im trying to do this build myself without alot of help more or less so i know that i can do it myself since i want to be a mechanic but i just need to know what kind of fondation will work and what i need to use for my power level

 

would 1.5 or 1.6 roller rockers be best? i found a set of 1.5s online here for sale and am wondering

 

here are some engine pictures, the cylinder walls are amazing in the engine, you can still see the factory honeing marks in each cylinder, there are no ridges or damage, they are all smooth as can be, none of the bearings showed alot of wear on them and everything was tighten inside the engine for its mileage. im happy.

does anyone have the specs on an lt4 hotcam? would that be the proper cam choice for my build and the horsepower im wanting or should i go with a larger cam?

 

one last picture.

 

1.5's are stock, 1.6's will give you more lift.

as it's been said before, it's not about buying a bunch of "good" parts and putting them in your engine, you need to "build" an engine with a good combination of parts that all work well together. Some times parts that are great by themselves on paper, are useless if put in with other parts they dont work well with.

decide how much lift you want, then decide what combination of cam and rockers you need to achieve that lift.

 

That's why I asked about the lt4 hotcam

 

Z22, z24, or lt4 hot cam, which would be best under an rpm intake and holly carb?

 

didnt do much today, filled my bucket with purple power and soaked all my pistons and nuts and they went from black and oily to clean and silver like the should be, iv got my mains soaking at the moment and my valves to try and clean the carbon off them. but i found a build thread im going to follow to a T pretty much, one thing i might change is flat top pistons instead of using the factory 4 brow dish pistons.i figured that this would put me about my 400 hp, or atleast alittle above my 350 mark.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng...k/viewall.html

 

this is what i found on the cam so far, im going to search more tomorrow. also im still going to use the RPM preformer intake unless the one in that build will blow better, im trying to see what i can do to make it so i dont have the torque drop like they did around 6k

12-000-8 CHEVROLET 262-400 V8 (1957-98)

 

just remember, flat tops will increase your compression over dished pistons... if ur going with flat tops and end up machining decks ect... keep in mind how much higher your compression is going to be

 

be careful with that purple power degreaser. that stuff works great, but it ruined my intake on my berlinetta by turning it purple. i used it probably in an incorrect way, because i let it sit on the engine over night, and rinsed with water. even a hot tank could not get the purple staining off the plenum, i was pissed. so i had to paint it aluminum color to cover it.

 

was your intake aluminum? If so that explains why it happened, purple power is very hard on aluminum.

 

Got prices from my machine shop today

Hot tank block - $45
Remove and install cam bearings - $25
Cam bearings - $29
Freeze plugs - $8
Install freeze plugs - $6
Hot tank heads - $20

We talked about my 3 angle valve guide but didn't talk about prices till I get them up there. So I'm looking alittle over $100

 

any pics of said purple intake i wanna see it

 

haha i shoulda took a pic of it. this was over a year ago and like i mentioned i had to paint over it because it would not come out no matter what chemicals i applied, or even hot tank. it stained a few other things too like the battery tray (not rust, but actual paint).

 

Didn't do much, took my valves out of the carb can and wiped them off. I need to take a wire wheel to knock the carbon off, but I threw my keeps in the carb cleaner so they can soak, also took my main out and wiped it off and it's clean do I'm happy, so I put the rest of my mains and my rear main seal in to get it clean, and I knocked out all my freeze plugs, all 8 except the real big one at the back of the block where the cam goes but idk if I should knock that out. Also picked up 2 cans of aluminum high temp engine paint so I can paint my block and heads when they get back from the shop.

 

idk why you would clean your valves, and rear main seal.. or pistons really for that matter... generally if you are doing a performance build you replace all of that anyway, and you would NEVER reuse your rear main, why replace a part that wears with an old worn part when you have a motor that far torn down.

 

Reusing the metal. Not the seal itself. And look at the build at the top. I think I'm going with some stainless steel valves though. Also have a line on some hotcam 1.6 roller rockers for a decent price.

 

and add a roller timing chain kit aswell.

 

those would be your main caps then, not your rear main seal...

are you planning to reuse your pistons?

 

im thinking about it, the 4 eyebrow dish is hard on the compression, i might because the simple fact that they are already here and since the build im following used them for good results( 447hp) which should equal out to around 397 rhp if im correct but i havent looked into it much so im not postive on that number. but if i can find a set of single dish pistons or even flat dish im going to snag them and figure out how i can lower my compression because if i go with the build and change the pistons my compression is going to sky rocket and ill have to figure out how to lower it to an acceptable level.

