440 6-Pack Stroker - Build Underway

[Musicman]

Well I finished gasket matching the 6-pack intake a week or so ago, so I started cleaning up the intake ports on the heads today. The ports of the heads match the gasket pretty well, so there isn't really a lot of work involved there. Most of the work will be limited to removing the imperfections within the runners themselves, smoothing out the lumps, bumps and ridges as it were. The only real area that will require a little extra attention here is the inside wall where it raps around the pushrod (the pushrod pinch), these areas are pretty rough as cast, especially coming around the backside. Fortunately there is plenty of extra meat in these areas, so cleaning them up and smoothing out the turn won't be a problem.
Anyway... Here's a shot of a couple of the runners I did this morning... their still in the rough at this stage, but their pretty much done. I'm using a set of inside calipers and telescoping gauges to get the internal dimensions "reasonably" close to each other...  closer than they were when I started anyway. As one might expect, the as cast dimensions fluctuate quite a bit. I'm not porting these heads mind you, I'm just cleaning up the runners. If I was going to port them, I'd be taking a drive over to Dwayne's

[firefighter3931]

Nice work Mike....the intake port cleanup looks excellent. 



Ron

[Musicman]

Thanks Ron   

I figure every little bit helps... especially since the Stealth heads are more or less at the entry level of aftermarket performance. Their good heads, they just need a little extra attention in the QA department. Cleaning up the runners should give the flow numbers a little more respect. As an added bonus, when cleaning up the turn at the pinch point, the internal runner opening ends up getting enlarged from the stock average of 1.035 to a much smoother 1.125 which is much closer to the dimension of the intake port itself. 
I could "probably" open them all the way, or dam close to it if I wanted to, but that would more or less defeat the purpose of buying budget heads in the first place. The idea here is to get good performance with the least amount of time, money and effort invested. Since it doesn't take a lot of time or effort to do this, I consider it time well spent.

[firefighter3931]

Mike, that's a nice improvement in the pinch area....definately the smallest point in that port. For your application a full port would be overkill. Those heads will still easily make 500Hp and a boatload of torque. With that VooDoo 220* cam you won't be shifting past 5500 anyway. I really feel sorry for your back tires. 


Ron

[Musicman]

For your application a full port would be overkill.

Absolutely... so why bother

With that VooDoo 220* cam you won't be shifting past 5500 anyway. I really feel sorry for your back tires. 

Yup, that's the intent of the build alright... to keep the power bands on the street, and to do it with good manors. If everything goes according to plan, it should be one hell of a lot of fun

Mike

[Musicman]

Big Changes.... I was up at the machine shop this morning to check on the progress, or lack thereof.
Bottom line... The shop is overwelled with work, so I am pulling my engine out of there. The shop will finish honing the cylinders over the weekend, and I will be picking up the block on Monday morning.

The remaining work (including the Dyno tune) will be done at Larry's over in Groton, CT... http://www.larryspower.com/index.html

It won't be long now folks  

[dstryr]

Good luck with the new shop.   I am ready to finish bolting the last items on to my motor and will dyno it in a couple of weeks.   Hopefully it will also be in the car before it is time to put it away for the winter.

[SeattleCharger]

              

[firefighter3931]

I like the look of the new shop Mike ! 


Ron

[Musicman]

I picked up the finished block today and brought it home for assembly. The machinist was very impressed with the accuracy of the pistons that came with the 440source kit. Normally he mics an individual piston, and then hones one cylinder to fit it. He then numbers that particular piston for that particular hole. In this case however, he said that every piston in the box was spot on in terms of uniformity, so there was no need to number them. Of course the pistons are American made, and not an overseas product, so that may have something to do with it.

[Musicman]

Well I contacted the folks down south to see what kind of time I might have left here in CT to work on my block, and it didn't look to promising. I really wanted to assemble everything myself and then take it to Larry's for all of the run in's and testing. At this point in time however, I'm just tired of waiting for this thing to be done, so I dropped off most of the kit at Larry's this morning and got an estimate for the total assembly costs...
All I can say about that is... !!! DAM !!!   
Like everything else in life, it really does pay to do it yourself whenever you can. 
I don't mind paying for good machine work, but I sure hate having to pay someone to do something I can do myself.

On a brighter note however... the engine will probably be up & running now in a couple of weeks, as opposed to several months if I did it myself. The problem with doing it myself is that when I'm on the road for 6 months, I only have one weekend a month to fly back here to CT where the block is... and as one might imagine, my time during those monthly weekend visits is dedicated to wife and family first. Finding a little spare time to work on the build would be tricky at best. Well, at least this is my last road trip for quite a while anyway... but dam, one extra month home could have saved me a good penny.

[Musicman]

Stopped by Larry's this morning to drop off my induction system and explain the mods I made to the linkage system on the carbs. While I was there they were dynoing an oval track motor for another customer... pretty cool 

... and YES, the place really is as clean as it looks in the pictures on there web site ... you could eat off the floor in there. I'm not sure you'd really want too though

[Musicman]

Holy Smokes
These guys are almost done already   ... I didn't even know that they had started yet. 
I thought we were still collecting miscellaneous parts

[Musicman]

You may have noticed that the rockers are still missing from the assembly. Turns out there was a problem with the Crane Gold Race Rocker Kit that I picked up on eBay for next to nothing. It's the right RB kit alright, but it had the wrong shafts in the kit (I never checked it). No harm done however, since I really wanted a set of Banana Cut shafts anyway, so it all worked out for the better in the end.

