Completed Project Superchargered 347 Stroker Build

[jd4242]

I'm running Bassani egual length shorty headers which have a 1 5/8 primary and a bal collector. When I was putting the engine together I measured the diameter of the opening of the ball on the headers and was surprised to find that they were only 2 inch. Actually, they were ovaled from the heat but even the larger sides were only 2 1/4. So I took my die grinder and opened them up so that there was still enough material there for them to seal. I don't remember off the top of my head but I think they were still under 2 1/2 inches. The rest of the exhaust is 2 1/2 all the way. It consists of an X-pipe and Borla mufflers.

My tires are 255/45/17 and I have 3.55 gears and a T56 trans. All pulls were made in 5th gear (.80) because it kept spinning the tires in 4th.

Just read this whole thread and man that thing is sweet.one thing I wonder tho is, doing a dyno run in 5 (.80) affect your numbers at all? Isn't idle a 1:1? Just thinking you might see even higher numbers if you could get it to hook in 4th, or maybe lower numbers

 

[jd4242]

I'm running Bassani egual length shorty headers which have a 1 5/8 primary and a bal collector. When I was putting the engine together I measured the diameter of the opening of the ball on the headers and was surprised to find that they were only 2 inch. Actually, they were ovaled from the heat but even the larger sides were only 2 1/4. So I took my die grinder and opened them up so that there was still enough material there for them to seal. I don't remember off the top of my head but I think they were still under 2 1/2 inches. The rest of the exhaust is 2 1/2 all the way. It consists of an X-pipe and Borla mufflers.

My tires are 255/45/17 and I have 3.55 gears and a T56 trans. All pulls were made in 5th gear (.80) because it kept spinning the tires in 4th.

Just read this whole thread and man that thing is sweet.one thing I wonder tho is, doing a dyno run in 5 (.80) affect your numbers at all? Isn't idle a 1:1? Just thinking you might see even higher numbers if you could get it to hook in 4th, or maybe lower numbers

 

[rjcooperss396]

I'm not sure what effect making the pull in 5th compared to 4th would have on the numbers. I would assume a pull in 4th would yield slightly higher numbers but I wouldn't think it would be by much. When I go back to have the tune finished I'll take my bottle of VHT Track Bite and see if it will help. I still need to get a new air filter that will fit the new 90mm MAF as well as a 4 inch 90* coupler.

I'm also going to be changing out the cam. I had issues when the cam was first ground and Steve had a difficult time with the tune. He said it was acting like a valve was hanging which is what the original issue was with the cam. What I saw when I degree'd the cam was that when the exhaust valve closed it lifted .002 about 8* degrees later and stayed there until just before it started to open.

I'm looking at two different Comp Cams but haven't decided which one to run. CA keeps dropping the maximum allowable limits on our smog checks so it's getting harder to pass the sniffer with cams that have too much duration. I'm going to run both cams by Steve and see if he thinks the larger of the two will still pass and if not then I'll buy the smaller one.

 

[CDW6212R]

I'm not sure what effect making the pull in 5th compared to 4th would have on the numbers. I would assume a pull in 4th would yield slightly higher numbers but I wouldn't think it would be by much. When I go back to have the tune finished I'll take my bottle of VHT Track Bite and see if it will help. I still need to get a new air filter that will fit the new 90mm MAF as well as a 4 inch 90* coupler.

I'm also going to be changing out the cam. I had issues when the cam was first ground and Steve had a difficult time with the tune. He said it was acting like a valve was hanging which is what the original issue was with the cam. What I saw when I degree'd the cam was that when the exhaust valve closed it lifted .002 about 8* degrees later and stayed there until just before it started to open.

I'm looking at two different Comp Cams but haven't decided which one to run. CA keeps dropping the maximum allowable limits on our smog checks so it's getting harder to pass the sniffer with cams that have too much duration. I'm going to run both cams by Steve and see if he thinks the larger of the two will still pass and if not then I'll buy the smaller one.

