[AG]

Here is what the piston looked like. I had to buy four new ones from Ross to replace the single damaged one and had to go 0.030" over at the same weight as originals. My originals were custom ordered so new I have three 0.030"spares.

[HWYSTR455]

#23660? Did Butler set those heads up?


You're scaring me.


.

[HWYSTR455]

Wonder if I can call them and switch to the PAC R536s. Or swap them myself.

You think that was a fluke?

.

[AG]

I set my heads up. I don't think you have to worry that it's a quality control issue, I clearly saw a defect in the metal that was the spot where a crack initiated, and I think it was a fluke as the open pressure was only 720#. I have since run CC titanium retainers without issue.

[HWYSTR455]

Whew!

The specs on the retainer are different than what the PACs are, not sure how much of an impact there would be if used. Maybe harmonics?

I called and asked Butler, and they say they run the Manley 23660s with the PAC 1243 springs all the time with no issues. I asked about the PAC retainers, and the ones they use, and had in stock, are the R404s. They mimic the Manleys in specs.

PAC catalog:

https://images.carid.com/pac-racing-...ct-catalog.pdf

I looked and the PAC R536 retainers are $495 right now, ouch. The Manleys are $295.

I don't think the locators will make too much of a difference, but again, wonder about harmonics.

The locks match the retainer, so good there.

I went ahead and just told them to use what they recommend, I didn't want to skew the timetable. I've heard folks waiting 3-5 mo for a set of heads, that will be painful, but they said at the moment it's shorter than that. We shall see.

Would have still preferred all matching valve train components, but if they say they run that setup and see no issues, it probably would be fine.

.

[HWYSTR455]

My heads showed up today, which makes it 4 weeks to the day from when I ordered them, not bad!


.

[AG]

That's quick. I got the first set of CNC chamber CNC ported Eddy RP heads from SD and it only took 1.5 years because of availability of unassembled castings.

[HWYSTR455]

Yeah, from order date to my front step was 15 days, which includes shipping!

The sales guy mentioned he's seen them going out in 3-4 weeks, which I commented that would be nice, but not holding my breath.

They look good too. Now I need to sell stuff to recoup some cost! Heheh!

Had a somewhat warm day yesterday, and was able to get them masked off and shot with engine paint. Hopefully will get them installed this weekend.

..

[HWYSTR455]

I originally thought it was 4 weeks, but that's when I ordered the intake, heads were ordered on 11/29.

I have boxes now, and will ship the one head off to be repaired, then ship both to Butler to have them checked & setup.

I will get those up for sale as soon as that's done. Tempted to also have them ported to 340cfm, but not sure I should, need to think about that.

Doubt I will recoup much from the valve train, that stuff wasn't cheap. Total run time on those heads are like 1000 miles.


.

[HWYSTR455]

Got the new heads on, did a start up, warm up, and cool off, retorqued the head bolts.

Cometic MLS, and even though they say no retorque, please at least check a few.

Mine all had at least 1/8 turn needed, some almost a 1/4 turn. I will check again after a few heat cycles to be safe.

Couple little things to do and once the snow melts will do a test drive, and hopefully get my state inspection done....


.

[AG]

Good luck with the update.

[HWYSTR455]

Thanks, feel pretty confident on this. I would know pretty quick if there was a problem, know what to look for.

Vacuum signal is good, so that's a good sign.

I definitely be keeping an eye on it.


.

[HWYSTR455]

Engine is running as expected, the 'head drama' is behind me. Thankfully. Have one more hot rocker adjustment to do after a few heat cycles and should be good.

This allows me to get back on the tune, which was the point I was at prior to the head gasket issue, and since there was that issue, I kind of have to start over on the tune. Uhg.

Was getting it ready to get a state inspection done, and need to complete the brake bleeding and E-brake adjustment. It was all working well prior to the rear swap, so figured I'd just nee d to bleed it.

After multiple attempts at bleeding, I just wasn't getting the same pedal I had before, so I dug deeper and found a rear caliper was hung on the sliders.

The rear brake setup I have is based off the 93-97 LT1 Camaro, which uses a caliper with the e-brake built in. There's a funky e-brake cable bracket on it, and in order to take the caliper off the caliper bracket (sliders), that cable bracket has to come off. Many times, when the caliper is hung on the sliders, you pretty much have to destroy the cable bracket to get them apart.

All the reman calipers are now drying up from failures, and from multiple rebuilds. A lot of repop co's are offering them without the bracket, or, not at all. I had to go through at least 3 calipers last time I refreshed, and looking this time was even more difficult.

So I bit the bullet and got a new setup from Kore3, which uses the drum in hat e-brake, C6 based (and some Camaros).

I have a few other minor items I can do while I wait for the brake kit, which am hoping will show up before the weekend. But it's getting very close to being road worthy....


.

[HWYSTR455]

Got all the rear brake kit brackets painted, and painted the calipers & caliper brackets. It's all dry now, took 2 days to get that all painted, due to temps, had to warm parts, paint, etc in the house before I went to garage to paint, and they take 3 coats to complete. Had to warm the garage up too, and with the temporary heater I have, that can take a couple hours.

Will assembly the backing plates/E-brakes either today or tomorrow, and the finish the assembly.

Can't say enough about the Kore3 stuff, well thought-out, and very nice stuff.