Everything else has been perfect so far however... All of the machine work from the previous shop was flawless in all respects which made the work at this shop that much easier. I was actually expecting a little extra effort going into some of the 440 source pieces, but the shop says nope, everything was perfect right out of the box. Didn't even have to clearance the block for the 4.25 stroker kit... the H-Beam rods had 80-100 thousandths clearance all the way around. The pins had all the right clearances. The crank dropped right into place with all the right numbers. Even the heavy duty oil pickup tube that I bought from them dropped right into place... it sat perfectly without having to bend the tube or cut the tray. Timing chain and cover etc... all good.

[oldschool]

   man will you look at how clean that shop is. you could not get it any cleaner! i bet your motor is just as clean......

[Musicman]

  man will you look at how clean that shop is. you could not get it any cleaner! i bet your motor is just as clean......

I know what you mean... I'm almost afraid to walk around the place... I may get something dirty

[dstryr]

I was actually expecting a little extra effort going into some of the 440 source pieces, but the shop says nope, everything was perfect right out of the box. Didn't even have to clearance the block for the 4.25 stroker kit... the H-Beam rods had 80-100 thousandths clearance all the way around. The pins had all the right clearances. The crank dropped right into place with all the right numbers. Even the heavy duty oil pickup tube that I bought from them dropped right into place... it sat perfectly without having to bend the tube or cut the tray. ... all good.

My builder said the same about my kit. No extra time on any of it other than to check it thoroughly to verify.   He did clearance the pick-up tube boss, though. 

[SeattleCharger]

 man will you look at how clean that shop is. you could not get it any cleaner! i bet your motor is just as clean......

[Musicman]

My builder said the same about my kit. No extra time on any of it other than to check it thoroughly to verify.   He did clearance the pick-up tube boss, though. 

Yes, I was very surprised that it cleared the boss myself... Usually that is a hit, even when all else is good. This is the reason why we drilled the boss slightly off-center when enlarging it to 1/2"... We didn't want to take away from the wall thickness any more than we had too, because it was assumed that there may be some clearancing done in that area.

[Musicman]

Here's a few extra shots that I took yesterday as well... Nothing much, just another shot of the block, the cam & lifters all lubed and ready, and the Comp Cam 10* Lock set installed on the heads.... nothing special but hey, every picture is a good picture, right?

I still have more stuff to bring down... just little stuff like valve covers & studs etc, but at this point it's all stop until we get the new rocker shafts. Then we will measure the push rod lengths and get those on order. Not expecting anything out of the ordinary there, but better safe than sorry.
I have some jetting to do on the carburetors before they get installed, and I have to change out the power valve on the center carb. I also need a set of plugs & wires for the ignition before it can breath for the first time... I'm getting closer.

[Musicman]

I received my new water pump today

[Musicman]

I stopped by the shop this morning to drop off the new pump and a few other miscellaneous items.
They have the block painted now, and the balancer & pointer are installed. Just waiting on the new Banana Cut rocker shafts to arrive from Hughes Engines, so we can finish buttoning this thing up.
If you look at the drivers side of the block in the picture, you can see the small block shaft that came with the rocker kit sitting on the head... it's a little short  Oh well, I should have the new shafts from Hughes in a few of days 

[Hemidog]

Is that a engine shop, or nasas secret ailen headquarters?

[firefighter3931]

WOW... looks fantastic Mike !    That shop is ultra sanitary 

Won't be long now 



Ron

[Musicman]

The shop looked a little closer at the Crane rocker kit today... Turns out the whole kit was for a small block, not just the shafts
Oh well, that's my fault... that's what I get for not looking at shit when it arrives... Farg'n eBay

Of course the worse part was that now I had to get a new set... and get it quick!!!
In the beginning, I had planned on using stock Mopar rockers, but when I found this Crane Gold "RB" set on eBay for less, I picked them up... Now of course I have to pony up the real cash for a new $$$ set from Hughes to go with the shafts that I already ordered. I guess the folks at Hughes felt sorry for me though cause I got a little break on the price     Still farg'n expensive though for a street build 
Everyone at Hughes is at a show this week however, so they won't be shipping until Monday ... That's cutting my schedule pretty darn close here, as I was also informed by my prodject manager this morning that I must return south A.S.A.P. to oversee the final stages of a navy vessel overhaul down there... So my little vacation back home here in CT is almost over... at least for a while anyway.

None-the-less, I still have about 200 ft of porch rail to mill up and install before I leave as well... the Dakota needs a complete brake system rebuild, lines everything, front to back... the Duster needs a ball joint... I fixed the Toyota after my son siezed the engine, but it still needs brakes... then there's that smoke detector system that I have to install for my daughter etc, etc, etc, etc.... the Honey Do list just goes on and on... Now you know why the block is in the shop and not at home... I don't have time to breath here let alone work on my build at the moment. Shit just piles up when your away for months at a time.

OK, I'm done piss'n & moan'n for a while 

I'll keep ya posted... I'll have it running before I leave