My new 347

[Centaurus5.0]

Ok, I'm just going to blurt this out..

Lose the 4wd, put your top end and turbo onto a low mileage junkyard shortblock and install a Tremec with a mid or forward mounted shifter along with some 4.56's, traction bars and a set of drag radials.

There. I said it.

Your combo of parts would put a foxbody into the 10's..

I still think the tmh's are hosing up good power when running aluminum heads..

 

[Dono]

Your absolutely right. Thing is.... daily driver. I want it all.
That's back to being able to do crazy stuff if your not worried about much. the body and interior is in great shape . I'm not ready for that yet.

I could notch the frame to make more clearance for headers, but I'm no welder and that takes some skill.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll be ready to do pretty much what you suggest.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Might be fun to strip the interior and dash out of the ol limited and fit a couple of twins in the cab area for a last blaze of glory redneck style.

.......weeeeeeellllllll there is always this concept





let me know if you want a hand.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

Your core awaits

Hopefully Dimas will mind the crap that’s on it but he does have a washer after all

 

[Dono]

I feel like I should be starting a new thread called 'my new, new 347'

I stopped in to see the engine builder tonight at his request.

He showed me the witness marks of the valve chatter on the top of the valves and on the cam. you could actually see where the lifter Would leave the cam and then land. Obviously not enough spring pressure. He said that's probably why I broke a lifter many pages ago.
What does that mean to me? New springs, new lifters, new cam. Oh, and he piston are trashed, which I expected.
Dimas keeps some Kleenex on his desk, now I know why. My eyes were watering.

Brand new build. Heads can be salvaged after changing the springs. Rods are still good. Arp hardware is good. Push rods should still be the right length. The block Tim supplied will be good..... that's about it.

I guess if there is anything positive, its a clean build the way Dimas wants to build it. Shooting for just under 10:1 compression and he tells me he will make such a clean burn piston/chamber combo that it will not be an issue with boost. Its interesting he wants to go forged crank in a stock block. He says not to worry about the block, it will be fine. Ok, I say.

He is going to machine the block and a high volume oil pump so that it will fit under the stock oil pan. I was super happy about that. He has some other tricks up his sleeve that he expects will get me near my hp goals without boost. I'm skeptical, as that would mean under 6 lbs boost and I'll be at 500hp by 4500 rpm.

Anyway, this motor will hit an engine dyno before I take it home. Tim, I hope I can give you enough notice come fall to come along to Sandale for the fun.

I am gong to have to get my trans line pressure checked somehow as soon as this motor goes back in. Tim, Ill be talking to your trans guy as the motor getting close to finding its way to its new home.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

so, um, question *raises hand
so the lifters are done. is that because all the crap floating around in them when the motor ate itself, or from it hammering the cam? i thought those could be rebuilt. (not to question dimas and all, but).
so if the spring pressure was too weak, i wounder if thats why it was a little noisy. if thats the case, this worries me because my motor is louder then yours was!
also, so when brazer built the motor, it was also i matter of time until it went south? i am wondering this because your nowhere near as brutal on your truck compared to the way i drive evil.
machining the block to fit a hv oil pump. thats sweet. i was wondering if that could be done. now i know, and once again envious. 500hp before 4500 rpm. well, looks like im going to be the one telling you, you have a a burnt out tail light if and when we line up. should i also start pulling all the 3.73 front diffs out that are in all the parts trucks? lol
"Tim, I hope I can give you enough notice come fall to come along to Sandale for the fun." is he thinking it wont be done until fall? that blows! i know hes busy and all, but i also know your one of the few that is paying his tab up front.
i would also start chasing eric now. he to tends to get real busy and pushes things off to the side to do other things. thats the crappy thing about them both. wicked work done, but one man shows.
so if he has the rods out of your old block, i am going to call him on the weekend and see if i can pick it up. the only thing that worries me now about using your old block for mock up is it has such a bad cloud over it, i will end up screwing up the new supercharger because i am using your old block to bolt everything onto it lol! at least celly's block is good and doesnt have a bad history behind it.

 

[gmanpaint]

Sorry to hear about the loss. My condolences to you and your wallet.

Your a die hard for sure, a lesser man, might have thrown in the towel over this.

I can't wait until the videos of you blasting down the tracks, and people saying..... That's an explorer? Whoa...

 

[Dono]

Yea, lifters are in question because of the hammering on the cam. Rebuilt..maybe, but I don't care at this point, I'm a beaten little man. Seriously, I don't want to take any chances.
Yes, the motors top end was eating its self because of the weak springs.
Yup, fall. he says he will probably end up with an out 40 hours in to the heads alone. They are getting 'massaged'.

He did mention he is about ready to part with the old block. I wonder if a steel worker fell in to the molten steel that the block was made out of? Sure feels like something like that happened.

