'79 Z28 w/ 383 stroker

[Edem_Alive]

Well, I bought 60 grit AO, and it's tearing my ceramic nozzles apart in about ten minutes... Also, my gun backing plate has been worn through so I don't get a seal when I let go of the trigger, for a constant flow of media and air. Comp can't keep up like this. Might have to wait till I can get some carbide tips and new seal plate. The 60 grit should break down as I use it which is good. I think I had 120 grit before. The 60 does eat through the rubber coating a lot better though.

Rims I think were anodized from the factory so the inside is tough to come off. With the nozzle leak I am having a hard time keeping PSI above 60 which is also part of the issue. Gonna try a few hick fixes and see if it will hold me over till I can get new parts.

Just took it apart and it actually ate through the retaining screw as well

 

[Edem_Alive]

Pulling Pistons and they have .06 stamped on the top after I cleaned the carbon off

 

[Edem_Alive]

Got all pistons, cam, and crank out. Pretty much every bearing needs replaced. Piston bearings aren't too bad. Crank bearings look absolutely horrible. Cam's also not too good.

Journals don't look bad.

 

[Edem_Alive]

Looks like rods are 5.7" center to center. Cast rods. Looks like hypereutectic flat top pistons with minor skirt wear. Bores are looking good with minor wear. Probably will get everything off the block and throw it in my mill to check the deck to bore alignment. Pretty much every gasket has been dry and torn on removal.

 

[Edem_Alive]

3932442 Crank so a 3.48" stroke? Looks like I'll be getting a new crankshaft and Cam. Gonna have the pistons looked over. I'll post pics on here too, as to wether they are good to run or not. I'll post lots of pics tomorrow.

I think if I go with the 3.75" stroke for the 383 + the .06 over, I'll have a 388 Stroker?

 

[Edem_Alive]

pics from weekend in no particular order.

 

[Edem_Alive]

Been busy with March Madness and both my fiance's family and my family have been sick. Somehow I evaded it. Not much progress.

The new 60 grit eats my ceramic tips up too fast and blew a hole through the seal plate. I modeled up a new tip and machined one out of steel on the manual lathe really quick for a little test tip. If it works, I'll set a CNC up and make a few dozen. Went with a .110 through hole. When I first started blasting I only had a 25' 3/8 hose from my compressor to the blaster and it was able to push enough cfm through to keep pressure up in the blaster. I added another 25' hose and now it can't get enough cfm, gonna have to pull the old one off or just switch to a 1/2" hose. First world problems...

Also, I can't find a replacement seal plate anywhere and can't be fked to make one. I took the seal plate assembly off and fitted a ball valve on the handle. Works way better and my hands don't wear out having to hold the 'trigger' down.

I also have knocked all the plugs out of the block and oil galley plugs. Going to get it to the shop to have the cam bearings pulled, cam and mains line bored, decked, and vatted. Very first thing I'll have them do is sonic test it. Everything is looking really good on the inside other than the heads that were on it. It had a Comp Cams 5 4x4 flat tappet cam in it and there was very little wear on it and the lifters.

Going to get a scat 383 crank, probably sealed power raised pin pistons and scat I beam 5.7" rods. All the parts I took out of the 360 are in great condition, so they shouldn't be too hard to sell.

For a cam, not sure where I'll get it, but going to get a small base roller cam and lifters. Haven't decided on which heads I want.

Ceramic on the left.

shop is crowded

 

[Edem_Alive]

Well, I swapped my small hose out for a larger one and added the new tip to the set up. It worked very well but also had more wear than I'm looking for, but about what I expected. Much better than the ceramic tips, but still opened up to about 1/4" at the exit (still 1/8" at the rear entry).

I made it out of 416 Stainless, which is a pretty mild steel. I think I'll make a batch of them and send them off to get heat treated to around 80 Rockwell. I think they will hold up for 3-400 lbs of media vs the 100 lbs I put through this one.

So for paying about $3.50 for a ceramic I can make and heat treat one of these for a few quarters and get 4x life, theoretically. Beats paying $100+ for a carbide tip.

If you notice in the above picture, the rubber tip is tapered and I made mine straight. I was wondering what the taper was for and came to the conclusion that it is simply for molding purposes (easier to extract a tapered surface than a straight surface).

I will run another 100lbs through the steel tip and see where it ends up. I expect it to be shot after that.

Also, with the bigger hose I had 0 issue with my compressor keeping up. Stayed almost perfectly consistent compared to before where it would drop from 120-60psi in about 2 minutes.

 

[Edem_Alive]

Steel after 200 lbs through it. Ceramic after about the same.

100 lbs through a new ceramic 200 through steel

Blasting progress

 

[Canadian Barton]

Looking good, I really have to get going on mine but the oldest is turning 16 in a few months and we have to put some work into the 2000 GMC to get him on the road.