Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

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JUNE 2006

6/5/06 - I've spent the last few days removing the motor and stripping it down. I did some initial comparisons between the Melling HV pump and the standard Ford pump. The first thing right off the bat, is that Ford went to an aluminum casting. This unit is much lighter than the cast iron version from Melling. The only other difference between the two are fairly obvious: the pump housing and rotating mechanism are about 1/4" taller. Less obvious is the diameter of the feed stalk diameter. The Ford unit is approx. .56" in diameter where the Melling's is .63". .007" may not seem like a lot, but in terms of percentage, it represents a 10% increase in cross sectional flow.

The engine is now at the point of about where I had started over 2 years ago when I bought the short block. While removing the water pump, I somehow managed to crack the timing chain cover right next to one of the water passages! :( So that'll be on order soon. As I removed the cylinder heads, I noticed the pistons were still as shiny as before and the valves were about the same as I left them when it was assembled over a year ago but now with about 20 minutes of run time on them. I soon discovered another bonehead error; on the driver side head gasket, as I was wiping up some water, I rear the words: FRONT..... next to cylinder 8!!!! Dodged another bullet!!!! (Hmmm, wonder if this is why the stud between cylinder 7 & 8 was weeping???)

With all the heads removed, I removed all 5 main caps and here's how they look (End cap is upside down in this photo.)

I'll be posting this on the board soon to get some feedback.

6/6/06 - I spent this evening removing just about everything else that wasn't removed yesterday. This includes the pistons/rods, and the remaining valve-train. This is the lightest I've seen this block! As you can see below, the bearings are indeed Clevite 77 bearings (tri-metal).

On the upper main bearings, I noted a couple of nicks on the #5 end cap.

Note the new 28oz. harmonic balancer on the left and the height of the counterweight on the 50oz. harmonic balancer on the right. It does't look like much, but then again, it's pure steel so 22 oz. won't look like much I suppose.

And here's the lineup of 8 Ross XL400 pistons. I never notices until I looked closer, that there are ports that lead to the oil ring. The rods have no stamping whatsoever so I cannot really tell who makes these things. Supposedly, they are Eagle I-beam rods. I inspected all of the rod bearings and they all literally look all the same. By the way, all of the 12pt. ARP con-rod bolts were torque VERY well. Took almost as much force to loosen as did the main journals... at least that's how it felt to me.

6/12/06 - In the past week, I've had to hem-and-haw over a major decision, one which required my wife's involvment and blessings. After considerable discoveries about the my engine and what I thought I was getting, it was painfully obvious I would just become more depressed if I continued working with this lump. My wife agreed and gave me her blessings to simply buy a new motor! Well, I didn't want to scare her off becauase a new motor of my own choosing would have costed in the $7-8K range! So I settled for another short block since I saw no reason to retire everhthing above the deck. I spent last weekend thinking of nothing but what size and what manufacturer. Since I had originally done some investigative work a couple of years ago, I first checked into Keith Craft but from everything I could see, they don't sell short blocks. Next was D.S.S. and they seem to have an ample supply of options for a 331 or a 347. It should be noted that with my wife's blessing, I had a 2nd chance to increase displacement but I didn't want a 351W- I didn't want the additional weight and height of the slightly bigger motor. I decided to do a 347 this time.

My next stop was CHP. I've always liked their motors, especially when they were reviewed in Super Rods building a 347 for a BackDraft Cobra project. The build up of just the lower end made me feel confident that they know how to build a basic motor. Machining is standard fare for a well machined motor. From an assembly standpoint, it wasn't anything that I didn't know by reading Tom Monroe's book on rebuilding a SBF, but I liked their attention to matching up rods and pistons to get a good weight match and the fact they spin-balance the rotating assembly.

I looked at FoMoCo's offering and it's $3,095 according to the catalog. This didn't compare favorably to the $2600 that both DSS and CHP were offering; in all cases, I was expecting to spend at least $200-300 for shipping so that was factored into my decision.

