Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

sometimes these little piles of parts can do things ya just dont expect. my own car has been sitting for a good number of years, but in it resides a little pile of spare/used parts. only new part in the engine when it was put together was the cam and lifters, and its nothing exotic but that little 355 pulled 474hp 436ftlbs on 92oct pump gas. with the exception of a slightly bigger ft cam than whats being used in the engine this thread is about, its not much more than that.

Well, it just got that little bit better.
Cleaning up the pistons this morning, took the rings out & it looks like the ring grooves were cleaned with a hacksaw.
Pistons are stuffed.
So I got a cheap set of flat tops on the way, 7cc in valve reliefs & compression is now gonna be 10.6:1.

KnightEngines wrote:It'll get a wash & cleaned up gasket faces, that's it dammit!

Compared to the performer that was gonna go on it it'll be a big step up even left as it is.

If he gets all enthused about racing then we can step this thing up a bit in the future, as it is it's gonna be a tough street engine that can hold it's own on the 1/4.

IMHO the best $ spent from here is not manifold porting, but an upgrade to a solid cam & a 750 carb.

Yes true , i forgot it was a hyrdo cam!
And didnt wven see what carb!!

Sorted the rods, torqued them up, bolts felt good but they varied by .0015" in size, 3 on size, 2 big & 3 small, checked bearing clearance with the on size rods - .0025", good.
Checked the parting faces of the too big rods - cut on an angle, so rather than cut them a bunch to straighten them out I just popped the bolts out & rubbed rods & caps down on a flat plate a bit.
Torqued them all back up, licked the good ones with the rod hone just to clean them & took the other 5 out to the same size.
All within a tenth now, all good, they'll do.

Crank measured up good, has had a fresh grind & the guy doing it done a decent job, I'll just give it a quick linish & a wash then on to the block.

I did a 400 with roughly the same specs, I ran the HP per inch and came up with 420 HP based on my 400 SB, so I will still say 440 + HP with a single plane. My engine (400) was a disappointment I felt I should have run more piston to wall clearance. I also ran a 1.940 intake valve which didn't help. Picture of my fuelie heads.

Those heads looked ok, what was the MCSA & flow?

In other news the block is not cracked
Turns out it's just had some water sitting in it at some point & the 'crack' was just some staining.
Ran the crack tester over the whole valley & it's good.

Small win, not having to do a crack repair puts $ towards the new pistons.

I've also got a dusty old street friendly sbc solid roller here mate might wake it up, 262/263*@.50 ,, 314/315*adv ,, .424"/.398" lobe lift on 107.

I got a 268/276 on 108 Solid roller kicking around somewhere too, Christ that'd be funny.

Finished with the block bar milling the decks - they'll cart it away & dummy it up, check deck height & bring it back for me to mill to zero deck.
Block got a wire wheel over all the gasket faces, threads tapped, gallery plugs out, lifter bores given a light diggleberry hone, honed bores with an actual crosshatch & a run through the spray wash.
Came up not too bad.
Cleaned up the rest of the bits, linished the crank etc.
Just waiting on the new pistons.

KnightEngines wrote:I got a 268/276 on 108 Solid roller kicking around somewhere too, Christ that'd be funny.

Finished with the block bar milling the decks - they'll cart it away & dummy it up, check deck height & bring it back for me to mill to zero deck.
Block got a wire wheel over all the gasket faces, threads tapped, gallery plugs out, lifter bores given a light diggleberry hone, honed bores with an actual crosshatch & a run through the spray wash.
Came up not too bad.
Cleaned up the rest of the bits, linished the crank etc.
Just waiting on the new pistons.

The thing will go like stink. Sometimes these lower budget deals go way better than expected!

Nice build

p.s. Hey Knight, I sent you a message a while back...not sure if you got it or not.

Turns out I did, but I didn't notice - msg's don't come up on my phone for some reason.
Replied

The guys dummied this up last night, deck height was .030-.032 on one side, .038-.040" on the other.
Milling it now, just going to .005" deck height to leave a skim in it - now it's got flat tops we don't have to chase every last bit of comp.
Decks weren't even close to flat, .006" off before they cleaned up!
Mains tunnel was straight tho, so I guess it is what it is.

Will go together this weekend & likely be in the car & running within a couple of weeks.
Will just get tuned on a chassis dyno, engine dyno to many $$ for this one.

Will hit the track within a couple of months before the weather turns bad, I'll report back how she runs.

Tony, please post some build progress pics I really like this project. Thanks, Charlie

I would, but I kinda handed it all over yesterday, all I got here is the block.

I'll snap some pics, but it's just a 2 bolt 350 block with flaking red paint.

The rest was the same, stock cast crank, stock rods hanging off Federal mongrel flat tops etc. Nothing interesting!

Nothing interesting is a big part of the equation! You will need to prove it is all junk after the dyno tells the tale. My 355 in the old work truck is nothing special either as it blisters the 33" tires. Thanks, Charlie