Do you have a custom cam, and if so why consider any OTS cam? For emissions testing, a custom cam would surely pass easier than any OTS cam. If you are done with the engine combination, I'd have a new custom cam designed, and see if that works even better than what you have now.

 

[rjcooperss396]

Yes, I have a custom cam done by American Custom Cams. The specs are in this build thread. I already ordered the Comp XE264HR-14 which is what Steve recommended and was one of the three I was considering. We'll see when I go back to finish the tune how it does compared to the custom cam I already have since we have the tune done to 5200 rpms. I can compare the power figures between the two to that rpm.

 

[CDW6212R]

Will you be able to test a run with it first, before swapping the cam etc?

The only real test is the timed distance, which measures acceleration, not just HP.

 

[rjcooperss396]

Until it's tuned I can't run it past about 5400 or it goes lean. So I won't have any drag strip runs. Besides the torque and horsepower figures from the dyno pulls will tell me if the cam makes more/less power than the custom cam did. Drag strip numbers would just reflect that.

 

[CDW6212R]

Real world testing measures more than HP, the dyno only measures steady state hp, at each rpm.

You can build an engine, like say a 347, and a 351W, and end up with very similar dyno HP graphs if the induction is similar enough. Given the same HP figures, the 347 will kill the 351W at the track, it accelerates faster. A dyno cannot measure that.

My point is just that a camshaft can create better or worse acceleration and similar power figures. The power numbers may end up close enough that you decide that the cams are not much different. But at the track there could be a noticeable difference, and even small things like idle quality etc, that's worth noting.

I do hope you end up with a big gain, all around. You have spent a ton of time working on it, I want it to satisfy you.

 

[rjcooperss396]

Dynos don't measure horsepower, they measure torque based on acceleration rate and RPM. Horspower is calculated from that. I know you don't like OTS cams but they have always worked well for me. Maybe because I never pick a cam that is too big for what I'm going to use it for. I'm running a Comp Magnum (the smallest solid roller in the Magnum line) in my Chevelle and it runs 10 flat at 133mph which isn't too bad. Comp must be doing something right.

Here are the specs for the custom and the Comp.

Custom:
.552/.550
215/220 @ .050
114 LSA
112.75 ICL

Comp XE264-14:
.544/.544
212/218 @ .050
114 LSA
110 ICL

The cams are so close that I don't think there will be any difference in power between the two. Besides, I'm not looking to make any more power, I'm happy with where it's at now. I just want to fix the issue that the custom cam has.

 

[CDW6212R]

I hope that it is the cam, there are so many parts of the valvetrain anyway. Cross the fingers.

 

[rjcooperss396]

The only other change from my previous engine besides the cam are the valve springs on my heads. But the old ones were going into coil bind at .500 and had too much seat pressure. They now have 140 closed instead of 180 and will take a .600 lift before going into coil bind. They were installed by Pacific Engine who also did all the machine work on the block as well as all the machine work on the 302 in my Explorer.

I know there are issues with the cam because I saw it when I degreed it. When I tlaked to the cam grinder he told me I wouldn't notice it with the hydraulic roller lifters. He was wrong.

 

[CDW6212R]

That's a shame, he obviously should have worked that out. I know that the billet custom cams are "ordered" by specs, and they are checked afterwords and sometimes rejected. They should be super close to perfect, and they usually are, but I was told that if the specs don't match really close to what was ordered, they can have another one made. That's one of the best parts about a custom cam, every lobe should be dead on to the specs. OTS cams are rarely a match, to the specs, or for each lobe.

 

[rjcooperss396]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread but that was only because I hadn't had time to work on my Cobra. I've been busy build a BBF 429 to install in my buddies dad's 1973 Mach I. Here's some pictures of the build and a short video from my cell of it.

Here's the deglazed cylinders. I didn't take much off because I didn't want the piston to wall clearance to be too much.

Pictures my wife took during assembly.

