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Some progress on the engine build. The block and internals are currently at the shop. I was going to get the block acid dipped to remove the old paint and clean out the coolant passages as this was a high mileage 3.4, but the shop guy said that he would have to re-hone the cylinders after the dip and that might make them too big for my cylinders.
The internals are all getting balanced.
Any ideas on how to best clean out the coolant passages or is it not a big deal?
Once I get it home, I am going to reassemble it with either a 272/284 grind cam or WOT-tech.com's "Little Thumper" 283/275 grind cam and some custom port/polished 3.1 heads(for this year). I might build a turbo set up yet, but I want the car ready to take on the Power Tour again in June so I'm not sure on that.
Did i hear a possible hybrid turbo set up? Nice. If you ever do go that route just look at my sig and that will show you the potential of a set up like that. Mines just a 3.1/3100 though not a 3.4.
Just wondering but have you ever considered a delta cam? I got my 270 split custom cam for 140 bucks shipped to the door with the comp cam lifter set. Not sure what WOT cams cost but i'm guessing the delta would save you some cash and you could toss that somewhere else. Might be worth a call to see what they recommend and can offer you. But then again if you stay NA and dont intend to go with a turbo down the road that will cause you to want a much different set up cam wise then me. But they are very good as asking lots of questions to make sure you get the right cam for your set up(stall speed, comp ratio, gears,...exc) and not one that someone off of a forum suggested.
When I did my hybrid build 2 years back, they hot dipped it and it did seem to clean out the coolant passages quite well. Now i run mainly water only(and water wetter) in my car as i'm at the track so much that they really do frown at ethe. or prop. glycol based coolent. And to be honest if I do mess up the track id rather it just be water everywhere..lol So i get a lot of oxidation anyways from that and corrosion from the dissimilar metals. But I wouldn't be too worried about it. Let them hot dip the block to clean it all up and that should do you fine.
Did i hear a possible hybrid turbo set up? Nice. If you ever do go that route just look at my sig and that will show you the potential of a set up like that. Mines just a 3.1/3100 though not a 3.4.
Just wondering but have you ever considered a delta cam? I got my 270 split custom cam for 140 bucks shipped to the door with the comp cam lifter set. Not sure what WOT cams cost but i'm guessing the delta would save you some cash and you could toss that somewhere else. Might be worth a call to see what they recommend and can offer you. But then again if you stay NA and dont intend to go with a turbo down the road that will cause you to want a much different set up cam wise then me. But they are very good as asking lots of questions to make sure you get the right cam for your set up(stall speed, comp ratio, gears,...exc) and not one that someone off of a forum suggested.
When I did my hybrid build 2 years back, they hot dipped it and it did seem to clean out the coolant passages quite well. Now i run mainly water only(and water wetter) in my car as i'm at the track so much that they really do frown at ethe. or prop. glycol based coolent. And to be honest if I do mess up the track id rather it just be water everywhere..lol So i get a lot of oxidation anyways from that and corrosion from the dissimilar metals. But I wouldn't be too worried about it. Let them hot dip the block to clean it all up and that should do you fine.
Ya I will eventually own a hybrid too. Honestly I am planning on copying your build a lot! What I would really like to do is get the 3.4 bottom end in with the stock 3.1 top this year and hopefully get a turbo set up fabbed up and a mild tune burned. The only catch is that I want to have the car ready in time to go on the Hot Rod Power Tour again this year.
As far as the cam goes, I was planning on talking to Delta once I get my refund check. The real reason I was looking at the cam size from WOT is because of the sound and because of what the dyno estimator said it would make over the Comp Cams 260-260, 272-284 cams that I used for comparison. I did see that it is way bigger than what anyone else was talking about running. is is what it sounds like:
When I did my hybrid build 2 years back, they hot dipped it and it did seem to clean out the coolant passages quite well. Now i run mainly water only(and water wetter) in my car as i'm at the track so much that they really do frown at ethe. or prop. glycol based coolent. And to be honest if I do mess up the track id rather it just be water everywhere..lol So i get a lot of oxidation anyways from that and corrosion from the dissimilar metals. But I wouldn't be too worried about it. Let them hot dip the block to clean it all up and that should do you fine.
Ok. Theven problem my engine builder had is apparently the only way the guy he sends it out to will dip a motor is after he tumbles it in a concoction of some kind of shells to get the rough edges off. He was worried about screwing up the hatching on the bore since according to him it's perfect. So I think I'll probably just leave it alone.
He also expressed concernsome about the hypereutectic pistons the package I have came with. He said he has seen enough of them shatter in race and boosted street engines that he refuses to use them in any motor he fully builds. I have heard a guy talk about the pistons in his boosted big block shattering but nothing anywhere else. Has anyone else ever had issues with the hypereutectic pistons shattering in a v6?
I ran hypereutectic pistons in my Hybrid years ago without issue. I went as high as 9 PSIG at the time, since I didn't have enough injector to even support that, and was before I got into tuning.
I run hyper pistons as well with Moly rings. No problems here. 2 full years now of alot of track times with the hybrid set up. Trust me when I say I have pushed my engine to the limit when it comes to the stock parts and hyper pistons but I stay away from kr. And my timing is pretty mild for having alum heads.
Ok. So I know usually necroposting is frowned upon, but I've got a good reason lol.
6 years after the purchase of the engine and 4 years after sending the block out to get forged pistons and get the caps line honed for the stud kit, I'm FINALLY actually building the block.
We started with the removal of the worn (~200kiles) 3.1.
We then pulled the wiring harness apart to remove the MAF and EGR related wiring. Were in the process of tucking the harness out of sight.
I'm going to splice in a large part of the ecm harness from a 91 firebird as well as much of the engine harness from an 04 Grand Am.
Some more progress pics. Were creating custom wiring harnesses to better hide the wiring. Heads and intake installed for mockup purposes These three holes in the lifter valley all get plugged, right?
Yes, you should be able to shine a light into those holes and/or use some sort of rod/poker and/or use pressurized air to see that they go to the oil galleys. IIRC the two small ones go to the mains, and the large one is coming from the oil filter location.
Yes, you should be able to shine a light into those holes and/or use some sort of rod/poker and/or use pressurized air to see that they go to the oil galleys. IIRC the two small ones go to the mains, and the large one is coming from the oil filter location.
Update time again!!
got my heads back from the machine shop. Sent them to get looked over and have the seals replaced. Also did a valve job.
Got the oil pump and pan on the block. Also got the cam, timing set and timing cover/ water pump on. Heads are installed for the last time.
Now we're waiting for custom pushrods.
Holy crap am I behind on my updates lol.
here's what I've been up to the last month.
Block, pan, motor mounts, lower intake, and oil filter mount all cleaned, painted and installed. New o rings on the injectors, injector rail installed.
2 of the 3 accessory mounts modified and awaiting paint:
alternator bracket is a modified bracket off 95 3.4L
A/C bracket is a modified 3rd gen bracket with a boss cut off and extendedP/S pump mount is also a modified 3rd gen bracket with all the smaller holes slotted What the final product will look like Best picture of how far the boss had to move to line up with the aluminum head
02-01-2016, 01:22 PM
