chevelle summer project(s)

[TireSmoker]

I decided to start a new thread for my Chevelle, since the old "winter projects thread" is now over a year old.

I'm going to do a new 406 build, to replace my former 406, "Mr. Freeze."
Mr. Freeze was a .030-over 400 with 5.7" rods, Wiseco Pro-Tru pistons and around 9.5:1 compression with the 76cc 487X heads, actuated by a Summit cam, 234/244, .488/.510 (with 1.5 rockers). It's best ET was 12.70 @ 108. My best EFI pass was 12.94 @ 106.

I was told by Michael's Racing Engines that I could put my current rotating assembly into a new block, but it would need to be align-bored/honed (crank journals) and cylinders bored/honed (in addition to hot tank, new cam bearings, freeze plugs). That would be about $500-600.

I have a dilemma about pistons. With my current flat-tops and the 64cc chambers on my Edelbrock heads, I come in at 11 to 11.3 compression (depending on deck height and gasket thickness) That's a bit high. Now would be the easiest time to change it, but it adds to the cost. My friend Matt works at Wiseco and could likely get a discount, but it's still money. I'm also tempted to try a different cam.

Another dilemma is the body. It needs a lot of work too. I might just write-off 2007 and find a body shop to get that stuff fixed and take my time rebuilding the engine.

Decisions, decisions...

-Dave

[ttamrettus]

Dave,

My 2 cents. Take the Chevelle to a body shop for some cancer repair. Rebuild the 400 and install it with the carb into the vette. That way you can get the "break-in" miles out of the way. Then when the Chevelle is ready, swap it with the EFI into the chevelle.

[markss327]

I agree with ttamrettus.

Mechanical motivation will increase dramatically, if the shell is pretty.
Keep in mind too, what are you gona wana run the 1320 with? I can't see you shifting the fiberglass ride at TRP. Not that you can't do it, it's just too nice a car to bang gears with. My $.02 Of course, that's once the re-modeled 406 is broke in.

The pressurized Pontiac is an option. But traction becomes an issue.

What does Linda drive. Hummmm......

For $500 you could put 3.73s or 4.10s in the truck. That would really change the personality of that thing. (BTW, the AV has 3.73s, and turns just a tad over 1800rpms at 60mph)

[TireSmoker]

I basically have 3 different projects to contend with -- building a new 406, rebuilding the 350 from the '88 GMC I parted out, and the bodywork.

I assume any body shop will want the car to move under its own power. I'm thinking I'll just rebuild the 350 relatively cheap, much like the one I did for the El Camino. Re-use the stock pistons/rods, new rings/bearings, new cam (can use factory roller parts!) , add my Vortec heads, and put a carb on for simplicity. I can drop this in the Chevelle to make it drivable. At that point, it could be dropped off at a body shop.

While it's in 'paint jail', I can build the 406. The 350 will eventually, down the road, find its way into the Corvette. I'm in *no* hurry to take the Corvette apart, even if its current performance is weaker than I'd like. A lesson learned from the El Camino is to never have two project cars apart at the same time.

I'm willing to race my Pontiac a little this year. I used to pedal the Chevelle when it had traction issues, so I can pedal this one too. I can't see racing the Corvette more than once, possibly twice. Besides, the Pontiac is faster.

I guess I need to find a shop to do the bodywork. Any suggestions?

-Dave

[Basement Paul]

I disagree with Mark in that there is no car that is too nice to run down the track. Transmissions, motors, and rearends can be fixed without consequence to the body.

There is a guy in Chardon who works out of his garage, but his is very good. His name is Steve Canner, but I don't have his number. I can get it though. He's not that cheap, but he's very particular.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

Well I finally got back out to the garage this week.

The replacement 400 has been stripped down to a bare block. Mostmint had suggested possibly checking a few bearings and using that short-block as-is for now. I did check a few bearings and everything was looking decent, but I still tore it down anyway. Everything did look like it was usable. But, the next engine that goes in there is hopefully going to be staying there a while. I don't want a band-aid.