Gmanpaint....yea,I'm sure its a trans pressure issue now. those tight L connections I added in the cooler lines couldn't have been a good thing. I already dropped shift pressures in the tune, and adjusted any other odd-ball trans settings that Don Lasota had changed back to factory. The L connectors in the trans cooler line are gone now also. I'll figure out how to get a pressure gauge on to the line leaving he trans to the cooler and see what's going on when the motor goes back in. something was/is pushing hard on the flex plate.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

if your going to go new on the lifters, dibs on the old ones! i will see what rebuilding them would cost. if its too much, garbage can monster it is.

 

[Josh P]

I'm afraid to ask how much this has cost you Dono.

 

[gmanpaint]

Wouldn't have anything to do with that hybrid converter and that valve body? I know you set up the shift points in the tune. Are they delayed or early? Just thinking about pressure here.

Reason I ask, is a friend had a converter made, that gained him 10 mph instantly (felt like) on 2-3. It ended up eating his crank.

Just thinking here.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

I'm afraid to ask how much this has cost you Dono.

rule number 1. NEVER under any circumstances look at the receipts you have saved on building something. reason being, you might look back and think to yourself you could have bought a ferrari......2 of them....

 

[Dono]

I can't even imagine the costs any more.
It would be pretty close to a loan payment of something close to new with all the options and reliable though. This is pure suborn-ness. Iv'e reached a point where this probably isn't a sound financial decision. Thing is, I don't even know what I would buy. I like driving the old girl when she decides to work.

Yes, the torque converter is suspect. I have a new one coming with a higher stall (2800). This one is from CircleD, which is one of the top builders of torque converters. Checking trans pressures will be a top priority when the motor gets re-installed.

I was extremely irritated to find that my valve train was a miss match. Everything had been purchased from Flow tech Inductions to ensure it would match. No bashing here, but these are clear facts on my motor.
The issues were:
1. The heads flowed the same from .5 to .6, so why was there cam lift to .588? That question was posed to me as this alone is harder on the valve train, why not just go to .5 and add duration? Maybe there was a reason, I don't know.
2. The springs......There could be no argument with what were looking at. The lifters were clearly launching off the end of the cam lobe and landing somewhere down the cam.
Dimas said he can see why I could never get the timing right on the motor.
What am I learning? The so called experts are not necessarily the experts. If they are, they still can't be bothered to put much time in to so called small builds like mine. This might be small to them, but huge to me in both time and money. The world has gone LS.

Also, for those that talk about a little hole in a front galley plug to spray on the oil pump gear? Don't do that. When the motor is shut off, this hole introduces a path for air and the galley drains of oil. This creates a longer low oil pressure condition on start up. This is another school of thought on this, but it makes perfect sense.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'm also sorry to hear the parts death list. So you had FTI parts, were those LS springs(bee hive small diameter versus stock(1.45 or so))? I've got a pair of GT40X heads with springs specified for an FTI cam, for my 306/work truck. I trust them more than cam tech guys, or any heads with springs made for a lift number. But we hope and pray they do know what they are doing.

Is the cam salvageable, being custom it should be billet, and those are much harder to damage?

 

[Dono]

Cams done. Its scored and chattered up. Yes, FTI valve train.
The springs had the correct pressures for what was spec'd on the cam card, but that clearly was not enough for the cam.
The springs that were used would have been much cheaper springs that the $340.00 I'm spending on the new LS style springs. Maybe there are different styles of LS springs? No idea. I can see trying to keep costs down for customers, but if they don't work they create other issues and expenses.

I'll get a picture of one of the springs on a head for you.

 

[CDW6212R]

It does worry me, the street level of a custom cam should have a larger tolerance before seeing valve float etc, because these engines don't get inspected every year or more like race engines. My spring kit Ed made me buy was about $270 2-3 years ago. The heads I was buying were new and complete, the different springs added that cost, because the retainers and keepers changed too, thus a kit. I like to hear keeping the lift down well under .600" lift for a street vehicle. Valve float is usually a result of mismatched springs, wrong pressure or the distance to coil bind is not set up right(too far away etc).

I hope your engine guy is great, that's most of how an engine survives, the right parts installed right.

 

[shucker1]

When the motor is shut off, this hole introduces a path for air and the galley drains of oil. This creates a longer low oil pressure condition on start up. This is another school of thought on this, but it makes perfect sense.

Wasn't it @2000StreetRod that was working on a prelube system?

Might be a good idea for your turbo to prelube and post lube to make it last.

Just saying....

 

[Dono]

pics are hard to tell the story sometimes, but the butterflys on the tops of the valves are valve bounce, the cam pics answer the question about if the cam is usable, and the picture of the spring is for Don.

 

[gmanpaint]

Wow!

 

[Turdle]

Another issue I see not mentioned, and shown by the witness marks on top of the valve stem, looks like the valves are not rotating, and the rocker rollers have even smashed the top of the valve stem.