I will swap the front pads too, and do a deep bleeding, should be done by weekend.

Some pics for reference:


.

[A1cnc]

Parts look good.
Just a thought on heating / drying the paint on your parts. Look online locally for a large toaster oven or even an old electric stove for bigger parts.

[HWYSTR455]

I'm going to build a detached garage that's going to get that kind of stuff, the current garage is pretty packed. The new building will have hvac, so won't be an issue.

I have a cheesy heater in the garage that just can't keep up, and am not going to put a good one in, it's not worth the effort. Once it's strictly parking, won't need to spend any extended time out there.

On the brake install status, I've used ARP 12 point hardware as much as I could on the rest of the car, and ordered stuff that will replace what shipped with the brake kit. So hit a little slow down on that.

I knew I was going to have to step up injector size from #48 to #66 once I went to the 340cfm heads, was able to install those.

Also added a vacuum reference line to the regulator, not sure if I mentioned that yet or not.

.

[HWYSTR455]

Couple updates, one is that for whatever reason, adding the vacuum line to the regulator wasn't a positive experience, varying idle quality and startup, and just ran rich across the whole range. And yes, gave it plenty of time to learn.

I pulled it, will clear the learn table and let it settle. I may revisit this later, possibly add a fixed orifice PCV or something.

Decided to move away from the dual sync and am working towards installing the 2nd Gen Engineering 24x crank trigger setup. Will still use the dual sync for cam signal, and if that gives me trouble will move to an MSD billet or something. Will post more on that as it developes.

Went to a local car show this past Saturday, was a sunny but windy day. Turnout was 65+ cars, bunch of nice stuff there. I did pull off People's Choice award and got a small trophy, which made me feel pretty good. Lots of cool people there, and many hardcore hot rodder types.


.

[HWYSTR455]

Couple updates, one is that for whatever reason, adding the vacuum line to the regulator wasn't a positive experience, varying idle quality and startup, and just ran rich across the whole range. And yes, gave it plenty of time to learn.

I pulled it, will clear the learn table and let it settle. I may revisit this later, possibly add a fixed orifice PCV or something.

Decided to move away from the dual sync and am working towards installing the 2nd Gen Engineering 24x crank trigger setup. Will still use the dual sync for cam signal, and if that gives me trouble will move to an MSD billet or something. Will post more on that as it developes.

Went to a local car show this past Saturday, was a sunny but windy day. Turnout was 65+ cars, bunch of nice stuff there. I did pull off People's Choice award and got a small trophy, which made me feel pretty good. Lots of cool people there, and many hardcore hot rodder types.


.

[HWYSTR455]

Quick update:

So I have the original AFX spindles with the lower ball joint upgrade (larger 2.0 pin), and the GW lower control arms that were designed for them.

The newer Speedtech spindles come in both ways, and I ordered the typical 1.5 pin ones, and the matching lower control arms. This would in the event I want to go to coilovers later I can easily do so.

To keep it simple, I ordered the matching upper control arms.

I should have it assembled by end of day and will get the car roughly aligned using the 'TZ' alignment plates. Then will run it up to a shop to have it full aligned.

The upper control arms don't have stops, so I drilled a hole in the cross plate and added a Moog bumper.

The Speedtech lower control arms have only holes for the shock mount, pretty sure that's due in the event you want do coilovers. Since I won't be doing that any time soon, I went ahead and did steel rivnuts for the hole, beats having to try to hold a nut up there while you tighten it. The GW lowers had nuts tacked to the arm, that was nice, but obviously not desired if you want to swap to coilovers, would have to remove them.

Also on the Speedtech lowers, when using regular coil springs, you need to use their' 'isolators', which is no biggie, almost all aftermarket LCAs use them. But, the one they provide is a smaller center diameter than many, and has to be clearanced for shock hardware if you run coil springs. (I wasn't going to start shopping around and try to figure out the different versions).

Finally, I got the 'enhanced' steering arms for use with additional ackerman. Basically you mount the arms pointing towards the outside of the car, and use longer tie rod adjusters.

Soon as I get the previous parts cleaned up I will list them for a deal. You want a better deal, where I don't have to clean everything, PM me. It's the GW lowers & uppers, AFX spindles, with the steering arms, and all the matching original docs. Can pan back thru this build thread and see them.

.

[HWYSTR455]

Quick update on another topic:

I've been experiencing a WOT fuel delivery issue once I get over about 5500 RPM. Went thru everything, electrical, pump flow, AFRs, base fuel table, you name it, no help. (Yes, I did datalogs)

So was looking at the Walbro flow charts for the GPA-6 400LPH pumps and noticed that the tank I have is not compatible with the 6-series pumps:

"These pumps are not compatible with the 1968-72 GM-A Body stock sized (non-notched) EFI Gas tanks."

Non-notched?

I have a TM34I-T tank, which at the time I ordered were the only EFI tank offered. So I looked at the available tanks, and sure enough they now offer a notched tank, and it's 1" DEEPER than the non-notched tank. (palm-on-forehead moment!)

So the pump is sucking the bottom of the tank up and blocking flow. Uhg.

Ordered the notched tank and will swap it out. Dang. Live & learn!

I may try to put a U bracket on the pickup of the pump to prevent it sucking up the floor, will have to see what I can come up with after I pull the tank.



.