My Project

[xten]

I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I'd have to say you got lucky not to have made a boat anchor. 35°? PLEASE don't forget the ZDDP.

 

[Plant Engineer]

Yeah, dodged the bullet there. I was surprised how little damage there was other than the obvious bent valves. Even the cam and valve train were still usable. I just elected not to because I'm really not 100% sold on solid rollers for street driving over a few thousand miles. . It looks like the pin sheered off at the track then the bolts broke. The woodruff keys holding the balancer and crank sprocket ( double comp cams chain ) had taken a hard beating and I think it got into a pretty good valve float and just messed stuff up . Bearings all looked fine and were replaced. I doubt the bolts loosened as they were torqued to spec, loctited and had the wrap around plate.

Yeah , 34-36 and break in ZDDP and probably in the 1-2 oil change as well.

 

[xten]

There are severe duty solid rollers they say are OK for the street, but I really don't trust them. Guy I know had a solid roller lifter come apart on him, and it wasn't like he drove it everywhere. Just cruises and shows. Never raced the car. I would use the ZDDP in every oil change with a flat tappet cam. Some oils say they have enough, but I use it anyway. Cheap insurance.

 

[Plant Engineer]

 

[Plant Engineer]

Got some panhard bar shortening to do but I like the tires.

 

[Turbo70Camaro]

whats the benefit of the oil return lines on the back of the heads? are you filling up the valve covers with oil?

 

[Plant Engineer]

I certainly am , or at least I was with the old cam and lifter set. It was really, really , really bad when I had the HV pump in there right after I built the 540. Never put a HV pump in a big block. It would pump that oil pan dry and the pressure would start dipping at 6500-7000.. Running a blueprinted Moroso standard volume now and its not as bad but If I'm tooling down the highway at 4 grand and run it up to 6000 ish for a bit it throws a lot of oil smoke out the exhaust . Covers are filling up faster than they can drain . I did a few oiling return mods to the block and heads when I had it out including the external drain lines. Common big block problem even my dad had 40 years ago . Running Howards EDM solid flat tappets not and with the Dart block priority main oiling it may be enough to call the problem fixed or at least bandaided enough to not have it pop up any more

 

[xten]

You may also want to put the breather on the right side in the front. I had one in the back of the valve cover and it used to get oil all over the valve cover and the back of the motor on a hard launch. It was a mess after a long day at the track.

 

[Plant Engineer]

Yeah, thats not actually a breather. It is but its a solid grommet underneath for just that reason.

Getting there. Should have it fired this weekend. Going to Mexico on vacation for a few weeks next week and it MIGHT be ready for the track to see how it does on FRIDAY 13th !!! ...or not. We'll see.

 

[Plant Engineer]

Picked up a Pro Systems 440 GPH fuel pump that I'll set the regulator at 8 PSI for. I'm running a return system with the regulator mounted at the tank so that feed and return are under pressure. Plumbed the nitrous fuel solenoid into the same line. Way overkill on the fuel but I've had engine lean out on the high side before and I'm not liking being able to see through a piston.

Still trudging away. BTW that low mount alternator bracket is worth its weight in gold.