[gtofreek]

Well, long time no update. So here's an update. I've been concerned about this whole noisy hydraulic roller lifter issue that's been going around. We have been dealing with it with another engine. Well, we figured out a cure for this, which involves grinding a groove in the lifter bore to lower the oil hole about 1/4". We did this recently to a 455, and installed a 243/251 Voodoo HR cam, and Hylift/Johnson hydraulic roller lifters. That engine was quiet with no lifter noise. Here is a link to a video of it idling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfLl...ature=youtu.be
So I went ahead and ground the needed groove in this block. Then I ran a ball hone through them to deburr them.



The piston was too narrow for the rod to give me the needed .045"-.050" per side clearance. It only had .015" clearance. So cutting the rod small end narrower will be necessary.







After cutting them I de-burred the edges, and re-chamfered the pin hole. Forgot to get pics of that though.

This took a few grams off the rod, so I had to touch up the balance on the crank a couple grams. Then I chamfered the oil holes in the crank, and polished it. It measured good, and consistent, with only a few minor scratches, so it stayed .010"/.010".



Here is the first stage of polishing.



Then the second stage. You can see the difference between the first stage and the second stage as the first stage is the left side, and the right side is the second stage. Steel crank shine up much nicer than cast cranks.

[gtofreek]

Got it on an engine stand.



Graphite rope seal, and bearings installed.







Lunati VooDoo HR Cam. It's 231/239 @ .050". .589"/.604" lift with 1.65 rockers.



Rotating assembly ready to get busy.

[gtofreek]

I always use rod bolt booties[ or condoms, which ever name you prefer] on the rod bolts. Just crazy not to. I also always turn them a little to hang over the rod bearing so the bearing doesn't fall out when you drive the rod/piston in.





Ready to degree the cam.









T-chain was nice and snug. This was a standard Roll-Master set. Here is a link to a video of the chain tension. This block was align honed also. No need for a -.005" set at all just because a bl;ock is align honed. We rarely need undersized sets after align honing. Only when it is done excessively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue3hRFRL1WQ

Piston deck height came out at .003" out of the hole on both banks. Pretty much exactly what I had measured it would be when I decked it.





After assembling the shortblock, I put a torque wrench on the crank snout. It took 17 Ft. Lbs. to break it loose, and 13-14 ft. lbs. to keep it going. This engine has 1.5mm, 1.5mm, 3mm rings in it. The top ring is steel gas nitride, and the second ring is a cast Napier ring. This second ring allows for a low tension oil ring.

[gtofreek]

Got the cam degreed. I checked it at a lot of different points to get a good picture of the lobe profiles.
The dial indicator we have for degreeing the cam has a .750" ball on it. The roller wheel on the lifter is only .710" or so. Because of this, the cam checks 4° bigger than it really is. I have confirmed this before by degreeing with this, and re-checking with the actual lifter, and a dial indicator on it, which is much harder to do, so I use this setup, and degree by the ICL method, rather than opening and closing points. I wanted this cam installed at a 104° intake centerline. Using the "0" marks on the crank gear, it came out at 105.25°. I used the +2° key, and what do you know, it moved it exactly 2° to 103.25°[I've seen these 2° keyways change the timing anywhere from only .5°, to 1°, to 2°. You just never know what they will do until you check them]. I settled for this as it will loosen up some. I have found before that these cams like to be 6°-7° advanced anyway. Installed here, the intake lifter has .034" more rise than the exhaust at TDC, during overlap. I find these cams like this number to be .035"-.040", so it's pretty much perfect here. When it was installed at 105.25°, there was only a .020" difference. Just not enough.

All in all, here is what I found out about this cam[using the .750 ball on the dial indicator]:

It has 287°/294.5° duration @ .006" lift.
It has 235°/243° duration @ .050" lift.
It has 211°/212.5° duration @ .100" lift.
It has 157°/165° duration @ .200" lift.
It has 95°/105.5° duration @ .300" lift.
It has .357"/.366" lobe lift.
At TDC the intake valve is open .162" with 1.65 rockers, and exhaust valve is open .106" with 1.65 rocker, when installed at 103.25° ICL.
Intake opens 14° before TDC, and closes at 40.5° ABDC, @ .050" lift.
Exhaust opens 58° BBDC, and closes at 5° ATDC, @ .050" lift.

Here is side one of the cam card with my notes on it.



Here is side two.



By studying the notes on side two, you can get an idea of what the lobe is doing.
If we look at the exhaust lobe for example[footnotes on upper right]you can see that from .006" to .050" lift, it took 24° of movement to go .044" of lift.
From .050"-.100" lift, it only took 15° of movement to get .050" worth of lift.[It's getting faster]
From .100" -.200" lift it only took 24° of movement to lift the lifter another .100".[getting even faster].
From .200"-.300" lift it 30° of movement to lift another .100". [Starting to slow down, and hold the valve open].
From .300", to full lift of .366", then back to .300" it took 105.5° of movement to move the lifter .132".[Holding the valve open for a long time]
From .300"-.200" on the closing side, it takes 29.5° of movement to get .100" lifter movement.[Continuing to hang the valve open for lots of high lift area].
From .200"-.100" it took 23.5°.[Starting to speed back up a little].
From .100"-.050" it took 15.5° of movement.[slowing back down now].
From .050"-.006" lift, it took 27.5° of movement.[Really slowing down now]
From .006" to fully closed it took 26.5° of movement.{setting the valve down nice and easy for a quiet valve train, and easy on the valve train also.

[steve25]

Good up date Paul, thanks there!

[gtofreek]

Got a couple more pics to post.

Cleaned up some good, used head bolts.



Got the heads bolted on, but noticed they have Comp guide plates on them. I've been hearing issues with them not allowing proper rocker alignment. We'll find out when pushrods come.





