Bubba's recycling project

[chevy_man5]

Nice Bubba!! Good to see you on here!!

[Alan's Classic]

It's great to see you plugging along at it. Good point about temperature and plasti gauge. I would think it would measure the same.

[Captainfab]

The plastigage should perform the same regardless of temperature.

I have run the larger 350 balancers on the early 327's without any issues.

When you use an intake with the oil fill tube, you must use the '67 and earlier straight thermostat housing.

[rbar]

As Captain said, you can use a 350 balancer/dampener on a 327, but, be careful of the timing TDC mark. Some older small blocks had the mark keyed different and if you swap them without checking, you might be checking your timing wrong. I learned this on my 1965 327 that had a dampener that didn't look so good. Switched it to a new one and then was puzzled for a while. I forget how much off it is, but a bunch, seems like 12 or more degrees. Seems like the issue is the crank keyway is at a different degree on the crank than newer cranks. I got it from Summit, for a 327, and they said they don't offer the other version. I just found TDC and put a new mark on my new balancer and was good to go. Most 400s are externally balanced, so avoid that one. Otherwise they are interchangeable because they are really vibration dampeners and not balancers so they are interchangeable. The only argument I have heard otherwise is the difference of recipicating weight affecting rev quickness, but I haven't found much that's difinitive on that. I've also had dampeners that has bad rubber that causes the condition of my pulleys not sitting right and they they flail around causing the belts to jump and squeal. Always good to use a new one.

[bubba327]

Note to self--- Do not break a four flute bottoming thread tap in a engine block ever again!!

Clearance on the 283 were right at .002 on the mains and rod bearing caps. clearance between rod caps was .009 so things are looking pretty decent on the bottom end.

Went to pick a part yard two weeks ago and found a set of GM 305 truck heads with casting number 601 . These are the 58 cc chamber and the 1.94/1.50 valves. this should end up around 9.25 to 1 if the math turns out. Popped a couple of valves out and found they were a little pitted and the rubber seals were really hard. They are at the NAPA machine shop and should be done this week. were from a 81 C-10 and has hardened seats and attachment holes.

I found several online Compression calculators and all were just a little different but all were around 9.25 to 9.5 . I don't want much more than that. does any body have a favorite online calculator site that they trust???

So while i was trying to decide if I was getting sick with the flu last week, I should not even been in the garage much less cleaning threads with an old 4 flute bottoming tap. It broke off in the starter mounting hole on the backing-out. so I sulked inside with the flu most of the weekend.

Today was a new day- fevers gone and had Presidents day off.
Well, I am here to tell you that a hardened 3/8 tap CAN be drilled out IF you are very patient and have a Dremel, diamond burrs and a small air drill with at least 40 or 50 3/32" carbide end mill bits.
Many thanks to my Uncle who has a large box of these bits that he picked up years ago and has stored them away in his machine shop.
And very patient means ; you have about a full day invested in this .
Drill through the middle and keep honing until the threading flutes break off one at a time into the hole. Use air compressor and central vac for the dust and broken parts
No threads were damaged in this screw- up.


PS> They make two and three fluted taps that are MUCH stronger that a four flute.

[daverod]

Ha I just broke off a 4 flute on my hinge hole for my hood. I just said screw it and run it with no hinge bolts stays on good. Almost turned it back out and it broke off again...suc. At your age u should get a flu shot. I got one this years I got the flu twice. Once a week after the shot and again about 30 days later. It only lasted a day so I was lucky

[bubba327]

Dave , I had the dang flu shot last fall so this must have been something different.
Doc gave a 5 day pack of pills and I felt better after the third day.
I hate the night sweats and chills . At least it was a long weekend so I could hit The Nyquil

[daverod]

Sounds like the flu. haha Least your better. Now get back to work. Waste of a good weekend though. suc. U know u don't have to give a reason every time u edit.

[spudder]

Bubba, You need to find a balancer for a pre 1969 small block. '69 and later balancers had the keyway in a different place. There are several different diameter balancers.
With that in mind, you have to match the balancer to the timing covers. The timing tabs were spot welded to the covers and were placed farther out from crank centerline as the balancer's diameter increased.There are bolt-on timing tabs that can be used.
I would probably stick with a 283 or small 327 balancer. If you go with a larger 8" balancer you may have to modify a power steering pump bracket for clearance.
Another consideration is the balancer bolt in the end of the crankshaft. If your crank isn't drilled and tapped for the bolt, I highly recommend that you do this. Smallblock Chevies are known for balancers working their way off and creating havoc!
Hope this helps.

[bubba327]

Went to breakfast with some of the locals a couple of weeks ago and I think we improved the heck outta the local IHop parking lot after breakfast.