Since CHP is in California and DSS is in Illinois, I figured longer distance shipping costs is about equal to the shipping+CA tax I will have to pay so I decided on CHP at this point. I called "Manuel" and we had a good 30 minute discussion. Personally, I felt he was more of an order taker as he kept referring to his computer, even though I was already on the website. About the only thing I learned that wasn't accurate on their site, is the camshaft listed is only for the "long block" not the short block. That aside, I pretty much knew about the short 5.315 rods used with their Probe SRS pistons where the wrist pin hole is below the oil ring landing, thus less oil splashing into the oil ring area.

To see the short block I chose ( #11849 ) go to Coast High Peformance (CHP) for detail.

I'm feeling a lot better after today. I now know I'll get a professionally built motor by a reputable vendor and not someone that's ready to retire. I will know without question, that it will require a 28oz. harmonic balancer and 28oz. flwheel. I will also have good drain holes since I did mess up those on the last block. Not a critical thing in terms of function as they never did leak with standard threaded bolts, but it was a detail that was always knawing at me. I can't wait now but I must; the turnaround time is 4 weeks. I'll keep you posted.

6/22/06 - An update on the engine. As you can tell by the date above, it's been 10 days since I made the initial order and this morning I received a call from a shipping company in Hayward, requesting "when" to schedule the drop off of the motor from Probe Racing! Not sure what just happened because I was told to give them 4-7 weeks and it's just under 2! The fact they said it was from "Probe Racing" makes me wonder.

I didn't have time today to call CHP due to my heavy workload but I told them to drop off the "short block" between 2pm-5pm. We'll see...

During the week I also ordered a CompCam's burrette to CC th heads. The instructions are a bit off as they say to fill the burrette to 100cc,s however, that mark is near the bottom! The top is marked 0 and increases as you go down so you actually fill the burrette to ZERO and then let it drain into the combustion chamber; the number it stops at is the the volume. Pretty simple in theory but it took a number of tries of leveling the lexan plate for filling the fluid; what I discovered is you don't want it perfectly level but you want one area to be higher and that is where the fill hole should be; this way, you get a consistent fill right up to the hole since you grease around the plate where it contacts the cylinder heads for a complete seal!

Tonight, I proceeded to mix a 50/50 solution of water and alcohol and a couple of drops of blue dye and began cc'ing the drivers side cylinder head. Here's what I came up with:

#5 - 62cc
#6 - 61cc
#7 - 61.5cc
#8 - 61 cc

I'll have to try tomorrow to get the other bank. I did remeasure #5 and got 62cc again! I took a caliper to the area where there's a slight "bump" near the sparkplug hole which gives the chamber it's slight kidney shape. From this bump to the edge of the cylinder head, I matched it up to the other 3 and noticed there is more material on these 3 in this area than in #5 so I'm guessing I went a bit "far" with the sanding drum on this one! Oh boy, can't wait to see what I did to the other one!

6/23/06 - The CHP 347 short block arrived at 2:00PM on Friday. My wife signed off for the pallette and I left work a 1/2 hour early to uncrate the motor. The first thing I actually opened was the documentation seal. Therin were the invoice with itemized parts, and CHP's "Engine Balance Sheet". Oddly, the Engine Balance Sheet shows the "Engine Type" as a 427. Typo I guess. The Workorder Number of the balance sheet also matches an inscription on the front counterweight. The sheet shows the weight of one of the assembly in what should be a "matched set" with a corrected bob-weight of 1,623 grams.

The only oddity aside from the "427" was my last name was incorrectly spelled. It was corrected a couple of days after the initial order was made but it tells me they have a pretty good computerized system and as soon as I placed the order, the "assembly" line got the order immediately and began their process of getting a block off their shelf (pre-machined by another outsourced company) and getting the proper parts matched for balancing and assembly. The pistons were suppose to come on 6/15 and as evidence in the date of the balance sheet, they went right to work on the balancing. So much for the "4-7 week lead time. Total time from phone order to a pallette in my garage was 10 days! I just hope they didn't "rush" the assembly but I guess a few days is really all they would need to build a short block.

The next photo shows the invoice itemization of parts. Note the slightly shorter I-beam rod length to accomodate the Probe SRS pistons since the wrist pins sit slightly lower to avoid instusion into the oil-ring landing, unlike my Ross XL400 pistons on my earlier block.

The best feeling I have today are these documents - something I did not have with my previous motor. I'm feeling much better about this motor, despite the additional cost it put on this project.

And the moment we've all been waiting for...