Main bearing. All the main bearings had .0020 clearance and the rod bearings were .0016. Thrust clearance was .006.

Before dropping crank in.

Of course she takes a picture of the only piston we had trouble getting in.

The drive home.

Video after breaking in the cam.
Andy's 429 '73 Mach I - YouTube

 

[CDW6212R]

Excellent, I liked those old flat back window Mustangs. My friend had one, and he got me started on Clevelands.

You should have talked him into a stroker kit, and .080 over pistons at least. I'd love to build another big 460, but the 302/351's have plenty of potential for most projects these days. I have a 72/73 Ranchero that will eventually get a 347 or 408 Clevor, EFI and a 4R70. Toys, we have to have them.

 

[rjcooperss396]

He'd been collecting parts to do the conversion for the past 3 years. He bought the engine as a rebuilt engine but it wasn't so I ended up doing it for him. He already had a lot invested and didn't have the extra cash to do a stroker. We talked about it but it was just too much. Anyways, he was going from a not so well running 351C to the 429 and after he took it for a test drive he had a huge smile on his face so I think he's happy with how it is.

 

[rjcooperss396]

Since I don't remember the last time I updated this thread with info on the Cobra I'll give a brief update. I had it dyno'd and found that the 80mm MAF isn't big enough. So I now have a 90mm to replace it. I also bought the Comp cam that I mentioned before and have now installed it. I also had an issue with it burning oil that I found two causes of when doign the cam swap. The first was that the intake manifold gasket was leaking. My guess is because I reused the one I already had so it just didn't seal well. The second reason is that the valve seals were catching on the inner spring and were pulled off the guides allowing oil to seap down the guides. I also found when swapping the cam that the head gaskets were leaking. I tried using a set of Mr Gasket MLS gaskets but they just didn't cut it. So I replaced them with a set of Felpro NASCAR MLS gaskets (1033). These are what I was running with the 302 and they work great. Today I finished everything up and the car is running again. Tomorrow I'm taking it to charge the A/C and then I'm going to schedule something with Steve at Powertrain Dynamics to finish up the tune.

Pictures.

Block cleaned up for new gaskets.



Disassembly. You can see the seals up near the retainers.


Storage while cleaning.


Dirty intake.


Dirty exhaust.


Clean and lapped intake.


Clean and lapped exhaust.


Dirty combustion chamber.


Partially cleaned.


Cleaned combustion chamber.


Installing the new seals and reassembling the heads.






One cleaned head.


Head torqued down.


Felpro MLS NASCAR head gaskets.


Getting there.


Almost done.

And the video from today of it running.

 

[Dono]

You always do an awesome job on the heads you work on.
Very nice.
That's quite the cam in that Mach 1. What did you do to up the compression?

 

[CDW6212R]

He'd been collecting parts to do the conversion for the past 3 years. He bought the engine as a rebuilt engine but it wasn't so I ended up doing it for him. He already had a lot invested and didn't have the extra cash to do a stroker. We talked about it but it was just too much. Anyways, he was going from a not so well running 351C to the 429 and after he took it for a test drive he had a huge smile on his face so I think he's happy with how it is.

That's great to hear about the satisfaction he got from the new engine. That's what matters.

BTW, how much were the NASCAR MLS gaskets versus the regular set?

 

[rjcooperss396]

You always do an awesome job on the heads you work on.
Very nice.
That's quite the cam in that Mach 1. What did you do to up the compression?

Compression came in at 10.48:1. The cam is actually quite mild. It's a Comp XE262H that has .513/.520 lift, 218/224 duration at .050 and a 110 LSA.

That's great to hear about the satisfaction he got from the new engine. That's what matters.

BTW, how much were the NASCAR MLS gaskets versus the regular set?

The Mr Gasket ones were $35 each the Felpros were $90 each.

 

[CDW6212R]

Thanks, $45 was the last price I knew of for good head gaskets, and that was back around 1999.