Hopefully we can dyno this thing in the next couple weeks!

[vidguy]

Thanks Paul. I appreciate the attention to detail.
I was away on a project in Phoenix the past week, Man was it hot. When you guys bake blocks you just put them outside right?
I did not get any free time or I would have driven down to say hi.

The cam specs sound fun. The block is looking great.
Paul told me we can go a little rowdier on the cam if you want and I said "Why not." It's a weekend car.

Have the engine compartment and core support all detailed and repainted. Fenders off... New body mounts installed and new wheel wells waiting.
Now I have to address my transmission update.

[vidguy]

Paul also installed my Sims Roller Bearing Cam plate.

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by vidguy

Thanks Paul. I appreciate the attention to detail.
I was away on a project in Phoenix the past week, Man was it hot. When you guys bake blocks you just put them outside right?
I did not get any free time or I would have driven down to say hi.

The cam specs sound fun. The block is looking great.
Paul told me we can go a little rowdier on the cam if you want and I said "Why not." It's a weekend car.

Have the engine compartment and core support all detailed and repainted. Fenders off... New body mounts installed and new wheel wells waiting.
Now I have to address my transmission update.

It saves on gas that way!

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by vidguy

Paul also installed my Sims Roller Bearing Cam plate.

Nice piece!

[gtofreek]

Trying to button this thing up. So I took the oil pump apart to make sure all is well in there. Besides the usual sharp edges, and small burrs, there was nothing much needed other than the typical clean-up, and de-burr. I always check the mating surfaces by sanding them on the granite slab to be sure they are flat.



Sharp edges around the gear cavity walls.



This is hitting the mating surface lightly to show the roughness of the cut.



Another view.



Here is after sanding it. This tightened up the gear to cover plate by .001" which was fine since it had almost .004" to start with. After I was done doing this to the gears and cover plate, I wound up with a snug .003" clearance.



Here is the cover plate before sanding.



This is after hitting it lightly to highlight the high spots. In this case, around the edges.



This is when done.

[gtofreek]

Then I used a file to break the sharp edges[did I ever mention, I hate sharp edges], and sanded them smooth with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.







All done, and ready to be re-assembled.



Here is another thing I can't stand. Bolt surfaces that are not flat! How is a bolt supposed to stay tight and not break when the mounting surface is like this?



Here's the other side.

[gtofreek]

So I bolted it in the mill, and cut them flat.

[gtofreek]

I can usually get the dipstick tube in with the main caps in place, but this replacement was straight, and not bent like the factory tube, so I had to remove the #3 main cap. Here is what the bearing looked like after numerous turns while assembling, and degreeing the cam. Doesn't even look like the crank was turned in it.





Getting ready to button up the bottom end.







This is probably the nicest factory, early style, timing cover I have ever seen! This thing is in amazing shape!

[gtofreek]

This oil pan has the tray welded in place. Some of the welds looked suspect.



So I filled it with water, and let it sit for a little bit to see if they leaked. I'm sure the makers checked it, but I need to be sure, before I put it on. Sure enough, it didn't leak any.



Typical aftermarket parts. Go to put the oil pan on, and it fits good, but the support piece that fits the drivers side rear corner, doesn't fit. Story of my engine building life! One bolt goes in, but the curve in the support does not fit the bend of the oil pan, so I needed to grind the curve some more. I found the belt grinder had a wheel attachment that was the perfect radius to fit this support.









Now it fits.

[gtofreek]

Oil pan on.





Cleaned up the oil filter adapter.

[TedRamAirII]

I would think you would want a thick plate on the oil pump? Or do you not think it necessary? (overkill)

[gtofreek]

For the steel plates, this is the thick one. The only way to get thicker is to buy the 1/4" plate that TIP sells. It's the really thin plate that is a problem, not these. Some pumps came with a 1/16" plate. They get tweaked when you tighten the bolts, and leak oil out from in between the bolts. These 1/8" plates don't do that. I torque the cover plate bolts to 20 ft. lbs. with blue Loctite.

[TedRamAirII]

Originally Posted by gtofreek

For the steel plates, this is the thick one. The only way to get thicker is to buy the 1/4" plate that TIP sells. It's the really thin plate that is a problem, not these. Some pumps came with a 1/16" plate. They get tweaked when you tighten the bolts, and leak oil out from in between the bolts. These 1/8" plates don't do that. I torque the cover plate bolts to 20 ft. lbs. with blue Loctite.

OK. I thought the 1/8" was the THIN plate, so its good enough. It didn't appear that thick in the pics. I certainly trust your judgement. I wonder if anyone has had an issue with oil seepage past the plate? if so, I don't imagine it would affect total pressure or volume enough to matter. I sanded mine flat and used anaerobic sealer on the edges, probably didn't make any difference. Do you make the slot to help lube the gear, or was that already done. I like the detail you do with assembly, and parts prep, really makes a difference in the life of the engine. All those things that no one sees, and no idea you even did them. ; )

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by TedRamAirII

OK. I thought the 1/8" was the THIN plate, so its good enough. It didn't appear that thick in the pics. I certainly trust your judgement. I wonder if anyone has had an issue with oil seepage past the plate? if so, I don't imagine it would affect total pressure or volume enough to matter. I sanded mine flat and used anaerobic sealer on the edges, probably didn't make any difference. Do you make the slot to help lube the gear, or was that already done. I like the detail you do with assembly, and parts prep, really makes a difference in the life of the engine. All those things that no one sees, and no idea you even did them. ; )

These thicker plates have the groove already in them. The factory Pontiac pumps with the thick cast iron plate, did not. I have seen pumps with the thin plate gush water out of all four sides when flushing them out after washing. They leak really bad. Have not seen that at all with the 1/8" plate.