If you look closely, you will see the relief notches required to clear the ARP 12 point bolts. Cylinder #4 shows a really goo shot of it. The notches are cut at an angle which follow's the rotational path that the rods take as it swings around.

Note the front counter weight holes drilled out during the balacing process.

The main cap bolts here will be replaced with the ARP studs I have from the other block since I will be using the main girdle from the other engine as well.

The thing about this photo is you can clearly see the machinging done of the deck, and the smell of a hot-dipped block is something the other block didn't have.

The oil 'cross-over' plug is visible on the top-back of the block, all water drain plugs were installed as were the oil galley plugs fore and aft.

The Probe SRS pistons do have those arrows pointing towards the front and the valve relief on the exhaust side has a double eyelid. I'm guessing it's to accomodate both a 1.8" and 2.02" valve, which are the more common sizes.

There is some surface rust but that's to be expected. I inspected the honing hash marks and they all look very uniform which makes me wonder if it's been done on a machine because every cylinder looks almost identical. Also noticed they included the cylinder head locating dowels, and the oil filter adapter (yet another thing the original block didn't have.) Of course the cam bearings were installed and oriented correctly for the oil holes (yup, I checked that too.) And using a flat level and feeler gauge, I have .012" from the deck for TDC.

One side bar that I discovered while reading the harmonic balancer instructions is the fact that the when the woodruff key is at the 12-o'clock position, the #1 piston is at TDC. I know it's probably common knowledge to some but I guess it's one of those "hiding in plain sight" kind of thing for me.

6/26/06 - The past few days I've been steadily reassembling the motor. I installed all of the ARP studs for the cylinder heads and performed another set of cam specification operations as I did in the first motor. First was the cam thrust gap bewteen the retainer and the cam bearing up front. I didn't expect any changes since this is the same retainer as before and I did indeed get .004" ( range is .004 - .009").

Next I degreed the cam and was pleasantly surprised to come within 0.5 deg. of the cam cards 108 intake centerline. I took two measurements just to ensure some accuracy. The first was 107.8 deg., followed by 107.5 deg.

Next was piston-to-valve clearance. It actually took 3 attempts due to clay sticking to the valves.The first I totally forgot the clay! Second, I forgot to lube the clay, Third I got a good intake impression but clay still stuck to the exhaust. Finally got the exhaust With that, I measured out .180" for intake and .150" for exhaust. CompCam's minimum is .100 for intake and .125 for exhaust so I was good on both counts.

After degreeing the cam, I installed all of the hydraulic roller lifters, dog-bones and spider retainer; assembly lube was used liberally here.

I finished up CC'ing the cylinder heads and here were the results:

#1 - 61.2cc..........#5 - 62.0cc
#2 - 60.9cc.........#6 - 61.0cc
#3 - 61.0cc.........#7 - 61.0cc
#4 - 62.2cc.........#8 - 61.0cc

I intend to go over the spring height again. One of the things I should have done was reinstall the steel protectors for the shims. In preparation for this, I ordered a valve-spring micrometer to get a more accurate reading. Should be here by no later than Wednesday.

Today's work was to button up the bottom end. I decide to reuse the ARP studs and the 3/8" steel girdle from the old engine. I am also putting in a "standard volume" oil pump upon recommendation by the vast majority of everyone on FFCobra.com. With the main bolts replaced and the girdle torqued to spec., the oil pump went in (with drive shaft) and I did check for clearane of the girdle with the crank; no clearnace issues at all. I installed a Milodon 1 pc. oil pan gasket. This piece is a flexible neoprene unit and should do the trick. On went the Canton oil pan and all bolts torqued down firmly.

Tomorrow, I'll clear the bench and remove all of the springs from each head and prepare them with steel protectors over the shims and with any luck, the micrometer will have shipped so I can get this taken care of once and for all. And if all goes really well, I may have the motor assembled by Thursday!

6/27/06 - I spent all evening removing all of the old valve springs, and shims and started off fresh. Each valve-spring pocket were given a copper shim .015" thick, and the steel base protector that came heads originally. These will work but not as effectively as seat "cups", but I didn't want to spend the money at this point for machining the bases, which would be required for cups.