 

Dished pistons and large chamber heads are the easiest way to lower compression, and even if you want to stay with a dished piston I would NEVER reuse old pistons. For what they cost, save yourself the hastle of having to tear it down again and put in new pistons now.

 

you should also see how much they will charge to balance the rotating assembly and assemble the shortblock.. not sure if you will be reusing the crank or not but you may want a price on machinging for it as well. Also have them inspect everything to determine if anything else is needed (although any reputable machine shop would insist on it and advice you on any nessicary as well as unnessicary maching that may be needed.)

 

was cleaning off the gasket surfaces off my block today and came acrossed this plug on the driver side back of the block near the bell housing, anyone know what it is? are there anymore of these plugs? all im seeing are a few bolts in the block and i added a picture of my cleaned up pistons, i lost one of my connecting rod nuts so i need to find that soon

 

When hot tanking the block iv read that it's a good idea to remove the oil galley plugs an have them cleaned by the hot tank and reemed aswell. Is this really a good idea and if so where in the hell are they? Also I saw some more of those plugs on my heads tonight, do they need to be pulled before they are tanked?

 

I don't see magnafluxing
decking the block
bore and hone
resizing rods
turning crank

it seems like the OP is taking a used engine, dipping it and tossing in some parts, wants gobs of HP but is short changing the correct process of block preparation

oh well, they call it the school of hard knocks for a reason

 

any idea on the block plug? i also have the holes in my heads, 1 had the plug and the other head doesnt so im lost.

 

I need more money lol, have my 1.6 RR for $89 I'm going to order tonight along with a bundle from summit, includes re ring kit, freeze plugs, and cam bearings.so that'll drop my machine shop price down by $40.

 

summits sealed power kits are great and the pistons in them are top notch

 

Everything Im getting is seal power so far. Any ideas on those plugs in my block and heads?

 

got my wishlist made for summit, grand total of $790.25. includes everything but new valve covers and pan, which i need to get or strip down my old ones, i dont think GM did very well on painting their stuff in 96, my block and heads have surface rust, along with my valve covers and my oil pan where the paint has flaked off. add about $85 for my block work, but i dont know what my heads are going to cost, finally got the casting and they are the 906 so they probably have the hardend valve seats so im going to need a bowl job, minor port work, valve job, hot tank, and a pressure test. its gonna be costly

 

Im pretty sure my 08 Chevy has surface rust on the block... that paint takes quite a beating... I dont think ive ever seen a 20+ year old block without surface rust.

 

my old 86s block was spotless, still had the blue? paint on it its been awhile since iv replaced it but yeah, iv never seen valve covers or pans have rust on them so its new to me, im going to try to clean them up before i spend the extra for new, i know im atleast getting new valve covers but just not right now, i let the 1.6 RR roll too. figured for now ill just use my 1.5s till im later on in the build and have everything else in order

 

didnt do much today, removed the valve seals from my heads and now they are ready to go to the shop but id still like to know about the plugs in both engine and heads, removed the rubber seal out of my rear main and put it in PP to finish off the oil residue, removed my head bolts and lifters from PP and wiped them off and stored them in baggys. my heads are ready to go to the shop now, but im going to do the bowl blending myself, i felt around them today and i felt the ridge everyone talks about and i think i can take it out by myself to save myself a few hundred bucks lol. all i have left to do to my block is remove the oil gally plugs then its ready to go. im going to try and order my freeze plug kit and cam bearings this weekend or next week.

 

should i go with a high volume pump or just a standard volume? i think the high volume would be better since im going to be spinning the tires off for the first couple months after its in but im not sure because of my windage tray setup, also should i upgrade to a louvered windage tray or is the standard enough?

 

Check out this build, a lot of good info for you

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...roc-build.html

 

Ordered my cam bearings and freeze plug kit so I can atleast get the block to the stop and then back home again

 

decided to toss up my summit list, feel free to add anything i might need for the build


Summit racing list
------------------
ARP chromley manifold bolts - $18.21 - ARP-134-2002
summit cam button - $3.95 - SUM-g001
summit carb stud kit - $4.99 - SUM-g1421
summit harmonic balancer bolt kit - $5.95 - SUM-G1677
timing chain cover - $22.95 - 141-753
summit valve cover breathers - $11.76 - SUM-G3416
summit true roller timing chain kit - $37.95 - SUM-G6601
summit re ring kit - $84.80 - SUM-RRKIT1-300
Total
----------
$168.41

 

Looking at a holly 600 single feed with vac secondaries now