Insert witty title here....

[screamin_c10]

My wife’s Focus has been having some headlight issues lately so being the philanthropist (cheapskate) I figured I’d grab a headlight switch from the local pick-n-pocket to do some parts swapping and pinpoint the issue. Having never been to this yard I figured I’d look it over and see if there were any other goodies to be had for our year trucks and my boys’ Cougar and Mustang.

The pickings for 67-72 were slim to none as usual, but it had a very nice selection of later model tahoes, burbs, yukons and trucks that seemed to be relatively fresh. I found a couple 5.3 / 4l80e combos and several 96 up late models with 350s in them.

I’ve been in the “market” for a set of Vortec 062 / 098 heads for Screamin’s 307 and figured I’d scrounge around and see if I could locate some. Found a ’97 ‘burban in the back with 237,000 miles on the odo and painted on the windshield. I figure the high mileage is whay nobody bothered to look under the hood and give the motor a second glance. I did….

Seems that under that layer of dirt and old accessories was a GMPP crate motor….

Needless to say it was coming home with us…we came prepared to pull a headlight switch and maybe a bumper or tach dash…not an engine. It is really interesting how the human species can revert back to the days of the Neanderthal …improvising tools from items discarded by others….lug wrenches come in a lot of different sizes and seat belts are stronger than you might think…ask me how I know…

So onto the engine….

Once I pulled the heads and gave the block a once over I knew I had my new money pit…

The block according to my machinist is perfect…absolutely low mile bores are great, no ridge and it still has the hatch marks from the factory. Its an “880” high nickel roller block, 1 piece RMS with the powdered metal rods and 9.1:1 pistons. It does have the fuel pump boss and bore as well. SCORE!!!

The heads are the “good” casting 906 Vortec 64cc heads without the funky exhaust seat. SCHWIIIING!!

So my plans are as follows… any body that has built a roller Vortec engine or has any advice please feel free to chime in.

Block is being tanked, fluxed, surfaced .005 to clean it up and power diamond hone the cylinders. No overbore as it is not needed.

The heads are where I dropping some coin….

I’m having the shop radius cut the valve seats and install larger stainless exhaust valves (1.60) with new hardened seats, the seats will be blended into the bowl and should breathe a bit better than stock. Intake ports are gasket matched as will the intake. The spring pockets and valve guides are being machined for more lift and larger springs. I’m also having screw in studs installed.

The surface will be cleaned up (.005) to seal well and still maintain the 64 cc chamber.

The crank and rods will remain stock as I cant afford a stroker kit at the moment….and they are near perfect according to the machine shop...

I’ll be upping the CR with a set of 10:1 hypereutectic pistons and chro-moly rings. With the 64cc heads and the .020 deck height with a Felpro head gasket I should be right in the 9.5:1 range….92 octane pump gas.

So apparently the hot ticket in roller cams is the ZZ4 hot cam, well if that’s hot then the ZZ430 roller cam must sizzle

Duration at .050" is 218 I/228 E; and maximum lift with 1.6 rockers is 525 I/525 E. CL is 112 degrees. I plan on running a set of self aligning ProForm 1.6 rollers as well as Z28 (.550) springs

I’ll be running a Perfromer RPM airgap intake as it compliments the cam and CR nicely. I’ll re-jet my edelbrock 1405 and give the HEI a nice ignition curve to keep away the detonation gremlins….EFI will be down the road….

A similar build pulled 400hp and 420ft/lbs of torque running smaller valves and a slightly less aggressive cam.

I’m thinking that with my 700r4 and 3.73:1 rear I could see 10-12 mpg out of this setup

Any suggestions, comments or advice is welcome…

Any suggestions on stall speed and tranny upgrades would be awesome!!!

So needless to say we never made it to the Ferd section…I’ll just order her up a new headlight switch on Fleabay…