I received my Proform 1.6"-2.10" valve spring height micrometer. In the picture, you can see that since the tools starts at 1.6", you see the "6" at the very top. The dial is graduated with a mark every .005". This particular spring height shows 1.805". I had performed a few test passes just to get the feel for the tool. I found I have to turn it out it until it stops turning completely and that you should center the retainer for accurate results.

CompCam's "closed" spring height at installation is specified at 1.800"

Then I went right into it and recorded all 16 pockets. Here's how things turned out:

Adjusted #8 by removing .015" shim:

The initial difference between the lowest, #8 intake, and the highest, #3 exhaust, is 0.013". The acceptable difference according to CompCams specifications can be +/- 0.020" which means I was pretty much within specifications, however, I decided to add a little height to #8 so I removed the .015" shim and remeasured and came up with 1.807" for intake. Now the difference between the lowest - #3 & #4 intake, #8 exhaust, and the highest - #8 intake, is now only .010". Keep in mind that the graduation of the height micrometer isn't as fine as I would have liked so I have to make my best guess in between the ticks.

Once I completed all the measurements, I reassembled everything. Now I can sleep a bit easier knowing that I have steel protectors at the base and that I've accurately measured the spring heights.

Since I was done with the heads, I decided to get cracking and finish installing them on the motor. I took out both of my new head gaskets and double checked the wording "FRONT" as I laid them down on the block. I can guarantee you now, they are BOTH oriented correctly. (Last engine, the driver side was reversed.) I placed both heads onto the block, re-inserted all of the steel collars and washers and nuts, using generous mount of the ARP Moly Lube during assembly.

I made 4 passes on torquing the studs, with a final pass on the upper studs per the Fel-Pro head gasket instructions. The toque steps were: 25, 45, 55, 70 ft-lbs. The uppers were torqued a final 80 ft-lbs. per instructions (in an alternating pattern of course!)

Next was simply inserting the rods and roller rockers, then setting lash. I decided to do it the more tedious way and adjusted the pair of valves as the cylinder reached top-dead-center on the "compression" stroke. Yes, it's a lot of cranking, and checking inside the spark plug hole but it works.

Wednesday night I should be able to complete assembly of the motor. What's left is the harmonic balancer (28oz!), pilot bearing, intake manifold, intake manifold gaskets, carburator, filter, alternator bracket, alternator, water pump pulley, balancer pulley, serpentine belt, oil filter, oil pressure fitting and oil pressure sensor, and thottle linkage.

Once the motor is done, I need to set the engine down and install the flywheel with the new 28oz. weight, and remove the bellhousing and align it to the new block. We'll see what I get here; the block came with standard dowels. Once I get the bellhousing sorted out, it will be reattached to the tranny and then the engine should go in. This is Thursday's work hopefully. Can you get a sense of me wanting to fire it up this weekend??? :)

6/27/06 - Tonights works involved getting the motor off the engine stand and onto the ground so I can install the blockplate, flywheel and pilot bearing. One thing I didn't mention yesterday was after installation of the harmonic balancer, I come to find out that when the #1 piston is at TDC, the timing marks are at the 2-O'clock position instead of the old balancer at the 11-O'clock position. I figure the old unit was for a 5.0L and thus, oriented in the expected maner but the new unit was designed to fit the older 351 blocks which were 2-o'clock (the old 289's were like this as well.) No wanting to remove the unit and try swapping balancers and weights, I had ordered timing tape and decided to simply create my own marks. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where the marks end up so long as you have a stationary pointer somewhere. That will come next week. I took some rubbing alcohol and cleaned up the balancer and ensured it remained on TDC. I marked the balancer at 12-o'clock for my reference point. I then laid down the timing tape before removing the backing, and positioned the timing marks around the 11'-O'clock position. I wrapped the rest of the tape around and marked where the tape "ended". Now I start at the ending point, removed the backing a little at a time and started to wrap the tape counter clockwise; when I finally finished up applying the entire tape, the timng marks ended up exactly where I had marked. You do overlap the tape which is intentional to ensure there is only one loose end instead of two.

Afterwards, I installed the backing plate, put some teflon paste on the 6 flywheel bolts and torqued all bolts to 90 ft-lbs. I tapped in the pilot bearing and I'm pretty much done for tonight. I will tackle the Lakewood on Saturday.