0ski_dwn_it

Well yesterday we set out to put together my new motor. The buildup could not have gone better. Eveything went together without a hitch and I could not be more pleased.

I would like to give a HUGE thanks to all the guys that helped. Jim (85vet), Corky, and Dad. We all busted our butts yesterday but had an awesome time and some good laughs while putting it together. And that is what this stuff is all about.

Here are some pictures:

Here is the Dart little M Block with the Crank just set into place.





Here is a shot of what they refer to as splade main caps. The two outter bolts are at an agle to give the bottom 1/2 even more strength. These mains on this block are HUGE!



Here you can see the main on the block



Gotta use LOTS oil when assembling the motor. I mean ALOT. Makes for a messy floor, but its worth the protection. Some say to use assembly lube, but that stuff is like a thick sticky paste, and can promote spun bearings on startup. Since we started using just oil, there have been no mishaps. I believe the only good place for the assembly lube is on flat tappet cams.



That would be Dad taking the honors of file fitting the rings to EACH specific bore. :cheers:



The fun job of installing the spiral locks...this one will make your fingers sore for a week! :lol:



Here is a shot of the JE piston and Crower Billet Chromoly Connecting rod. Notice on the rod how the rod is designed for stroker assemblies. The rod just above my thumb has relief designed into it for added clearance with large stokes. Dart states that a 4.00" crank will not even fit without massive clearnacing of the block. But using these quality rods, we had enough clearance that no grinding was required. Hell now we are thinking we should have gone to 4 1/8" strokers. :yesnod: Maybe next year :crazy:




Putting her into place


1 down 7 to go.


Here is that clearance that I spoke of earlier. About 1/8" of an inch to spare. If the rods would not have been designed the way they were, you can see why they would have hit. I was also amazed that the rods, when comparing them to Dad's Big Block Aftermarket Forged Manley Rods were actually LARGER than them!! :lol:


ahh the shortblock is together and get a little wipedown...


The pistons were in the hole .006" and with my .039" gasket, will give an ideal .045 quench height. And a final compression of about 11.8 :thumbs: Sorta wish I would have put some dome pistons in there and went all out with about 14:1 compression. Hell its an easy 8% increase in power :yesnod: But we will keep it a little on the tame side. :lol:





Here is the marine head gasket.



Here are the heads going on. :cheers:




Here is what the final product is going to look like. Need to paint the block and put the pan and timing cover on. etc...But this should give you an idea of what it will look like :cheers:





I could not be more pleased with the way things have turned out and the AWESOME help I got with putting it together from these guys.

Now today I have to go out and clean up my garage that I declared a disaster area last night and left for today.

Thanks again guy and hope you all enjoyed the pictures. I will post some more once the pan is on, and block is painted, and the intake is polished.

:cheers:

AGENT 86

Lookin good Jesse :thumbs:
Look even better in my car :jester
:cheers:

RichS

Can't wait to hear how it runs. :cheers:

hngacurv

:cool: Bet you can't wait to get it in the vette.

Viker1

Wow, that looks like one amazing engine :thumbs:

1MoorTym

She's a beauty :cheers:

That intake is going to kick out some serious hp. Take a look at pg 14 in the April issues of Hot Rod. Wilson Manifolds built the same manifold for a big block. ATI is going to use it on an engine to make 2000hp on pump gas.

Where did you get the marine head gasket ? It looks a lot like the GM heavy duty composition one I used, but thinner at .039 versus .041. Any other advantages to the marine piece ??

Caboboy

Jesse, lets talk clearance. I see you're using 6" rods (I am too), how were they at the cam? That's my big concern, since I'm using a standard base circle 219. Am I right in thinking the angled profile on the shoulder of the rod above the bearing gives you enough room up there?

Looks good man, a fresh motor in the shortblock stage is really exciting!!!!

rbhighrise

:iagree: :thumbs:

0ski_dwn_it

With the standard base circle you will probably have problems. That is why I sold my 242/242 cam and got this small base circle cam (.880 base circle).

Not sure what the specifics of your buildup are. With a less stroke, you might be oK. You really have to mock it up to see.

Guys thanks for the comments. You can't believe the desire to hear that baby fire up, and the desire to take it down the track the first time! :auto:

GS057

Nice :cool:

Steve85

Very :cool:

Nice to see it coming together, I know this has been in the planning stages, pretty much since mid-summer, if not before that.

Hope it continues to go smooth...

NoWorries

:party:

Looks like a blast. :cool: :cool: :cool:

On the 14:1 compression though, we used to have an engineer on here, I can't remember his username, I think it was BlueLT-1 or something like that, and he had a very detailed write-up on compression points and power. Anyways, he said the 4% rule really only held true between 8:1 and 9:1. Between 9 and 10 it went down, 10 and 11 it went down, by 11 to 12 you're really only looking at a 1.5% increase, so up to 14, you aren't really gaining that much, according to that report.

I don't remember the exact number, but between a 6.8:1 compression radial engine could really make some power if you bumped the compression, but then you start breaking stuff. :lol:

:seeya

CFI-EFI

Are you sure about your compression ratio? That has to be the silly question of the day, but from the looks of the pistons, and heads, it appears to be a LOT higher compression. I had to go to a major dish in my pistons to get it down to 11.5:1 on a slightly smaller engine. I got the deck height and gasket thickness from this post. Do you mind sharing the piston and head ccs?

RACE ON!!!

Corvette0096

Valve covers look trick. :cheers:

cprgmr

:cool: Awesome Jesse - can't wait to see those numbers! :cheers:

RonRed89

You'll be movin with that motor! Good job. Can't wait to see it sometime this season.

Ron

Chevy Guy

Wow, very nice looking. Best of luck.

0ski_dwn_it

No problem with the question. You have to watch. MANY of the calculators out there are not correct. I use this on:http://www.rosspistons.com/calculator.php

or http://www.smokemup.com

My gaskets were 4.200", head CC at 66cc (milled down) and my piston dish at 6cc

Give 11.8:1, which is what we shot for. To get much more you would have to go to dome pistons since the valve to head deck would start interfering. :cheers:

J Z06

"In my best italian voice" She look a niiiiice!!! :D :cheers: :thumbs:

[EDIT] I had to take a second look at those valve covers. Corvette0096 is right, those are awesome ! Nice motor for sure. :yesnod:


[Modified by Jay 383, 2:28 PM 2/29/2004]

Sliding

It looks great.
I'm sure that it'll perform even better.
Congrats. :cheers: