BBC 489 build

[Craig Nedrow]

Its Friday, and I had a good day in the shop. First two pics of the finisher ports. Cleaned the heads, and assembled. I blow the guides out with carb cleaner, air, then lube, assembly lube, and Lucas, as it is so sticky and stays on the stem. It is nice having the valves in, but cannot install the pushrod guides, rocker arms, until I get my cam......but it came late this afternoon.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

I also notched the block to help with intake shrouding, 1st two pics. For those that want to know, stay .06 off the top of the ring, and use your head gasket as a templet and scribe a line. I had hard stones on a die grinder, and finished with the finest cone I had, but pleased. Why? worth about 10 ft. lbs. of torque, and 13 hp at 6000 rpm. We'll see how it works. My block mods are now complete. Pan came today. This pan has been tested, and is worth hp, and a nice piece. The power is made through oil control, which I have taken pains to address if you have been following along. Test say this is worth 9 ft. lbs. tq, and 11 hp. See, just made 24 hp.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

I like a positive retention of the cam bolts, and ARP bolts for the head. Fit perfect.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

The engine brain cam in today, a few pics. In retrospect, I wish I had gone solid roller, less trouble with solids, and much higher lift. Disappointingly the Johnson lifters did not come like they were supposed to today. Cam is beautiful and should work good with this combo. I had to use more duration because the heads are a bit small for this engine. However after the porting, and block mods, hoping for an extra 20cf. If I can pull strong to 6500 rpm's then I know the heads work. Probably more like 6200 rpm's. I will go over the cam tomorrow with a stone if there is anything that needs deburred, but I doubt it.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Put in the soft plug in the back of the engine, behind the cam, then back on engine stand. Deburred and checked the rings in the bore. Use a fine grit hard stone to deburr, and I did have a couple rings that needed burrs removed, which if not removed may cut a groove in the bore. Top .016 middle .014, oil .018. Started the cleaning process, seems like it takes forever. Crank side everything hit with compressed air, brake clean, more compressed air. Then towels wipe down every surface until the towel is clean. Then I use a tac cloth just because then air. Valley is the same, all lifter bores scrubbed with a brush, washed and dried. bore is washed scrubbed blown out and dried. Then I use lacquer thinner and clean paper towels. I use total seals ring break in powder. If the powder is green, the bores are not clean enough. Bore shown was not clean enough...so lacquer and more scrubbing.

 

[bh10]

Thanks for that info Brandon, I would like to see that on mine, and it should stay together. Carb or fi? Do you know your hp or torque?

Sorry for the delay. Im running a Sniper EFI, no numbers but Ive seen other similar builds in the high 500 hp and 600 ft lbs range.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Busy, but not on this. However got the lifters in today, and told my wife this was like diamonds and ruby's to me. Cant wait to get some of this stuff together, and much of the tedious prep is done. Hope to install the crank, cam, and timing chain to see how everything feels. Hopefully it takes very little effort to turn with light oil. If it feels good, remove oil and replace with assembly lube.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Some done today. Back cam bearing was too tight, unfortunately I had installed the crank. Fortunately the crank spun so nice , but I pulled it and was able to hone/ scrape in the back bearing. Also took some out of the second to back, as it was too snug. Anyway cam is now good. I did install the chain on the cam. Earlier I used an old electric frying pan to heat up the cam sprocket to help with installation. It is cold out, so left crank out, then had a piece of tubing that fit over the crank to drive on the crank sprocket. Went on easy 8 degrees advance on the crank.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Tomorrow is town day, and visit Mom, so probably not any shop time. The machine shop should have checked this, BUTTT, I am the one doing the assembly... Soo if you are doing this, check the cam in the bearing before installing the freeze plug, as that gives you easy access to the back bearing shell. I used a brake wheel cylinder home on a custom extension that attached to the hone. The extension was 16 inches long and was attached to my electric drill. Allowed me to drive the hone from the front of the motor, Anyway it worked and am satisfied. I also did some hand scraping as well. All in all a snitch tight, but acceptable. Spins nice. Pic, always check for stuff like this, Little nick, I just used a round file to file that ti- off. Just a small nipple really......

 

[legopnuematic]

Had the same thing when I did the dingleball rebuild on the slant six in my Dart, put new cam bearings and and go to drop the cam in (literally, had the block stood up) and a had do do some scraping and honing. Thankfully without the crank in place there is plenty of access.

 

[Z28 Guy]

Im curious, what you go do for headers and the exhaust? What mufflers ?