I got the heads back from the machine shop. All ground, seated , with no cracks , only needed one guide and all new seals. Sweet!!
Double checked the CC as they are now clean. These 601 castings supposed to be 58CC and I came pretty close to the 58 mark. I made a little mess with the alcohol, the plexiglass did not really seal tight with the KY and I kinda bubbled it a bit . but close enough to the 58 mark to be comfortable


how do I calculate these indents??? I am guessing 1CC each for a total of 4CC

[bubba327]

This is what I think I came up with...
Is a +.30 over 283 from 65 vintage
I am confused . I found at least a couple of on-line Compression calculators that had the piston dome volume reversed... with the plus and minus swapped for the dish or dome
This is from Summit racing site figured if it was wrong, somebody would have said something by now..
Head gasket- The one machine shop sold me is a Felpro 7733SHI steel shim with .018 crush depth
The deck height was any where from .037 to .045 over several spots around the 4 pistons that I checked so I used .040 for an average

Spudder and Rbar-- thanks for the dampener input.. I was all set to spring for a new dampener, but I am gonna think about it again. I had forgotten about the keyway location changing , and did not think at all about the power steering brackets for a low mount power steering pump and short water pump..
I did find that my crank does have the threaded hole on the front end .I had to dig all the grease out to find it though

[bubba327]

warmed up a bit a couple of weeks ago so checked the bottom end with the plastigauge -- all really close to .002"

[Captainfab]

Are you sure on that deck height measurement? That is quite a bit, and quite a variance too. Typically the pistons will be ~.025" down in the hole.

[daverod]

Good news about the heads. I would have guessed they were cracked. Ihop looked like it was hoppin.

[daverod]

Really good show on spike channel today. Horsepower show.. Engine building/machine work/head work.

[bubba327]

on the the deck heighth measurement, I am just using the slide depth rod on a end digital caliper around the edge of the piston hole.
how do you check depth of piston in the hole???

[rbar]

I would say .025" is more common as well, but I have seen them at .040" also. I've used a caliper a number of times. The best way is with a dial indicator that sits on a "bridge" over the piston. To measure your valve reliefs and get a true piston volume, you can turn the crank until the piston is 1/2" down and then fill it up with liquid and measure the cc's. Of course you need to try to get an accurate measurement of how far down it is, not necessarily hitting 1/2", just knowing for sure how far down you are. Then compare that to a true cylinder of the diameter and depth. Formula is bore x bore x .500 x stroke=ci. Now multiply ci x 16.41 to convert to cc's. The difference between the two cc's is your true piston volume. How did I miss the breakfast?

[bubba327]

I found this quote in another forum while reading up on deck clearance and the desired quench clearance...
"Most aftermarket piston manufacturers build their piston with .020"-.025" reduction in compression height just to insure that the stock engine won't have too much compression. This is a safety factor, as they do not know what may have been done to the engine that the pistons are going into, i.e. milled heads and/or decked block. Last thing that a PER engine builder wants to happen is supply an engine for grandma's station wagon that pings due to excessive compression ratio." END QUOTE

Since i did not pull ever the pistons I am not sure of their length here. I did lay a straight and flat plate over each bore and with a feeler gauge, I know that all pistons have approx .030" clearance to the dead center of the piston deck and approx .030-.040 around the edges measured with the calipers. ( differences due to piston rock in the bore)

So the .030" deck clearance added to the .018" crush depth of the steel shim should finish out to approx .048" total quench depth .. Damn it all appears okay so far... any body spot anything that does not line up???

I did turn the crank around so a piston was at TDC , flat and level and filled 2 of the piston relief cuts up with alcohol with about 1 cc each. so 4 is gonna be pretty close.
I am sure that this engine has been run quite a few miles after the rebuild , since it had plenty of carbon buildup,
I know it has just sat for at least 8 to 10 years after being removed from the truck . The only real change is going the be the new heads that will be 2 cc smaller than the old 60 cc power pack heads.

Rbar , we did talk about you, due to your absence at the breakfast .




just a thought here, with the old 60 cc heads , they had used the 350 (4.060 bore) .040" thick head gaskets. It may have not been a strong runner.... compression would have only been about 8.3 to 1

[rbar]

Yeah, I didn't know about the breakfast.

[bubba327]

Progress is slow but still happening. been a busy spring so far.
Still driving the 64 to work on the nice days,I leave it home on rainy days cuz the wipers still bite.
Working on the 283 in spare moments when I can.
I did get the new timing gear chain and sprocket on tonight. Then tore apart the existing oil pump- it all looks good and fairly new but the bypass spring is broken-- glad I checked and luckily found it. Things could have been ugly .


So where can you find a stock bypass spring for a small block oil pump?
There seems to be high pressure springs available online(summit, jegs) etc, but not a stock pressure spring.
any ideas or some body have an extra old one??

[bubba327]

Okay Sports fans, almost show time!!
Took me a little longer than I had planned to get things together but I am almost ready.I just remembered motor mounts tonight, I have the inline six mounts still on the truck and a pair of 72 V-8 mounts, just gotta find the part number for the new rubber pads.
Thanks to 63 Spud for parting with the old Holley Intake, It cleaned up pretty nice.
Finishing up the alternator brace, pulley shims came today from Summit, need to buy one more belt for the power steering pump . Hope to try and do a quick start this weekend before I drop it in....

[chevy_man5]

Looking great Bubba!!

[bubba327]

update on the heads, I did pack the piston top with modelers clay, bolted on a head and spun things slowly by hand to check total clearance. The compressed clay measured about .055 total quench.
I ended up using a .028 coated steel shim.
On the bad oil pump, I sprung for a new Melling
Picked up another Holley 8007 390 CFM on CL last weekend.

[daverod]

looking good.

[bubba327]

Today is the day, out with the old motor , in with the new!! Happy fourth of July