AJ's '72 Cruiser Crawler Build

[AJs72K5]

Originally Posted by 72Levi

520hp and 580tq? What compression are you running with the EFI? Are you going to get it dynoed in SA when you are finished?

If Keith Black's compression calculator is correct, I should end up right around 9.9:1. I'll probably get it dyno'd to dial in the final tuning of the EFI.

[Jtrux]

Originally Posted by AJs72K5

If Keith Black's compression calculator is correct, I should end up right around 9.9:1. I'll probably get it dyno'd to dial in the final tuning of the EFI.

That's awesome, I've always wanted to throw one of my engines on a dyno, you'll have to let us know how it goes.

[72Levi]

NICE! Let us San Antonio guys know which dyno place is a good one in SA.

[AJs72K5]

Not a whole lot going on right now. At home recovering from surgery to correct a deviated septum. But I did pick this up... reconditioned tilt column with new levers.

[Jtrux]

Nothing like some good ole rhinoplasty to get things straight! lol Let's see some motor updates!

[AJs72K5]

UPDATE 11/23/09: Septoplasty recovery. I took all of last week off to recover from surgery. By Wednesday, boredom had set in. By Friday, my wife ordered me to the shop to get out of the house...like I was gonna argue.

So...I took it fairly easy and painted the block, upgraded my seriously wimpy bumpstops, pulled the old steering column out, and removed the floor shifter. Hey, anything is progress at this point, right?

Block all masked off...its like turning a 4 year old loose to wrap Xmas presents. Masking pic just for you Kurt


Three coats of Duplicolor High Temp Engine paint red later. Much better than the previous block's purple, I think.


Bumpstops.



more to come...

[Critter]

Good progress if you ask me. Nothing better than a freshly painted engine. The bump stops looked pretty beefy, I like them. Glad to here you are recovering nicely.

[AJs72K5]

Manged to get off work early today and made a little more progress on the engine.

Measured up a set of pushrods...they're on order now. Then pulled the timing cover back off to put a cam button on. Turns out they're kinda optional on a flat tappet cam. However, required on a roller cam.

After that, the balancer on went on...fighting every inch of the way.

Then started to test fit the new headers. I ordered a set of Hooker Comp 2455s. They're for a 1972 Chevelle and are supposed to fit well. However, I ran into several clearance issues on the DIY4x crossmember. I may need to go back to the factory crossmember. I chucked the old one a while back cuz the PO had mangled it up getting the old engine in. Need to find a factory crossmember...

New cam button

[Chevyman63]

Nice job AJ...lookin good!!

[jaros44sr]

Engine looks great, really like the flat black look. How about exhaust manifolds instead of headers. You must just be itching to get that engine back in. Are the small block and big block cross members the same???

Liking the bump stops also, where did you find them?

[AJs72K5]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

Engine looks great, really like the flat black look. How about exhaust manifolds instead of headers. You must just be itching to get that engine back in. Are the small block and big block cross members the same???

Liking the bump stops also, where did you find them?

Yeah, I'm dying to make some significant progress. With the engine I built, exhaust manifolds will constipate it bad. I need something with more flowwwww. Hence the headers with 2" primaries and 3.5" collectors.

It had a small block crossmember in it before. I know there are different engine stands, but the crossmember itself is the same. I'm gonna hit the local PickNPull this weekend to see if I can find one.

I bought the bumpstops from a member on another board. We haven't figured out what kind they are yet.

And to answer your question from before, no, a big block does not use a thrust bearing behind the timing chain. You can put a wear plate and thrust bearing behind it if the timing chain has chewed up the block like my old one did. But you need to mill the surface flat first.

[vtblazer]

Originally Posted by AJs72K5

Need to find a factory crossmember.

Have one here, could just make a bigger box and throw it in with the tranny tunnel.

[Jtrux]

I'll trade you mine for your DIY

[AJs72K5]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

If you can't find one in the junkyard and want to pay shipping, there's one in my basement. I even degreased and painted for ya. Sorry ya can't use the DIY.

Originally Posted by vtblazer

Have one here, could just make a bigger box and throw it in with the tranny tunnel.

If I can't find one local, I'll let you guys know. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Jtrux

I'll trade you mine for your DIY

Not ready to give up on the DIY crossmember yet. I want to get a factory one to see how it fits and weigh my options.

[Wildstreak]

What kind of motor mount do you use with the original cross member? I was just going to get what ever came stock, is there other options?

[AJs72K5]

Originally Posted by Wildstreak

What kind of motor mount do you use with the original cross member? I was just going to get what ever came stock, is there other options?

As far as I know they were original small block motor mounts. There's a bunch of options for motor mounts and crossmembers. Off the top of my head: DIY4x, Offroad Design, CPP...

I'm going to take some measurements tomorrow, but I may have an idea that will fix this... stay tuned.

[AJs72K5]

Update 12/05/09: The motor mount crossmember plan. Did a lot of thinking the past couple of days on how to handle the headers not fitting with the DIY4x crossmember. I didn't want to cut the headers...if I ever needed a new set, I'd be looking at customizing them again. I wasn't crazy about going back to a factory crossmember either. So, like any good K5 owner with a build thread, I figured I'd fab my way out of it.

Headers on, you can see that I'm roughly 1 1/8" away from seating the crossmember to the mounts.


So, I trimmed the flange down 1". I'll have to redrill the top holes, but that's no biggie. Why didn't I seat the crossmember all the way? I'm going to have Kert fab up some new motor mount brackets that will raise the engine 9/16".


Still not there yet, but I already knew this. Next, I'm gonna push the frame boxes deeper into the frame by 1/4" and put a spacer in between the flange and the frame box. This is how I should end up clearance-wise. There's about 1/8" - 1/4" between the header and the frame box. The pic just has a scrap piece of 1/4" steel to represent the clearance of the new spacer.


I'm happy with how it turned out. So, I took another picture of the motor... with the real camera this time.

[Wildstreak]

its almost home! I can hear it run now

Maybe Diy4x(kurt is it?) should think about making a specific cross member for the big block conversion there seem to be alot of us out there and nothing seems to fit just right yet

[Thealien]

When I talked to him he said they thought about discontinuing the small block one

[AJs72K5]

UPDATE 12/13/09: We have pushrods!! The new pushrods came in this week. I got them all dropped into the motor. Last thing to do on the engine is set the rocker arms and bolt down the intake. I figured I'd also drop the oil pan and give it some fresh paint to match the block.

Comp Cams Magnum pushrods. They feel beefy.


Freshly painted oil pan...drying in the garage.


For those that wanted to see the full sweep of the headers on the engine. Here's both sides. Just another excuse for me to take pics of the engine.

[vtblazer]

You guys & your big blocks...

AJ, excellent job!

You've taken that K5 to a whole new level from what it was when you bought it, you my friend should be very proud.

[Chevyman63]

Lookin GOOD AJ.

[Burt4x4]

YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Dude yer gonna LOVE that engine!!!
Straight up B.A. Baracus!
:burt:

PS ~ Hint = A Team ^^ hehehee

[FRENCHBLUE72]

I have no idea how the hell I missed this build thread very nice work..

[BLUE THUNDER]

Lookin good AJ. I bet you can't wait to get it on the road again. Keep up the good work. Later.