I pulled my cracked 406 out tonight and it is on the stand waiting to be disassembled.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

I called 1-800-RACE-GAS, (Sunoco Race Fuels) as suggested by my machine shop, to ask about how much compression I can run on 92-octane. I talked with a guy there about my combo and the short answer is that with my aluminum heads w/ fast burn chamber, he said I should easily be able to run 11:1, but that if I approached 12:1, I need to be real careful with the tune & ignition timing. So, with that, I think I’m going to re-use what I have which saves me a ton of money. (probably time too)

I guess I need to get moving on getting Mr. Freeze torn down and getting all the pieces to the machine shop. Maybe I can get the pieces there by Saturday morning.

Getting out to the track last night and almost making the final round was good for the soul.

[TireSmoker]

Well, Mr. Freeze has been stripped to a bare block. Hopefully I can get neighbor Dave to help me load the new block into the back of my truck in the morning so I can take everything to the machine shop.

A few observations -

• several of the rod bearings, on the 'rod' side, were showing a little copper at the very top. A little detonation at some point?
  
  I looked pretty good and couldn't find any visual crack that would've let water into the oil, but it did hold pressure fairly well when I tested it.
  
  I had forgotten my crank was ground .010/.020 undersize
  
  Whatever I used to put the oil pan on was *really* strong. I couldn't help bending the pan's flange trying to break it free.

So, it's off to the machine shop tomorrow...

[TireSmoker]

Spent some time in the garage yesterday -- I wire-wheeled all the bolts for the engine, cleaned the gasket surfaces on the valve covers, intake, and cylinder heads and started gathering parts to take to Canfield.

The valve covers (cast aluminum) are looking a little dingy.. wonder if I should buy some new ones, or what it would take to clean up the old ones. It seems like I'd need to wet-sand and re-polish for them to look good. The valve covers I really want are $230/pair, which I can't quite bring myself to spend.

I also have a brand-new Edelbrock 2-piece timing chain cover -- it would allow a cam change without messing with the oil pan seal. I'm debating whether or not to use it -- I really don't want it to leak. If nothing else, it looks better than anything else I have in inventory. I don't really plan on changing cams after it is together, although I did buy a new cam for this go-round.

There's a guy, Harold Sutton, on chevelles.com. He used to own Ultradyne cams, did a bunch of design work for Comp Cams, and now owns another cam company. He goes by "UDHarold" and everyone, even the pro engine builders there, seem to like his stuff. I bought a cam from him, it should be here very soon. No, it's not a roller, just another hyd flat tappet. Will post the specs when it arrives.

I called the machine shop on Tuesday -- my block is not likely to be ready this week. (which is in line with their originial time estimate, though)

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

Been a while since I posted an update..

I got the block back from the machine shop a couple weeks ago, only to find that the block drains were still in there, and when I tried to remove them, they started to strip. Grrrrr... picked the block up on a Saturday, was back at the machine shop Monday morning at 8am to drop it off, and back before 5pm to pick it up. But I lost that whole weekend.

I brought it home and clearanced the block near the oil pan rail before doing anything -- why wash it twice? I used the old block as my guide. When I was done, there was tons of clearance -- maybe I didn't need to do it on this block, although I certainly had to on on the old one.

Next up was filing all of the rings gaps. I used the specs from my mid-90s Chevy Power Manual calling for .022 on the top ring and .016 on the second ring. All rings were filed to within .0015 of this.

Then I installed the crank. I thought I was being careful when putting everything together, but after torquing the mains, the crank would not spin by hand. I knew this couldn't be right. I used my ratchet/crank-turning-socket to see how much force it took, and it was clearly too much. After a posting for help on chevelles.com, someone told me to look for stampings from the machine shop on the caps to verify I had them on in the correct positions. I managed to screw up all 3 middle ones. After swapping the main caps to their correct position, it spins freely like it should. But I think I damaged a bearing.

What would you guys do? I plastigauged it and came up with around .0025 and spec is .002-.003

-Dave

[MostMint]

Bearings are cheap. Buy new ones - I would.

If you were throwing something together just as a driver on a budget I might be tempted to use them, but why chance it?

