Let’s try this again.
Block - Bored the block to 4.50” from 4.44” (.060” bigger, it started out life as 4.320, then 4.380 (dropped valve), then 4.440” (broke rod at 7,200) and finally 4.5” (dropped valve, broke piston because I’m an idiot, I’m sure glad I started out at 4.320, or I would have scrapped the block or had a bunch of sleeves in it by now) They did sonic check it and the thinnest spot on the thrust side was .155 but I think that will be just find since I'm not running 16:1 compression and not running any power adders.
Pistons - Ordered new Diamond pistons, Shelf 4.25” 7.100 rod pistons and changed the bore to 4.5” and had them cut the valve reliefs .030 deeper
Rods - Replace the 1 Eagle rod, no apparent damage but since that piston had a hole in it and was busted all the heck, I figured it had earned early retirement (80 passes).
Rod Bolts - Replaced all the rod bolts (ARP2000), they only had 80 passes on them but they had been torqued at least 6 times so I figured it wasn’t a bad idea.
Crank - checked out ok, just polished it up.
Rotating Assembly - Send the rotating assembly to be balanced with the new pistons but the machinist called and said there wasn’t but 1 gram of difference so we didn’t need to do anything. I did switch from Clevite to King rod bearings and he said there was some difference there so I guess Diamond does some lightening to the 4.5” pistons too.
Heads – I had a local guy repair the head that had the chamber and port damage. And then I had my machinist put new valves in it.
The other head just had aluminum shrapnel all over it and I assumed that we would be able to salvage a few if not all the valves but he said most all of them were tweaked from the shrapnel…. So the brand new Manley Sever Duty vales had a whole 1.5 passes on them and then allowed to retire. I think we only saved 1 exhaust valve from both heads…
They had to take .025 off the surface to clean them up so now the chambers are 66cc (more compression).
Since the PAC 1325-16 springs, TI retainers and locks only had 2 passes on them we were able to re-use all of them. They are set up at 1.910, 215lbs closed and 750lbs open at .700”.
Lifters – I couldn’t see or feel anything wrong with them but a local engine builder told me he would send them in to Isky just to be sure and I’m glad they did, they found 2 that needed repairs. These are the roller lifters with the bushing, only cost $1,250 but they should be the last set I ever buy…
Compression will be bumped up to 13.8. (4.5” bore, 4.25 stroke, 66cc head chamber, 4.590 head gasket bore, .051 head gasket thickness, 4.5cc valve reliefs, .010 piston to deck)
The increased bore size will make the motor 540” cid.
I spoke to Lunati about the cam and they recommended that I put it in straight up and not advance it 4 degrees like I had it installed, it has more duration that I like but he said the cubic inches will each up a lot of that duration. Lift with 1.6 rockers .678/.678 duration at .050 284/292 Lobe separation 112 Intake center line 108 (build in 4 degrees advanced)
Since I blew my motor up the Friday before our 1st points race in March, my wife let me race her ’68 Barracuda in No-E and she raced it in Sportsman. I don’t feel anywhere near as confident in her car as I do mine but somehow I managed to win the No-E Points Championship.
We don’t have any more bracket races, but we have the NHRA Div 4 Team Finals in Dallas, another Team final race up near Joplin, MO and then our local Mopar race in Tulsa Nov 8 so I’m hoping to get the motor built and in the car for the Mopar race (just not enough time to get it ready for the others). So I’ll go into the winter with a completely fresh car, motor and tranny will have less than 20 passes on them.
