Engine Boom Progress

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Wumbo

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But what about the intake manifold port shape?
 

da_raabi

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Oh damn. I saw intake in your question and read heads for some reason. My bad!

This will be a ----- intake (old-school Winters aluminum dual plane - pretty sure for a boat due to brass water passages) installed on the small oval (peanut) heads. I got it for $35 so don't judge...



EDIT: For some reason I had it in my head that this is a large oval intake. It is actually a rectangle intake. Dammit. Now I need different intake manifold gaskets...
 
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Wumbo

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da_raabi

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6269318, right?

Yep, that's the one. I'm going to run it. I know I could get decent money for this one IF I sold it. IF. They get good money on eBay, but I don't know if they are selling. I don't really have time to wait and I do NOT have the budget for another intake.

Plus, I like the old school hotrodding aspect of it.

I read an article where they put a square port intake on a worked over Gen V 454 with peanuts and got 400+hp and over 500ft-lbs. If I can get even 2/3 of that I'd be plenty happy.
 

da_raabi

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Heads are done. I did probably 75% of the work myself, which was cool. The shop owner was having some knee trouble and didn't feel up to lugging these big-ass heads around, so I basically acted as an apprentice and did whatever was needed. The valves needed a good cleaning to get all the carbon off, power washed all the grease off, helped with measuring for install height on the springs etc. It was fun learning how the head works and the kind of work that needed to be done.

Turns out these heads needed the Comp rotator eliminators on all valves, and the intake ones needed the inner hole clearanced. He was able to do that with a small grinding stone on a drill. With those one there the install height was almost perfect across the board.

Just need a coat of paint and they are ready to go.

Intake is ready to go.

Valve covers need another coat of paint. The first one didn't come out too good. Timing cover needs paint too.

The big thing left is final cleaning on everything. chase all the threads, and start building! This thing is going to be a mule!
 

da_raabi

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Slight change of plans... I realized that the engine I'm building is going to put out a hell of a lot more power so....

It's going in the Camaro!

I'm going to pull the stock 60k mile RV 454 out of the Camaro and drop it in the truck. It'll probably be more reliable, and the new rat will fit a lot better in a car with a higher stall converter and less weight.

Don't judge!
 

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I think that's a very good decision!
 

da_raabi

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Ugh. Now I really found a problem. In the process of pulling the RV engine to put in the truck I found oil in the coolant. LOTS of oil. As in so much oil that when I wipe my finger across the coolant passage under the thermostat it comes back greasy and black. Naaassstttyyyy.....

The oil level in the pan was fine, and it did not appear to have any coolant in it when I drained it.

I talked with an engine guy and he asked if the motor had an oil cooler. My response was that it did when it was in the old RV, and that I removed the adapter and switched to a standard filter adapter.

He seems to think that the oil may have gotten into the coolant when it was in the RV via a leaking oil cooler. Seems probable to me. Since the motor is out anyway I'm going to go ahead and pull the heads to check if there was a blown head gasket (I did overheat the engine once when the trans got stuck in first). I hope there are no cracks in the block...

Any ideas on how to flush the oil out of the coolant passages in the block? I dont want this crap getting into my truck's radiator and heater core!
 

Blue Ox

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Cascade works pretty good for cleaning a whole cooling system with a running engine, but you could probably flush it with about any detergent while it's on the stand.
 

4WDKC

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remove the t stat and the plugs in the block and run a hose through it, when I removed mine in my truck I had to poke through the crud that had built up so the coolant would drain. Then flush it.
 

da_raabi

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Well I got the old Camaro RV 454 installed.... Fired up nice and easy and ran good.

Except for the fact that coolant was POURING out the driver's side exhaust. Literally coming out as a liquid plus lots of smoke.

Yikes.

Pulled it all back apart, looked at the head gaskets and they are ok.

Best guess is the block has two cracks, one is letting pressurized oil into the coolant (you should have SEEN the crap that was in that coolant -even after I flushed it), and one crack letting coolant into a cylinder.

Long story short: boat anchor.

So back to rebuilding the original motor. 3 BBC engine pulls in as many weeks is rough on the body!

Plus, now I don't have an engine for my Camaro any more...
 

da_raabi

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Got the heads on last night. The intake is just sitting there. I can say that one issue with it is that my accessory brackets don't line up with it at all, so that's going to be a bit of a problem. Looks purdy though!

You must be registered for see images attach
 

idahovette

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BBC on an engine stand just looks GOOD!!! Almost as good as in the rig
 

4WDKC

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tis a good time to make sure that cam is going to do what you want it to, is that bare or painted silver?
 

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