[TireSmoker]

You're right. Bearings ordered from Summitracing.com. I had $15 Summit Speed Bucks hanging on the fridge too.

-Dave

[TireSmoker]

It's been a long time since an update, so here goes.. I've rehashed this with some of you in person, but just for posterity sake...

So, per the last post about bearing trouble, I followed Andy's advice that bearings are cheap and to just replace them. Ordered new bearings from Summt, they arrived, and when I installed them with the bearing caps in proper order, the crank rotated as expected and plastigauged to the correct clearances.

Next up, piston rings. So I went through the trouble of borrowing a ring grinder, and file-fit each ring (all 16) to a specific bore. I had them all within .001-.002 of spec, and each other. Then I find out they are too thick for the ring lands in my pistons. I had bought a new set of the correct-size file-fit rings and the ring grinder for a combined $170 when I found out my friend Matt at Wiseco could get me a set of pre-gapped rings for about $55. I returned the other pieces to Summit.

That also means of my $180 rebuild kit from summit (rod/main bearings, piston rings, gasket set), I've now replaced the mains and rings. I then runied an oil ring by banging on the piston, not realizing it had come out of the ring compressor. Fortunately, Wiseco sells those pre-gapped rings in individual sets. Good thing I have a money tree in the backyard..

I bought a new oil pan and had a nice looking Edelbrock 2-piece timing cover in stock, so I decided to install it. I hope it doesn't leak. However, in using the timing pointer that comes with it, when the balancer is fully seated, I can't read my timing tape on the balacer. This timing marker sticks out too far. I'll deal with that later. So I finally have an assembled short-block.

I get the cylinder heads installed without any issue -- at least none yet-discovered. I installed the intake manifold without any issue, either. It's starting to look like a real engine.

Last Saturday, I got the engine bolted into the engine bay. The first thing I did was hook up the cooling system to pressure test and see if there were any leaks. That's when I found the radiator hose was too short. I put a carb intake on it for the break-in, and the thermostat sits father back on a Performer RPM than my EFI intake. A trip to Napa in Bainbridge got me a working hose. A pressure test didn't reveal any leaks, yet.

I go to prime the oil pump and I'm not getting ANY oil over to the passenger side and only 12 psi on the gauge. After asking around, I'm told that I might be missing an oil plug under the rear main cap, I need to turn the motor over by hand to different points and keep priming, and that my drill is spinning the pump too fast (??). After rotating the engine around to various points and running the primer, I did finally get a little bit of oil to the passenger side. Emphasis on little bit. The volume is no where near enough, IMO. I didnt have anyone to read the gauge the 2nd time around, but the load on the drill felt the same. So I think I will pull it back out, pull the oil pan, and check for this plug. I don't ever remember having to deal with this plug on any other build I've done.

I got an interesting offer from my friend Ken -- he has a ZZ4 (350) with the GM Hotcam and GM Fast Burn aluminum heads (have the Vortec intake bolt pattern) mounted in a Jeep project of his that won't be drivable anytime soon. He offered to lend it to me for the sake of getting my car running, and also to "see what it would do on a dragstrip in a legimate car, not a Jeep." I'm very tempted to take him up on that.

However, I also bought a new house, in Chesterland, something I've been trying to do for over 2 years. 2300 sq ft, 2+ car garage (heated) and plenty of room for building a 2nd garage. So, I'm going to be moving soon, and spending time getting the Chevelle running has suddenly fallen on the priority scale compared to getting the old house ready to sell and the new house ready to move into. I think I'm going to rent a tow dolly to get it out there. At least the new garage is insulated and heated, so it'll be easier to work on this winter.

The next project posting will come after I've moved. Planning for a mid-late October move in date at this point.

-Dave

[ttamrettus]

Dave,

Congrats on the house man. I'll have to come by next time I'm in Ohio. Got any pictures of the house? Or the Chevelle in it's current state?

[markss327]

Congrats on the new house. I wana be the first to 'sign' the driveway! Ok, maybe a little something in the street, in front of the house....

Forget the tow dolly, the AV and trailer are volunteering to move Mr. Freeze. Just give me a weeks notice. Weekends are good.