The 283 Rebuild Begins

[MacAttack]

Originally Posted by 4dranch

How did it go Mac???????????????????????
we don't see any fireworks.....

David, ever hear an engine that's been rebuilt and dialed in about as perfect as your ear can recognize? I'm no motor builder (as you're all quite aware), but I have got to say - this girl sounds better than my 65' Chevelle.



We got rained out for a couple of hours Saturday morning, but at about 11:30 we went through all the basics again, installing a canister type 160 degree thermostat, filled the radiator up to within 1/2 an inch of the neck, hooked the multi-tester up to the tach port on the HEI, checked the oil one more time and went for it.

The engine lit instantly. Set the throttle for 2,100 RPM and started the 20 minute cycle. 60 pounds oil pressure, the temp crept up to about 170 degrees and the thermostat opened and the temp went back to 160 for the first five minutes.

Some smoke was coming from the passenger side ram horns, but it wasn't anything critical - so we continued on. After we ran for almost 20 minutes the oil pressure was steady at 55 PSI and the temp gage read 190, which isn't bad for the truck being stationary.

Again, throughout the entire secession - the sound was fantastic. Those little resonators I got from Summit did the trick. The smoke turned out to be my ignition wire loom clips. The racks set only about 3/4" above the exhaust manifold tops and act like a BBQ for the plastic clips that go around the 8mm Taylor wires. The reason (we figured out later) the passenger side cooked and the driver's side didn't was the fan turns toward the driver's side and cooled the exhaust enough to keep the plastic from turning to mush and dripping on the hot stuff.

Guess I have to simplify the wire routing.

Mac.