Howdy

Delayed response- I went camping for a week with my family. World’s End state park in northern PA is awesome but there is no cell service for miles which is also kind of awesome.

The pistons are forged and set with 5 thou clearance to the bores per mfg spec. They are pretty short for the 400/512 stroker. I would be nervous about running a super tight quench but I’ve only built a handful of v8 motors with quench. On paper I am super happy with how my motor is measuring out. I think 10.2 compression, .044 quench, with aluminum heads and a mild flat tappet should help steer me away from ragged edge tuning nightmares on the street.

The last motor I built was a 318 for my ramcharger. I did a stock shortblock, fresh top end, headers, RV cam, aluminum dual plane, and a four barrel with msd ignition. Kind of like a home brewed tow package. I really enjoyed how easy it was to put together and tune. This motor I am trying to go a step hotter but use the cubes to move my power way down the rpms where stamped rockers and wimpy springs will happily do the job. I probably would have been perfectly happy with a smog 440 but if I’m going to rebuild a motor it is real hard to argue with 440 source stuff- 72 extra cubes, forged bottom end, and stealths for small money.

The bearing and lifter surfaces did get covered when it was peened but not the deck.

I have heard the big blocks often need the cam bearings shaved by a cut up old cam so I decided to install the cam bearings after the mains were torqued in case the block moves around and got another nice surprise when the cam stabbed in and spun nice and smooth.

Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have this thing hung in the chassis ready to break in.

Thanks for your thoughts and questions I am always learning more about this stuff!

Radar